Can we get the site to automatically generate a post-mortem thread like we have now for outtakes? This would be the place to spend a bit more time assessing why an entry worked or didn't work, and for participants to get a bit more feedback on their entries.
I suggested *someone* suggest this in the other thread a couple of minutes ago.
What do you think of the idea of combining it with the out-takes discussion, and re-naming the resultant combined thread? I'm just thinking of reducing forum clutter, and noting that the out-takes thread is rather under-utilized now anyway.
It seems to me that the "why didn't this do better?" and "How would this have done?" discussions overlap quite a bit, as for that matter would a "Why did this do so well?" discussion of what some consider a surprisingly high-scoring photo ...
Suggested wording for the opening post if automatically generated:
"Did your challenge entry do worse than you expected? Better? Here's the chance to discuss why and why not. Post your entry and your own assessment of your photograph. Incorporate any insight from comments you may have received during voting. Try to comment on other shots posted here - provide a fair assessment. Be honest - if you don't like a shot, try to figure out why and express that tactfully. If you were put off by technical flaws, try to offer solutions. And when you receive a comment, understand it is from a viewpoint other than your own and intended to be helpful."
Other suggestions for wording cheerfully accepted!
Probably a good idea, but is there a different term available other than "post-mortem"...it sounds so, ummm, dead! :-)
LOL! Post-mortem is used a lot for things other than, well, post-mortems in the dead person sense. In the acquisition business, we do post-mortems for those companies that didn't win the contract. In essence, the process is indeed "dead" at that point - we're just providing the results of the autopsy. So yeah, now that you mention it, it does sound a bit morbid. But I still kinda like it - after all, the challenge is "dead" at the point it rolls over after voting! :-)
That gets my vote. And to Paul's earlier suggestion, not sure about combining with outtakes - but it may work. I'm just wondering if it might get confusing.
It would be simplest to start them as separate threads, but I think it would be good to consider combining all the post-challenge discussion in one thread at some point.
The one downside I see to this is currently, any outtakes are supposed to be posted to the 'Outtakes' thread after the challenge.
Is that going to apply to "What went wrong", "How would you..." type threads that are challenge related if this gets implemented?
As it is right now the "post-mortem" threads are voluntary. If someone wants to start their own thread soliciting feedback on their challenge entry that's ok (and I think it should stay that way).
Barry, you lost me on that last one. I'm suggesting a thread, automatically generated after the challenge ends, for the "what went wrong", "how would you" crowd to all post in the same place. Paul has suggested that maybe that could be combined with the automatically generated "Outtakes" thread at some point but probably not right now. And post-mortems would still be voluntary - not sure what making it an automatically generated thread would do to do that?
I used to get a video game magazine and they had a section where they would have a Q&A discussion with the producers of a video game a few months after it's release. They called this article "After Thoughts", though it was title with the name of the game, such as "Halo 3-After Thoughts". The editors of the magazine would discus issues about the game, with the producers, that they think they did well and then the things they felt they could have done better. I think this is similar to the suggestion and I feel the name "After Thoughts" would be appropriate. just an idea.
