"Moving on" from OC ReMix (split from BGC apology)

[djpretzel]

Reading the topic's title and seeing djp's name over the first message gave me a mini-heart attack.

I'm stuck here

[HoboKa]

I'm stuck here

So...do I get a hug from you too?

No? /wrists q.q (//_-)

Edited September 25, 2013 by HoboKa

[big giant circles]

If your end goal is only to maximize personal revenue, writing music is probably not optimal, but if your end goal is to literally and figuratively ANNIHILATE A FAMOUS COMPOSER AT STREET FIGHTER 2, then you just need to imagine how good it is to be me. Welcome to the League of OA.

I still feel the sting of this, after all these years.

Larry's opinions have been ridiculous of late.

some things never change

[Cash]

I've always been a fan of your music, BGC. Best of luck to you in your career! I'll follow your work wherever you go (if "go" is the correct word). And if you decide to submit another remix or work on a project here on OCR, that's an awesome bonus.

I missed all the drama, but I'm not sure why there was a negative reaction to your decision to put less time into OCR. I mean it's not like your saying OCR sucks, I guess there's always a group of people that like to vent on the internet.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Cash

[Platonist]

This is a welcomed topic.

Reading it made me feel like an outsider compared to how I normally think about (or identify with) OCR. I guess I've always been the quiet person in these situations, even if I tend to make a lot of unwanted noise once I do open my mouth. I've been around for 7 years now, rarely interacting, just lurking week after week, month after month.

(Here, I'll let BGC (who I think I've never talked to/chatted with ever) express my exact sentiment on why I think that is...)

That said, I've finally learned in recent years that for whatever reason there's a LOT of negativity on internet forums. It's not just OCR--it doesn't matter what the clique or theme is, there's just an abundance of hateful/judgemental/elitist people that infect virtually every internet forum I've ever read from, whether as a registered member, passing by, google searching, or otherwise.

And I seem to have handled it the exact same way as you did, Jimmy. Avoiding it. I got off to a fairly bad start with some of you, and I think that scared me enough to make that innate silence permanent. It's really good to know that someone with 3000 posts can feel the same way. I've wanted to express this for a while, but found no way to do it until now.

A heartfelt apology to the people who I've accidentally insulted or trampled on while unjustly trying to defend myself (being a hot-headed baka) is a first step for me. Taking that today - now. I'm Sorry. I don't know if anyone from back then reads this at all, but I'm throwing it out there anyway.

I don't know if I'll manage to change and get more involved in the community somehow, but at least I'm determined to try.

All that aside, congratulations on your success Jimmy!

I'm insanely jealous!

Edited September 26, 2013 by Platonist

[XPRTNovice]

That said, I've finally learned in recent years that for whatever reason there's a LOT of negativity on internet forums. It's not just OCR--it doesn't matter what the clique or theme is, there's just an abundance of hateful/judgemental/elitist people that infect virtually every internet forum I've ever read from, whether as a registered member, passing by, google searching, or otherwise.

This bothers the piss out of me. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to give internet tough guys wedgies and tell them to go learn how to approach people with some tact and grace. The illusion of anonymity did bad things for humanity and poisons so many threads.

Back to the core of the topic, I love OCR and I'm so happy I found this place last year. I kind of consider it home base, and I will probably always consider it home base even if I'm the next HinsonZimmer-ShoreElfmanVersa. It's (musically) a safe environment where you can experiment, and get some honest, generally polite opinions on stuff. And, make some great connections and meet cool people. And hear some fucking amazing music. So why would anyone ever move on?

[StreetFlare]

Well, I can still say that one of BGC's remixes, Chivalry Begins, can still bring me to tears when I sing along to it. And up until I found out about the weird-ass tuning, I wanted to play a cover of it. Now, I'm questioning the sanity of that (Both the cover, and the tuning). It's too beautiful a song for me to cover, but it inspired me to start writing music again, which, as a acoustic guitar player/vocalist, is a good sign for me. Haven't had much luck/time since starting uni, but I love that song, it's one of my all-time favorites.

As for all the clique issues.... I've been an administrator on a wiki for many years now, and I can attest that cliques are a major problem. Before I ended up as the guy running the wiki, the former team dealt with things as a clique, and almost split the userbase in half with some of their decisions. Me? Being in Australia on a glitch-ridden old PC, I could barely access the sites they were using for discussion, so I had no say on what was happening. Now, with a new PC and the discussions happening on-site, the cliques are still there... but have no power. I don't know why I'm telling this story.

