thing1 got me in the last hour while I was away. Good battle, bro.

Fancdew : I decided the blue wasn't worth it. but, i had few things to reply to in yellow, and by the time I was finished with those, yellow was pretty obtainable, so I went ahead and went for it. 

;-; I suddenly lost access to the internet and lost my rainbow *cri*

thing1 : Don't rest easy yet, I'll get the rainbow back from you V

Yesterday Results

Yellow Jersey
thing1 : 1324 (1)
EX Palen : 600 (2)
Sanspai : 555 (3)
Fancdew : 453 (4)
Oldschool777 : 355 (5)

Blue Jersey
thing1 : 27 (1)
Fancdew : 11 (2)
JigSaw : 7 (3)
Sanspai : 7 (4)
EX Palen : 5 (5)

Red Jersey
no 8120 : 91 (1)
EX Palen : 80 (2)
thing1 : 35 (3)
Fancdew : 34 (4)
Sanspai : 34 (5)

Green Jersey
Davideo7 : 172 (1)
no 8120 : 69 (2)
thing1 : 37 (3)
Yuna1000 : 36 (4)
Sanspai : 35 (5)


Monthly Results

Yellow Jersey
1. thing1 : 16
2. EX Palen : 13
3. Sanspai : 13
4. Fancdew : 8
5. m0ssb3rg935: 7

Blue Jersey
1. thing1 : 16
2. Sanspai : 13
3. Fancdew : 9
4. EX Palen : 5
5. m0ssb3rg935: 5

Red Jersey
1. EX Palen : 14
2. no 8120 : 11
3. Sanspai : 11
4. Fancdew : 9
5. Davideo7 : 8

Green Jersey
1. no 8120 : 17
2. thing1 : 7
3. m0ssb3rg935: 7
4. Davideo7 : 7
5. EX Palen : 5


Monthly Overall Results

All Users
1. thing1 : 45
2. Sanspai : 42
3. EX Palen : 37
4. Fancdew : 31
5. no 8120 : 28
6. Davideo7 : 22
7. m0ssb3rg935: 21
8. Yuna1000 : 5
9. geeogree: 4
10. zanderlex: 4

New Users
(no one has placed yet)

Veteran Users
1. Davideo7 : 22
2. geeogree: 4
3. JigSaw : 3


Today's Double CP Action is Character Addding.



thing1 barely takes over the lead.

Been quite a while since we had this many lead changes during the first week. Nostalgia fills the air lol.

I've been making calculations, and with an average of 8 points a day I could get enough to surpass 1000 total points before the competition ends. I got 9 points yesterday, so I basically need a similar performance all month long, or at least make up with more points on peak days. Doesn't seem impossible at all since that average would bring me near the score I got last October, so I'll be aiming for it.

My other aim, which is overall Red, doesn't look as easy. I'll have to work out a bit because during the first half of the month it will be harder to score points. If I manage to be on the lead or very close to it by the 16th, I'll get a good boost in confidence to fully tackle it.

It looks like the only jersey with some real and serious activity is Blue, which isn't as bad because it means we're getting lots of posts. Green is being mostly average, and Red isn't as high as we could probably see it. Yellow was horrible yesterday, I hope it can pick up and return to the glory it had during the start.

I'll be having a family reunion tomorrow, so looks like I'll have to sacrifice Rainbow in favor of Red and the point average I need. Depending on how the competition performs I might have a chance for Rainbow by the second half, but still a lot can happen before we get to that point.

Sanspai : I didn't even know I was going to get rainbow. I was just trying to get the bonus points in yellow and blue yesterday. But I have to admit, seeing my name in rainbow colors is really nice after quite a few years. 

EX Palen : I think the change to the Tour de Vizzed being biannual now makes it more appealing to compete for. Perhaps bringing back Posts and CP VCS might make for some interesting developments as well. 
You can have red. I'm probably going to go for blue and yellow. I didn't really compete consistently for awhile, so now I'm not that high up there on the rankings for those particular jerseys. As for points, I might join you in trying to get some of those as well. I'll probably go all out, taking a day or two off here and there, and try to take 5th place overalkl. But, that shouldn't be too hard, because I only need a little less than 150 points to do that. I'd need 24 jerseys to take 6th, but just 7 more to take 7th (I'm pretty sure I have the tie breaker over most people in most stuff that's not CP related, which is nice sometimes).

thing1 : Well, we do have some time in-between each TdV, so it's for sure someone will campaign to bring back the VCS. After all, they were more focused on just one thing, and just that makes it a lighter competition that could be seen as a substitute for the lost TdVs. However, I don't see that becoming real, at least on the short-medium term.

