Memo To The Challenge R&D Team

[mellow-mike]

It's not breaking news that the Monthly Challenges have been dwindling in participation.

One thing that I noticed too, was that after Red Rock won the last one - Tom posted the obligitory Congratulations Thread - and there were just two other members who said a peep. What's up with that...? 

This is Red Rock we're talking about. Besides Rich Yourstone - Red is one of the resident N Scale darlings.

First off - there is no prize most of the time. Then when someone wins - a couple of guys manage to say "congratulations". The way I see it - everyone else must've been bummed that he won. Or apathetic.

By some strange coincidence... Red skipped the January Challenge.

I have an idea.

Perhaps the "Everyone try to replicate this proto freight car" concept has it's limitations. Being that the majority of members here are Eastern Seaboard residents - the proto cars tend to be Eastern RR's a lot of the time.

What if....

Instead of "Do one of these 'B&O flat roof X97 boxcars having the panel door and CSX patch on a gray field'.... which corresponds to the Acme RTR model released in 2005... and needing MicroFilm decal set #160-999....."

... have one month set up as improv nite. One theme to keep people in the ballpark... such as "50' flatcar with load" or "enclosed autorack - graffiti optional". Allow modelers to pick something out of their inventory, in a road name they enjoy, and find a prototype pic to base their project on.

Then, ideally, we might get 10-12 entries in a related theme, rather than 3 entries of the same car.

This makes it sort of a personal challenge - and not whose Conrail Ex-PC airslide looks better than the other two entries.

No need for prizes - or bragging rights.

Critiques can still be given though. "You really nailed your car, Steve". Or "The rust streaks are the only drawback, John".

And the 30-day work time would still be in place - no grace periods. No digging out an oldie but goody that you painted two years ago. Maybe have each person participating show their proto pic within the opening week. "I have chosen to do this modern white chlorine tank car for this month's Rusty Tank Car Challenge" says Tom. Gregg reveals he will be doing a 1940's era gasoline tank car, still in branchline service in the 60's. Red opts for a faded funnel flow tank car with light rusting. And so on. (Either scale will still be acceptable).

Or the theme can be Maintenance of Way rolling stock. Or even MOW vehicles one month. A flatcar with trailers can span decades too. Whatever. As long as you provide a prototype pic that you are basing your weathering/painting on. Then Western guys can get in.... Canadians.... Texans....

Should we try it out one month - and see if it expands the participation?

[Ian MacMillan]

Very good idea Mike....I'd go along with it.

[John]

Or "The rust streaks are the only drawback, John".

Leave me out of this ...  :'(

[mellow-mike]

Leave me out of this ...  :'(

Isn't that what you say to most of the Challenges?   

Just kidding, Chief. Did I say John?  I meant Joe. Yeah, that's it.

[tokenbrit]

As one who forgot to congratulate Red Rock following his win in the Dec. Challenge I apologise, but I thought the purpose was more for the challenge, the participation & the comments on the weathering as it was for the competition result, whether winning was acknowledged with a prize, or with accolades... I thought my voting comment, that both entries were "awesome", stood as congratulations to the entrants ???

To put forward the Olympic ideal: it's not about the winning or the losing; it's about the taking part. With that said, I totally agree that the Challenge could do with more people taking part, & I think your's is a great idea Mike - congratulations

[John]

Leave me out of this ...  :'(

Isn't that what you say to most of the Challenges?   

well .. yea it is .. after about the 3rd time of having my entry ripped apart, I felt there was no further need to subject myself to further humiliation ..

I do model railroading for the fun of it .. I found the monthly challenge to not be "fun" for me.  I still vote monthly, but I dont see the need to comment any more, since someone else will ..

Besides, I have been too busy working on the layout, getting it to a state where I can host people for running sessions ..

Red Rock, MrKluke, and the others are pretty good, and I admire their work .. and some day, when I no longer have a 60 hour a week job to go to .. I may actually sit down and do this again ..

In the meantime .. I will focus my attention on something else ..

