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]

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.