As a plus-side, finally got Reaper, so maybe my name will be up on here, with Remixer credits. I know I'm nowhere near good enough to be the next BGC/XPRTNovice/Zyko/Pot Hocket/Level 99 (all of which, btw, have songs I ADORE), but I think my own style, as well as collaberations, might just help me find my way as a musician after my hopes of being heard in person at open mic nights and talent quests was crushed by high school teachers & other students. This might just save my love of playing music, it certainly has diversified the styles I listen to.

Edited September 26, 2013 by StreetFlare

[The Coop]

Wow. I don't come on the forums for a little bit, and I miss all the drama.

Someone summarize everything that happened in the form of a Glee musical. GO!

[Brandon Strader]

[edit]copy+pasted from my FB response to DJP when the thread was still locked [/edit]

Yo! Sorry about my wording in that thread. I wish I could reply in the thread to clear some air, but at the very least I feel compelled to say that in the heat of replying to Brandon's derpness, naturally some of my wording is flawed. I just wanted you to know that when I said "moved on" I absolutely did not mean it in the way you seem to have taken it, and I regret that I couldn't think of a more effective way of conveying what I meant.

I do want to point out that, while I agree with your principle based on your interpretation, to me there absolutely *is* a difference between when I was writing music as a hobby and working shitty jobs at quick-lube stations or Home Depot and that magical moment when I realized I could actually write music full time for my paycheck (as I'd wanted to do all along). Would "leveled up to writing music professionally" have been a better choice of words then? I know it still implies some degree of categorical thinking, but seeing as making the transition to writing music for a living IS an advancement of a certain kind (and I really do think most people would agree), I feel I'm justified in conveying that basic principle at least.

I definitely have not moved on in the sense that I will never write anything for OCR again (independent or album project-wise), never comment on any thread that doesn't have to do with one of my projects, never encourage others to check out the site, never share OCR news & such on my own network, of course not. Far from it. And of course you know that since "going pro", like Jake, I've still remixed for OCR. That said, I confess there is a degree of validity to the accusation of how little I contribute to the forums that I feel guilty for--I probably should make a bit more effort to visually interact from time to time. That said, I've finally learned in recent years that for whatever reason there's a LOT of negativity on internet forums. It's not just OCR--it doesn't matter what the clique or theme is, there's just an abundance of hateful/judgemental/elitist people that infect virtually every internet forum I've ever read from, whether as a registered member, passing by, google searching, or otherwise.

I even speculated on this yesterday - https://twitter.com/BigGiantCircles/status/382561540177534977

But it absolutely does exist on OCR. And it's probably no secret that I don't deal well with it, and like many people I hate the idea of someone getting a last word in that slights me somehow, and then I feel compelled to waste hours of my time engaging in pointless (and usually very wordy) debates that truly do little more than upset my mood and cause me to lie awake in bed. (I don't consider this that, because you weren't attacking or snarking me in anyway). But Meteo and Brandon, I feel their responses were, and they were also riddled with resentful ignorance. And aside from those two, there's a handful of other people who IMO consistently dominate the forums with snarky condescension and constant negativity. And maybe pulling out of virtually all forum partipation together is a weak way to handle it, but it did remove a lot of that negativity from my life and free up a lot of wasted time. And over the years I generally managed to achieve a fairly unanimous "nice guy" status, which I'm both thankful for and more than a little amazed by, because while I do strive to actually BE a nice guy, I've definitely got more than my share of vices. I tend to blow up and unload on people from time to time usually in a quite unnecessary fashion, and occasionally I play the "Eff it, I've had enough and I don't care what people think, this is what I'm gonna say" card, which is not very characteristic of a nice guy. And then sometimes I just make bad judgement calls. And let's not leave out honest mistakes (like poorly wording a sentiment, such as "moved on to the next level of writing music").

At any rate, despite all that, I will try to pop in and be more visibly active on the forums from now on, even if that just means avoiding hot topics and debate (which to me will not always be easy) and just throwing a small comment in here and there. I'm still writing video game remixes, but I racked up a rather large IOU bill from Impostor Nostalgia that I'm still paying off (I've done several free remixes for Danny, C418, Disasterpeace, Josh Whelchel, Alex, Souleye, and I still have a rather large to-do list for various other people I owe favors too) so my absence from OCR projects is more because I just have a lot of catching up to do first. But I promise, OCR has not seen the last of BGC remixes.

