#AtoZChallenge Reflections: Cool But Useless

Today is the A to Z Challenge "Reflections" post to milk one more day out of the A to Z Challenge.  I didn't really get much out of the "Challenge."  I think only two people made drive by comments that basically said, "Thanks for sharing.  Now go to my blog!"

As usual, social media wasn't much use.  I used the #AtoZChallenge hashtag on just about every post and as I said, not much for comments.  I have over 2,500 Twitter "followers" and I doubt a single one came by.  Sad!

The annoying thing this year is they didn't do a master list so you were supposed to go back to their site every single day and post a link.  That's way too much work for me.  Plus somehow they got ahead a day, maybe to accommodate those in other countries.  How am I supposed to post a link before the article has even posted?


I don't know why they didn't do a master list and then let people post specific links every day.  Would have made it easier to see what was there.  I might have gotten a couple more drive-bys that way.  Though really I think the think is way too bloated now to be much use.  There are so many blogs that not even the people in charge have time enough to go to all of them once, let alone every day.

It'd probably work better if they separated the blogs into categories.  I think that "Crusade" thing from 5-6 years ago was like that, so all the writing blogs would be in one category.  Then maybe have genre categories so everyone can focus on blogs that are similar to theirs.  That would make it easier for people to find blogs they want to read instead of trying to browse through 2000 links and hoping to find something.

I don't think I'd do the A to Z thing next year.  One of the reasons I used to do it was everyone else was but this year the only other one in my circle to do it was Sandra Ulbrich Almazan.    There doesn't seem much reason to go through so much work for such little gain.  Though after doing Transformers this year, doing a GI JOE one next year might be neat.

I could do it in the same fashion with one good guy and one bad guy, though I'm not sure there would be enough for each letter.  Cobra at least has a couple of Zs:  Zartan and Zarana.  The Joes have Zap, so there you go.  And there's a Joe Q:  Quick-Kick.

Just a rough list from browsing yojoe.com:
A: Ace & Alley Viper
B:  Beachhead & Baroness
C:  Clutch & Cobra Commander
D:  Duke & Destro
E:  Effects & Eel
F:  Flint & Firefly
G:  Gung-Ho & Golobulus
H:  Hawk & Hydro Viper
I:  Iceberg & Ice Viper
J:  Jinx & N/A
K: Knockdown & N/A
L:  Lady Jaye & Lamprey
M:  Mutt & Major Bludd
N:   Night Force & Night Creeper
O:  Outback & Overlord
P:  Psyche-Out & Predacon
Q:  Quick Kick & N/A
R:  Rock n Roll & Road Pig
S:  Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow
T:  Torpedo vs Tele-Viper
U:  Updraft & Undertow
V:   VAMP & Viper
W:  Wild Bill & Wild Weasel
X:  N/A & Xamot
Y:  N/A
Z:  Zap & Zartan

Just like Transformers there's nothing going on with the letter Y.  Not even any vehicles.  What's the deal, Hasbro?  And some of the other letters I have to get a little obscure, but that's kind of fun.