The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Not to get back on the long fights issue, but, well I am....

I am not one to make suggestions that would just benefit myself. I honestly thought this was a good idea. I could think of a hefty list of reasons why it would improve things for a lot of people and no reasons at all why it would make things worse. The sarcastic reactions I got to it were surprising and discouraging. JB's reaction, in particular, I found upsetting, basically "stop whining or we'll ignore you". As a fighmaster I think he has a responsibility to act a little more politely to people honestly offering up suggestions. Or, well I guess he doesn't. I didn't get any constructive discussion of the idea other than "ain't broke don't fix it" or "you're being selfish suggesting something that would benefit yourself" or "go to somesongs". F'r cryin out loud.

Songfight is a great, great thing. But it heavily leans in favor of people with nothing else going on in their lives. I'm not just talking about myself here. I can think of five occasions off the top of my head where I had an exchange similar to this in the last year:

ME: (to a fellow songwriter) There's this great place called Songfight. You should check it out. (explains Songfight)
HIM: Wow, that sounds so cool! I'm going to check that out!
ME: Yeah! Your stuff is good, and since you're telling me you wish people could hear your stuff, this is a perfect opportunity!
HIM: Yeah, maybe I will! So... you say the titles last for one week?
ME: That's right
HIM: Never any longer?
ME: Occasionally ten days, but you never know in advance.
HIM: My band only practices about that often. We could never get something together in that time. We all have other lives, too. Oh well... (promptly forgets all about Songfight)

Anyway, I'm not really taking it personally, I'm just discouraged that I can't participate very often and have to sit on the sidelines week after week.

Mostess wrote: FBF: Whence this waffling wimpiness?

Haha. Well, I'm trying to be diplomatic, I guess. I was going to add something in my original post about people consulting any dictionary if they were confused about the definition of a song (a word which sounds an awful lot like sing, sang and sung, don't you think?). But I didn't want to spark the ensuing controversy.

I will probably never enter an instrumental and I will probably never vote for an instrumental. I looked at the list someone (caravan ray?) posted and thought about which I would have voted for. But it was impossible, because I highly doubt a title like "Baby Elephant Walk" would ever appear on SF. But any, I digress....

I highly doubt the FM's will make a rule banning instrumentals. I also doubt they will put a note in the FAQ that acknowledges instrumentals as "songs." But maybe they would add something like "Instrumentals are welcome, but you should probably skip the messageboard that week because people are going to berate you for not understanding the definition of a song." That would probably suffice.

Less whimpy?

frankie big face wrote:"Instrumentals are welcome, but you should probably skip the messageboard that week because people are going to berate you for not understanding the definition of a song."

That's all I'm sayin'. Reduces confusion. Confusion is bad. Controversy is fine.

ME: Why are people posting paraphrased conversations?
ME2: Maybe they're too lazy to go find the one they are thinking of?
ME: Maybe it doesn't exist?
ME3: Hey guys what's going on here?
ME: Nothing. Just reading some threads, drinking a bud.
ME4: Whazzuupppppp?
ME2: HEY MAN!!! WHAZAAUUPPPPP????
ME5: That's so old.
ME:So's the conversation about what is a song and if instrumentals should be allowed, but that isn't stopping anyone....
ME2: How'd your archive listen go yesterday?
ME: Kick ass. Listened to Golf Punk Cadillac... interesting how songfight has evolved. Wonder if they ever slagged on instrumentals....