--19 Oct. 2007--

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You are currently working on:
12/10 tasks.

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This is the problem I run into a little bit too frequently. I really wish it wasn't this way- I wish I could work on one task at a time, dilligently focusing my attention on one completion before starting the next- but it doesn't work that way, not for me, not for a few select other SFØ minions whom I've heard complain about this same issue. Mr. Marscapone knows what I'm on about here, right?

Thing is, in this current era of massive collaborations, completions can take weeks, if not months to complete, let alone prove- often hampered soley by the sheer number of participants and their varying schedules. Other tasks take time and careful consideration to complete- one can hoard such tasks, or one can hope for the best, that they won't be retired by the time they are ready.

Too often, I've found that a juicy little number of a task will be sitting coyly teasing me from my updates page for months before I can give her my full undivided attention- and egads! what a horror when the little minx is jettisoned by some swath of tasking brought about by drunken bonfire collaboration, or some such similar activity. Often I log into the game of games to discover that my short hot list of five little tasks has suddenly bloated to a list of twelve- teetering close to popping my top listed task right off the que.

Now it's true, dear Senator Unit, there's nothing stopping me from doing retired tasks and posting them creatively in alternate ways. It's also true that I needent hoard tasks for fear that they'll be retired, because I can always ask the kind professors (SSI) to reopen them for me, that is, if I've been good that week.

However, I like to work on things slowly sometimes- often an idea takes a while to come to fruition- othertimes I like to surprise everyone with some tasty item that's been so long forgotten about, that it resembles Mr. Carter opening a certian tomb. Currently I'm still working on two tasks that I signed up for over a year ago, one of which will cause me to have an an aneurysm if I lose it. At even more seldom times, I find myself employed, which significantly cuts into my game-playing schedule, right Mr. Starset?

Regardless of my own specific feelings, here are my suggestions to rectify this little problem:

Option the First:

Players can sign up for an unlimited number of tasks.
(This has drawbacks, I can feel it.)

Option the Second:

Players' 'You are currently working on' task list is split into two categories of 10 each:

Tasks YOU signed up for
-&-
Tasks you've BEEN signed up for

Option the Third:

Players can sign up for a limit of 20 tasks at one time.
(Any set number would work for this, but I feel, obviously, that it should be higher than 10.)

Option the Fourth:

Players can sign up for 10 tasks, but if they are added on to new tasks as collaborators, there is an unlimited number of collborative tasks for which they may be signed up.

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The last option is to just suffer. But I don't like doing that.

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--26 Jan. 2008--

Today, reading niallsb's excitement over the acceptance of this task I had the idea for a new function I'd love to see incorporated into the game.

I recall that flush of excitement I experienced upon having my first task incorporated into the game. Even more exciting was seeing the first completion of a task I'd written. But Burn Unit pointed out in this comment the truly exceptional feeling one experiences when a task they've written is done with such creativity and finesse that you are awed.

My idea is this:
How about an award that can be given by a task-author to the player(s) who've most impressed that author with their amazing completions. It could be applied as a badge-type award, and any number of awards could be given out for each task. I think that it's best implemented without any score-adjustment- just a notification that the awarded player has completed that task beyond the expectations of it's author.

Indeed, I'd also recommend that the author might be given the opportunity to provide a specific image which represents the award- in Burn Unit's case, perhaps that image would be a butterfly.

Who's with me?

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Along that same theme, I'd also like to formally state my NEED for a comment-vote button.
Again, this is not so much to say that I thing points should be awarded, but a simple, effective means for thanking people for writing amusing, insightful and mind-blowing comments.
This is getting serious.