BB annouces the beginning of our graphics and coding challenges.These challenges will be an opportunity for BB members to test and showcase their skills in graphics and JavaScript coding in a series of short run-offs. And the payoff for everyone else will be an increased selection of resources posted in our Members-Only Resource forums.

All BB members are encouraged to participate in the challenges by submitting entries, or just by voting. You do not have to be a code or graphics expert to vote in the Challenges. All BB members are welcome to vote. When voting in the challenges, please do not hesitate to make comments or give feedback on the challenge entries, as it is encouraging to those who enter.

Starting with the first challenge, BB will be holding a revolving challenge in the IF Challenge Arena forum. Challenges will be open for a week before judging begins. The winner will be chosen by popular vote of BB members. The challenges award a rotating crown to the maker of the entry that gets the most votes in the voting round.

To see who the winners of the most previous challenges are, look for the two members who have a sparkling crown as a prefix to their name, or check the Challenge Winners Roster found in the Chellenge Archives.

Who is qualified to vote in the code and graphics challenges?

Some members have voiced a reticence to vote in the challenges because they do not feel qualified to judge in areas where they feel they don't have any particular expertise.

I want to encourage all BB members to look at the challenge entries and cast a vote, whether you feel qualified to judge the technical aspects or not. Here are some reasons why you can make a good choice:

• Often you can get a sense by reading the discussion in the challenge topic about whether an entry is a good one or is problematic. There are always links provided to the topic to help make it easy for you to review. That can help you make a good choice.
• If one graphic design appeals to you more than others, that is a perfectly acceptable reason to vote for it.
• If one code seems more useful to you than others, or even more useful to you personally, that is an acceptable reason to vote for it.

We'd like to see more BB members participating in the challenge voting because more participation and more comments posted give both feedback and encouragement to the challengers and spur them on to even better work.

The voting takes place in the IFReference Library if you'd like to check out the current challenge vote topic.

The BB Code and Graphic Challenges have resumed!

If you''d like to take a look at previous challenges, you will find them in the Challenge Archive.

Former Challenge WInners Roster

The challenges are a great addition to Big Boards, and really bring out the talent in some of the members! I encourage all members to join in and have fun!

Because of my and Cory's absences this past week, the next challenge will begin on Wednesday, August 6. Sometimes, you just can't get it all together. :)