Challenges

Challenges are site-wide writing events any member can join. There are two kinds:

Word count — a shared word target over a date range, with a leaderboard. Signing up also adds a matching goal to your goals page, so your progress shows up there like any other goal.
Prompt — a writing prompt with one response per member, written in the editor and capped at a word limit set by the challenge. Basic formatting only, with no links or images.

Browsing challenges

The challenges list groups everything by phase: Open now, Coming up and Finished. Each card shows the challenge type, its dates, how many people have joined, its target or word limit, and a Signed up marker on the ones you have joined. Select a card to open its detail page.

A challenge moves through three phases based on its dates:

Upcoming — before the start date. You can sign up, but not yet submit.
Open — between the start and end dates. You can submit and edit; prompt responses stay hidden.
Closed — after the end date. Non-rejected prompt responses become public.

Joining and leaving

On a challenge's detail page, select Sign up to join. You can join at any time before it closes. Select Leave challenge to drop out; leaving a word-count challenge also removes its linked goal from your goals page.

If you have written a prompt response, you must retract it before you can leave — leaving never silently deletes your writing.

The challenge detail page

What the detail page shows depends on the kind and phase:

A word count challenge shows a leaderboard, ranking everyone by words written inside the challenge dates. It always counts words added, so a day spent revising still counts and cannot push you down the board. The leaderboard appears once the challenge starts.
A prompt challenge shows the prompt and, once you have signed up, a box to write your response. While the challenge is open, only you and the moderators can see your response. After it closes, all approved responses are published on the page.

Submitting and retracting an entry

For a prompt challenge, sign up, then write your response in the box and select Submit response. You can edit it as often as you like while the challenge is open; each save replaces the previous version. If your response is over the word limit, it will not be accepted.

To remove your response, select Retract response. This permanently deletes it and cannot be undone, so copy the text somewhere safe first if you want to keep it. Retraction stays available in every phase, even after the challenge has closed.

Creating and editing challenges

Creating, editing, deleting and moderating challenges is limited to staff (moderators and admins). Moderators review prompt responses, which are approved by default; a rejected response is kept out of the published list, and its author is shown the reason.

Discord announcements

If your community has connected Discord and an admin has set a challenges channel, a word count challenge's final leaderboard is posted to that channel when the challenge ends — the top finishers with their word counts, and a link to the full board. A scheduled background job posts it shortly after the challenge closes, so the results appear even if no one is watching. Prompt challenges have no leaderboard, so nothing is posted for them.