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Post by dlfreak on Nov 1, 2007 15:09:54 GMT -8
In an effort to add more activities to our theme weeks I thought I'd open up discussion here... I was thinking of having a new activity with each theme week. Something kinda like the Quandry but not necessarily a word puzzle. That's why I bring this to you... I wonder if any one is interested in coming up with a type of activity to do for all of our theme weeks...
For instance, do you like making Cross Word Puzzles? Maybe you could make cross word puzzles with words themed to our theme week. Or maybe a different kind of puzzle or activity. Something of that sort. It should be some sort of activity that could work regardless of the theme of the theme week, just like the story, drawing, etc that can easily change whatever the theme is...
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Post by devindemel on Nov 2, 2007 15:59:20 GMT -8
I think the crossword puzzle idea would be cool! I don't have any suggestions of my own at the moment but i will post any if I think of any good ones =p
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Post by BunnyRabt on Nov 3, 2007 19:24:23 GMT -8
I've always liked Fairy's word scramble puzzles.
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Post by fairy_tale_girl64 on Nov 3, 2007 22:09:43 GMT -8
lol i was just gonna say that bunnny....people loved participating in my word scrambles
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Post by dlfreak on Nov 4, 2007 10:09:36 GMT -8
Well you already do those for theme weeks anyway right? I suppose we can make them official as well as Capt's giveaways on the theme week page.
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Post by captvatng1 on Nov 4, 2007 13:38:50 GMT -8
It seemed like the activities that took less of a time commitment got the most entries -- which is my guess why the story and drawing have few participants. (Although i will say those are among those I enjoy the most at the end!)
How about instead of a story, we give the first line of a theme-week related limerick and ask for members to complete it? That would show writing creativity and might get more entries because it's a short result (but still challenging).
You could delegate the development of the first line of the limerick to the council and staff so it would be one less thing for you to do for the theme week.
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Post by dlfreak on Nov 5, 2007 14:25:26 GMT -8
See and that's so strange because a story less than 200 words is rather easy, I thought, to accompish. It doesn't have to be that long, hell it could be 50... it just cant' be longer because no one will read them or want t owrite that many. Maybe I could write that clearer in the future.
What sort of limericks did you have in mind?
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Post by captvatng1 on Nov 5, 2007 21:18:48 GMT -8
I write for a living -- churning out a 200-word email is *nothing*! But a story requires a beginning, middle, and end. You can't just sit down and type out a thought until it's done. And as fun as the finished stories are to read, they historically don't get many entries. My idea was to stimulate creative writing and perhaps get more participants. A limerick, by contrast, is a sound bite. Five lines, no more, no less. Lines 2 and 5 rhyme with the first; lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other. Wiki says that the first line typically introduces a person or thing and a place (how perfect is that for a theme week?). And, of course, they should be funny -- and clean. Like these: A wonderful bird is the pelican His bill can hold more than his belican He can take in his beak Food enough for a week But I'm darned if I see how the helicanOr: I wish that my room had a floor! I don't so much care for a door, But this crawling around Without touching the ground Is getting to be quite a bore!Sooooooo ... for the Halloween limerick you could start off with something like this (and I gave it about 30 seconds thought after reading the intro to the story, so don't be too harsh here): For Halloween, Malla was stressed,See any possibilities?
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Post by fairy_tale_girl64 on Nov 5, 2007 21:25:24 GMT -8
yes but at the same time dl...its hard to write a story using only 200 words extra and it be good....but at the same time i rather write short stories and would probably do better at limericks than stories..bunny and fullbloom are our writing experts. lol and if you tell me 200 words i am at 199 or 200....and not satisfied cause i have to leave out the details and adjectives...but i only have done 2 of the word scrambles..maybe 3....i THINK i did one on christmas last year and i know i did one on halloween and one during songran....whatever that rain/water theme week we did. but i can start doing that on each theme week instead of giveaways...i was just trying to help you out and take over what cutie use to do for the guild. but that sounds awesome to me....but then again i typically am up for anything....very rare i am totally against things i think the reason we have so many participants in the quick activities is that they are quick and easy...like stories and coloring and drawing are more time consuming but of course i think most of the members know that is my all time favorite activity to participate in...i love the castle searches you do too dl..those go over well i think.
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Post by BunnyRabt on Nov 6, 2007 22:58:27 GMT -8
I do like writing the stories, and once I get an idea it doesn't take me any time at all. Of course, I never stick to the 200 word thing. That's not enough words to really develop an idea into a good story, so I kinda act like I don't see that restriction. (so shoot me) And we might get more participation next time once the members realize that we are doing theme weeks again.
Maybe we could do a limerick, and a story, and a word scramble. The word scramble could be more like one of the riddles as far as the "random" award goes....not something that gets put to a vote. So that would add another activity that has no pressure attached to it..it would be for fun.
Things like the Gingerbread house are fun too, and take less actual drawing or coloring skill. If we could find similar activities like that we might get more entries. I think it was a big hit when we did that.
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Post by fairy_tale_girl64 on Nov 6, 2007 23:44:43 GMT -8
i could never figure out how to do that gingerbread house thing...i tried but the only thing is what you can actually do with those is limited..they all turned out different but they were all so close that it was hard to judge...not like shops where you can atleast pick different backgrounds..would be neat if you had different candies to choose from and more of it...but again i am too poptarted to figure that stuff out.
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Post by BunnyRabt on Nov 7, 2007 7:22:16 GMT -8
That's true, it is a bit limited. But it's an easy activity and takes less effort than a drawing or a coloring, so I thought it might pull in some more participation from those who are daunted by the other activities.
