Once more about streaks
The other day I snapped my 52 day streak. Just like @Paweł snapping his 1,500 or so long streak that he wrote about, it felt liberating.
But also a little sad.
I am curious how the Tookapic the users view and use streaks.
In the beginning, unless I misunderstood it, the concept of a "365 project" and Tookapic was about taking 365 photos in 365 days. That is, a photo a day. The length of the streak was, therefore, the progress of the project. Snap your streak at 364, and you have to start over.
Either I always misunderstood, or this has been changed lately, and by "lately" I mean possibly within the last 2 years.
My "project" now stands at 301/365 -- and this despite the fact that I broke my streaks many times, including taking a 2-year or so break. When I post 64 more photos, whenever that may happen, I will reasonably expect to get congratulations from Tookapic and many users who follow completions. I will have to ponder then what this accomplishment will mean to me.
I noticed that posting 17 photos from 17 consecutive days when I decided to restart my project did not give me a 17-day streak, but only a 1-day streak. Pawel in an email clarified that the streaks are about posting photos each day. (Not taking photos each day -- this was implied in his message.)
Taking a [meaningful] photo every day turns out to be a nearly impossible task for me. I don't always get out, I don't always see something interesting, I don't always carry a "real" camera. Having missed out on an interesting outdoor photo, I can't always work up the energy or the courage to light up my studio and take a selfie with messy hair, frumpy clothes and a worried expression. On day 51, in self mockery and deprecation, I snapped an out-of-focus photo of the pattern on the lamp shade on my nightstand -- the last thing I saw before going to bed -- to avoid breaking the streak. But on day 53 I could not it. I had already posted a great number of what I honestly called streak photos and I could no longer justify -- to myself -- continuing to produce meaningless snaps.
If "365 project", Tookapic and the concept of streaks are all about posting 365 photos, one photo a day, than taking photos for 365 days in a row, then perhaps it is more about being in and around photography every day for 365 days and then, hopefully, for life.
If I care about keeping a streak alive (because, frankly, I cannot seriously get excited about eventually posting the 365th photo at some point in the future), should I not be encouraged, on a barren day, to revisit my old photos and post one that for some reason calls to me? Perhaps, one taken on that same day, but in a different year? I know I have tried that, I even have a gallery to show for it, apparently: tookapic.com/galleries/1831-36... Would this not be more meaningful and helpful to my photographic growth than snapping a photo of a lamp shade?
Tell me a few things about streaks.
-
What do streaks mean to you and how do you feel about completing your 365 project not in a single streak but over time?
-
What have you done in the past to keep the streak alive when it seemed impossible?
-
Do you support the idea of posting old photos on the day when a new photo refuses to be taken, or does this defeat the purpose of a "365 project"? Have you done it?
Marta Tomaszewska
I can't imagine being online for 365 days in a row.
I do imagine (and experienced) taking photos for 365 or more days in a row, but processing and uploading them?.. nope ;-)
I could say: the longer streak I have, the more boring my life is :D
I got the "perfect month" badge lately during covid pandemic in April or May when I sat at home without any other choice. I don't even think about trying perfect year ;-)
Jan Buchta For me it works exactly how @Marta said above. I'd like to make a Tookapic perfect year, 365 photos day by day but... it's not possible by one simple reason. It wasn't problem to take photo daily. The point is that even i took photo every day, I couldn't upload it day by day. It breaks the series. It was disappointing because I took photo every day, but I couldn't make 365/365. In my opinion the way how it works is bad. For example - if we are on way, on holiday, traveling, even visiting family outside the city... many things are doing... and sometimes there is no time or possibilities to be online and upload photos. You have photos from these days but you can't keep the streak 🤷🏻♂️😊
Paweł Kadysz It works exactly the way it's supposed to work. Streak is just another challenge. If it was just for taking photos you could start your project today, post any 365 photos today and finish your "challenge" with a perfect 365 streak... today. Does that make sense? It does not. Not at all.
To finish a 365 project you don't have to grow your streak. You can break it at 364, but if you took that 365th pic, you can post it a week after and still complete the challenge.
The perfect 365 means taking 365 photos in 365 consecutive days. But I've seen many people missing days or even weeks. For some, completing a 365 project took much more than a year. But it still was one photo a day, because Tookapic does not allow you to assign two photos to a single day.
Few years ago we had another stat called "missed days" which was the count of the days you did not have any photos assigned to. That one was discouraging.
You don't have to keep your streak, but from what I observed over the years, those who do post at least every other day have a much, much higher chance of completing the project, because they develop a habit.
Oh, and yes - those painful streak photos are part of the challenge. You can't pretend to be awesome all year round. It's not Instagram... If you want to have a gallery of 365 really nice photos from 365 days, YOU DO actually need to put in the work. That's the point.
I had a terrible, terrible year. And it shows on my profile. Again - that's the point of 365 project. In 10 years, when I browse pics from 2020 I'll remember how f***** up that year was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fun fact: during the first year of Tookapic - if you missed a day that was it. Tookapic did not allow you to publish a photo from the day before or earlier. You had to post your current photo before midnight not to miss a day.
Top Contributors
People who started the most discussions on Talks.
-
138 -
25
-
25
-
21
-
20
-
20
-
18
-
17
-
16
-
16
Unanswered Talks
Discussions with no comments. Be first to post a comment.
-
Paweł Kadysz posted
-
Jan Kuźmicki posted
-
Grace posted
-
tookapic posted
-
Klaudia posted
Comment was deleted