@disconnect appears to have correctly answered this question (do I need to award him a point?) as not your usual cryptic carnage 🙂

So some thoughts... which as usual, won't answer the question you've asked. Well, it might a little, but probably not as you'd intended.

If the Learning Challenge went freestyle what would be a good Challenge Question, and how would you judge the best responses of the week?

I like @moecki's answer in a comment below:

The only real challenge for some or many users would be to communicate and interact with other users via this platform. That would be very freestyle.

I'd like to include "in a meaningful and sincere way" - not some arbitrary chart where you score 2 points for writing a post and 1 for a soulless comment.

Judged by how deep the conversation goes. Without telling anybody that's how it's being judged.

I don't think the Learning Challenges have ever been for me, much like the Engagement Challenges. Before I ramble, my summary is:

I'd like you to return to how you curated when I joined, 4 years ago

Now that was truly freestyle.

The Learning Challenges - much like the engagement challenges - are an opportunity for people to contrive a lesson (or challenge) which in most cases, is about a subject that they'd never consider teaching in the real world to people who would never consider attending a course on it. If somebody really wanted to learn something, they'd just learn it.

Then nobody really understands why they got the mark that they got (why did I get 9.8 and he got 9.9?) and then come bitching to me like I'm some arbitration panel. (They put the same answer in a table if you're wondering!)

They're not interested in teaching. They're not interested in learning. We all know they're interested in one thing, which I don't even need to mention.

Example - I'm a computer guy... seriously a computer guy. I've been building my own PCs for my entire family since I was about 15. And to see a lesson on something as totally irrelevant as Read-Only Memory (ROM) is a demonstration to how pointless and contrived these lessons are.

Why would I learn about Venezuelan Cuisine from a Pakistani? It's like having Nigerians moderating the Steem for Pakistan community. Yeah, maybe she's a great Venezuelan Chef and after 4 years on the platform she's finally been given the opportunity to write about it... or maybe she just wants to get paid.

I believe that we both want the same thing - a platform where people express themselves for who they are. Not for who they think you want them to be.

The only way that they can achieve this, is if they write because they love what they write about, not because producing a certain topic for a certain purpose (like a learning challenge), will get them their payday.

I admire your efforts in trying to find a way of incentivising people to feel valued but Steemit will be better (in my opinion) if you curate in the same way that I do. In the same way that chriddi or wakeupkitty or any of the other manual curators do.

You're an intelligent person - you know what's good and what isn't. You know what's worth reading and what isn't. You know whose contribution enriches others and whose doesn't. You know who you'll get an honest opinion from and who you won't.

And please, create an alt. account so that you can join in the fun in the same way that we do - without the constraints that your STEEM Power demands of you. You've got to use Steemit every day, I'm sure you'll enjoy it more this way.

And don't ever think about reward farming 😉