NEWBIES: No "favorite ..." threads

[CentralScrutinizer]

If a favorite thread thread were created it would easily be this one.

[Spectre]

This may be an unpopular sentiment and chances are I'll get flamed for it but whatever. I think this policy is the one thing that's kept OCR from being a truly great website that I come back to on a regular basis. I've been listening to remixes on this site off and on for somewhere around 10 years now but from day 1 I was confused as to why there wasn't a rating system of some sort for songs.

My reasoning is this: as of writing this there are 2250 posted songs. There is no way I'm going to be able to listen to them all or probably even close to half. I just don't have time and there are new ones posted every day. I also know that of those 2250 songs, there are a handful of truly amazing songs that I'm sure I'm missing out on hearing. If there was a rating system and I could at least see what the community consensus chose as the top x songs, I'd feel happy knowing I was at least able to hear a few of what most people consider the best.

That's not to say that I don't love what this site has put together. It is awesome! I just hope I haven't missed out on its best but probability says that I have.

[Rozovian]

2250 free tracks and a great community to learn music doesn't make ocr a truly great website?

[The Coop]

This may be an unpopular sentiment and chances are I'll get flamed for it but whatever. I think this policy is the one thing that's kept OCR from being a truly great website that I come back to on a regular basis. I've been listening to remixes on this site off and on for somewhere around 10 years now but from day 1 I was confused as to why there wasn't a rating system of some sort for songs.

My reasoning is this: as of writing this there are 2250 posted songs. There is no way I'm going to be able to listen to them all or probably even close to half. I just don't have time and there are new ones posted every day. I also know that of those 2250 songs, there are a handful of truly amazing songs that I'm sure I'm missing out on hearing. If there was a rating system and I could at least see what the community consensus chose as the top x songs, I'd feel happy knowing I was at least able to hear a few of what most people consider the best.

That's not to say that I don't love what this site has put together. It is awesome! I just hope I haven't missed out on its best but probability says that I have.

No flames intended here, so keep that in mind

This policy is what keeps OCR's forums from turning into GameFAQs. Favorites threads are just spam threads; rarely does any real discussion come from them, and considering how many times a "favorite Final Fantasy/Mario/Sonic/Metroid/Castlevania/weapon/FPS/condom/nipple piercing/whatever" thread's been made in the past, it's a dead subject matter here. It really was beaten into the ground quite thoroughly. And if they're allowed in again, it'll all go back to a front page filled with "what's your favorite ______" threads.

When it comes to remixes and peoples' favorites, such threads become a ratings thread, something djp has always been against. Plus, VGMix had a tier system. The problem with it, was that unless a given remix was in the top two tiers ("Stuff of Legends" and "Awesome" if I recall), visitors simply weren't overly interested. They more often than not passed on songs that were rated as "Good", because they weren't "Stuff of Legends". And as if that weren't enough, there were good songs that got buried in the bottom tier because of a single review where the reviewer just happened to not like the song (and then no one else touched it as a result).

OCR already judges the songs that get on the site. They don't need to be further judged by the listeners, so that you wind up with songs no one listens to because a few people didn't like them. That would defeat the entire point of OCR's judging process.

As the old saying goes, you can't please everyone. But OCR's done just fine with these policies in place, and I can't imagine djp's going to reverse them anytime soon.

[Gario]

To add to that point, take a look at how things are currently run on Newgrounds.com. A public voting system is ripe for abuse - the people that gather the audience are generally the people that are willing to promote themselves by either spending every day ranking their own song as high as possible or by advertising their work endlessly - quite often even good tracks get buried behind the tracks that people spend the time to pimp.

Because OCR has a quality panel that every single track is run through, everything is roughly at the same tier as everything else (at least most of the music from 2006 on; the standards have risen steadily over the years), so there is no need for another voting system for the sake of quality control. You shouldn't be looking for the 'best' song, because every track that is on here is very well done, and there's no way that a crowd of people will be able to tell you what your favorite piece will be, since at this level of production it's entirely up to everyone's personal taste.

So yeah, the big 'problem' with the site is that everything is really well done. Not a problem that we mind having, I don't think.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Too much good music is a legitimate complaint.

[Spectre]

Thanks for the fair responses. I can see where you're coming from in some regards, but I think I'm looking at things a bit differently. I would just like it if there was a way to see a subset of a few great songs at a time. Maybe a "this week's featured songs" section where the site admins could take turns picking out three or four of their favorites every week to highlight some of the truly best songs on the site. Just to give a taste of what greatness can be found in the OCRemix catalog.

But hey, that's just me. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, I really do love this site and really have been coming back for years. I just wanted to throw out my 2¢ on the issue.

[Gario]

Well, the closest you'll come to that is the Russian ReMix Roulette. You won't find the J's advertising favorites, as once that starts happening the site will run into the problem discussed. Even worse (and from what I hear this has happened in the past, though perhaps not with the judges, per se), the judges comparing remixers against one another (that is, having a remixer remain a consistent favorite and having plenty of others get ignored on 'favorites' listings) causes plenty of bad blood to be spread among not only the fans, but sometimes even the remixers themselves. Unlike other sites where people share their music freely, this place is home to a relatively small pool of remixers, so favorite remixers lists are more personal (and as a result, abrasive) to the other mixers, as a result.

Glad you still love the site, though.

[Spectre]

Unlike other sites where people share their music freely, this place is home to a relatively small pool of remixers

Hmm, okay that's something I hadn't really considered but that makes a fair amount of sense. I guess I've gotten too used to sites like youtube with huge user bases where community relations aren't as important.