🎄📚Book Talk December Reading Challenge & Christmas Reads📚 - Page 5

Originally posted by: missFiesty_69

+1 on the badge. Sorry if I’m making light of someone’s efforts, but in my sincere opinion, IF has many capable graphic designers who could make a much better-looking badge.

This time, I was in a hurry to post the thread because we were already behind schedule. Normally, we prepare everything, content, theme, badge, well before the 20th of every month. But I was travelling and extremely busy. I had requested members to kindly take the initiative to post this month’s announcement, but there was no response. So, as a last-minute effort, I went ahead and posted it myself. Yes, as the Mod of this forum, it is my responsibility too.

I always say that IF and every forum belong to all its members, not only Vijay's or it's Mods, it is never the responsibility of just one person. We are one community, and we should move forward hand in hand. If the badge didn’t look perfect, anyone could have prepared one quietly and shared it with me. Why not create a fresh version, and send it? Am I not one among you?

I am disappointed… normally I don’t speak this way. But I am trying my best, even in a hectic phase, I tried my best to ensure a smooth and comfortable contest for everyone.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, a human hand helped me with the badge. Please don’t overlook her goodwill and sincere effort. She genuinely tried to support me.

Let’s work together, that spirit is what makes a forum truly beautiful. I've already noted the point and decided to ask a graphicer to prepare the necessary badges well in advance from now onwards.

Hi Madz,

Sign me up for 1-5 books and for Xmas reads too! 🙂‍↕️

Sign me up for 1-5 books and for Christmas read too.

Sign me up for 6-10 books and the Christmas Reads challenge.

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Yes, I agree. There are so many talented graphicers in IF, and I truly appreciate everyone’s artistic creativity, all the time.

This time, I was in a hurry to post the thread because we were already behind schedule. Normally, we prepare everything, content, theme, badge, well before the 20th of every month. But I was travelling and extremely busy. I had requested members to kindly take the initiative to post this month’s announcement, but there was no response. So, as a last-minute effort, I went ahead and posted it myself. Yes, as the Mod of this forum, it is my responsibility too.

I always say that IF and every forum belong to all its members, not only Vijay's or it's Mods, it is never the responsibility of just one person. We are one community, and we should move forward hand in hand. If the badge didn’t look perfect, anyone could have prepared one quietly and shared it with me. Why not create a fresh version, and send it? Am I not one among you?

I am disappointed… normally I don’t speak this way. But I am trying my best, even in a hectic phase, I tried my best to ensure a smooth and comfortable contest for everyone.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, a human hand helped me with the badge. Please don’t overlook her goodwill and sincere effort. She genuinely tried to support me.

Let’s work together, that spirit is what makes a forum truly beautiful. I've already noted the point and decided to ask a graphicer to prepare the necessary badges well in advance from now onwards.

I completely understand where Shreya and Vera are coming from — the feedback wasn’t about the effort, but simply about the design quality. And honestly, AI can create absolutely stunning badges when it’s given the right prompts, theme clarity, and enough time to refine the output. There was nothing wrong with using AI at all; the issue was more about the rushed process, which naturally affected the final look of the badge.

Everyone here appreciates the work you put into posting the thread, especially on a tight schedule, but I don’t think anyone meant to question your commitment or make you feel singled out. The comments were only about the badge design because people would want a good looking badge to display on their profiles.

Hi Madhu

Please sign me up for 1-5 books and the Christmas Reads challenge as well

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Yes, I agree. There are so many talented graphicers in IF, and I truly appreciate everyone’s artistic creativity, all the time.

This time, I was in a hurry to post the thread because we were already behind schedule. Normally, we prepare everything, content, theme, badge, well before the 20th of every month. But I was travelling and extremely busy. I had requested members to kindly take the initiative to post this month’s announcement, but there was no response. So, as a last-minute effort, I went ahead and posted it myself. Yes, as the Mod of this forum, it is my responsibility too.

