1. jstro's idea about separate challenges is good. Maybe go a step further with an occasional fiction/non-fiction criterion added in.

2. jstro's idea about comments versus votes is good.

3. jstro's comments about everything are good.

4. jstro is good. Follow those ideas and we can't go wrong.

5. an addition to the above would be to always limit the word count to 1000 to 1500 words (not counting Brians and haikus). As precious as all the words are, it is amazing how much can be learned when some of them are left on the hard drive. Just promise them they can be in the next story. They are not bright, and are easily distracted.

6. Poetry writers: write Prose. Prose writers: write Poetry.
   When the challenge is not in our area of comfort, that's when our "MacGuyer" kicks in and we find a way to survive.

7. the personal challenge in this thread was to write suggestions without using the word "I".

g'sx