In like Flynn

[gentlehag]

Okay, okay. I'm going to do it.

I am participating in therealljidol.

Crossing my fingers for the rest of this quarter to be manageable enough for me to stay in the game for a little while. I'm pretty sure I'm going to un-watch all of my non-LJ Idol communities while it's going on. Those of you who've participated before, do you think this is a good idea/necessary? How do you manage your flists while you play?

Comments

[rhetoricians.livejournal.com]

lol to be honest, I am just checking the comm once a way and figure that if I miss that, a friend will post something related to the prompt relatively fast!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

How do you manage to read all the idol entries? Do you just go through them all at the end of the week?

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Well, once we get to a week where there are polls, clauderainsrm or his minions will post the poll, and the poll will contain a link for every contestant and their entry. If you want to start reading before the poll is posted, you can do so by clicking on each person's link via the topic thread post, and it is HIGHLY suggested that you keep a spreadsheet or somesuch to keep track of the one's you have read.

All you really need for the spreadsheet (IMO) is the username and a Yes or No as to whether you will vote for it when the poll is posted. You can also add a field for commentary if you liked it enough to want to recommend their entry to others, or a ranking column (like a scale of 1-5 or 1-10) but that's up to you.

Honestly, some weeks - especially at the beginning when there are so many contestants - you just can't read ALL the entries, but you just do the best you can.

Welcome to the madness, and good luck!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

A spreadsheet is a fantastic idea. I think that's what I'll do. I'd really like to make sure I read every entry, but it looks like the consensus is that that isn't possible for the first leg of the competition.

Thank you!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say that it isn't possible to read all the entries, but it definitely depends how much free time you have, how long the entries are, and how far in advance of the polls going up that you start reading.

You're welcome for the advice, and I'm happy to be able to help!

[liret.livejournal.com]

Yay, ljidol! I don't think you need to unwatch other communities - there's only one post a day for general chatter, and then the topic posts about once a week.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried about too many lj idol posts hitting my flist, more of trying to get through the REAL people on my friends list and still reading Idol entries every day. :P

[karmik.livejournal.com]

How about making a separate friend group for lj idol only? Then you could watch it at /friends/ljidol or whatever you'd name it. I usually only check my /friends/people, but I used to have different groups for watching band communities and music upload communities too. It made my friends list far more manageable, because /people/ is the most important to me, /bands/ was interesting and I liked keeping up with bands I like, and /music/ was spammed so much it would have eaten my entire friends list if I hadn't had a separate group for it. XD

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I considered that, but I'd really have to friend every single participant to do that. I think the best option for me is just going to be to unwatch all unnecessary communities so that I'll have time to go in and read the ~dozens/hundreds~ of extra entries. *breathes*

[karmik.livejournal.com]

I don't understand, don't you need just the community to do it? Just put the community on the friends group and follow it there, and go to the individual journals from the links in the community...? I'm not sure how the whole LJ idol thing works though, haha.

Or do you mean that you have so many communities on your regular friends list that you would not have time to get through your friends list in addition to LJ idol? Why not just make a separate "people" filter and then a filter for the LJ idol comm, or checking the comm on its own?

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see.

I've already got the community friended, so I get the links to the entries already. I was more concerned about finding time to read my USUAL communities PLUS the hundreds of NEW entries from LJ Idol participants.

I thought a good way to prevent the stress would be to temporarily stop watching other communities so that I could focus on reading posts from actual friends/people on my friends list and the LJ Idol entries.

[http://users.livejournal.com/unnecessary_/]

You are going to do so well. :)

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I will be happy if I'm not eliminated first round. :P Are you participating?

[http://users.livejournal.com/unnecessary_/]

Yup!

[lilycobalt.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad you're joining us!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

:D I'm looking forward to it.

[piernine.livejournal.com]

Im going to be amused with several journals doing ljidol. yay

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Haha, have you ever done it?

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

YAY!

I don't usually keep all that many communities on my reading list, so I don't know. Mostly just LJIdol and debunkingwhite are the two with activity. As for reading peoples' entries during the week--when I have time to do so, I go to the topic post and read entries that have been posted. When the poll goes up, I try to read the entries of everyone in my particular poll, and then if I have extra time, I will read through another poll group, and another...

Not everyone has the time to read every single entry in the beginning. If you don't, it's not the end of the world. And, if you miss people in week 1, then maybe make a point in week 2 to read those people.

But, a lot of time my flist isn't terribly active in the first place.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

:D :D

Ah, I'm rather a community hoarder, unfortunately. I recently un-watched 86 ICON communities...and that doesn't even include the 100 or so others that are NOT icon communities.

That's a good idea. I will feel bad if I don't read at least most entries. About how many people participate at the beginning?

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

I would consider creating a friends group for people and one for communities (or even a couple for communities) to help you manage your reading, if you're worried about it. I used to do that a lot and found it helpful when I was involved in more communities.

The season before last, I think I did manage to read all of the entries in the beginning (and comment on nearly all of them)--but it was a lot of work. This time I'm trying to be more realistic in terms of personal expectations. I think last season there were 260ish people to begin with. And the season before maybe 230ish? Last I checked there were close to 200 signed up.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed if you managed that, with over 200 people playing. I will be happy if I am not eliminated in the first round, but it would be great to make it to the last 100.

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was pretty gung-ho and crazy. I think you'll be unlikely to be eliminated in round one--you've got a good personality and the ability to be articulate and witty.

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks! That's kind of you to say!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

Cool stuff! I've never played, so I hope I'm able to come up with things for the prompts. Have you ever played?

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

It's an LJ post reality show type contest. There are weekly themes and you have to post on the theme, then everyone votes on their favorites, and the least favorites are eliminated week by week. It's a lot of fun from the sidelines, but I've never been a participant before. You should join!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

You would be surprised! But it's still fun just to read other entries and possibly make new friends...and you can always write on a theme without being an official participant.

[kinjuru.livejournal.com]

So I'm an idiot because I totally thought "Oh hey! She's gonna sing!" lol. Sounds like a good community though :) I think you'll do a great job!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I would experience MASS defriending if I sang! I like you guys too much to subject you to that horror.