What board events would you enjoy?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

So, in the 2024 discussion, one of the results was that more events and activities would be desirable. Since the thread is more about the general direction, the vibe, and so on of the forum, I thought it would be good to ask a few questions here:

What kind of events would you enjoy?
Are there any special formats, contents, or themes? Both rather vague and very direct suggestions are welcome!

Would you prefer competitive formats, collaborative attempts, or rather "festivals" where different entries are collected and presented? (Again, if you have concrete ideas: Shoot!)

How much time would/could you spend?
What do you think is a good timeframe for a forum event? Everything from perpetual threads to short (a few days) periods is possible - what do you think is better?

Would you rather have events in a field were you are already firm and experienced, or would you prefer formats that let you learn new things? What are the fields (Graphics, Scripting, Programming, Music, Knitting) that you'd like to see events in?

Could you imagine to host a event yourself? If yes: What would you need to do so, and what would help you? What information would you need?

[Zombiethederg]

Events i'd enjoy? Competitions come to mind, whether they be website jams based on different themes or forum wide game competitions i'd be into those! There wouldn't have to be a prize or anything, just a winner and I think i'd join them.

I'd prefer competitive formats as working with people isnt exactly my forte. I wouldn't mind it, but i'd definitely be wary entering an event that said something like "get a team of 3 together" since I really only have myself + other forum members who are within the community and I feel like I dont know anyone well enough lol. I think the Festival thread is a great way to do events though! I like the sound of an event making a huge list of the festival entries and then the thread being archived / made unrepliable to, that way all of the entries could be seen as if though you were perusing a festivals catalouge.

How time could / would I spend is a volatile question in my life as it is CONSTANTLY changing my schedules. Answer right now is I have no idea lmao

I'd like events in both! Im very experienced in website creation / programming but I wouldn't mind trying new things! Though I dont have the money to purchase equipment and what not. Something like a writing contest / programming jam would be best for me!

If I were to host an event myself (which I could see myself doing) I think i'd need to know the best board to post the event thread in, and how to close / archive a thread (make it so no one else can respond so that entries remain in the thread). Other than that im pretty experienced in running events, so I think I could manage!

[tetrisk]

Since I've seen a couple of game devs here, I think a game jam but in the format of C.H.A.I.N. would be really sick. For context, it's a sequence of games made by various devs that tries to form one cohesive story. The catch is that devs only played the previous game in the chain, which results in something akin to the broken phone game.

Also I really like the idea of some kind of festival as you mentioned 
I'd be down for events involving 2D art, like zines.

For big events like festivals, I think a timeframe of a month would work best for us who are still in uni (period finals weeks are a bitch).

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Thanks for your replies =).
I once thought about something like the "CHAIN" described by you @tetrisk ; had no idea it is already a thing. Would be indeed interesting!

If I were to host an event myself (which I could see myself doing) I think i'd need to know the best board to post the event thread in, and how to close / archive a thread (make it so no one else can respond so that entries remain in the thread). Other than that im pretty experienced in running events, so I think I could manage!

There is a event subboard 
https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?board=30.0
I already thought about asking Melooon to make it more visible, and I think that I will do it now ;).
I think you can lock your own threads with the small buttons all the way down (never did it); if not, you can ask the moderation staff to close it by using the report function.

[BlazingCobaltX]

I personally was a huge fan of the collaborative zine: Everyone works on their own piece and then everything is presented as one cohesive collection. Competitions with rankings is not something I'm a fan of, and while I would not be tempted to collaborate, having some collaborative events can hopefully bring some forum creatives together in substantial ways.

All things considered, I do think that events should be centered around making something ourselves. The exact medium could change every time, although coding jams feel like a must almost. But rotating between mediums may make people feel inspired to work with a medium they've never done before. Anything that can be done with a computer (at least) feels most accessible. Perhaps some kind forum members could provide a mini tutorial when it's a medium they're familiar with so others can get started quickly...

Timeframe is a tough one. Sometimes life gets in the way. A month seems like a fair amount of time for things that take substantial effort. Two weeks could work for shorter challenges that aren't as tough OR are meant to make people work speedily. Personally, I would only organise an event if I had an amazing idea that I haven't seen anyone else do yet. But it would feel weird to host an event on something I'm not very capable of myself.

[larvapuppy]

One collaborative event that I'd like to see is an "art telephone" game. Like the game "telephone" where you sit in a circle and one person chooses a phrase, whispers it to the person beside them, and then it continues down the line until the phrase is completely different due to it being misheard and misrepeated- except done with art. I've seen projects like this plenty of times on social media but I think it would work great here as well.

The first person can choose whatever they want to make, and the job of the next person is to interpret it in their own style/medium. The catch is that the progression of art is hidden until the end; you'd only get to see the work of the artist directly in front of you in the sequence. I think it could make for an especially interesting result if we allow any medium- a photo interpreted as a painting, which gets interpreted as a song, which gets interpreted as a sculpture, and so on. 

[tertiaryapocalypse]

like everyone else has said, i think code/site jams would be a great idea! i think it'd be interesting to have them annually/seasonally, maybe with prompts similar to some of the more active/out of the box threads on the forum (like the website sky thread!) i dont know how much work that would end up being on the mod side, though. ive also seen other web communities do gift exchanges (which there are pros and cons to, but i think they're fun!)

[xixxii]

i would be happiest with fests, but competitive games are fun as well! i'm not sure what collaborative web design type of events would look like besides basically just the everyone website, but it sounds potentially fun too!

timingwise, i think at least a full week would be good for the short end; that way everyone has a chance to participate regardless of what day of the week their day(s) off school & work are!

typewise, i'd probably only participate in web design related events.

i've thought about posting simple themed prompts and challenges for making pages, maybe once a week or once every two weeks, but i'm the type of person where if nobody responded i'd be too discouraged to keep trying to make it happen so i'm not really cut out for that kind of hosting!

challenge ideas:

• copy a famous webpage like wikipedia by eyeballing it or from memory, no viewing the source code or looking up how they did things, just eyeballs
• make the most corporate-looking page as possible
• learn and use a new-to-you HTML element
• make a website that's like a physical space
• make a page that is nothing like anything you've seen before
• make a tourism brochure for your web site
• make a page where everything is hand-drawn! borders, buttons, dividers, bullet points, et cetera
• decade/year-themed; make a page in the style of 1990, 2002, 2011, etc
• make a time capsule to dig up again 10 years from now!
• anti-shrine: a page dedicated to something you do not like at all (might be too negative for melonland, idk)
• make a page with a layout that is not square or rectangular!
• pick a weirdly specific type of web graphic and collect as many of it as you can find on one page to make a field guide + collection! "home" buttons or "welcome" graphics or "pictures of flowers with smiling face". what are some trends you notice? can you classify them into different types? what are the criteria for such a thing? etc

theme ideas:

• secrets
• monochrome
• movement
• dead trends
• archive
• games