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The 'Best Of' Friday Challenges 2016

Mr Knightley

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Now for the last Challenge of November, which followed on the slightly off-beat feel of some of the other spring / autumn Challenges.

For 25 November @Clouseau selected 'The Cane'. It produced some wonderful accessories and great photography too. As we may have expected @Butler stole the show in his stroller.






@Clouseau
@Cleav - sharing second spot




@Claghorn
@Mr Knightley - sharing third.

A few detail shots worthy of inclusion :





@Cleav
@Clouseau
@Mr Knightley
 
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Mr Knightley

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And finally December...just two Challenges. On the 2nd we had Corduroy and on the 16th Fair Isle

@bienluienapris took the first and @EFV rounded off the year with another win.

The Corduroy Challenge was a slightly odd one with few entries, very few votes but no less than four people sharing second place! New member @everyday made his first appearance of 2016 in third.


@bienluienapris


@DiplomaticTies


@Andy57


@SYCSYC


@upr_crust


@everyday

For the Fair Isle Challenge we had a number of very nice seasonal looks with @EFV looking great. @bienluienapris was on the podium again in second. @StanleyVanBuren took third.







And that, gentlemen was 'the Best of' the 2016 FCs. I'll finish off with a couple of stats and maybe a few entries that didn't quite make the cut.
 
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Mr Knightley

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So who was the best in 2016? Well, on number of wins we had a tie with both @Anden and @sebastian mcfox scoring four victories. Very impressive!

@Claghorn got three wins in 2016 and the following Challengers all managed two:

@bienluienapris
@Cleav
@DiplomaticTies
@EFV
@Gerry Nelson
@Mr Knightley

In terms of consistency @Claghorn appeared most times on the podium with 11 top three placings followed by @sebastian mcfox with 10.

There were also some great entries that just failed to make the top threes in weeks of strong competition including these two that caught my eye:


@jcmeyer in 'Seasonal Incongruence'


@Caustic Man in 'Fair Isle'.

So, signing off after a very enjoyable look back through the many and varied FCs of 2016. Well done, gents! As we start 2017 there is evidence that they are less popular just at the moment so perhaps 2016 will end up being a 'Classic Year'.
 

DiplomaticTies

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Thanks for starting this thread @Mr Knightley ! It was really fun to get an overview of 2016 like this. I know it must have taken some work to go through.

I think this thread also shows that the challenges might be vain and slightly nerdy, but that they actually provide some interesting perspectives as well. Therefore it is a little sad to see that there is not that much engagement in them right now. It is a tricky balance to find challenges that are fun and interesting, hopefully also original, without being to complicated and excluding many readers with demands that people do not have the time or even the garments needed to participate.

When you went through the whole of 2016 like this, did you get a sense of which kind of challenges really brought high participation?
 

Mr Knightley

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Thanks gents.

@DiplomaticTies I suppose I was aware of the ups and downs in terms of participation as I was going through the various Challenges, but didn't really get a feel for the reasons. So, over the weekend I did a little random sampling and it seems the levels of interest are affected both by the time of year and the nature of the challenge itself.

There is generally more participation in spring / autumn. The quietest times were from Christmas to the end of January and again in high summer.

Those Challenges that you might expect to be more accessible like the Green Tie, for example, in February attracted about 20 entries and over 60 votes. But 'Checks', also in February and seemingly fairly straightforward, only attracted 11 entries and 28 votes.

October is generally considered a good time for dressing but 'Bond, James Bond' only attracted seven entries - but 64 votes!

In May we had a Freestyle Challenge, which should have attracted loads of entries but we only managed 12.

So, I am not clear even now how to up the interest. Perhaps we just have too many FCs? Why not try the SW&D approach of only 5 or 6 competitions a year?
 

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