I wrote an ample comment in the last update stating how this challenge have been taxing and rewarding at the same time.
I do appreciate your initiative and effort to promote poetry.
I don't like the one award per week per category change. I think this change takes some of the fun out of the contest.
I would like it if every poet was required to write a single poem each week so he/she can put a greater effort on it, proofreading, etc., but it would no longer be a 100 day challenge.
On the other part of the change, I will find it hard to fulfill this new requirements because I have a full time job and Steemit as my second income and I need to have time to write or produce other type of content, not only poetry.
This has been very demanding and taxing. I haven't skipped a single day, thought, because I'm prefer to save those skip days for days when it would be impossible for me to publish like, for example, if something happens to my Internet connection (I live in the third world) or I get sick or things get ugly at work and I have to stay late several days in a row. So laziness is not the reason I don't like this change. I think the challenge is demanding enough as it is... or was.
I used to write in my mother tongue, Spanish, and then do a handcrafted, fastidiously adapted and revised translation into English which I speak as a second language. The Spanish originals were mostly poems with rhyme and metric. I wanted my Spanish readers to enjoy the poems, and some of them were curated by Spanish-speaking curators and won the day and/or week in this (English poetry) challenge. But beginning at day 42 I had to completely drop writing in Spanish at all and began writing directly in English and free-verse, because I no longer have the time or energy required for such a humongous overload.
This also means my Spanish-speaking readers and curators no longer can read my challenge entries without using Google Translator which, as you know, may kill the spark of poetry from a text.
I understand that the interaction has not been as you expected and that that was your main motivation for creating this challenge: promoting poetry and the dynamic exchange of ideas between poets, but I don't know if I will be able to make it to the end.
I love poetry and that love for poetry is recorded in the Steemit blockchain, but I also have to earn a living and get some sleep.
I'll do my best.
Thank you for your input @sansoncarrasco. I've admired your contributions and was amazed at the work it must take to make English adaptions of your Spanish poetry daily. I understand what you're saying about not liking the prize shift. If I started a project like this again, I would not do so by myself. I'd have several people commit to helping me curate through the entire period. You know how it is, people get busy, sick, things come up, and they can't find the time to help any longer.
Because of the difficulty of the daily writing requirement, the unfortunate consequence is that on some days, the writing across the boards is lacking in quality and I have to assign a winner that has spelling issues, grammatical problems, etc. It's hard for me to do this with a good conscience because I don't want to just increase the quantity of poetry on Steemit, but help people become better poets.
I understand and honor you for taking the time while being employed. I think we could work something out where you only have to look at one poet in a week. It should take only a half hour to leave a well-thought-out response to one of their pieces. Does that seem feasible?
Thanks for analyzing carefully my long replay.
What you propose about one single analysis per week would make it easier to do. Just a bit. I'll try to do as everyone else but I'm glad there's some flexibility to compromise at the one-per week review.
The lack of incentives, not being able to produce my usual content, is something hard to overcome, though.
I'll play along to the extents of my capabilities.