I always say that IF and every forum belong to all its members, not only Vijay's or it's Mods, it is never the responsibility of just one person. We are one community, and we should move forward hand in hand. If the badge didn’t look perfect, anyone could have prepared one quietly and shared it with me. Why not create a fresh version, and send it? Am I not one among you?

I am disappointed… normally I don’t speak this way. But I am trying my best, even in a hectic phase, I tried my best to ensure a smooth and comfortable contest for everyone.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, a human hand helped me with the badge. Please don’t overlook her goodwill and sincere effort. She genuinely tried to support me.

Let’s work together, that spirit is what makes a forum truly beautiful. I've already noted the point and decided to ask a graphicer to prepare the necessary badges well in advance from now onwards.

A few things I want to comment on here:

• The badge didn't need to be posted with the thread. You could have simply said - coming soon or to be unveiled on xyz date. And even if you did want to post it with the thread you could have asked any creator to make something simple. I've done it a few times for CC games where I ask a graphicer to make some tags last minute and that it doesn't need to be fancy. Even then, graphicers like Shibz, Kadyn, and Sandhya have done some phenomenal work. Yes I don't make it a habit, but they'll do it if you ask nicely and if they have time.
• There was no need for a BTRC if no one was available. I saw your request, but I'm not available and I'm working on my game, so I didn't sign up. I guess others are the same. If there was no BTRC one month then I don't think anyone would have minded. Plus I doubt you'll have a lot of sign-ups for December anyways. Most people get busy in December.
• Why should anyone just create a badge without being asked? People only do such things when they are friends with someone and know that the person won't take offence. I'm not at all sorry to say this, but you haven't really shown that you are open to suggestions or change items when someone makes suggestions. I've seen it first hand and even here now - instead of accepting and asking someone to make a badge, you're making excuses and, to me, it seems like you're almost suggesting that we aren't respecting your work.
• No one said that the contest is bad. I simply asked what "Christmas" means in terms of books and also just suggested that Lizzie had spoken about a Secret Santa theme. Additionally, most people here have done the same - asked what "Christmas" and "holiday" theme mean and asked for a nicer badge. How is that saying that the contest is bad?
• I know who you asked (because she told me) and I also know that if you had asked, she wouldn't have said no to making a nice badge for the contest. I don't know if she, or any graphicer, will say yes at this point since you've basically decided that this is the badge we're getting, but I know that if you had asked then at least one graphicer would have stepped up and made a nice badge.

Anyways, it's water under the bridge at this point. That's the badge we're getting, I understand the "Christmas" theme, and I'm signed up so it is what it is.

Meko bhi kuch bolna hai

1. I understand everyone has life (heck, now more than ever, saans lene ki fursat nahi milti inn dino) so I understand when you want to outsource this challenge, but at the same time, if you have ever observed Lizzie handling this, she had a schedule (maybe coz she did this whole thing for more than 6 months and got a chance to improve on things), but phirbhi, ideally, sign up should have gone on 20th giving us time to sign up. In this case, atleast the invite to volunteers for dec should have gone up in the second week (and that's just one post) because the tags and everything else is ready, even if it's not Christmas themed. Post mein simple text mein bhi likh do about the contest it would have been alright, aesthatics sometimes take a back seat. And Vera and I follow kind of similar schedule too, simply from checking a few old threads (because we know how much this means to the forum and us and what a fantastic initiative this is and we don't want to dent it and it's participation in any way)

2. AI in general doing what I can do is annoying to hell and beyond. Yes, it's too short notice and I know wouldn't have been able to make a badge for you, but I agree with Shreya, as long as the host commits to a badge, we are in. Let's take the last month's Bingo contest. Shreya just committed to a badge (even though it was ready) and only revealed it coz WD asked about it. And there are people with far superior talent then mine who would have made one in a snap. Heck, even something from a newly learning graphicer would have worked. IF's core a few years ago was all about writing and graphicing, that's when I joined and it made me interested in graphics. It's actually sad abhi articles se leke quizzes tak sab kuch AI se banwaya jaa raha.

Haan bas itna hi tha

Sign me up for 6-10 books. Also both challenges 😀

sign me up for the December Reading Challenge only.

1-5 books