A Changing of the Guard

For entirely understandable reasons, ~brb isn't going to be working on the Friday Challenge site in the foreseeable future. At his request, I have agreed to take over running the site for him if/until he wishes to return. What does that mean for right now?

First, the weekly Friday Challenge will continue as before, with the exception that I'll be running it. I don't have ~brb's credentials, but I have noticed that his opinions and mine have been in sync far more often than not. That said, I will lean on the critiques and votes from all of you more heavily than he did. Also, I don't want to operate it in a vacuum. The Friday Challenge is the reason most of us came to this site in the first place and I don't want this changing of the guard to end up driving all of you away. I will be open to suggestions for challenge topics, open to anyone with a good idea stepping forward and running the challenge any given week and open to any ideas you believe will help us maintain the spirit of the Friday Challenge.

Previously, the weekly schedule for this site went like this:

Monday - Ruminations of an Old Goat
Wednesday - Ultimate Geek Fu
Thursday - Challenge reminder
Friday - Challenge entries posted, voting encouraged and the new challenge topic presented
Saturday - Open Mic Saturday
Sunday - Challenge entries reviewed and the winner announced

I'd like to keep to that schedule as much as possible, but I'm also sure I'll have to drop something from the schedule if I'm the only guy writing for the site. Ultimate Geek Fu, for instance, is a column I believe could be written by a different writer each week and still be very interesting. With that in mind, I'm asking for volunteers to write Geek Fu entries. I'd also be quite willing to allow others to post in my place on Mondays or to add new columns on Tuesdays. Once again, just let me know if you're interested in contributing. If you want to volunteer for a series of columns or a set schedule, I'll be happy to consider it. If you want to volunteer to write one column one time, that's fine as well.

Returning to the Friday Challenge again, I've got something new that will be beneficial to anyone who may want to submit challenge entries for publication at some point. Last week, I ran across the site drop.io. The site is specifically designed to allow a group of people to post documents to a single repository that is password protected. Comments can be entered for the documents, as well. Most importantly, the documents are not posted out in the open on the web, meaning you should still be able to submit your stories for publication after entering them in the Friday Challenge. If you think this sounds interesting, take a look at the site and let me know what you think of it. We can start using it with very little advance preparation.

I want to keep this site alive and thriving and believe all of you want that, too. I'll need plenty of help, particularly for the first few weeks, to keep things running smoothly. My feelings won't be hurt if you have suggestions that run counter to the way I've been handling the site. I promise!

Thanks. Now get started with the suggestions!