[quadk]

Hey there Mike,

 I am fairly new to this forum, and I really don't have a lot of room to speak about this subject. Although I am planning on entering this months challenge, provided I can get the car. Without making anyone mad, I do think that there is a lot of negativity on this forum lately though as far as complitments go and bickering between members. This is one of the greatest hobbies there is in my opinion and everything you do is supposed to be for fun and because you enjoy it. There will allways be people in this hobby that are at different skill levels no matter what it is..weathering, scratchbuilding, kitbashing, layout building etc. So I say if you see a challenge car up that you don't think looks as good as you or tom, dick or harry could of did it, still give them a decent comment and maybe give them some good critisism to try and help there modeling. The way I see it is they were brave enough to post pictures of there model (that they are proud of) and yet enter it into a challenge. On this same subject about negativity, again no offense to anyone this is just an example. This months new challenge someone had posted something about ordering there car from a certain store and another asked him why he would want to do that. Now I don't know if this was supposed to be sarcasm but to me it sounded like a slam, which is uncalled for in this FUN hobby. That is the kind of stuff that makes everyone mad and the participation goes down and the info you might need is not there anymore because everyone is afraid of what someone might say about them or the subject. Well I hope you all get my point of what I am trying to say and I hope I diidn't make anyone mad.

On to you second part Mike, I think it would be a great idea to do at least one challenge like that. I live in Wisconsin and I model the Wisconsin Central and the Burlington Northern. Where like this months CR hopper is a geat car to do it would be fun to have a Hi Cube boxcar month or a gondola month so I could then model a BN sawdust gon or a WC hicube paper boxcar or what with the roads I model.
Great idea I hope others agree.

Thanks everyone!!

[John]

ken .. good comments ..

actually, I think the first car was a  milwaukee road ..

[nscalesteve]

This months new challenge someone had posted something about ordering there car from a certain store and another asked him why he would want to do that. Now I don't know if this was supposed to be sarcasm but to me it sounded like a slam, which is uncalled for in this FUN hobby.

Ken...
...this was something like an insider joke. I suppose you've mist all the discussions over at the Atlas forum two years ago about the company PWRS.
yes it was sarcasm but also some truth involved but hey, that's why it's called sarcasm right... ? 

Mike...
...good idea, man I have to agree with you (and it was easier than I thought...  )
so I could finally weather one of mine Canadian grain cars...

[3rdrail]

well .. yea it is .. after about the 3rd time of having my entry ripped apart, I felt there was no further need to subject myself to further humiliation ..

Folks, I think John just got to the heart of the matter as to why participation had dwindled. The "challenge" was envisioned as just that - a challenge - not a contest. Instead of others jumping on the participants and telling them what they did wrong, the idea was for the "winner" to share what he or she did right so that others could learn the technique.

We avoided the "pre-emptive strike" by banning mid-month photos, perhaps it is necessary to have all the photos sent to the challenge administrator rather than posted, so he can post them all at once. I have a feeling that several cars were finished but once the first entry was posted, some admitted defeat before entering the fray and did not enter.

Or, has this run its course since Alex left?

[quadk]

We avoided the "pre-emptive strike" by banning mid-month photos, perhaps it is necessary to have all the photos sent to the challenge administrator rather than posted, so he can post them all at once. I have a feeling that several cars were finished but once the first entry was posted, some admitted defeat before entering the fray and did not enter.

3rdrail, I think this would be a good idea if it would be ok with the administrator. Then everyone that wants to enter the challenge could send there model pictures to the admin. no matter how far they are and they would all get posted at the same time. I am sure that there was other cars out there in Jan. that were not posted because of not being done. I would like to see them cars to, they might have some awesome rust techniques on them that no one was able to see or learn how they did it.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Challenge, not competition... hmm...

Words to mull over.

[GonzoCRFan]

I like this idea. My participation in the monthly challenges is limited to cars I can use for my eventual layout. While this leaves open a wide array of cars, there are some (like next month's 2-bay hopper) that I really have no use for. Although it would suffice as a sand car for my engine terminal, but I digress.

It probably would encourage more people to participate, because they can do something that definitely interests them, and they don't have to run around looking for a car each month. And with my limited funds, being able to do a car I already own is advantageous.

[Eddie Ehrman]

Mike, 3 members said a peep in congratulations to Red Rock.   
Also, I think this is a great idea! 
Eddie

[The Donkey]

Michael, I feel that's something to for the "powers that be" to definitely
consider-I'm for it, as long as we also keep the current challenge idea going also!



Mitch