I have a suggestion! O:

[DrZaius]

The suggestion is mostly in regards to, I don't know, helping the site get more attention or expanding its reach on the Internet... or something.

I came up with these ideas (and borrowed a few) when talking to some people in the chat room regarding the status of the site. These are just my personal opinions. Feel free to add your own.

1. The site needs to recruit a younger staff. The younger people have more time on their hands that can be wasted on updating the archives. Not to say the older staff should leave but they might not have as much time available anymore because of real life and careers and whatever.

2. There should be a dedicated youtube account that highlights some of the best MIDIs. Personally, I think there could just be a few people who are selected to update the account on a weekly basis. They just pick whatever MIDIs of the week they happen to like and upload those. Or they could also upload older MIDIs from the site. I guess it'd also be fair to leave a notice saying the MIDI would be removed if requested by the original sequencer.

The other way this could be done is through a system a similar community, the MUGEN community, uses to highlight quality creations. Every month, they have a vote held on some message boards for the best character, best stage, best creator for the month, etc. Maybe we could do something similar. Get a vote going, have best NES sequence, best SNES sequence, best sequencer for the month. The winners end up with their sequences uploaded to the youtube account.

3. Allow original MIDI creations to be uploaded. Give those MIDI users out there who don't just sequence VG music some place to go. Limiting the site to specifically VIDEO GAME MIDIs may not be the best idea these days. It might be better to expand the archive to allow any and all genres (but with clear emphasis on VG music).

4. An upload system similar to, say, newground's. By that I mean that when you upload a MIDI to New Files, others in the community vote on it and if the score is high enough after a certain number of votes or after a certain amount of time, it goes into the archive. If the score is too low, it's deleted. Maybe we can even have these files attached to the accounts of their creators so that they can easily be deleted if the creator wants to submit an update. The point, ultimately, is to remove some of the burden from staff and place it on the rest of the community.

I understand someone who knows how to implement this stuff is needed to get this done but maybe if we follow the simpler steps first to get more people, we can eventually find someone with the skills and time to do it.

[Monster Iestyn]

All of these sound good ideas to me for the most part, though personally I would really love it if something like #4 was finally implemented to this site, given I really don't like it when I have to fix mistakes in my MIDIs. =D

[solis]

These get my vote. I think those are some wonderful ideas.

[Blitz Lunar]

1. The site needs to recruit a younger staff. The younger people have more time on their hands that can be wasted on updating the archives. Not to say the older staff should leave but they might not have as much time available anymore because of real life and careers and whatever.

I think you're right, younger people are more likely to be enthusiastic about working on the site. But it's more a case of people with a bit of time, passion and not having the work be as overwhelming as it is currently. So age isn't the problem per se.

2. There should be a dedicated youtube account that highlights some of the best MIDIs. Personally, I think there could just be a few people who are selected to update the account on a weekly basis. They just pick whatever MIDIs of the week they happen to like and upload those. Or they could also upload older MIDIs from the site. I guess it'd also be fair to leave a notice saying the MIDI would be removed if requested by the original sequencer.

If some individuals wanna do this that's up to them I think but it's too tricky to try and decide what is a highlight and what isn't. Plus it brings in the issue of what midi device to record with, which might upset authors. Personally I think having a youtube profile that just collects together sequences uploaded by other vgmusicers accounts on youtube as playlists or favourites would be best.

3. Allow original MIDI creations to be uploaded. Give those MIDI users out there who don't just sequence VG music some place to go. Limiting the site to specifically VIDEO GAME MIDIs may not be the best idea these days. It might be better to expand the archive to allow any and all genres (but with clear emphasis on VG music).

Does anyone remember VGMOCA?
IMO it should remain a game music site, though some space for compositions made by members on the forum is an idea I've always been fond of.

4. An upload system similar to, say, newground's. By that I mean that when you upload a MIDI to New Files, others in the community vote on it and if the score is high enough after a certain number of votes or after a certain amount of time, it goes into the archive. If the score is too low, it's deleted. Maybe we can even have these files attached to the accounts of their creators so that they can easily be deleted if the creator wants to submit an update. The point, ultimately, is to remove some of the burden from staff and place it on the rest of the community.

Dissolving the new-files and instead having a kind of moderation/approval queue might be a good idea, or just straight into the archives plus having all staff moderate and fix stuff (maybe a much larger team of trusted editors.) It's pretty clear to me that having a small team of staff deal with adding stuff from the new-files is unsustainable and is why the site is tanking. If the site can be engineered to take care of itself more, that would be a step forward in my opinion. I am all in favour of more community participation.

As for ratings that's fine but I wouldn't personally want files to be approved or deleted by means of mob rule. That's too exploitable.

[DrZaius]

Plus it brings in the issue of what midi device to record with, which might upset authors.

Hmm, never thought of that.

Well, there's always the monthly vote thing and then the winners can record an mp3 for us.

Does anyone remember VGMOCA?

I DO!

[BlackJackRatso]

What I think happened is the same thing that happened to me. If I remember right quite a few members hit the college age and well get absorbed (like I did). I'm basically done with that stuff on my end and thus my re-appearance.

Here are my ideas:

- I do like the newgrounds idea, just going through what I have on my computer you could probably say that some older submissions may not quite be up to par with newer submissions. However what I would focus on is more promotion on Newgrounds itself. If I remember right it's pretty easy to post stuff on the front page and people there are always looking for composers for stuff. With this say someone puts out a game we can could link vgmusic on the game (I do hate "ads" in games but I do have the highest tendency to check out music for flash games/movies if anything)
*In addition to this we can link the composers of this site to say newgrounds where the non-vgmusic can go without any issues to this sites content.
*Sorry if it sounds like I'm promoting newgrounds, I just happen to be on there a lot

- In addition to say piano MIDIs add links for sheet music in addition to some of these songs (doesn't even have to be for piano). I think it would be safe to say that your average Joe may not have MIDI software but could be interested in sheet music and a quick PDF would fix that.