Hall of Fame goals are always interesting to pursue because they represent all-time standings. I'm glad that I got someone into pursuing them as well, most would consider them minor goals compared to what can we fight for each TdV.

Yesterday Results

Yellow Jersey
Davideo7 : 884 (1)
thing1 : 691 (2)
EX Palen : 551 (3)
zanderlex : 486 (4)
Sanspai : 407 (5)

Blue Jersey
thing1 : 15 (1)
Fancdew : 15 (2)
zanderlex : 9 (3)
Sanspai : 8 (4)
EX Palen : 4 (5)

Red Jersey
Davideo7 : 127 (1)
EX Palen : 72 (2)
Yuna1000 : 63 (3)
no 8120 : 54 (4)
LocksmithArmy : 21 (5)

Green Jersey
Yuna1000 : 50 (1)
Davideo7 : 40 (2)
no 8120 : 35 (3)
EX Palen : 34 (4)
thing1 : 21 (5)


Monthly Results

Yellow Jersey
1. thing1 : 20
2. EX Palen : 16
3. Sanspai : 14
4. Davideo7 : 9
5. Fancdew : 8

Blue Jersey
1. thing1 : 21
2. Sanspai : 15
3. Fancdew : 13
4. zanderlex : 7
5. EX Palen : 6

Red Jersey
1. EX Palen : 18
2. Davideo7 : 13
3. no 8120 : 13
4. Sanspai : 11
5. Fancdew : 9

Green Jersey
1. no 8120 : 20
2. Davideo7 : 11
3. Yuna1000 : 10
4. thing1 : 8
5. EX Palen : 7


Monthly Overall Results

All Users
1. thing1 : 55
2. EX Palen : 47
3. Sanspai : 45
4. Davideo7 : 36
5. Fancdew : 35
6. no 8120 : 33
7. m0ssb3rg935: 21
8. Yuna1000 : 13
9. zanderlex : 9
10. geeogree: 4

New Users
(no one has placed yet)

Veteran Users
1. Davideo7 : 36
2. geeogree: 4
3. JigSaw: 3
4. Oldschool777: 1


Today's Double CP Action is Review.



It's cold outside.

You're right. It's cold as all heck outside. It was 46 when I took my dog out earlier, so it was kind of warm compared to recently. 

The TdV is slowing down. :'( 

Wow, we really died down in Yellow. Blue is more or less keeping shape, and the two others have never been too high.

I managed even more points than I needed for my average, so yesterday was a good enough day. I also managed to pass zeetee, so maybe I could have a shot at bettering that 3rd overall I got in October if I can keep some regularity. Not my biggest goal right now, but this competition is long and it can still take many turns.

I'm nearly done with my family reunion, so time for me to aim for some points. I could do with 6, but seeing how dead things are being so far despite being a weekend maybe I could aim a bit higher. Not like I won't have much time, but chances like today could make the difference on the long run.

EX Palen : Today seems to be another super slow day. I wonder why? The first few days were going strong, so it couldn't have been because of school. :/

I'm running out of places to post. 

Yesterday Results

Yellow Jersey
EX Palen : 726 (1)
m0ssb3rg935 : 597 (2)
Zlinqx : 452 (3)
Vanelan : 415 (4)
Davideo7 : 286 (5)

Blue Jersey
thing1 : 9 (1)
EX Palen : 5 (2)
Vanelan : 4 (3)
wormelytyrese : 4 (4)
Davideo7 : 3 (5)

Red Jersey
no 8120 : 86 (1)
EX Palen : 85 (2)
Yuna1000 : 29 (3)
Singelli : 20 (4)
K0lob0k: 15 (5)

Green Jersey
no 8120 : 67 (1)
Davideo7 : 63 (2)
Yuna1000 : 39 (3)
EX Palen : 28 (4)
walterpigeon : 15 (5)


Monthly Results

Yellow Jersey
1. EX Palen : 21
2. thing1 : 20
3. Sanspai: 14
4. m0ssb3rg935 : 11
5. Davideo7 : 10

Blue Jersey
1. thing1 : 26
2. Sanspai: 15
3. Fancdew: 13
4. EX Palen : 10
5. zanderlex: 7

Red Jersey
1. EX Palen : 22
2. no 8120 : 18
3. Davideo7 : 13
4. Sanspai: 11
5. Fancdew: 9

Green Jersey
1. no 8120 : 25
2. Davideo7 : 15
3. Yuna1000 : 13
4. EX Palen : 9
5. thing1 : 8


Monthly Overall Results

All Users
1. EX Palen : 62
2. thing1 : 60
3. Sanspai: 45
4. no 8120 : 43
5. Davideo7 : 42
6. Fancdew: 35
7. m0ssb3rg935 : 25
8. Yuna1000 : 19
9. zanderlex: 9
10. Vanelan : 5

New Users
(no one has placed yet)

Veteran Users
1. Davideo7 : 42
2. geeogree: 4
3. JigSaw: 3
4. Oldschool777: 1


Today's Double CP Action is Walkthrough.



