a re-introduction

[drproximo]

Back in 2016 I made a post, talking about a previous failed attempt to complete a songfight entry in the early days, then announcing my intention to actually start making songs. It didn't happen, and I fell off the forum very soon after.

At the time, I had done a sloppy nerdcore rap demo for the RPM Challenge, and I assumed that I would be starting my own songfight nerdcore journey (MC Frontalot was my gateway to both nerdcore and songfight), but I guess I overestimated my motivation and capacity. Anyway, I've done several more albums for RPM since then, and I've branched out into several other genres and projects in doing so. This year, after doing another RPM album, I decided to start getting into RPM's side challenge, REM (Record Every Month). The monthly REM challenge is only for a single song (although I actually did a whole album for my first REM anyway) I don't recall exactly what it was that prompted me to dive back into songfight, but at some point I realized that I could use a songfight entry as an REM entry, and I made the decision.

"Young Punk" didn't really speak to me. I kept trying to come up with ideas, but the problem is, I had recently watched a video essay about the absolute disaster of an album, Cut the Crap by The Clash, and there's a song on that album called "Dirty Punk". So every time I tried rolling the phrase "Young Punk" in my head, trying to come up with lyrics, Joe Strummer stuck his head in singing "I am a dirty punk!", and I just couldn't come up with anything of my own.

Thankfully "Witty Retort" spoke to me. I wrote a song, prepared the backing track... and then remembered that my singing voice is absolutely shot when it comes to anything soft or melodic. Thankfully, Hot Pink Halo offered to provide vocals, so we collaborated, and the result is under the name "timtambit". Additionally, there was a call-out for more submissions, and I managed to put together a solo song, submitted under the name DC Prox (I've been using that as my screen name on social media for several years, and I've been looking for an opportunity to use it for a music project, completely separate from my nerdcore stuff, so this was fortuitous).

So... hello again, and I'm super glad to finally be ACTUALLY part of this bizarre and wonderful project, even if I'm a couple decades late to the party.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Welcome. Glad you're here.

[fluffy]

Welcome (back) to Song Fight!. Please be awesome.

[drproximo]

It feels weird to put this here but honestly I don't know where else to put it. I left the Discord server and I'm leaving the forum, mostly because of the acceptance of generative AI. I'm not going to debate this, I don't have the energy or the wit for that endeavour, I've seen all the apologetics and excuses, I'm done. If you don't see that you're objectively making the world a worse place in multiple ways I'm not going to be the one to convince you otherwise, and if I can't even browse a comment thread without that slop assaulting my eyeballs, I'm out. And in the end, it's just easier to decide that the problem is that I'm being inflexible and unreasonable, right? There's no need for you to re-interrogate your positions on the matter.

I'm still going to participate in songfight now and then, but I won't be paying attention to the winners because voting doesn't matter any more.

Don't seek me out on other platforms to debate this with me. If you do, I will consider it harassment and respond accordingly.

[fluffy]

... What acceptance of generative AI?

[Pigfarmer Jr]

No idea. Maybe they thought a winning entry was AI generated?

[fluffy]

In case anyone is confused, we have a specific ban on AI-generated music and lyrics, and a strong preference for not using genAI on album artwork (although oftentimes the choice comes down to being between genAI art and no art at all). There's also some signs that some folks have been using LLMs to write some of their song reviews, which is definitely not in the spirit of Song Fight!.

Personally I'd like to see genAI not be used at all, and while I can't speak for the other admins I am pretty sure the community as a whole is opposed to genAI when they're aware of it being used.

Crafting a specific set of rules is tricky because there's always legitimate exceptions (for example for accessibility reasons) and I'm not interested in enacting the Butlerian Jihad (from Dune) but at the same time I also feel that genAI as it currently exists is a disaster among many axes.

[Lunkhead]

For more clarification, "no art at all" currently equals "we cannot post the fight" because of the way the site works. So the choice is more like, "gen AI art or no more Song Fight". So please help out and contribute some good old fashioned human made cover art!

And not to speak for dr but IIUC from their posts on Discord about this, my interpretation is that they were upset about two gen AI images posted to this review thread:

viewtopic.php?t=13002

[Caravan Ray]

And not to speak for dr but IIUC from their posts on Discord about this, my interpretation is that they were upset about two gen AI images posted to this review thread:

viewtopic.php?t=13002

Opps. Sorry. I guess that my bad. Haven’t been around for a while - I may have missed conversations around this. I find generated images amusing.

[jb]

Fascinating to see what hills ppl choose to die on.

If anyone else would like to leave, at least do us the courtesy of not assuming you know what we will think about it…

[drproximo]

I didn't want to perpetuate this but I feel obligated to clear up a misconception: yes, it was the sloppy slop in the review thread that had me thinking about leaving, but it was the flippant and ignorant apologetics that prompted me to accelerate the decision, as should have been obvious by the exchange that culminated with me saying "I'm done" before I bailed, but I suppose that version of events doesn't provide a convenient framing.

Also, please remove my song from the current round. I've sent a couple of emails about this, as it's legitimately a potential copyright issue, but at this point I'm asking for it to be removed out of sheer spite.

[jb]

How can we miss you if you won’t go away?

[fluffy]

I didn't want to perpetuate this but I feel obligated to clear up a misconception: yes, it was the sloppy slop in the review thread that had me thinking about leaving, but it was the flippant and ignorant apologetics that prompted me to accelerate the decision, as should have been obvious by the exchange that culminated with me saying "I'm done" before I bailed, but I suppose that version of events doesn't provide a convenient framing.

I might have missed something but I saw no apologetics, ignorant or otherwise, and certainly not in the posts you specifically called out as being apologetics. I think it might be a good idea to take a step back and a bit of a breather.

Regarding the copyright of your submission, I'd like to point to the FAQ:

What is Song Fight!'s stance on copyright?
Song Fight! takes no ownership of your music; however, you enter at your own risk. By submitting your song, you are authorizing us to post it permanently on a publicly viewable Web site where it can be downloaded by anyone.