Anyway, you may already know, but I'll gladly acknowledge any second of any day that I probably would not be doing what I'm doing for a living now if not for OCR, and I'm very grateful to the community, the site, and you for that. It's never been my intent to offend anyone there, and I apologize for any poor conveyance of my feelings in the past, present, and future. I had a blast hanging with you guys at PAX, I wish I could have done more of it. I'll continue to promote and shoutout to OCR in every single interview or PR-thing I will ever be a part of. My kickstarter is doing better than I'd hoped, and I'm sure you can relate it's both a very exciting and stressful time, and requires basically a full-time amount of juggling and updating. In hindsight, maybe I should have just ignored Brandon. But what happened happened, and I only hope there's no weirdness between you and I. You've always been a good friend, and I hope I never do anything to upset that.

I can't help but feel demonized but I guess it's my fault. I never intended to call into question your new work or anything you've done outside of OCR or your future fame. It wasn't my intention to troll you or make you mad, or make you feel like you have to leave or make you want to not be a part of the forums, that was never my intention. It was wrong of me to say that you need to post here more often, if you want to pop in and be a little more active like you mentioned above, I'm all for that and will be glad to see you around. But I was wrong, you're more than justified to do what you choose, and hopefully you do not feel coerced in any way to do something you don't want to. I like your music, and not just your remixes, I remember getting "You Can Have Mine" and I loved it and the purpose of it. It would be nice to see you around more but by no means should you feel forced to come around, and hopefully you won't feel like I am keeping you away. For what it's worth I agree with what you and djpretzel had to say.

Wow. I don't come on the forums for a little bit, and I miss all the drama.

Someone summarize everything that happened in the form of a Glee musical. GO!

[crazyhaze32]

While I may not have posted much, as I told Larry as I had to leave a little bit early from the PAX meetup to sprint to an interview, I have been listening to OC remix since around 2001. Back in college in the early days of Napster, while others were downloading albums illegally, I was generally searching for video game remixes. And from time to time I would see new mp3's pop up with the word ocremix attached to it. At first I didn't know what it was pertaining to, over time I found it was in reference to this community.

As stated I haven't posted much. Frankly I have no musical talent, and use my sound editing know how to do podcasts, and my insatiable resilience from shutting up to start doing written media in gaming. My point is, even though I may have only commented only 20 or so times total, and might be able to try beatboxing a mashup between shadow's song from ff3 and song of storms, I still feel a part of the community.

One of my favorite sayings is "excuses are the nails that build the house of failure." While I usually refer to that saying when people disappoint me, in this case, I think that as a lot has been said and I think it is a good point for people to move forward together. As someone at the bottom of the proverbial communal totem pole, I just wanted to make mention that all it really takes to be a part of the community is to be a fan and be supportive of the site and all artists. My use of the saying here is that if there are regrets or things said that they wished they hadn't. A simple I am sorry should suffice at this point as I interpret a lot of passion for OCR on all sides of this discussion.

As in life friends and people move on and what not, but it is those that come back and still speak highly of you that are truly friends and regardless of what projects new or old, whether or not you make music or just listen, I think we can see from a lot of the fallout from everything is there is oodles of respect for the OCR, and at the end of the day, that should what everyone should be able to settle upon. I just wanted to get that off my chest

Edited September 27, 2013 by crazyhaze32

[Patrick Burns]

Larry's opinions have been ridiculous of late.

Humor aside, a relevant comment I remember reading from Larry some time ago was something to the effect of "not paying much attention to the kind of person someone is on a forum because people are often very different in real life." I think that's true to a great extent -- for some more than others. There's something about the empty text field, the absence of any non-verbal cues, limited expression/feedback, etc. . . the internet really is an alternate plane of character for a lot of us -- anonymous or not. Living, moving faces solicit empathy and understanding much better than avatars and italics.

For the purposes of simply enjoying other people, I've found myself increasingly disinterested in recent years from forums and social networking. It really just feels like . . . saran wrap, for lack of a better word.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Patrick Burns

[Gario]

Wow. I don't come on the forums for a little bit, and I miss all the drama.

No kidding - terrible time to catch the flu.

Oh hey, it's BGC. 'Sup, I still love your music.

[Lyrai]

I've always seen this sort of thing as like a college store carrying works from their students or graduates. You're not "whoring it out," the college is basically going HEY MAN CHECK OUT THIS SHIT THAT ONE OF US DID. Granted, there's potential for abuse, but everyone's usually pretty good about either chewing the head off of abusers, or just ignoring them and letting them die.

