Right, so, we've been saying "the challenges are dead" for the longest time, but we've never really put any finality behind it for the longest time. But I've been getting a lot of questions about them lately for reasons only all-powerful deities know, so I'm formally locking the things.
If you're wondering why they're locked down, we're basically just sick of them at this point. When the challenges first came here, they were great for getting better TSCers back into competing, just like the Leagues do now. That was short-lived, and pretty soon the only people still posting were all doing the same beginner-level challenges and somehow screwing them up, e.g. I can't tell you how many people I watched struggle with the red diagonal spring in Emerald Hill 2. After our brains started seeping out of our ears and onto our shoulders from watching it so many times, we simply lost interest. Case and point: I became the only judge left, and every once in a while I get a PM telling me off for being months behind grading. Even the creator of these challenges isn't grading them anymore; that says a lot.
Also, on the subject of the beginner challenges being the only ones that are ever done, I don't think that learning to collect 100 rings in a Sonic act or learning what the 50,000 point time bonus is deserves a reward. But that's just my opinion.
Finally there are a few people who want to take over the grading on their own time. That's fine... just do it somewhere else. Despite SDM saying that they're his idea and "forfeiting" them to RPG and I in an SCD topic that was wiped, they're still an identifying feature of SCD and I'd rather they stayed that way, so I'm "forfeiting" them right back. If you want to grade ECs, talk to SDM about it, and if he tells you to go ahead, do it on a different forum. This also applies to custom challenges: if you don't have enough support on TSC to get people to compete in the challenges before you post them, expect an immediate topic lock. There's enough ridiculous ideas for challenges floating around that rightfully get no attention.
Of course, RPG is the only one with moderator powers over his Mural Challenges, so I can't lock those. If you still have a challenge fetish, go satisfy it in RPG's forum! The other forums are still here for archival purposes: if an admin doesn't want them any more, he'll lock them, else this'll stay.
Right, so, what do you guys wanna have in place of this forum? I call a forum for forum games; 1000 Blank White Cards, forum mafia, corrupt-a-wish game... ooh, so fun. *shot*