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Post by devindemel on Nov 7, 2007 11:59:49 GMT -8
You get to build a gingerbread house for the Christmas theme week!? how cute! =D
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Post by dlfreak on Nov 7, 2007 16:13:45 GMT -8
^We have a virtual gingerbread house that we decorate every year... maybe this year I'll get around to adding more candies to decorate with.
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Post by girlgenius1159393151 on Nov 8, 2007 15:01:55 GMT -8
if i get any ideas ill let u guys know.
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Post by fairy_tale_girl64 on Nov 8, 2007 16:19:21 GMT -8
^We have a virtual gingerbread house that we decorate every year... maybe this year I'll get around to adding more candies to decorate with. lol i can play with them but can't figure out how in the world to make them save so you can send them to you...you so rock dl...thanks for adding more candies!
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Post by lindseyacron on Nov 9, 2007 11:14:32 GMT -8
well, I definitely like the idea of the crossword puzzle, you can go online and create your own puzzles for free at several sites, but I don't really think they're going to get a lot of participation unless it has a pretty good prize waiting at the end of it..... which the guild can't really afford to do I do like the idea of the storytelling contest, but again, it just doesn't get much participation and - no offense Susan - I don't think it's right to have something that consistently only gets one or two participants - I always love reading the stories though. The limerick idea is totally awesome. And those examples are adorable Karen. However, again, I just don't think there's going to be much participation, it's a lot harder than it looks. I like the scavenger hunt type thing. It's always been rather big. Especially now, I just don't think we'll be getting a lot of participation on anything that requires a lot of thought and effort. We're all getting older and our lives are conflicting way more now than ever before (at least for the majority of us) and devoting that much time to one activity just for fun tends to get put on the back burner and eventually forgotten. I know I'm bad about putting off until tomorrow what should have been done yesterday, and I know I'm not the only one. No Tanzi, that wasn't fully directed at you Anyway, I think more of the easy and quick ones will get a better foot off the ground than anything that takes more than 10 to 15 minutes to do. Even our coloring pages and drawings are getting fewer and fewer entries. Sorry, I realize that this isn't what anyone wants to hear, myself included, but it is the truth and we need to address it accordingly. I would like to add that for Christmas, I thoroughly enjoy the secret santa but I have a hard time only spending 2000 np or whatever the price limit was because there are so many good things that are out there. I think we should increase it. Most of us can afford it, or at least put it to a vote to see what the actual participants think. I can name off the top of my head who the major participants of the guild are and most of us go all out on Christmas anyway for everyone else because we're all friends. I see no reason to make the gift giving that much better. Though I may be wrong. I was also thinking that for christmas we could do something a little different for the drive. Instead of just donating everything to the money tree, we could take so many of the prizes, browse the neoboards and find some people that are actually helping others out and just send them something to say thanks for being such a great neopian. Those people won't be expecting anything at all from anyone, especially a guild that they know nothing about while people browsing the Money Tree are going to be expecting something from someone and most never pay any attention to who's donating it. They're just there for a snatch and grab.
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Post by fairy_tale_girl64 on Nov 9, 2007 12:12:56 GMT -8
yes i love the secret santa too and most people don't typically stick with the 2000np limit but for those that are newer to neopets it offers then the chance to participate and them not feel like they can't afford to be involved....because we do have a few newer neopians as members that joined recently...so that is understandable...some of the members do stick by the limits but most don't
and i love your idea lindsey like there are people on the boards that help in quest...some don't send items but its nice that they help others and i think also in the money tree and clothing place people have to act so quick to get things that they often don't notice who the donor is.....this way they have to accept or decline the offer.....and attach it with a nice little neomail is a great touch saying we pay attention to your generosity....its probably more time consuming but we will know its going to someone helpful who gives back to others. and not a restocker making nps off our generosity.
another idea for an activity that would be quick could be guess how many _____ are in the jar...jellybeans for easter...ornaments for christmas or cranberries...then say something like its more than 100 and less than 1000 the person coming closest is announced or however that you want to handle that....everyone could win something like...the person that guess closest would receive a prize..if anyone nailed it on the head...then a grand prize but a smaller incentive for participating....and losers a pumpkin pie thrown at them or pie of some sort for not being the closest..not sure if that is ok with neopets as long as all participants win something or just win loose situations...but dl will know for sure....like at christmas..how many jellybeans in a stocking deal would be cute
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Post by lindseyacron on Nov 9, 2007 13:26:30 GMT -8
I do like that idea lisa.... but I meant to have a vote about the secret santa because not all new members are new to neopets and a lot of members won't even be participating, so this way we get a vote on the ACTIVE members that will participate... though I do understand what you're saying
I think we should also keep your word scramble things... those are pretty interesting and fun also
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Post by fullbloom720 on Nov 9, 2007 21:16:53 GMT -8
I agree with the notion most everyone has seemed to agree on, that the quicker and/or easier activities will probably yield the most participants. Although I did not this time, I usually enter the story competition...And like Bunny, my stories end up w/ more than 200 words if they're developed and detailed. In order to fit the parameters I'd always end up going back and deleting adjectives and unneccessary but nice little extra plot elements. I think if we keep storytelling, maybe the word cap should be raised; like, no more than 300 words. I also like the limerick idea capt had. This seems like it wouldn't require you to devote a fair amount of time to laying out a story, but just having fun and submitting a poem. As for other proposals, maybe something along the lines of the Snowager on Neopets would be a fun, new activity...Kind of related to Zurina the Bakery Witch and the Ghost of Guildly Past, random prize throughout the theme week, only difference being the user can control whether he/she gets something out of it. The "snowager" creature can change depending on what the theme is; for example, for winter theme week, on the website's theme week page you could have a snow faerie or even just the snowager himeslf being the sleeping creature. The idea being if you visit the theme week page when the "snow faerie" is away, you can "grab" a gift.
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