March 2017 Challenge: Strength and Beauty

[dawn_felagund]

The next month is jam-packed with challenges. Back to Middle-earth Month continues through the end of March. Fëanorian Week runs from March 20th through 26th. And right on its heels is Silm Week, from April 3rd through 9th. A person would have to have the lifespan of the Elves packed into the next month to complete them all.

We are going to run our monthly challenge as usual, but we're keeping it deliberately low-key and encouraging participants to use the monthly prompt alongside one of the other several challenges going on. In fact, we will award special stamps for creators who use our prompt as part of one of the other fandom challenges running the same time as ours. (Please note in your summary or author's notes if your fanwork fits another challenge as well. As always, responses must be posted on our archive [or LJ for art entries].) You don't need to claim anything or sign up anywhere--just let your muses run with it!

For this month's challenge, create a fanwork about the following prompt. You may use any part or all of the quote.

"Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony,
but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful,
strength has much to do with the magic."

~Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Housekeeping Note: All stamp books should be up-to-date. All stamp books on archive profiles are up-to-date (unless you reduced the size of your image; then the image is up-to-date but the image map is not because, being dependent on coordinates, the links would be placed wrong on the image, so I did not update the image map code on your profile). If there is a mistake on yours, please let me know with a comment here or by email, and I will fix it asap.

Comments

[ladybrooke]

If we write more than one story that overlap with different challenges, do we get multiple stamps? (I am secretly still a five year old who wants all the stickers, obviously.)

[kayleelupin.livejournal.com]

I want to know too :D *doesn't think there's anything wrong with wanting all the stickers* ;)

[ladybrooke]

We do get multiple stamps. :D

[dawn_felagund]

Most months, there will be multiple stamps for creators. We often don't say what they are (though we hint at it: last month, for example, there were stamps for creating a fanwork about revolution, for creating protest art, and for including PoC/underrepresented cultures in a fanwork); this month, I decided to reveal what the special stamps were because I want to encourage people to look at those other challenges too! :) It still means a lot to me that the SWG not exist in isolation but support other projects in the Silm/Tolkien fandom.

There are always multiple stamps for reviewing; they come in increments of five, i.e., one gets the reviewer stamp for reviewing one story, then another for reviewing five, ten, fifteen fanworks, and so on. Kaylee's stamp book is actually a good example of that, from January; she's the only person to get the 15 stamp yet for either challenge. (No one has gotten to 10 for Revolution yet either, although a few people have earned the 5 stamp.)

[ladybrooke]

I'm glad you revealed them this month, especially because I never know about things on Tumblr unless somebody mentions them elsewhere. :D And I figured there were hints in the prompt last month, so I am apparently getting slightly better at picking up clues.

I really need to work on reviews as soon as this month is over and I'm down to one or two writing challenges to do. Kaylee is great at reviewing though (as I've noticed this month), so it does not surprise me she has a bunch of well-deserved stamps for that. :D

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, you do.

[ladybrooke]

Thanks Dawn! Then as long as it doesn't create too much work for you, I'll try for them (if it does create too much work, please tell me, because it''s not that important and I don't want to do that. Or if there's a way I can make it easier for you, other than just putting it in the summary/notes on each story).

[dawn_felagund]

I generally do all of the stamps in a book in one sitting, when the challenge stories are all in, so it's not that much more onerous to slide three onto a book in Photoshop than it is to slide one. It's no different than updating the book for someone who has reviewed fifteen stories (and so earned four stamps for reviewing) than someone who has reviewed just one and earned one stamp.

Thanks for asking, though. :)

[ladybrooke]

Good! I'm glad it doesn't - I still feel bad about Bingo, so...

You're welcome :)

[dawn_felagund]

I learned a lot from running bingo from the moderator perspective. I made mistakes in planning that that I won't make again, namely that I assumed 20 participants and got 88! :D Now I assume high participation and don't plan to do anything I won't want to keep up with.

[ladybrooke]

Assuming high participation is probably a very good idea. :P

I mean, I liked Bingo because of the bingo cards making it easier to keep track of what I had done - but the same holds true for this year's gameboard, because I just copied it and made color coded stars for things that were done but not posted and things that were posted. :D So if it matters, I am all for future games were we do the work of keeping track for ourselves.

[dawn_felagund]

That's really good to know--thank you. That discussion often arises when we're planning B2MeM and thinking about something like bingo. We just don't have the mod/volunteer availability that we had even back then.

[ladybrooke]

You're welcome. I mean, in real life bingo, nobody comes around and marks the cards. I'm sure most of us could figure it out for ourselves. And there has to be a basic explanation for how to use Paint or the Apple equivalent to it somewhere online that could be linked.

Also, selfishly, I would then feel free to do everything because it would be less work for the mods! (Hence why I'm enjoying this month, I hate people doing stuff for me.)

[dawn_felagund]

(Hence why I'm enjoying this month, I hate people doing stuff for me.)

I'm the same way! :D I'll definitely keep this in mind for when we start discussing B2MeM next year. Thank you!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

All stamp books on archive profiles are up-to-date (unless you reduced the size of your image; then the image is up-to-date but the image map is not because, being dependent on coordinates, the links would be placed wrong on the image, so I did not update the image map code on your profile). If there is a mistake on yours, please let me know with a comment here or by email, and I will fix it asap.

I reduced the size of my image. I wouldn't know whether mine is correct or not because I am not sure what any of those stamps actually mean.

[dawn_felagund]

That's the purpose of the image map; hovering over a stamp shows what it was earned for, and clicking it goes to the fanwork that earned it. But because image maps are constructed using coordinates, changing the size of the image breaks the image map.

(I get why people reduce the size of them--the image is huge--but just wanted to be up-front about why I'm not doing updates on certain profiles.)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I had no idea what you meant by the "image maps." All righty then. If it is an either/or I would rather have them smaller than be able to hover over them. They look really pretty. I do have other serious things I should be doing (like cleaning my house or cooking or even writing or research or reading and I am sure you do too!)! I am a hot mess! I guess you are right about people liking to collect shinies. So embarrassed.

[dawn_felagund]

No worries! The image in your profile will update, and I'm still keeping your image map code updated, in case you want to use it somewhere where a big image doesn't matter as much (like LJ).

I may redo the image map for people who want a smaller image, but I need to wait for a slow month for that.; I've needed all the time I've set aside for this to keep up!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! That's a fun idea.

and I'm still keeping your image map code updated, in case you want to use it somewhere where a big image doesn't matter as much (like LJ).

[hhimring]

Thank you very much, Dawn!

(I had a problem seeing the new stamps just now and couldn't do so until I had refreshed the pages, both the PNG image on the challenges/participant page and the image on the SWG profile--perhaps that's rather obvious, but I'm just noting it here, in case anyone else runs into the same thing.)

[dawn_felagund]

You're welcome! :)

As another hint to anyone reading this far down the page, if the updated image still doesn't show, Shift+F5 refreshes the page while ignoring cached content.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

*whispers* On the SWG home page, the "current challenge" still seems to be the one from last month...?
You're probably aware of that and have already scheduled the update, but just in case that's not the case, I figured I should say something.

[dawn_felagund]

That was totally a mistake! Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. Goodness knows how long it would have taken before I'd noticed that I'd missed that rather crucial step. (I go to the website every day which means that I pretty much stop seeing the challenge graphic! I've probably been to the site a dozen times or more since changing challenges and managed not to notice it. XD)

Thank you again!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

You're perfectly welcome! :)