We Interrupt This Program...

Hello, Robins!

As it says in the title, "We interrupt this program" because due to some technical problems, we are going to postpone the announcement of our next challenge. Now shed no tears...LOL...it is only being postponed for one week. You can find out on Thursday, June 1st, what the subject of our next challenge will be. :) In the meantime, I think this is a good time for us to look back on how far we have come in just a little over a year!

That's right...we grew from a couple of friends, having some fun with a photo challenge, to 49 friends sharing our mutual love of photography. The challenges you have suggested have been both challenging and very enjoyable. All of you have made this a great success. This last challenge, "Reflections," was the highest turn-out since we moved to our new home, here on Blogspot. We have welcomed back old and dear friends, as we continue to make new friends. With that in mind, Karen and I thought this might be an excellent time to take a short break, one week, to refamiliarize everyone with how the Round Robin Challenges are played, and to make sure we have all our information correct about you. Such as your NAME, YOUR JOURNAL or BLOG'S NAME and the FULL URL of the journal or blog you would like listed on the Round Robin sidebar.

Karen and I want to keep everything running smoothly, so that when we play each time, we know we are providing the correct information that you need to know to play. It is very important that we ALL try to play by the "RULES of PLAY." Since we moved from AOL to Blogspot, we have streamlined them a little to make the challenges flow a little more smoothly. There are only a few that we ask that you pay particular attention to, and try your best to follow...

1. PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR CHALLENGE ENTRY EARLY!
The reason for this is simple. It just doesn't seem fair to post your entry before the Robin whose turn it is to choose the subject. We give you two weeks to come up with your photo for the challenge, so you have enough time to join us on the challenge date. Sometimes things come up and you might have to post early. That's ok, but try to let us know ahead of time so we can link to you on a specific date or so we can make special arrangements.

It's also a good idea if you remember to post your entry on each challenge you RSVP for! ;) It seems that we always have a few no-shows. If you can't post on the day, you have up to a week afterward to do it. For maximum traffic to your blog, though, it works best if we all post on the announced date.

2. We must have your name, your journal or blog's name and the full URL that you will be posting to. Here is an example.

Carly
Ellipsis...Suddenly Carly
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

We ask you to do this even if you have posted with us before. It is the best way to ensure when we put in the main linking list on the challenge day, that we link to the correct journal where your entry will be. Some of us have more than one journal. That's cool, it's perfectly ok to post to more then one journal, but we need to know for certain which journal specifically you will be posting to. If it will be both and you want to be visited at both, then you MUST indicate as such when you sign up for the challenge. If we don't have a correct link, how do we find you? :)

3. There are two different alert services on the sidebar that you can sign up for which will let you know when we update this journal. Alerts are a funny thing. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Please don't rely on them solely to let you know about the newest challenge. If you don't receive an alert from the alert service you subscribe to by the Saturday after each challenge is played, just drop by this journal to see if a new challenge has been posted. That way you won't inadvertently be left behind. Special note: Karen has tried many times to troubleshoot the Bloglet feed, and it keeps failing anyway. We recommend that you either use FeedBlitz, or just remember to check this blog a day or two after each Challenge.

Keep in mind, Wednesday is a weekday, that means that both Karen and myself have commitments that take us away from our computers throughout the day. We try to keep everything up and flowing smoothly, but sometimes glitches in life and online will come up. If we inadvertently make a mistake with a link, we will fix the error as soon as we can. We love doing this project, and we enjoy all of you so much. All of you do some awesome challenge interpretations... you are all inspiring and creative in your approaches. YOU GUYS ROCK!

So, for this entry only, Karen and I have a simple request. In the comment thread of this entry, please leave us your ...

Name
Your Journal/Blog Name (s)
Your FULL URL
And the correct email address where we can find you. If you would rather not put your email address here in the comment thread, you can email it to either Karen or myself and we will keep it private. We promise. :)

That's it...that's all there is to it. We appreciate your enthusiasm, and we applaud each and everyone of you and the fine creativeness you show. We couldn't have had this awesome year without you. We are looking forward to another great year. Like I said before...YOU ROCK!

Be sure to check back here next week for the announcement of our next challenge!

Carly & Karen
Carly: Ondinemonet@AOL.com
Karen: Mavarin@AOL.com