Standard MP3U Comp Format

Hello friends,

In the past there have been some very successful and some not so successful comps on mp3u, going by the number of high quality entrants as an indicator.

But in almost every case, there were some complaints about the system by some users, and each subsequent comp tried to address these issues.

Admin hope to create the ideal competition format according to the consensus of artists' wishes, but recently it has come to a head, because there have been so many changes and new approaches suggested that competitors seem too confused about how to enter to bother doing so.

So this thread's sole purpose is too discuss the best comp system we can come up with.

Posts regarding interesting themes, topics, genres, etc., will be removed and placed in an appropriate thread for that matter.

Here we are only concerned about general rules, set-up and procedure.

Any and all ideas will be appreciated, considered, and possibly permanently implemented.


For starters, we are interested in thoughts about:

A) Uploading songs. (e.g. uploading to a communal page versus uploading to one's own page)

B) Gathering songs. (e.g. giving artists ability to access and edit the official comp page versus having administrators gather tracks on an official edit-safe page.

C) Collecting votes. (e.g. by poll - with viewable current results at any time up to deadline versus by PM to admin, guaranteeing impartiality until the release of results.

D) Publishing results. (e.g.) Publish results only with details of who voted for what anonymous versus complete transparency of voting once the deadline has passed.

And many other issues.

Please tell us which approaches you preferred from past comps, which you felt were no good, and why.


D.

[Saphfire]

Good luck with that then .....nah



I think all the above rules are fine can I just suggest....


*You get one upload and one only......so you must be happy with the final edit before you upload to the competition page.
*We have a tickbox rating each element of the track...creativity, structure, production etc......similar to that in reviews....except we don't have to write a review......as everyone too lazy to do dat....

[LIQUID]

Comps should stimulate the creative before they stimulate the competitive!

As for the process I`m in favour of:-

Decisive this is what the comp is - take it or leave it, and less of the We must make it so inclusive that is becomes so diluted that it loses its original reasoning.

I like Saphs idea of rating system

Make it very clear in standard format a) How to enter, b) How to vote

Beyond that I dont have much else to add

[James Oakwood]

A) Uploading the song to your own page is important to me. You then tell admin about your song and they upload it to the compo page. Now that isn't difficult. The problems arise when people start voting and commenting on the compo page so comments/votes should either be impossible (ie no facility on the compo page) or be redirected thru to your artist page. The compo page should just be a list of tunes with the ability to play them. No downloads or compo comments/votes counted.

B) Artists should not be able to edit the compo page and once a song has been "listed" on the compo page then it stays there irrespective of the artist wanting to upload a fresh version (after the compo deadline).

C) I'm happy with sending a PM to admin for my vote but during the collection process it would be good to see who has voted, not necessarily who they have voted for.

D) Complete transparency of who voted for what is the only sensible way forward. If someone doesn't want that then they don't vote. Once a vote has been cast that's it. No changing yer mind or trying to withdraw it.

I did once like the accumulating histogram voting display to see who was in the lead at any one point but now I'm in favour of only seeing who has currently voted and not who they have voted for. Once there is a result then full transparency.

Rating system mentioned by Saph and favoured by Ant - don't like it - too complex

Andy

[Darth Raver]

Ladies and gentlemen - thank you very much!

This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for, and you have all raised excellent points.

I'll try to address your points one by one.

Saphfire:

You get one upload and one only......so you must be happy with the final edit before you upload to the competition page.

Agreed. This has been our policy to date anyway. There was a comp way back (forget which) when one artist wrote a polite message explaining that they had uploaded the wrong version just prior to the deadline. We made a special case and allowed them to replace it with the correct version soon after the deadline, but made it clear that this was a one-off and would not be tolerated as a loophole that could could be exploited in the future. Since then first upload has always been the one that stayed.

Saphfire:

We have a tickbox rating each element of the track...creativity, structure, production etc......similar to that in reviews....except we don't have to write a review......as everyone too lazy to do dat....

Excellent idea, but sounds like one for the tech guys. A does the dealings with them, so I'll pass the idea on to him.

Liquid:

decisiveness!

I absolutely agree. After announcement of a new comp, those who feel left out because their genre/style would be out of place, should be free to gripe to their hearts content in the forums or chatbox, but it shall have no effect on the comp itself. Thanks Ant!

James Oakwood:

Point A) I agree with you absolutely on this point. I've said it a million times, but for those who missed it, uploading an amazing song simultaneously to a comp and to your own page is self-cannibalisation. However amazing your track was, the votes and comments received will forever be split, and this will dilute the impact your song really made. How is this to any artist's advantage?

Point B) this echoes Saph's point. Again, agreed.

Point C) this is a new idea and I like it. Very easy to implement too. In the comp's main forum thread a simple comment: " Artist X has voted". Great idea, and potential motivator for others to vote. It's a keeper!

Point D) Absolutely. This is the way we did it with the 'Soundtrack' comp and will do it with the 'Permission' one - definite keeper. Very fair system, and people who pull a sneaky "protest vote" to sabotage another artist's good chances will also be transparent for all to see. True and pure democracy - first seen on MP3U!

About the suggested rating system, I like it a lot but agree it seems complex. If you guys have a clear idea of which elements should be rated, and factors considered, we can form a better opinion of its feasibility.

Thanks again, friends. I'm impressed!

Darth.

[Darth Raver]

I'd just like to backtrack a bit to something James Oakwood said:

The problems arise when people start voting and commenting on the compo page so comments/votes should either be impossible (ie no facility on the compo page) or be redirected thru to your artist page. The compo page should just be a list of tunes with the ability to play them. No downloads or compo comments/votes counted.

I agree with this, but the issue is a technical one, so the coding guys will have to sort it out. At present, the way it works is that when we set up a comp page we go through the process as any individual artist would, but select "comments disabled".

This is supposed to mean that if people try to comment, nothing will appear on the page. That part works just fine, however, for some reason those erroneously entered comments are still totted up. So that the stats for a track might show "Comments: 2" but those comments are not visible.

This is an irritating issue. We state clearly on every comp track "Please vote and leave comments on the artists page" followed with a link to the song on their page, but not everyone will see that.

Also, we hope that those who comment will notice that their comments did not appear, and then repost it on the artists page, but that will not always happen either.

It is possible for admin to dig out those "lost comments', and we could even manually copy-and-paste them to the artists page, but this would be extremely time-consuming and open to abuse (e.g., people who enter a comment on the comp page while listening to a song, knowing that it won't appear, but thinking "what the hell, admin will move it to the right place anyways...")

So we prefer not to go down that route. If people attempt to leave a comment when it has been made clear not to do so, in fairness that was their own mistake, and we will treat it the same as if someone attempted to comment and simply couldn't. Those numbers of invisible comments totted up should be considered, for now at least, the ghosts of mistakes and nothing more.

As for votes being counted on comp page songs, this is another (worse!) coding issue. It is unfortunately not possible to "disable votes" on any mp3 uploaded to mp3u to date.

The ideal solution would be for the coding guys to create a special format for comp pages with different criteria than regular artist pages. Then Saphfire's idea would also be more feasible. We will certainly look into this.

Thanx

[alton]

Nice post. I like it. Thanks for sharing these information. Keep it up.

[mittymout]

Thats all I are able to say. You most absolutely have built this blog website into something special. You clearly know what you are working on, youve insured so many corners. thanks

Originally Posted by mittymout

Thats all I are able to say. You most absolutely have built this blog website into something special. You clearly know what you are working on, youve insured so many corners. thanks

where are the contests here? im a little confused lol