EX Palen takes back the lead.

Normally I would be happy of being rainbow, but not today. Yesterday was awfully slow, back to what the TdV used to be last year after a very promising start. We will have semi-decent results today at least, so let's hope the second week goes a bit better.

I nearly snabbed Red from no 8120, but in the end I was unable to. Looks like he wants another overall jersey despite being clearly in the lead for Green. I'm already evaluating how many secret weapons will I have, because he's perfectly capable of shifting up a couple gears. I also snabbed back the lead in Yellow, but that one can still fluctuate an awful lot given the results and it will not be my main focus in this competition.

thing1 : It's a weekend, people should be free of time. Unless someone has been a bad student and left all the homework for the last day, school is not to blame (and still wouldn't be to blame, even if that someone thinks it should).

Let's hope it picks up. It's really justifying why we downgraded to two TdV a year, but we expected such downgrade to produce some good results starting now.

EX Palen : Yellow is all yours, fella. I just want to move up a few spots. It's blue that I want, becuase it's really the only thing I can do well at. XD That rainbow, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter. 

Perhaps if me and you keep going back and forth, we can encourage others to particpate, too!

EX Palen :

Hi. I logged in just to discuss something you said, being one of several members who rarely log on anymore.

The move to make the TDV just twice a year is great. Fantastic. I just wish it wasn't like 3 or 4 years too late. At this point, it's arguable whether it would have been better to cut it in half, or double the amount of times per year the TDV happens, because frankly, I don't think either leads to a boost in activity at this stage.

For a boost in activity to occur, newbie retention needs to be stressed. The site's lifeblood has always been newbies, who stick around, become members, trusteds, elites, etc.

If I take a look at the active members for the past 30 days, only two of the 29 posters to make at least five posts in the past 30 days have registered within the past 3 years. The other 27 are people from 4+ years ago, who have stuck with the site out of loyalty.

Veteran engagement is not an issue at this juncture, although it's still far lower than it should be. There are enough stable veterans around to sustain an active community. The issue comes with keeping the newbies involved.

Maybe newbies these days just don't like boards, the way I did when I first signed up. That could be a real factor. Social media has become king, and Vizzed just can't transition into one of those, while likely retaining the membership it presently has.

The feature list is not an issue. Nor is it the amount of times you have a TDV. I was one of the biggest advocates for getting rid of it entirely (which may be justified, since it did push a few veterans out, and doesn't seem to have upped newbie engagement significantly), but even I can see that the TDV and how often it occurs has nothing to do with general activity one way or the other. Three or four years ago, perhaps, but now, it's the same as it would be, generally otherwise.

I don't think there is a way to really boost activity as the site presently is, and even if I did, I'm not sure my ideas would be received anymore. I feel like that's just as good a statement of how things are as anything else that's been said in the past couple of years on the topic of activity.

Just gotta get newbies involved, and pray they see something they like.

legacyme3 : I think it's a little unfair to judge the change to a biannual Tour de Vizzed just yet. However, I do agree with you that rentention needs to be stressed way more. I'm sure there are plenty of things that can be changed, added, or tweaked. However, David really doesn't have the time because he has to work a full time job just to keep the site up and running, which is kind of sad in and of itself. 

I, for one, don't think we'll really be able to see how much change the change has to the Tour do Vizzed until the end of the Winter 2019 TdV. At that point, it'll have been over a year since the change, people will have asked where the 2 that didn't happen went to, and it'll give David a whole year to make a few changes. 

As for the social media remark, I agree. I stopped being as active on the site due to the lack of areas on the board to engage, simply because other people weren't posting as well. I have, however, thought that maybe adding a status thing that your friends can comment on, similiar to Facebook, would help, at least a little bit. Depending on how it was done ( if it was implemented ), I think it could go a long way. 

For the time being though, maybe there should be more of some kind of incentive to becoming a "member", besides getting your name bolded. 

thing1 :

The crazy thing about my suggestions are that the things David would need to do aren't too time consuming (I made another post on this topic, regarding recommendations in the other TDV thread where he questions whether the event should be biannual).

The most time consuming part of all of this would be just getting newbies more involved, and that's something anyone, including you, can do. That's not an owner level ability. It's something that anyone and everyone active on Vizzed can, and should do, it's how you foster a more active community.

