[hardtwistmusic]

Proposed new criteria for being considered for a Song of the Month or Lyric of the Month nomination. 

I want to make it clear I'm not stumping for more voters here, and that I'm not disappointed that more people haven't voted yet in the current competition.  I just think that the criteria I'm about to propose makes sense. 

I think that, in order to be considered for any CURRENT SOTM or LOTM competition, one would have to have VOTED in the previous one.  Each person managing the comps usually keeps a list of who has voted anyway, and could make that available to the new person managing the event. 

I think that makes sense because it limits the nominees to those who are active participants and (along with the 100 post requirement) excludes the "drive by posters".   

And, if someone who has obviously been an active poster and participant (i.e. frequent voter) in the past were to have a song, an exception could be made if the song were worthy and the person in question had some reason for being absent from the forum.  The intent of the requirement would be to exclude anyone who has NEVER voted, but that would be too hard to track. 

Anyway.... presented for your consideration.   

[Neil C]

Hi Verlon,
I like the intent but I'm kind of less rules the better. My experience has been we get roughly 20 votes in these competition, I don't know whether MM's use of polling increased that or not, but for me the simpler the better and the 100 posts shows community spirit IMHO.
Make it easy to vote and easy to run. For me it's meant to be a bit fun and show case some of the better and more interesting. I'd be worried we might end up with less participants and become a bit self selecting. Anyway let's see what others think.
 
Neil

[diademgrove]

Hi Verlon,

I agree with Neil. I think we'll end up with the same people's songs nearly every month, which would be a shame as people should look forward to being nominated and, maybe, even winning.

Keith

[shortwhat]

i think it's a good idea for a forum with more people on it, sadly our family here is a little small, meaning that with that criteria in place there wouldn't be enough range as to who wins. Great idea though

[MartiMedia]

Verlon, wow that's a great idea! But I'm afraid it won't work. Only thing that works imo is motivating all 'other' 3000+ members to wake up and be 'a little' active (maybe challenging them to post some of their work and reply to two other topics once a week).
But when we're real I think there's maybe a hundred really enthoustiastic (did I write that in proper English? haha) members and a whole lot of others keeping track of this forum passively. And I can understand... Life is busy, you want to but you simply don't have time... And of course a lot of members have registered once to showcase their work not giving anything back to this great community (this is not a judgement, more like an observation, don't like 'right' and 'wrong's).
So I'd research how to motivate more members to be 'active'. Maybe the 'active' members produce too much quality works which may be demotivating to others, or even worse: making the other members 'too shy' to interact?
I'd like to stress that interacting is the key to running a healthy forum and maintaining a community. Every opinion on every subject needs to be heard. Nobody's opinion is 'stupid' or 'smart'. It just contributes. I think that if we can change the attitude of the 'less active members' by respecting everybody's opinion and motivation to help each other, the interaction will explode. And so will the SOTM and LOTM comps.
Just be kind to each other, give to help and take to learn...

Just my thoughts, MM  

@Neil: I collected 27 votes with the poll system last month and although that's a 30% increase when relating to the average, that's not even 1% of the full members population.

[tomcrocus]

Hi all,
        i always stick to the lyrics forum and call me naive but can
somebody tell how easy it is to vote and i'll cast my vote,i'm still
relatively new to social media,i'm not a dimwit but help!!!
                                                                                 tom.

[MartiMedia]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your interest! Every month we have another 'host' of the SOTM and LOTM sections. This month hardtwistmusic (Verlon) is the host.

This month Verlon selected these lyrics:
http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/competitions/september-lyric-of-the-month-competition-sorry-for-being-so-late/

So please send 'hardtwistmusic' a personal message using the forum's personal mail system denoting your top3 votes from the mentioned selection! Your vote is highly appreciated!!!

MM

[RosilindSings]

You guys need to understand that some of us can't be posting her all day and night. Some people take a while to come up with a song they feel is worthy enough to post AND some of us dont have as much time as we'd like to post and write period. I don't think there should be any criteria at all. I didnt even know there was a contest for song and lyrics of the month. And i don't even know how to vote. So maybe others are the same.

[adamfarr]

The low voting is a bit frustrating especially for the organiser who has done all the work in listening and selecting.

But it's interesting - 20 to 27 votes seems around the same as the number of comments an interesting song from an active member seems to get (roughly - though the poster will also be entering the discussion). So that may just be where the forum is in terms of actual activity at the moment. I would miss the competitions if they were gone and I think leave them as they are and let everything grow organically if it wants to...