I just listen to music, so I'm not sure how much weight my opinion carries in this sort of thing, but that's how I saw BGC. He went to OverClocked University for a bit, started moving on up, and then the OverClocked School Store stocked his album...this...analogy breaks down if you think about it too hard, but the base point is there.

He's not whoring himself out in a tactless sense, in my opinion, is I guess the general gist. I am sad that I missed the slapfight in the actual thread though. Forum drama is my favorite thing to watch.

[ectogemia]

One reason some artists I know have "moved on" from OCR -- or perhaps more accurately, have greatly shifted their musical efforts away from OCR contributions -- is because OCR doesn't flex its promotional muscle strongly enough or often enough for its artists. I'm recalling an instance in which OCR promoted a friend's facebook page, and because of that single post, that friend netted over 100 likes in a single day. There's some solid promotional power under OCR's hood, but the gas pedal only gets tapped from time to time, in my opinion.

Out of 41 lines in the Youtube video description for a posted remix, only 2 mention the artist who created the remix, and neither of those lines are links to any further content from the artist. That's not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners. I don't consider having my name typed somewhere in a wall of text to be promotion at all. The remaining 39 lines are about OCR itself, including links and a description of the site, etc. This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

When the Animal Crossing remix album I co-wrote was released, we decided to release it outside OCR partly for promotional reasons, and I think that was a good decision because the album ended up being very successful from both a financial and promotional standpoint.

All that being said, I've been afforded a lot of great opportunities thanks to OCR, chief among them being your awesomely generous offer to have me aboard on the Capcom-collab Mega Man anniversary album which was really a dream opportunity as a fan and composer. I just think OCR needs to become more artist-centric rather than OCR-centric if there's a growing concern about major or frequent contributors "moving on" from the community.

[Argle]

This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

I can't count the number of times I've read something to the effect of, "I don't know how you keep releasing so many awesome remixes!" As if OCR is a single entity that is producing all the mixes.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

One reason some artists I know have "moved on" from OCR -- or perhaps more accurately, have greatly shifted their musical efforts away from OCR contributions -- is because OCR doesn't flex its promotional muscle strongly enough or often enough for its artists. I'm recalling an instance in which OCR promoted a friend's facebook page, and because of that single post, that friend netted over 100 likes in a single day. There's some solid promotional power under OCR's hood, but the gas pedal only gets tapped from time to time, in my opinion.

Out of 41 lines in the Youtube video description for a posted remix, only 2 mention the artist who created the remix, and neither of those lines are links to any further content from the artist. That's not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners. I don't consider having my name typed somewhere in a wall of text to be promotion at all. The remaining 39 lines are about OCR itself, including links and a description of the site, etc. This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

When the Animal Crossing remix album I co-wrote was released, we decided to release it outside OCR partly for promotional reasons, and I think that was a good decision because the album ended up being very successful from both a financial and promotional standpoint.

All that being said, I've been afforded a lot of great opportunities thanks to OCR, chief among them being your awesomely generous offer to have me aboard on the Capcom-collab Mega Man anniversary album which was really a dream opportunity as a fan and composer. I just think OCR needs to become more artist-centric rather than OCR-centric if there's a growing concern about major or frequent contributors "moving on" from the community.

Interesting points that I never thought about before.

For me, over the past year I've worked on 3 remixes that have been submitted. All of which are collabs. The most recent was that FF track with Argle and the other guys.

I'm hoping at least one of the tracks passes just so that I can say I contributed to the music on the site. Other than that, I don't plan to sub any more remixes; possible exception would be if there was a cool album project I could join. For me, it doesn't matter anymore how many people listen to my music or what kind of exposure I get as I've learned that in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't make a difference.

My reasoning for no moar subs is that it takes a long time and the arrangement visions OCR has for its music. Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not bitching about either of those; people have lives, they get lots of submissions and they have a vision/standards for the remixes on the site. All of that is totally understandable and fair.

But, I can't really justify the effort to make an "OCR" style arrangement of a track (which can sometimes be limiting as you start doing things just for the sake of meeting arrangement standards and not because it meets YOUR vision of the track) only for it to be voted on six months to a year later and posted who knows when after that. All of that time I could spend on composing originals (I still want to write my own album like I've always wanted) or if I do VGM arrangements, I don't have to worry about whether or not it will pass or fail anything and then have to re-do it and do the process over again.

Like I say, I'm not complaining about it, but I don't think I'm the only person who feels that way. I mean, there are people on this site who still do music, but haven't submitted anything to OCR in a long, long time. I can't imagine "abandoning" the site though. This is easily the coolest online music community I've seen. I've gotten more useful advice and heard more awesome tracks than any other music forum I've been on.

