Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Please read the rules first and ask for clarifications/questions in this thread. :)

1. The 10-month season starts on January 1 and ends on October 31. The winner will be announced on November xx(TBA), so make sure to update the spreadsheet by November 7.

2. Books started in the previous year may be counted if you finish them after January 1st. We trust that you will not take advantage of this and start a bunch of books in December so that you can add them right on January 1st.

3. When adding the page count, you may use any of the top 5 English versions* unless you're actually reading the non-English version. The rationale is there were some 300K-word books counting for less than a third of that size because of the edition posted first by Goodreads. It's imperfect, but there isn't a better way unless we have a word count for every book out there.

*For books listed on Goodreads with only Audio format (no page count available) - 30 pages/hr, or a page every 2 minutes, is the average book narration rate at 1x speed
Example: 8-hour book - 240 pages

4. Point system:

Audio: 1:1
Read: 1.25/1 = 5/4
Graphic 1/4

For example, an audiobook with 300 pages will be worth 3.0 points. A 300-page e/print book will be 3.8 points. A 300-page graphic novel will be 0.8 points.

BR: 1/3 bonus
For Buddy Reads points to count, you can start reading the book one week before the BR start date or join in within 2 weeks after the start date. These bonus points are to encourage discussion, so you may only get the BR bonus if you participate in the discussion, not just simply reading at the same time.

Challenge: 1/10 bonus
For challenge points to count, you can use any challenge that you have a tracker set up in this group.

A spreadsheet to input and track points will be posted after teams are announced.

5. New group members who wish to join need to have a minimum of 100 posts in this group. We want to welcome new people to the competition, but this is to ensure you will not disappear shortly after signing up.

6. For people signing up later than the initial draft, once you are added to the challenge, you may include points starting from the day you signed up for the challenge. If you started a book a few days before signing up for the challenge and are still reading when you sign up, you may also include those books.

Announcements will be posted whenever necessary.

Update to rule #1:

The winner will be announced on November 1, so make sure to update the spreadsheet by October 31.

I can't believe we've never had a stipulation like this in all the years we've had this competition. Thanks @Nirkatze for bringing up a winner announcement.

In the past, the unwritten rule was you had a few days afterwards to fill in books, for people that are lagging behind, or only update monthly/quarterly...

And the winner was announced somewhere on the 7th...

But we can change it...

I mentioned that in the spreadsheet thread...

Timelord Iain wrote: "In the past, the unwritten rule was you had a few days afterwards to fill in books, for people that are lagging behind, or only update monthly/quarterly...

And the winner was announced somewhere o..."

Yes, I think it will be easier for me to track if we just keep it all to the day after the competition.

Maybe if other people (especially participants who add monthly/quarterly) have an opinion?

I edited the spreadsheet last year… anybody that uses the sheet in November/December isn’t affecting competition points… they are tracked in a separate row that doesn’t get carried over to the participant data and team pages…

FYI…

Timelord Iain wrote: "I edited the spreadsheet last year… anybody that uses the sheet in November/December isn’t affecting competition points… they are tracked in a separate row that doesn’t get carried over to the part..."

Oh, I don't mean about tracking points, I mean about tracking my calendar (just my prefence so I can manage personal stuff)

I'll adjust it and change the date to a week after or so?

Update: I've added it to my calendar for Nov 7th. Will make separate announcement closer to the end of the competition.

It'd definitely be nice to have a few days grace--especially if Oct 31 falls on a weekday and I'm sure I'm not the only one who fills in things on weekends... Could it be Nov 7th instead of Nov 1st?

I do love the spreadsheet very much--even better than the Goodreads "year in books" thingy..

Regarding challenges, do you have to set up all challenges at the beginning of the competition or does it not matter when it's created? Are all kind of formats of challenges acceptable? Like if I made challenge to read x books in Portuguese per year? Are there any agreed upon rules or is it left up to everyone's conscience?

Basically the last one...

I'm lazy and just do the Incomplete Series challenge, which covers most things other than standalones...

If you want to group things together, you can just make a single thread for all challenges, and track a different one in each comment...