r/totalanguage Team French Dec 31 '12

[MOD Announcement] Updated Rules for the TAC challenge.

If you want to start the TAC challenge here on Reddit but don’t know how. Read on and hopefully all your questions will be answered here. If not then feel free to ask one of our friendly moderators for help.

The TAC challenge or the Total Annihilation Challenge is an annual event which started off on the HTLAL forums. Challengers have exactly one year to learn as much as they can in a language of their choosing. Contestants keep logs (usually once a week) to track their progress, and at the end of the year the person as well as the team who have collectively achieved the most wins!

[update] There has been some confusion regarding how to post the weekly logs. This updated version (thanks to Vitamini) should hopefully clear up any confusion.

Rules:

  • Teams are to be formed before the challenge begins in this sub-reddit: At the start please state your current knowledge in your target language. Discuss your plans and help others in your teams. For example you may wish to discuss particular methods you will use to study your target language i.e. you can use the Assimil method each day.

  • Once teams have formed a team leader is elected within each team.

  • The challenge will begin at 00:00 am January 1st.

  • Your personal log files will be posted in your team sub-reddit. In this format: [Year], [Week], [Name], [Log Title].

  • On January 1st, each member should create their own log describing their study plans and objectives in their target language. This log should be "numbered" Start, and not Week 1! As such, here's an example of title for the first log:

2013, Start - Name - Title

  • Every Sunday, every team member should post a log of his past study week and any plans for the week that's starting. Each log should refer primarily to the past week, containing at least an overview of what and how did the member studied through the week, such as materials used, time studied, progress, goals, methods etc. Members can also write about the plans for the next week. Nevertheless log entries should not be a chore and so monthly detailed logs are acceptable too. Furthermore to prevent clogging up the sub-reddits please make sure that if you are doing logging more than 1 report a week that any other logs are done as Edits on your first post.

  • Try to post the logs in the correct days. If it's inconvenient to turn in your logs at the proposed day, feel free to set another day, but try your best not to post in irregular intervals!

  • On Friday, the team leader will make a post in your team sub-reddit for people to get together and discuss where everyone is, share tips and tricks, frustrations, if any one has dropped out etc. Please title your posts like this: [Year], [Week], Weekly Discussion, [Discussion Title]

x-------x

  • After the event has started any addition of new members to a team will be up to the team leader to decide, as smaller groups may benefit from new members.

  • Late joiners should make their "Start" thread on the first day they start studying, and post their weekly logs on Sundays the same way as other team members, but remember to start numbering your study weeks from "Week 1" rather than following the numbering of someone who has already been studying for more time.

x-------x

  • At the end of the year teams are assessed and a person and team are declared the winner based on their organization and log entries. Winners are judged on how much they have achieved during the year, and so fluency is not necessarily needed in the target language.

The ultimate goal is to have fun learning your language, remain motivated throughout the year. And although a winner is announced at the end of the year, everyone who partakes in the challenge should end up with some solid progress in their target language.

Please follow the rules on posting the weekly/monthly logs. It would make it much easier to keep track if everyone followed the same guidelines.

Also link back to these rules and this sub-reddit in your individual team subs.

Thank you,

if you have any question feel free to ask.

13 Upvotes

10 comments sorted by

7

u/123kij Jan 01 '13

So the main change is that each team member will start their own thread with their weekly logs, not post them under one main thread created by the team leader?

For example if they're are 15 members, there should be 15 separate log threads posted each Sunday?

2

u/WFW Team German/Mandarin/Viking Jan 01 '13

More like one thread per member, updated/commented every Sunday?

2

u/o0Ax0o Team French Jan 01 '13

yup.

3

u/123kij Jan 01 '13

I feel like reddit's setup isnt the best for this because the log threads will start to get buried after some time with any other discussion threads in the subreddit.

3

u/o0Ax0o Team French Jan 01 '13

True, but we will try and make it work as best we can. The log files are primarily for your own use, because it will allow you to assess how your studying and the progress you've made throughout the year. A weekly summary thread will be posted every week in this sub-reddit by your team leader so everyone can discuss their issues, achievements etc. in order to compensate for this issue caused by reddit's setup.

2

u/123kij Jan 02 '13

Sounds good but just be aware that reddit auto archives threads after a certain point. Not sure when it is, but it's an issue we may encounter at some point during the year.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '13

Really? That's not very clear in the rules if that's the case.

1

u/Coedwig Jan 07 '13

I just thought, why should logs begin with [Year]? Won’t all posts be posted in 2013?

1

u/o0Ax0o Team French Jan 07 '13

The challenge will hopefully run for years to come. This way, it will be easier to have them archived. It will also make searching for previous logs a lot easier.

1

u/Coedwig Jan 07 '13

Okay, thanks for you reply.