In the past, Vizzed was fortunate to have a full RGR with Nintendo games, which took a lot of the extra work out of the equation. There was still plenty to do to ensure future activity, but it is nothing compared to the state of things now. Now, with no Nintendo games, and a huge chunk of traffic missing, extra work needs to be put in by the current active membership to ensure future activity and membership.

One user who used to get a lot of s*** from the community at times was a member named Totts (who hasn't posted in about a year, and was last active in September). Despite what people thought, here's what Totts did for the community:

4439 Guest Referrals
253 Registered Users Referred
1455 Threads (3rd all-time)

For as much as people who can post 5000 times in a year were important to the old days of Vizzed, users like this were just as important. There presently does not seem to be a user at all similar to Totts, the closest thing "maybe" being Zanderlex, who has a fraction of the guest referrals, and registered users.

The only issue with waiting a year, and choosing to be reactive, instead of proactive, is you go another year with inactivity. How many of the 25 or so active (5+ posts in the last 30 days) will still be active in late 2018, early 2019?

I don't think you need more incentive to be active than the promise of a community that cares, and is active. 5 years ago, the current incentives were more than enough, as users like you or me can attest. Nothing more really can (or should) be offered. There's just simply nothing more that can realistically be offered.

Yesterday Results

Yellow Jersey
datiel12 : 1537 (1)
thing1 : 1264 (2)
Zlinqx : 1089 (3)
EX Palen : 650 (4)
Kilian : 489 (5)

Blue Jersey
thing1 : 15 (1)
legacyme3 : 5 (2)
EX Palen : 5 (3)
Davideo7 : 4 (4)
Zlinqx : 3 (5)

Red Jersey
datiel12 : 132 (1)
no 8120 : 120 (2)
EX Palen : 59 (3)
legacyme3 : 37 (4)
thing1 : 32 (5)

Green Jersey
no 8120 : 131 (1)
Yuna1000 : 40 (2)
EX Palen : 31 (3)
thing1 : 22 (4)
walterpigeon : 11 (5)


Monthly Results

Yellow Jersey
1. thing1 : 24
2. EX Palen : 23
3. Sanspai: 14
4. m0ssb3rg935: 11
5. Davideo7 : 10

Blue Jersey
1. thing1 : 33
2. Sanspai: 15
3. EX Palen : 13
4. Fancdew: 13
5. zanderlex: 7

Red Jersey
1. EX Palen : 25
2. no 8120 : 22
3. Davideo7 : 13
4. Sanspai: 11
5. Fancdew: 9

Green Jersey
1. no 8120 : 32
2. Yuna1000 : 17
3. Davideo7 : 15
4. EX Palen : 12
5. thing1 : 10


Monthly Overall Results

All Users
1. thing1 : 74
2. EX Palen : 73
3. no 8120 : 54
4. Sanspai: 45
5. Davideo7 : 44
6. Fancdew: 35
7. m0ssb3rg935: 25
8. Yuna1000 : 23
9. datiel12 : 10
10. zanderlex: 9

New Users
(no one has placed yet)

Veteran Users
1. Davideo7 : 44
2. legacyme3 : 6
3. geeogree: 4
4. JigSaw: 3
5. Oldschool777: 1


Today's Double CP Action is Article.



thing1 takes it right back.

So thats where I was getting the jerseys from! I didn't realise!

An overall slow day yesterday, though we saw promising peaks that can give us hope for the week we just started.

11 more points yesterday, so my average keeps on rising. At this pace, maybe aiming to surpass Singelli in total points and get a spot in the top 10 of that category may become a real goal. I guess I'll have to see how this week goes, because it will end right before the middle of the month and then I'll probably rethink my goals.

legacyme3 : While the increased gaps between TdV may not directly help newbies, it will help all users to stay active for longer.

If you look closely, most of the members that won a jersey or banner in any past TdV are mostly inactive. True is that real life may have taken them out, but if they overburn themselves in a competition that is happening too frequently they don't feel compelled to remain active. They need a break, and that's why it's rare to see a user placing in successive TdVs.

I also wanted the TdV to disappear entirely back in time, but I've come to realize that it just needs to be managed better. We just took an important step in what I think it's the correct direction, so we just need to keep walking that path.

And well, the TdV does affect general activity. There's both people going beyond their usual average and people who slow down to almost or completely disappear, the latter kind of people most often choosing to vanish instead of participating alongside some of the former kind. It happened to me several months ago, when I cancelled my participation after someone pulled a very dirty trick on me with the intention to win at all costs, and I still hold some kind of "grudge" against that user which could probably make me cancel my plans if I see them up in the table.

Depending on who competes, and more recently how they compete, can affect the overall flow of the competition. It's a fact, and we can do nothing about that. Sometimes it's justified, but other times it's childish. That's how our community is after all, right?