Festival Submissions for previous festivals no longer accepted

[kenny mac]

Yeh I'm kinda gutted I missed the U2 and Bowie fests

[Gnasty]

I think this is a very wise decision. The only exception I would like to suggest is the "TributeFests". Maybe a separate jukebox collecting up all Songcrafter tributes? Also I would suggest that the tributes should be posted in "originals" rather than "covers". .... just a thought ...

Yes i was wondering about this too and i agree with Geir the tributes should be an exception.
What was wrong with the separate Tribute song category? I actually liked that. Easier to find.

[ODH]

I think it's hard but fair.  Only thing I would suggest is a grace period of a few days for those of us too busy / bone idle to get our stuff finished in time?  Even as I write that I can see it will be pooh-pooh'd.

Yeh I'm kinda gutted I missed the U2 and Bowie fests

Oh, you should've been there.  It was great. Those were the best days....

[ODH]

Another thing occurs to me.  It has been the practice that qualifying songs posted before the fest have been included (e.g. my Ramones cover being included in the 2 minute fest).  Presumably that'll stop too?

[Hook]

So.... I should stop production on my DIY,under2,protest,folk,psych,emu,pirate,unplugged,punk song??
This really hurts guys!

[64Guitars]

The only exception I would like to suggest is the "TributeFests". Maybe a separate jukebox collecting up all Songcrafter tributes?

Yeah, we talked about the possibility of making an exception for tributes. I haven't decided 100% yet but I'm leaning toward not including tributes posted long after the TributeFest ends. Instead, we'll try to have TributeFest sequels once a year or something like that. When a new TributeFest starts, I could include any tributes posted between the last TributeFest and the new one. That way, all tributes will be included in one of the TributeFest jukeboxes. The end result is pretty much the same as a perpetual TributeFest, but I'm hoping that the TributeFest sequels will generate more enthusiasm for recording tributes. They might encourage members who otherwise wouldn't have thought of covering another member's song to do so.

The alternative is to have a single TributeFest jukebox (I'd combine the TributeFest II jukebox with the original TributeFest so there'd only be one jukebox) and add any new tributes to it as soon as they're posted. The advantage is that all of the tributes are together in one jukebox. The disadvantage is that we probably wouldn't have any more TributeFest sequels. What would be the point?

I think tributes are an important part of Songcrafters and we want to encourage more of them. I'm just not sure that a single, perpetual TributeFest is the best way to do it. But, as I said, I haven't decided 100% yet, so if anyone feels strongly that a single ongoing TributeFest would be better, give me some good reasons why and I might be persuaded to do that.

One other idea I had is to create a special Tribute message icon which would identify a song as a tribute even if it's posted between TributeFests. I could then use the presence of that icon to easily find all of the tributes posted between TributeFests so I can add them to the next TributeFest jukebox. I also thought about the possibility of having a Recent Tributes list or jukebox on the front page. It could display, for example, the last 10 posts that have a Tribute message icon. That would give a bit more attention to tributes which are posted between TributeFests.

Also I would suggest that the tributes should be posted in "originals" rather than "covers". .... just a thought ...

I disagree. An original is a song that's performed and recorded by the person who wrote it. A cover is a song that was written by someone other than the person who is performing it. A tribute is a cover of another songcrafter's song. It's an original when they perform it, but it's a cover when anyone else performs it. So all tributes are covers.

[64Guitars]

What was wrong with the separate Tribute song category? I actually liked that. Easier to find.

We decided that the separate Songcrafter Tributes board was redundant since all of the tributes were already in the TributeFest jukebox. The original topics are easily found via the TributeFest jukebox. Just click any song link in the Artists section at the left of the jukebox, or click the Comment link for the currently-playing song in the jukebox.

[64Guitars]

Only thing I would suggest is a grace period of a few days for those of us too busy / bone idle to get our stuff finished in time?

Definitely. In fact, I was thinking more like a few weeks rather than days (see the second half of the second paragraph in my original post at the top of this topic). We definitely want people to finish any songs they started during the festival. We just don't want people to start a song after the festival ends and expect it to be added to the festival jukebox. It won't be. Of course, you can post any song you like at any time; it's just a question of whether it will be added to a festival jukebox or not.

I only ask that anyone who starts a song during a festival and doesn't get it finished in time should send me a PM right away to let me know that they'll be late. Then I can watch for the song and be sure to add it to the jukebox. If you post a song several weeks after a festival ends and you haven't sent me a PM about it at the end of the festival, I probably won't add it to the jukebox. But if you've sent me a PM, I'll know that you started the song during the festival so I'll gladly add it to the jukebox. Fair enough?

[launched]

I've always agreed with the "for the now" concept, and think you have been more than generous keeping all the categories and fests organized. I'm a self admitted page-oner!

Eventually I will hear it all. Eventually... Whew, lots of music here!!!
 

[64Guitars]

Another thing occurs to me.  It has been the practice that qualifying songs posted before the fest have been included (e.g. my Ramones cover being included in the 2 minute fest).  Presumably that'll stop too?

It already had stopped. No previous songs were added to the two current festivals and we don't plan to add any previous songs to any future festivals, with one or two exceptions. As I said earlier, I might add songcrafter tributes posted between TributeFests to the next TributeFest jukebox so that all tributes will be in one of the TributeFest jukeboxes, even if they were posted outside of the timeframe of the TributeFests. I might do the same for other sequels. For example, if we have a BeatlesFest II, I'll add any Beatles songs posted between the first BeatlesFest and the second to the BeatlesFest II jukebox.