[zircon]

I personally never understood how people could think the OCR arrangement standards are limiting. They just require some personalization. I don't think any of my remixes are particularly liberal... in fact they tend to stay pretty close to the source tempos, moods, chords, etc. I just add a little extra flair in the way of some solos and variations to make it my own. Is it really limiting to expect that?

As for not submitting your stuff, yeah, the wait is pretty long. But it's not like you have to hold your breath during that time, right? You can still post it elsewhere. Furthermore, you don't HAVE to redo things if the track gets rejected. You could just take the feedback into account for your next track. There's basically no harm in submitting something.

[ellywu2]

Larry's opinion is too crushing for our fragile egos.

[The Coop]

Larry's opinion is too crushing for our fragile egos.

Especially when he adds at the end. It's like being mocked by Shao Khan.

[Mirby]

C'mon guys, you just need to bribe him with McRibs. It's that easy!

[Argle]

Interesting points that I never thought about before.

For me, over the past year I've worked on 3 remixes that have been submitted. All of which are collabs. The most recent was that FF track with Argle and the other guys.

I'm hoping at least one of the tracks passes just so that I can say I contributed to the music on the site. Other than that, I don't plan to sub any more remixes; possible exception would be if there was a cool album project I could join. For me, it doesn't matter anymore how many people listen to my music or what kind of exposure I get as I've learned that in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't make a difference.

My reasoning for no moar subs is that it takes a long time and the arrangement visions OCR has for its music. Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not bitching about either of those; people have lives, they get lots of submissions and they have a vision/standards for the remixes on the site. All of that is totally understandable and fair.

But, I can't really justify the effort to make an "OCR" style arrangement of a track (which can sometimes be limiting as you start doing things just for the sake of meeting arrangement standards and not because it meets YOUR vision of the track) only for it to be voted on six months to a year later and posted who knows when after that. All of that time I could spend on composing originals (I still want to write my own album like I've always wanted) or if I do VGM arrangements, I don't have to worry about whether or not it will pass or fail anything and then have to re-do it and do the process over again.

Like I say, I'm not complaining about it, but I don't think I'm the only person who feels that way. I mean, there are people on this site who still do music, but haven't submitted anything to OCR in a long, long time. I can't imagine "abandoning" the site though. This is easily the coolest online music community I've seen. I've gotten more useful advice and heard more awesome tracks than any other music forum I've been on.

For my own part I have come to the point where I'm not interested in writing original music anymore. I haven't written a track in years. So OCR gives me an outlet to keep making music rather than quitting, which I was considering last year. I don't mind abiding by their standards because it's still lots of fun to rearrange video game themes I grew up with. Of the tracks I've had passed, I don't feel that I had to compromise my vision on any of them. idk, that's just my view.

[Melbu Frahma]

One reason some artists I know have "moved on" from OCR -- or perhaps more accurately, have greatly shifted their musical efforts away from OCR contributions -- is because OCR doesn't flex its promotional muscle strongly enough or often enough for its artists. I'm recalling an instance in which OCR promoted a friend's facebook page, and because of that single post, that friend netted over 100 likes in a single day. There's some solid promotional power under OCR's hood, but the gas pedal only gets tapped from time to time, in my opinion.

Out of 41 lines in the Youtube video description for a posted remix, only 2 mention the artist who created the remix, and neither of those lines are links to any further content from the artist. That's not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners. I don't consider having my name typed somewhere in a wall of text to be promotion at all. The remaining 39 lines are about OCR itself, including links and a description of the site, etc. This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

When the Animal Crossing remix album I co-wrote was released, we decided to release it outside OCR partly for promotional reasons, and I think that was a good decision because the album ended up being very successful from both a financial and promotional standpoint.

All that being said, I've been afforded a lot of great opportunities thanks to OCR, chief among them being your awesomely generous offer to have me aboard on the Capcom-collab Mega Man anniversary album which was really a dream opportunity as a fan and composer. I just think OCR needs to become more artist-centric rather than OCR-centric if there's a growing concern about major or frequent contributors "moving on" from the community.

There's definitely a lot of good points in here. For myself, as purely a listener on the site, I've always thought it odd that OCR doesn't do more promotion outside of the site itself for the talented remixers that submit here. Having said that, I've always thought OCR does do an excellent job of promoting contributor's music within the site (mixposts to promote albums, allowing contributors to post albums in the forums, linking to other cool things the remixers have done when mixposts go up, etc.)

