Snowflake Challenge #15

[kate]

In your own space, Talk about Your Snowflake Experience.

What did you come into it thinking or wanting? Did you get that? Did you get something else? Did you learn anything new about fandom, others, yourself? Are you glad you did it or thought it a waste of time and energy? You can tell us. We’re all here to learn and grow. What did you learn? How did you grow?

I'm an old hat at snowflake these days, and while this was a good snowflake for me - I finished all of the challenges except one, which I should finish in another day or two - it wasn't my best snowflake. As my professional life gets busier and busier, the time I have available to continue interactions on the level I prefer is not what it used to be. I always seem to be saying "when x happens, I'll have more time" but even when x happens (which is maybe 50/50), it doesn't seem to bring the free time I expect. Which just means I have to be more and more careful about my time.

It's more about the interaction for me. I love looking over everyone's answers and commenting all over DW in places and on journals I might not otherwise. I like making connections and sometimes new friendships. So while I did some of that this snowflake, and it was pretty great, it wasn't as much as I have in the past and I miss it.

SO! That said - this is a pretty lowkey challenge for me, just enough for me to keep a hand in and have some nice interactions and not so much that I feel guilty if I can't participate at my maximum all the time. There is a similar challenge in the summer called sunshine_challenge, which is also fantastic and I can recommend, despite failing to do it myself (because I only remember snowflake because of when it happens - for whatever reason, sunshine_challenge hasn't imprinted itself on my seasonal memory yet).

Six months is a long time for me, though, and I miss the interaction, so I was thinking maybe we want to do a spring and fall themed challenge as well. I wrote a post on this and called for comments. I believe many hands make light work, so if we got enough volunteers to do this sort of challenge on a quarterly basis, it would be fun ways to increase interactions on DW and broadly across fandoms. If you have any interest in that (or ideas about it!) please comment over there.

Comments

[dreamersdare]

Honestly? I think the challenges are really just the vehicle to hang the interactions from. In many ways, it doesn't matter what they are, because a lot of the appeal about them is in getting people to talk to each other about all sorts of crap (y'know, like Baymax's superiority in the event of a zombie apocalypse :D)

I also think this year has been a tough one for people on that. There's a lot of extra burdens and challenges on a lot of folks at the moment that make those interactions more difficult to maintain, especially at any sort of deep/meaningful level. So, basically, what I'm saying is: a curse on this decade of the two thousand and twenties, which has simultanously lasted 13 months and 300 years!

[kate]

Yup, exactly. I like that sunshine_challenge uses different prompts and a different set-up.

And yes, this year was hard, which was why I made more of an effort about snowflake_challenge than I might have. And I want to provide a space for that again, but monthly is too much and even quarterly is a big lift, I think, since there's a lot of administrative work to get this going and there's brainstorming to be done first. But honestly I love doing that stuff and don't mind doing it myself if I have time and interest (which I do!). The only thing I wouldn't be able to do would be to mod all the challenges as they went live in ... what, April? Likely April, and then October, if the fall one worked out too.

I'm too tired to think more on it tonight but the more it percolates, the more I think it's a good idea. The whole point of these is to be low pressure, which I feel like snowflake does really well, and I'm pretty good at emulating.

[dreamersdare]

Well, I've just subscribed to that one, so that I get the reminders when it's about to start, but I figure I'll hold off and see what July is like before I commit myself.

I wonder if the thing to do is try just one this year (possibly the October one, to give more time for planning) and see if it works, and if it does, then introduce an April one in 2022. And I think there's a definite need for a mod team. For a challenge like that, I'd want... maybe six mods minimum, if you're looking at a schedule like Snowflake and you want that same level of mod encouragement (and I think you do, to stop latecomers getting disheartened by being unseen and unheard)? Possibly less if it was going to be a less intensive schedule?

The more I consider it, the more I wonder if three is the right number (although Snowflake and Sunshine are badly positioned to each other to make that work well without one of them moving). But, once every four months feels like it's infrequent enough to still be something to get excited about, while still often enough that we don't feel deprived.

[enemytosleep]

I do feel you on the annual Snowflake commenting surge that wanes by mid-Feb for many folks. I definitely don't have the time or spoons to contribute more, but I wonder about a non-fandom/multifandom coffee house community page? Maybe you have a weekly discussion prompt, maybe not? Maybe you just post the coffee special each Sunday and have a space for folks to drop in and chat each week in a loose format? It could be fun to have folks share what new shows they've seen/books they've read and casual conversation that could lead to people friending or not. I know I mod at a few places, but I'm actually quite private and find it difficult to welcome new people into my locked journal, so things like Snowflake let me have those conversations in less intrusive places. I'm not sure this comment was helpful, but anyway. Thank you for participating in Snowflake, and thank you for volunteering for Sunshine!

[silveradept]

I thought covidcoffeecorner was still going, but apparently they closed up in June of last year. It seems like the kind of thing that people could do regularly, and maybe as the in-between for challenges and chats. Perhaps having some sort of official imprimatur would help, but the hardest thing about places like that is keeping up with all the posting that has to happen to get the interaction. It could be done, in site, but I don't know how many people could do a Snowflake-equivalent every month.

[kate]

Yeah, I definitely moved away from monthly pretty quickly - it was easy to see that it was a lot of work and the burnout would be intense. Quarterly seems more reasonable, but it will partially depend on my available time and enthusiasm, I think. I'm good at organizing things and doing a lot of the legwork if I have time, but that's a bit tricky these days. Also, I'd need a fair lot of volunteers to help with the actual month of posting and commenting etc.

I'm so sad about that comm - it's too bad it didn't open back up as the US went back into shutdown. I do love the idea of an online cafe type space.

[kate]

I can totally understand! Doing two of these a year would definitely be my limit as well. I never volunteered for snowflake because my work schedule can be a nightmare and I didn't want to flake on people because I love it too much.

I'm partially signed up for sunshine so I can really force my brain to remember it. I think 2020 was particularly rough, which is why this year's snowflake hit me much harder than usual, and the interactions felt so necessary. We'll see how far my enthusiasm carries me for the fall and spring versions - I can do a lot, especially around set-up but there's no way to actually manage the posting and commenting by myself.

Maybe I'll let it go for this year, too, and see how sunshine works to help frame the infrastructure. I'm looking forward to it!

[sjh2009]

I helped mod Snowflake for the first time this year and it is a lot of work, and I'm not the one running it. Admittedly, since taking early retirement to care for my mother, I have had more time than some other mods but it's been pretty time consuming. As well as acknowledging every post on each challenge we also make sure that one of us has commented on every journal too.

One thing I hadn't anticipated was the number of responses I received from participants. I hosted Challenfe #8 and in the two hours I was away from the internet to cook and eat dinner I came back to 187 message in my inbox. Although not all of those message require a response, many of them do. These are all things to consider when running an event like this.

I've signed up to mod for the Sunshine Challenge this year and planning is already underway for that event!

Snowflake is a wonderful participation event, but I think if it were run too often it wouldn't have the same impact and people might start getting bored. It's a shame that coffee shop one closed down, I hadn't heard of it but having a multifandom place people can drop into for a chat sounds nice. Maybe a coffee shop style comm with a quarterly or monthly challenge weekend would be fun, avoiding January and July but promoting Snowflake and Sunshine for those Months?

Certainly things to consider as I know from my own experience, I come out of the woodwork in January for Snowflake and then, despite my good intentions, I disappear for the rest of the year, just taking part in the odd reverse bang or secret santa.