[SotW] Song of the Week - WEEK 278 Voting/WEEK 279 Nominating

Pretty nifty week.

(2 points) The Trackering 4 - Chris and Rita

(2 points) Monster Kingdom - Jewel Summoner (Game Rip) - Mountain Village - Hasi Maza

(1 point) Kyokugen Dasshutsu ADV Zennin Shibou Desu Soundtrack - Recreation

(1 point) Ripple Dot Extra - Ripple Dot Zero (The Oxygen Plant, Pt. One)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Been meaning to nominate this for a long time:

* Album Title: Futarino FantaVision Original Soundtrack
* Artist: Soichi Terada
* Track Title: gigantic ~ vs stage 3, 4 [out of orbit]
* Source: STF-0005 | FUTARINO FANTAVISION ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - VGMdb
* File Location: Nominations folder
* Disc Number: 1 (of 1)
* Track Number: 3
* Catalogue Number: STF-0005
* Year: 2002

There's nowhere I can't reach.

We are getting desperate, aren't we?

I know the question of changing up SotW was raised before. We've even relaxed the eight noms per week format because...we couldn't get enough noms for some weeks.

With the situation we're in now, does it make sense to revisit tweaking SotW again or how how to improve participation, if this is an issue at all?

I don't have any good suggestions, though. But with the spare time I have since I'm on taking a short break from work...

Would it help to find out why people stop participating in SotW or the issues they have with SotW, and then try to address them?

I suspect it's a case of:

1) having outgrown online forums/VGM/SotW/video games;
2) being too busy with real life (work, family etc);
3) being distracted with Twitter/Facebook for many; and/or
4) running out of tunes to nominate.

My issue is usually 2 and 4 but I care enough about SotW to try to participate.

There's not much you can do with real life. I'm not sure how many former regular participants we can get involved in SotW again.

Some possible suggestions to address the above:

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A) Would it make sense to try and get new people interested by promoting SotW in other parts of the forums? eg Audio Requests

And then emphasise if participants don't have anything to nominate, that's perfectly fine. Just listen to the tunes, have fun and maybe vote.

One issue with this is that it could be considered intrusive to the members who frequent other sub-forums. And with general GFF participation not exactly very high at the moment, I'm uncertain of the payoff.

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B) Do we need to tweak SotW's format to allow other types of nominations on, I dunno, alternate weeks to broaden its appeal? eg doujins/fan remixes, popular series including FF (oh no, I'm selling out)

Of course, the issue with this is that it dilutes the original intent of SotW, especially for popular series track noms. Would it help to have simple guidelines like refrain from nominating tracks that are too well known like your One-Winged Angels? Although I suspect these days a lot of people don't even know what OWA is... That and a popular series probably means COD instead of FF now.

Another issue would be that SotW could become too much like a mini-BSC if popular series tracks are allowed.

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C) If people are too busy with Facebook/Twitter, would it make sense to remind regulars of SotW about a new week through Facebook/Twitter? I'm not even going to propose to bring SotW to social networks because of possible backlash or unintended consequences of, say, sharing a SotW Facebook update.

One problem I have with this is that it could put people off. If they wanted to remember about SotW, they'd check the forums and not want to be bothered through social networks. Reaching out to former SotW regulars this way probably would put them off even more...

Then there's the issue of...do people even want to be Facebook friends of SotW participants to send out reminders, what with all the snooping jitters that goes around the Internet these days?

I clearly have too much time to spare on my off days.

Edit: Congrats, Jolt!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Jolteon

I think a better idea is to promote SotW in general VGM related Zones Of The Internet. It seems to me like other members from here would already be kind of uninterested in it if they're here but aren't participating, since SOTW is very visible in the {Latest 5 Posts} thing. However there are PLENTY of places on the internet where people have interest in video game music and would like to find new, interesting stuff they may not have heard of before!

That's true.

Years ago, we tried something like this before with Soundtrack Central's forum and maybe one or two other online forums. We essentially had SotW threads posted on them. Credit goes to diligent regulars here.

I think there might have been some talks with the other forums on the arrangement. I guess they were cool with it and didn't see it as way for GFF to steal members, which I honestly don't believe was the intent of the SotW threads.

But a decision was made here to stop the SotW postings on other forums because I believe participation outside of GFF was usually very low after the first few weeks, possibly none in some weeks. I can't remember if we had new regulars who continued participating after that endeavour.

That being said, I guess no harm trying again if we think there's a need to boost participation?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I think six tracks is okay too. If we get less noms than that, I guess either wait for a new nom to make up the numbers, or tweak the scoring system accordingly to accommodate?

Album club sounds like an interesting idea. For people who might be pressed for time, the album nominator could perhaps identify up to six of his/her favourite tracks for the rest to sample? I don't mind seeing this in the future, though I don't imagine myself being able to nominate many albums over time because, as it is, I tend to run out of stuff to nominate even for SotW. :P

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