Time maybe to give some kind of summary up of the comments so far, and 
to give a personal view on the matter. I shall try to play the role of 
the devil's advocate ;-)

So far, comments boil down to the following aspects (not in any 
particular order):

1) The existence of any kind of competition/challenge like the defunct 
IRTC or the present TC-RTC is valuable for stimulating creativity and 
increasing POV skills. Other sites mentioned, not specifically 
POV-related, are CGSphere and 3DRender.

2) Although participation is not strong and rather variable, most 
commentators would be sad to see TC-RTC go.

3) It is felt that either the return time of challenges per year 
(bi-monthly) should be longer (three-, four-, six-monthly) or that 
deathlines should be extended/more overlapping, or a combination of both.

4) Alternatively (or in addition) short contests (weekly?) could be 
considered to address specific topics.

5) In case of (3) more reminders should be posted.

6) The topic list should be overhauled, focussing less on book titles 
(too abstract and/or confusing) and more on "simple" topics.

7) More interaction and/or user feedback needed.

8) The TC-RTC site itself: easy to update one's images but no 
possibility to post source material. Site issues. Forum issues.


And now for my humble ideas on this.

sub 1 & sub 2) Yes, I agree. Participating is to challenge oneself to 
use and improve learned skills, sometimes in areas where one would not 
go easily. In that respect, I certainly would lament TC-RTC's demise. 
However, while this may be true for most members, including those who 
(almost) never participate (consider: TC-RTC has *159* live members to 
date!) somehow only an extremely small percentage of the members do 
actively participate. Already during the time of the first IRTC, 
participation was dwindling slowly towards the end, and the short IRTC 
revival never reached the old levels. So, something is bringing 
participation down: RL, change/dispersion of focus/interest, boredom, 
decreasing attention span, etc. Whatever the origin, it seriously 
impacts on the credibility of the TC-RTC at present.

sub 3) Again, I agree. One of the major reasons why I am beginning to 
feel tired with the TC-RTC Challenges is that I need to think of a new 
scene every two months while I would prefer to go on with running 
projects that have more appeal to me. The TC-RTC Challenges often 
disrupt a train of thoughts/actions. I still participate because I often 
feel that (as an admin)I need to help sustain the continuity of the 
challenges. At the same time I get irritated because this has no 
particular effect upon the submission bulk at all, or so I guess, and it 
does not attract submissions from members who have never done so. In the 
end, I fear that the Challenges are (wrongly) regarded as a strictly 
private game between a select number of members.

Would this all be improved with fewer challenges? Four per year for 
instance? I seriously doubt it, to tell the truth. I see no reason why 
this would really stimulate more members to submit.

sub 4) This also means more work for the admins and the question is if 
they are willing ;-)

sub 5) That is easy.

sub 6) I agree. I think that also a more comprehensive list could be 
extracted from the book titles, bringing those to their essence as it 
were. Remains the question of the site overhaul by Colin.

sub 7) Sure. However, the TC-RTC forum should be used for that. There is 
the problem of the spam users (still) queuing up at the gate and I have 
closed new admissions indefinitely, asking new members to contact the 
admins if they want to also participate in the forum. To date, I have 
/never/ seen any request from any member through that way. In addition, 
to us Povers, the TC-RTC forum is a bit redundant of course, as we 
communicate easily here.

sub 8) All depends on the site owner really.

To draw up my own conclusions, I would regret to see the TC-RTC go but I 
am seriously considering the fact that it may have had its 'best' days 
and that it is time to stop. Frankly, from the different suggestions, I 
see no guarantee that participation numbers will suddenly go up as by 
enchantment.

Thomas

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