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A Pause For SOTM - but a 'My Forum Faves' idea instead

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MichaelA

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« on: July 11, 2020, 08:25:42 AM »
Hi everyone, this idea came out of our Friday night Zoom chat last evening. We'd like to give it a try as long as it's got general consensus.

So we all think Song Of The Month has lost some of its energy. It's an initiative that seems hard to keep running with great enthusiasm. Maybe it's a great idea, but maybe needs to be put on a shelf for a little while. Although it would be nice to still revisit some of the notable songs that get posted on the forum each month.

How about we trial something different. How about 'My Forum Faves - June' (or whichever month.)

Every month one of our members will step forward to be the guest host. It will be their job to pick out their five favourite songs from the month's postings. Their very own My Forum Faves of the Month. The guest host will write a few words on each song telling us why they liked each one and posting the link. Then they will pick out their single Fave Of The Month. Nobody needs to vote, but it would be nice if people commented in the thread, adding encouragement, abuse  ;) discussion points if they feel the need.

I volunteered to start this off for the month of June as a trial. Then we can see if we like it and if it should replace SOTM altogether, or whether SOTM will come back after a bit of time off.

Anyhow, that's the idea...
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PaulAds

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« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2020, 09:05:33 AM »
Yeah...I'm all for giving this a try...it'll be nice to get other opinions on it too, of course...but I for one absolutely think that SOTM is in desperate need of a revamp...

Maybe we could use ye olde spinning wheel of fortune to randomly pick which member gets to pick their Forum Faves for the coming month?

All thoughts welcome...
heart of stone, feet of clay, knob of butter

adamfarr

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« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2020, 09:37:28 AM »
I also like the idea. Definitely worth a try in my opinion.

cowparsleyman

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« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2020, 09:41:26 AM »
Seems a good idea.

I'm up for it.


PaulyX

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« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2020, 08:35:29 PM »
Sounds a nice idea  I had a similar thought that it would be nice to have a 'Forum Desert Island Discs' where people picked their fave tracks of all time.  There have been some tracks on here that have really stuck with me - it'd be nice to highlight some of those to people who missed 'em the first time around.*  Michael's good idea would do the same thing for that month and be a chance to make sure you caught any you might have missed in the last 4 weeks.

What I think I'll miss about SOTM though IS the voting and the scoring... the quantitative side to complement the qualitative feedback we all give each other.  I still wish tracks could be 'scored' by anyone who listened with the top 5 scorers revealed at the end of the month... like music charts.  I know that's been ruled out before though so fair 'nuff... time for a different approach.

* If anyone's interested, 3 tracks I'd take to my desert island are Tina M's "Tea with Marjorie", Slava B's "Kings Lynn" and Seb & Co.'s "The Way That You Are".  They are all things of beauty and I'd happily have them on repeat until Search & Rescue turned up.
It's all too beautiful.


MichaelA

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« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2020, 11:09:24 PM »
@pompeyjazz , anybody is free to make playlists of whatever content they want on Soundcloud. I think it would be a great idea, if you had the time and inclination to do this. If anybody didn't like it, and told you so, you could simply delete their track from the playlist.

Good luck if you do decide to trial this!  ;)

@PaulyX , yeah as you say your automated scoring  idea has been previously ruled out, although I personally am in favour.

When I mentioned the Forum Faves idea on the last Friday Zoom Call, funnily enough I also used the Desert Island Discs analogy - except it being the guest host's fave songs of the month, not all time Forum Faves.

I'm going to write up the trial of this over the next couple of days, then we'll see if it is going to work. Song Of The Month could always return in some form or other, but there just seems to be a general consensus to try something different for a while. Might be this, or a tweaked version of what we've being doing all along. No harm in experimenting for now...
My latest novel: pls check it out!

