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A long time ago (five months) on a site far, far away (roughly two clicks), a great suggestion was made. Jon Ericson came up with the idea of weekly/fortnightly topic challenges. For those not willing to make the one click that is now needed to get to that post, here's the gist:

  1. Users suggest various topics or themes. For example, on Worldbuilding, the first suggestions have been space, flora, and creature design.$^1$

  2. Everyone upvotes topics or themes they like.

  3. Each week, the highest-voted suggestion becomes the weekly topic challenge. A meta post is written up giving a brief summary of the idea (with the tag, hopefully), and at the end of the week, users who asked or answered one or more questions about that topic are recognized.

  4. Repeat until everyone gets tired of the idea or everyone runs out of suggestions.

Now, we have quite a lot of diverse questions on Puzzling, and we sometimes have unofficial themes affecting pockets of questions within a short period of time (notably and ), so it appears that from time to time Jon Ericson uses Force mind tricks to manipulate people$^2$. But generally we don't have this kind of thing.

Should we have weekly/fortnightly topic challenges? By the way, let's agree to go or not go with the idea as a whole before suggesting specific ones.

And no, nobody is required to participate in the challenges.

$^1$ Yes, I know - Worldbuilding is a very cool site!
$^2$ Disclaimer: To my knowledge, Jon is not a Jedi or a Sith. I think.

(This question is shamelessly copied from Worldbuilding.)

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    $\begingroup$ Question for mods/powers that be/those experienced with meta: if this question gets more than a certain number of net upvotes, does that count as a consensus even without any answers? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Mar 12, 2015 at 23:48
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    $\begingroup$ I'm in. I have a puzzle on the theme of movies nearly ready to go, so if anyone wants to join in on that theme then they'd be very welcome. $\endgroup$
    – A E
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 11:16
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    $\begingroup$ @AE One of mine is already on that theme, but not obviously so - it's still unsolved, so don't tell anyone! ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 11:27
  • $\begingroup$ This just popped up on my sidebar - is this a thing that ever actually happened? $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 13:38
  • $\begingroup$ @BaileyM It never really got started, no. The only responses I got were from AE and Travis, neither of whom are very active these days. It'd be great if we could gather together a crew of active users to go ahead with this idea... $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ @AE Are you still around on PSE? Fancy getting involved with a topic challenge, whether [movies] or anything else? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 13:43
  • $\begingroup$ I think we should - topical puzzles are such a fun idea, and a good way of bringing the community together. :) $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 13:52
  • $\begingroup$ @rand al'thor Still here, still interested - been a bit busy with work, but still around. :) $\endgroup$
    – A E
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ I shamelessly copied this to Arts and Crafts. $\endgroup$
    – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963
    Commented Aug 2, 2016 at 18:08

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Many in the community still have a sour taste in their mouths after the recent disagreements over policy that went nuts. The community is still in disagreement over a lot of the basics and many like myself have gone from active to rare lurker.

Community building activities like this may lead to bonds, involvement, and continuity of message. Let's go for it.

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    $\begingroup$ Hey Travis, welcome back! Long time no see :-D $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 0:08
  • $\begingroup$ +12/-2 on my question suggests the community in general likes the idea. I'll wait a few days to see how voting goes on this answer, and then probably accept it. Then we need to start suggesting specific topics for these challenges. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 0:14
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    $\begingroup$ Don't know if you're still around, but here's the new meta post calling for proposals. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 20:06
  • $\begingroup$ I still lurk, but the community's focus on lateral thinking has somewhat dampened my passion for the site. $\endgroup$
    – Travis Don Kindred
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 16:38

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