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itt popularity is evil


The Derrit
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i should practically stay out of this thread i didn't realize there was so much politics surrounding something as simple as this

sorry for the bad idea

it's not your fault. this would have been a great discussion if JM hadn't acted like a five-star McAsshole.

that said, this is a pretty charged issue around here. it's particularly charged because of the change in standards over the years - there are certain older remixes that have been grandfathered into the system that don't hold a candle to some of the awesome music coming out regularly now. this doesn't mean that they are bad, or were bad when they came out. i have a lot of friends who thing OCR's remixes are terrible because they've only heard some of those earlier mixes. now, of course there's stuff that's still good music to be found in there - one of my favorites, for example, is Arrakis Wormsign, #60. but any system to rate them would be torn between a myriad of issues...between nostalgia value of the remixes, nostalgia value of the games (would neighburgers be overloocked for, say, one of the scads of generic FF7 remixes?), and feelings about the remixer (a few years ago, prot's mixes might not have ranked as high as they could).

basically, as cool as ratings would be, people would just download the top twenty and ignore everything else. there are lots of flawed gems that get overlooked that way. kind of like what happened at vgmix =)

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prot
vgmix

I see what you did there.

Since we've made it to the remixing community's equivalent of Godwin's Law, now we can move on.

I haven't seen a favorites thread here in... well... ever, really. Unless you're counting the ones that get locked/deleted within the hour. I suppose you can interpret asking for songs that fit a mood or a situation as a veiled attempt at a favorites thread, since people are likely to provide their favorite songs that meet the given criteria; but the favorite aspect of it is an inevitable consequence, not the goal. The goal is to help someone find music for the occasion. The fact that people have preferences and some tracks will get recommended over others shouldn't overshadow the fact that you've helped someone/some people and, if you've actually looked through your collection in providing recommendations (or simply looked through others' recommendations), gotten something out of it yourself.

That said, I don't see any problem with the remix threads that sprout up every now and again. I suppose they do usually turn into list-fests, but I don't see lists as bad in and of themselves. A discussion would be nicer, but a list isn't that unsavory a means to reach an end (a good end).

I don't know if anyone was still interested in discussing the original topic, but if so, there you go.

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Why are people so afraid of opinions? :x

IMHO: Once you get over the fact that they are just, that... Then it's much easier to decide whether or not you agree/disagree and are willing to listen to what someone has to say, and IMO, the more opinions to read, the easier it is to sift out what it is you personally believe.

Yeah some are stupid, some people are way too forceful, and pretentious, etc. etc., but really in the end, an ass will make an ass out of himself without you having to put him in his place, people CAN be smart enough to decide for themselves, and if you can separate people from their opinions, like "hey on this opinion, he's way off, but on THIS opinion, I agree" it's easier to keep yourself from feeling alienated and alienating others that just don't agree with you. It's a perspective, and I think it also has a lot to do with how much you value your own opinions as well, on how offended you get by someone else, well, generally speaking. A self-worth thing... That is, until things start happening because of opinions, and when it no longer is about debate but about making things happen etc... But that's a different ballgame.

It's really not that bad, out here on the internet, in a world of opinions... It's really not.

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honestly? in order for this site to have an unbiased level of listeners for each song, etc. you'd pretty much have to not label any of them and say "this is a new song, by an artist we're not telling you from a game we're also not telling you"

even the important people here play favorites. its obvious in writeups, hell the recent chrono trigger mix got direct posted with the sentence "So it's bLiNd, it's trance, it's Chrono Trigger, and it's 'Yearnings of the Wind' (aka 'Wind Scene' or '600AD') - what more do I need to say?"

I mean it doesn't even matter if blind's music is always good, which most all of the time it is. if people are playing favorites from the get go then why hold up the facade that everyone else shouldn't

and certain games will always get more traffic because they're better known. thats the way it goes

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Why are people so afraid of opinions? :x

IMHO: Once you get over the fact that they are just, that... Then it's much easier to decide whether or not you agree/disagree and are willing to listen to what someone has to say, and IMO, the more opinions to read, the easier it is to sift out what it is you personally believe.

Yeah some are stupid, some people are way too forceful, and pretentious, etc. etc., but really in the end, an ass will make an ass out of himself without you having to put him in his place, people CAN be smart enough to decide for themselves, and if you can separate people from their opinions, like "hey on this opinion, he's way off, but on THIS opinion, I agree" it's easier to keep yourself from feeling alienated and alienating others that just don't agree with you. It's a perspective, and I think it also has a lot to do with how much you value your own opinions as well, on how offended you get by someone else, well, generally speaking. A self-worth thing... That is, until things start happening because of opinions, and when it no longer is about debate but about making things happen etc... But that's a different ballgame.

It's really not that bad, out here on the internet, in a world of opinions... It's really not.

Agreed, opinions and a well-reasoned, civil debate can be beautiful things. I've seen it happen on the internet, so I know it's possible.

I don't have a problem with favorites threads at all. People already express how much they like a mix through the amount of comments on that mix's review thread, so it's not like a favorites thread is really any different. The only thing that was annoying about them in the past was their frequency, but that could've been fixed. Anyway, I hope the blogs do get to implement an ability to list favorites, because I really do enjoy reading about people's favorite things general, especially if they're really passionate about those things. A rating system would be different and probably a lot more likely to lead to hurt feelings/the site implicitly endorsing one mix over another, but no one has ever seriously talked about implementing that.

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Wouldn't it be easy for OCR staff to tally the numbers from the mirrors for the most downloaded songs?

That way they could come up with the real top 10-20-50: the one made naturally over the years by OCR's listeners.

This thread also made me wonder: when you guys do panels at conventions, and distribute OCR compilations, you do decide which ones you're putting on the cd.

Be it the most critically acclaimed/commented on, the funniest/most original/different ones, the best representative of OCR's message, or simply some personal favorites.

Either way, people who are given/awarded the cds don't have a choice. Sure they can head to the site afterwards and download what sounds good to them.

But at this moment, in this particular case, aren't you kinda promoting your own selection and doing what you're advocating against in some way?

(I'm not judging mind you, just wondering if this could perhaps be the exception)

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Compilation DVDs given away have all of the songs on them. They're data discs with the entire catalog-to-date on them. We don't give out 70-minute audio CDs with just a couple of tracks on them.

"Top Downloaded" is not indicative of quality. It's indicative of listener predisposition, which is exactly what we're trying to go against. What at the top downloaded remixes? I dunno, but they're probably from Final Fantasy VII or something.

You'll never see "top downloaded" or "highest rated" or anything like that on this site; you'll never see something that does a tally of statistics and sorts the individual remixes that way.

I guess people didn't read what I wrote before, so I'll say it again, more emphatically. The rule about favorites threads on the forums have little to do with what the FAQ says about rating remixes, and it has little to do with any perceived "hurt feelings" or "favoritism" that people like to bring up. Favorites threads are not allowed because they don't promote discussion, they promote lists, and the forums are for discussion. Favorites threads almost always degenerate into people just listing their own favorites and moving on. This is why it's not just "favorite remix" threads that we discourage, but "favorite remixer" or "favorite video game" or "favorite hamster" or anything else.

Furthermore, if you want to express your opinion about your favorite remix, you already know that every remix on this site has its very own review thread where you can discuss it to your heart's content. You also have a forum signature where you can mention your favorite remix or remixer; there are no rules against that, except that you should keep it under 250px in height.

Also, you'll be able to post your favorites on your OCR blog if you'd like, because blogs are a more individual-oriented thing.

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