I see a lot of people have come in to the Challenges, stated that they got a lot from them but haven’t the staying power to keep in the game every time.
This is not art for art’s sake: learning languages is a long marathon. The 70 day challenges are here to help you and in any case there are sizeable breaks between them. It is a bit like University terms. They are suited for people who take study that seriously, as well as beginners or hobbyists. The size of the challenge you take is up to you. In the outset I suggested 5,000 was like a marathon leve achievement, and I think this has turned out to be true, although 10,000 has been achieved on rare occasions.
As a result of recent declension, the thirteenth Challenge which fell on the last Quarter of 2018 had a very low result, only one third of the level we reported at the end of the first challenge of that year.
Next Monday, 21st January, we have the 14th challenge starting. The 14th Challenge I have decided is the last one that will have no joining fee.
I understand from observation of how little people respect this system, that folks do not appreciate what is free and only appreciate when they pay for something.
And it’s not like I have no costs to keep going with this site. Every year I hand over nearly 100 EUR to WP, and although I did add advertising recently, there have only been pennies coming in from that.
So the plan is, from the 15th Challenge (April-June 19) onwards, new Entrants to the Challenge will be asked to pay a joiner’s fee, and if someone was a member but had lapsed two whole challenges consecutively (initially that would mean that in neither DC13 nor DC14 had they taken part and done at least 400 lines, or if their total from the previous two challenges went under 400 lines) then if they wanted to rejoin, they would have to pay the fee again as a rejoiners’ fee.
On the other hand, I don’t want to do anything undemocratically, so the amount will be the average of what you, the community vote for in this poll. You can tell me what you think all this is worth.
Go ahead and discuss the matter in comments if you want to do more than just select an option among those given.