[hardtwistmusic]

Hi all,
        i always stick to the lyrics forum and call me naive but can
somebody tell how easy it is to vote and i'll cast my vote,i'm still
relatively new to social media,i'm not a dimwit but help!!!
                                                                                 tom.

Hi Tom:   Marti provided the information about how to vote... but I remember when I was first here, it took a bit of work to figure out how to send that private message.  If you are having any problem with that, let me know in the thread, and I will send you a private message that you can just reply to.  I'll also send instructions for how to find and send a private message to someone. 

I'd be happy to do it. 

[hardtwistmusic]

You guys need to understand that some of us can't be posting her all day and night. Some people take a while to come up with a song they feel is worthy enough to post AND some of us dont have as much time as we'd like to post and write period. I don't think there should be any criteria at all. I didnt even know there was a contest for song and lyrics of the month. And i don't even know how to vote. So maybe others are the same.

Hi Rosilind:   Marti provided the information about how to vote... but I remember when I was first here, it took a bit of work to figure out how to send that private message.  If you are having any problem with that, let me know in the thread, and I will send you a private message that you can just reply to.  I'll also send instructions for how to find and send a private message to someone.

I'd be happy to do it.

And please don't interpret my post as a complaint about not posting enough -- or even about not participating "enough."   It has nothing to do with anything but running the contest. 

Initially, I didn't agree with the "100 posts" requirement.  Then I ran the Lyrics of the Month contest about a year ago.  WOW.... Over 2/3 of the posted lyrics were from people with fewer than 100 posts.  Few of those people are still here.   And, simply put, the task of running the contest would have been overwhelming if I'd had to review all those additional lyrics.  It's difficult now..... if everyone were eligible, it would be so difficult that the contests would probably just not be held.  The Lyric of the Month contest hasn't been held for the last three months.  I think that's because there are so many more lyric posts than any other kind. 

Anyway..... I'll do whatever it takes to make it easy for you to vote.  Let me know if you want the help.   

 

[Doodles]

If I were ever nominated I would like it to be on the quality of the song, against all other songs posted that month, rather than from lack of eligible entries.  That said, an incentive to vote would be welcome - it works with the song reviews. I was previously on a similar site called RedFizz - which died because people posted their own work without reviewing other people's.

Not sure how easy it is to keep a tally of votes and award some sort of star, medal, privilege or something to the profile? Also with the reviews it could be good to have a ratio of posts on your own songs/threads to other peoples... We all lead busy lives and its easy to slip on the selfless duties without some sort of reminder or indicator of shame/virtue.

[hardtwistmusic]

Not sure how easy it is to keep a tally of votes and award some sort of star, medal, privilege or something to the profile? Also with the reviews it could be good to have a ratio of posts on your own songs/threads to other peoples... We all lead busy lives and its easy to slip on the selfless duties without some sort of reminder or indicator of shame/virtue.

Speaking of which.  .  .  One of my duties as the manager of the contest is to find a replacement for next month.  Is there any way I could implore you to take on that task?   If you would do it, I could send you all my spreadsheets for comparing songs so that it would be easier (it isn't easy) to see how I do it.  (Each person has their own method - and you would be free to use any method you wish. 

It can be as simple as picking five songs you think are deserving AFTER you have determined who is eligible.  When I do it, the first thing I do is make a list of ineligibles (those with fewer than 100 posts) so that I don't have to wade through every post for the last six weeks.  THAT is the complex part. 

After that, you are usually only left with about 15 songs to choose five nominees from.  There will actually be about 20 songs eligible, but most will be duplicate entries from the same people, so you just pick the best one from each potential nominee, and then you are down to around 15 songs. 

For me, the excruciating part is eliminating songs to get from the eligible 15 to the 5 nominees.  It's dealing with people's babies (the songs) really, and it's an entirely arbitrary decision - so there is no way to hide behind a "process".  It IS the person managing the contest who hurts feelings by not nominating a particular song. 

But the value of the contests is huge.  Well worth being a part of. 

[PaulAds]

I'd perhaps like to see the moderators simply pick a song of the month as winner and leave it at that...they could announce and explain the decision on the podcast and Bob's yer Uncle.

Democracy's overrated 

[tomcrocus]

Verlon,
          iv'e sent you a PM but i'm not sure if i'm just
sending the message to myself,over and out,
                                                              tom.