‘Gavin & The Bodysnatchers’, a quirky comedy crime thriller. Easily found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09GZ7C8M7?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Boydie

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« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2020, 08:04:29 AM »

@MichaelA @PaulyX
Quote
@PaulyX , yeah as you say your automated scoring  idea has been previously ruled out, although I personally am in favour

I have looked in to scoring systems I the past - but I just feel it goes against the supportive nature of the forum and would discourage people from reviewing if they had to commit to a score

Put yourselves in the shoes of a new member posting their first songs and getting encouraging comments (which I am sure they would) and then getting a score of 2 out of 10

Some people would see this as a “yardstick” to improve - but it may devastate others (everybody is different)

I also have an issue with objective scoring of something so subjective (especially as there is not specific criteria like there may be for a specific competition)

Again, some may say that the different opinions will get reflected in the different scores -  it we all know that even if someone got twenty 9/10 scores and two 3/10 scores they still may feel deflated

I DO however like @MichaelA idea of “forum faves” instead of song of the month - if someone picked a monthly favourite or 3 favourites we could “showcase” them for the next month - either as stickies, so they stay at the top of the board for the month, or use the banner headline with links to the songs for that month

Just some food for thought and I look forward to seeing what develops...

To check out my music please visit:

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MichaelA

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« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2020, 10:18:04 AM »
@Boydie, yes I see your point re inexperienced new members and the auto score. I think we've just all been scratching our heads to try to make SOTM run more easily.

Still we've got this Forum Faves trial idea now, but it would be a real boost if that could be highlighted on the forum until the next month Faves are published. So the banner and/or sticky suggestion is just the ticket. Nice one!   ;D
My latest novel: pls check it out!

‘Gavin & The Bodysnatchers’, a quirky comedy crime thriller. Easily found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09GZ7C8M7?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

5 guys named Lars

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« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2020, 12:40:06 PM »
I agree with @Boydie that scoring could be discouraging for new (or old) members. I think the Forum Faves idea though is a good one as its only one members subjective opinion.

PaulyX

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« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2020, 09:03:11 PM »
@Boydie thanks.  You is da boss.  Just to clarify though, I agree that people could be gutted if they got a "2"... but I wasn't proposing that.  I was thinking more that the individual scores would not be visible, we'd just publish the TOP average scorers at the end of the month.  So you wouldn't know if you'd got a bunch of 2s, but you would know if you'd made it into the Top 10 for the month, which (I personally think) would be motivational and something exciting to shoot for.  I dunno if the tech could support it though and yes it would be subjective.  (Then again, so are comments, I guess).
ANYWAY, here's to Forum Faves.  Onwards and upwards.
It's all too beautiful.

Neil C

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« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2020, 03:10:44 PM »
Ok while this debate is concluding I'll put June SOTM having done the hard work..
:-)
neil
songwriter of no repute..

MichaelA

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« Reply #13 on: July 20, 2020, 08:47:01 PM »
Hi @Neil C , we've already started the Forum Faves initiative for June. It is 'stickied' by @Boydie at the top of Finished Songs For Review. I volunteered to be the first guest host.

The idea was that this would replace SOTM.

It's up to you of course if you want to continue with your June SOTM. If you do, and I don't really mind either way, it will then be the last one for a while. The general consensus is that we will see how Forum Faves goes for the near future and SOTM had lost a bit of steam. Cheers.

My latest novel: pls check it out!

‘Gavin & The Bodysnatchers’, a quirky comedy crime thriller. Easily found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09GZ7C8M7?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Boydie

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« Reply #14 on: July 21, 2020, 07:44:56 AM »
@MichaelA @Neil C

As Neil has done the hard work of reviewing and selecting the SOTM songs I would propose that we run the “forum faves” and SOTM in parallel for JUNE and then take the opportunity to have a break from SOTM to try out the “forum faves” concept

It doesn’t necessarily need to be an “either/or” in the future but the most successful competitions are the specific ones so perhaps in the future we should run a regular monthly “forum faves” but then look to have specific competitions throughout the year - eg quarterly?
To check out my music please visit:

http://soundcloud.com/boydiemusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BoydieMusic