mini-songtests: a proposal and also a poll

[Fenris]

hey yall

we were discussing this in voice chat (like the channel not like. with our voices) but in case you werent there and dont feel like scrolling up here is my proposal in bullet-point form so its hopefully readable:

• mini-songtests would be run at the same time as the regular songtest, with their own subforum so as not to clutter the regular songtest forum.
• they would be hosted by signup, the way mafia is, rather than with winners hosting the next songtest. likely at least at first the signups would prioritize people who havent run songtests before, and once that queue has run out anyone can sign up.
• each songtest would be one round and have between 5 and 15 members. the rounds would last a week maximum.
• the primary points of these mini-songtests would be:
• 1. more niche themes that would only attract a small number of willing competitors getting a chance to be used
• 2. more people who want to run songtests getting to run songtests
• 3. more varied music generally for people who like using songtests to find new music

discussion came up in voice chat about changes that could be made to the current songtests, so i decided to make a poll with a few different options. also this thread is open to discussion about songtest rules and the mini-songtest proposal. if theres a good amount of support for mini-songtests i'll ask staff about making a subforum for it and we can get signups started! and if there isnt we can forget we had this conversation i guess i dunno i didn't think that far ahead

[Grand Moff Hissa]

My take:

Sounds fun but I'm not really a fan of capping participation. If there's enough interest, why draw the line at 15 (or anywhere)? That can create a situation where signups are a race or where people get booted, which is no fun at all.

[Fenris]

tbh i mostly suggested a cap because once a contest gets too big having it all in one round might be untenable. i guess we've had 20-song finals in the past so like given 4-5 days to run the round it might work out fine tho. maybe leave that up to the contest runner?

[Grand Moff Hissa]

My feeling is, in general we're likely to see a fairly self-selecting participant population as is. If rounds tend to be larger, then people will be less inclined to join unless it's specifically their thing, which will in turn make rounds smaller.

And of course, with no material prize even by comparison to the regular songtest, there's a decent chance some folks just sit out.

[MethodicalSlacker]

voted yes but I agree with MW that they shouldn't be capped. I also don't know if the week time limit is totally necessary as a written rule, I feel like a mini songtest would probably only run that long on its own and having that codified as a restriction is somewhat needless.

I also realize why you think they should have their own subforum but as long as they are clearly delineated from normal songtests in title and number they can coexist in this forum I think.

It would be pretty funny to host the Mini songtests on the SOTF Mini site too, lmao.

[Grand Moff Hissa]

It would be pretty funny to host the Mini songtests on the SOTF Mini site too, lmao.

While I'd be totally down with this (and pitching it to Mini staff) if there was a wide consensus for it, I also know that the normal songtest draws a crowd that includes a few Main-only handlers and don't necessarily wanna force them to make accounts for/regularly visit Mini, especially since I don't think many/any Mini-only handlers really play songtest.