[timaeus222]

One reason some artists I know have "moved on" from OCR -- or perhaps more accurately, have greatly shifted their musical efforts away from OCR contributions -- is because OCR doesn't flex its promotional muscle strongly enough or often enough for its artists. I'm recalling an instance in which OCR promoted a friend's facebook page, and because of that single post, that friend netted over 100 likes in a single day. There's some solid promotional power under OCR's hood, but the gas pedal only gets tapped from time to time, in my opinion.

Out of 41 lines in the Youtube video description for a posted remix, only 2 mention the artist who created the remix, and neither of those lines are links to any further content from the artist. That's not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners. I don't consider having my name typed somewhere in a wall of text to be promotion at all. The remaining 39 lines are about OCR itself, including links and a description of the site, etc. This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

When the Animal Crossing remix album I co-wrote was released, we decided to release it outside OCR partly for promotional reasons, and I think that was a good decision because the album ended up being very successful from both a financial and promotional standpoint.

All that being said, I've been afforded a lot of great opportunities thanks to OCR, chief among them being your awesomely generous offer to have me aboard on the Capcom-collab Mega Man anniversary album which was really a dream opportunity as a fan and composer. I just think OCR needs to become more artist-centric rather than OCR-centric if there's a growing concern about major or frequent contributors "moving on" from the community.

While I agree with some of this, even though the YouTube description is "not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners", it's the top two lines. They prioritize making it known who the remixers are because those two lines are on the very top. The staff doesn't want to seem biased for any particular person or group, or certain people will get more popularity than others, and that's not how OCR rolls. Every artist is as important as any other. Any YouTube commenter who doesn't know who actually wrote the ReMix didn't read the description. The info's right there, so if it doesn't register, it's not OCR's fault. I've been a YouTuber for long enough to be able to affirm that too many people on YouTube don't read video descriptions. I go "oh mah gawd read it" every other day.

Edited September 28, 2013 by timaeus222

[Moguta]

One reason some artists I know have "moved on" from OCR -- or perhaps more accurately, have greatly shifted their musical efforts away from OCR contributions -- is because OCR doesn't flex its promotional muscle strongly enough or often enough for its artists. I'm recalling an instance in which OCR promoted a friend's facebook page, and because of that single post, that friend netted over 100 likes in a single day. There's some solid promotional power under OCR's hood, but the gas pedal only gets tapped from time to time, in my opinion.

Out of 41 lines in the Youtube video description for a posted remix, only 2 mention the artist who created the remix, and neither of those lines are links to any further content from the artist. That's not even 5% of the description that an artist can rely on for promotion and information about themselves and their music to be communicated to listeners. I don't consider having my name typed somewhere in a wall of text to be promotion at all. The remaining 39 lines are about OCR itself, including links and a description of the site, etc. This seems to lead to a common, depressing Youtube comment motif that OCR is a person, a remixer him/herself, not a community of remixers.

(Bolded for emphasis)

I think your whole post is full of fair points. It's unlikely that Dave or any of OCR intended to de-emphasize the artists, it probably occurred simply from not thinking about YouTube videos from the perspective of an artist wanting to promote their music. Now, I don't post the YouTube descriptions, but this seems to be easily fixable! Every artist has a "homepage" field, so it wouldn't seem difficult to change the artist mention to something like:

DOWNLOAD IT FREE at OC ReMix! http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02699/

ReMixers: Jake Kaufman (virt) - http://www.biglionmusic.com/ • Tommy Pedrini - http://tommy.la/

FREE at http://ocremix.org • SHIRTS & HOODIES! http://ocremix.org/store/ • DONATE! http://bit.ly/ocrPayPal

Facebook! http://facebook.com/ocremix • Twitter! http://twitter.com/ocremix

• Game: Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994, SNES)

• ReMixer(s): Jake Kaufman (http://www.biglionmusic.com/), Tommy Pedrini (http://tommy.la/)

• Composer(s): Nobuo Uematsu

• Song(s): 'Aria de Mezzo Carattere', 'Grand Finale?', 'Overture', 'The Wedding'

• Posted: 2013-07-01, evaluated by djpretzel

Seems like a positive solution.

[Esperado]

This community is actually a really good one as far as forums go in my opinion. we have fights, and certainly drama ( especially over in that off topic section) but the forum itself really shines as being a solid community if you ask me. ive grown more as a musician in the less than year ive been active here, than i ever did at any other hobby ive tried in my life. Its all because of how supportive some of you guys are and how much talent lurks here.if you have patience and good ears, its like jedi school for musicians.