- One thing I also noticed is that there hasn't been much interest for the current generation of systems. Look at Final Fantasy XIII you'd think a game like that would get more attention on a site like this. So the lack of more "current" games could be an issue?

- The song of the day thing that showed up on the front page seems to have more of less failed. One thing I was thinking was if someone had any high class gear would be to record a couple of our better MIDIs with the higher quality so that those that complain about how "bad" MIDIs sound can hear the songs the way the sequencer heard it.
*I think a famitracker section for 8-bit mixes would a neat idea as well

- One thing that would probably rest more on Powerlord's end would be starting a "game night" of the sorts with say TF2? I know from our gamertag threads and whatnot and my own activity is that there hasn't been huge activity despite all the tags and stuff we have. Since TF2 is free to play I figured that would be a good starting point?

On a more personal side with my studies coming to an end I will probably be having a lot more free time. So I'd actually be willing to do something of sorts.

[Teck]

+1 to everything because I'm too lazy and dumb to provide my own input. :>

[DrZaius]

+1 to everything because I'm too lazy and dumb to provide my own input. :>

Opinion, shmopinion. Just go along with everyone else!

[Solaphar]

All of these sound good ideas to me for the most part, though personally I would really love it if something like #4 was finally implemented to this site, given I really don't like it when I have to fix mistakes in my MIDIs. =D

Seconded.

Idea #4 would likely be a huge help to submitters as well as somewhat alleviating the burden posed upon designated uploaders like Lunar, et al. I agree with Lunar about ratings not being cause for deletion and whatnot. Rather a 'Report' button (like what you see on YouTube) can be present for use when any blatantly problematic files appear, and then a staff member can take care of it if necessary (not a false report). Prevents rule by mob.

(Warning: Tangent) As for the other points, hmm... I think it's a tough pill for some of us to swallow, but MIDI has really declined as far as number of people interested in it. It really had it's heyday back in the 90's. That's not to say it's bad or not useful anymore. After all, there's still no other format like it and which fills its niche as well or as universally. You see things like .MUS or .SIB, used in Finale and Sibelius respectively, but are generally unusable in other programs. MIDI, on the other hand, functions in almost every music-editing program. It's just too universal to abandon at this point. With that said, I hope a new and upgraded version of MIDI comes into wide use, since its present form is not without limitations, especially in the number of instruments and playing-style variations on said instruments. For instance, you can't get wah guitar with standard midi, or slap guitar for that matter. I love both of those but can't write them with midi, instead having to sub in jazz or distortion guitar, or using higher pitched slapped-bass notes to mimic slapped guitar. And that's just one example, as there are many other instruments that have different playing techniques which cannot be properly rendered through MIDI.


Right now, I think the best way to reach out is to find music composers & transcribers who might also like video-game music. So I agree with your #2 point, since many of them inhabit YouTube. There are other places they can be found too, but YT is a good start. To address Lunar's point, any MIDI rendering should be done through the choice of the original transciber/sequencer person. Ideally the sequencer would do it themselves and then send an MP3 to vgmusic @ YouTube for upload to the channel. Thus avoiding conflicts that could potentially be brought about by a set standard. Lunar's idea about a favorites list is good too, but the issue with that is not every sequencer uploads their stuff to YT. A few might not even have a YT account (rare, but possible).

I can see the value of #3, as it gives original composers a venue to display some of their midi creations, and with them hanging around these parts, might help spur them into transcribing/sequencing of VG tunes. But as I mentioned earlier, MIDI is really in decline. Most composers these days would prefer to render their midi through something like FL Studio with VSTis and then upload the result to YouTube or SoundCloud to share. I imagine few would want to display the MIDI in it's base form, but I could be wrong about that. I also fear the slippery slope of where such a change of allowing uploading original works could lead, and if it might detract from the video game-centric focus of the site having a detrimental, rather than beneficial, effect to its overall health.


Finally, for idea #1: I think I agree with Lunar. I'd rather have staff who, regardless of age, love and appreciate VG music, especially in MIDI form, rather than staff who are selected simply because they might have a little more free time on their hands than current staff. One criteria should be a broad depth of knowledge about various tunes/composers across various systems. So, someone who likes older game tunes and not just newer ones from say, 2000 or later (and yes, a younger staff will have grown up with games from 1997-present). One anecdotal example: My own younger brother, who's 18 now, never touched an SNES, let alone an NES. He only knows what a Sega Genesis is because I used to own one a long time ago. And just forget about Master System, Atari, Commodre, and so on. Those are before me even. That's not to say that one has to have played any of those consoles, however, one should at least have listened to some of the music on those systems, or be willing to do so.


In any case, by all means, let's start with idea #4, including the alterations suggested by Lunar, since I can't see any drawbacks to it. #2 also seems decent. Ideas #1 and #3 still warrant much discussion and careful consideration.

The next step is to find a willing programmer who can implement #4. It'd be nice to find a volunteer or rather, a team of volunteers, but if we need to pay someone to put it together, we can set up a a donation thing and put up announcements on FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, etc to solicit help. I for one would be happy to chip in 10 or 20 bucks to help, and I'm sure many other would too, once the donation button was set up. Payment to the programmer(s) should come after the finished product is created though, just to ensure that the money is not wasted nor embezzled.

Having read a little further down now, I like Black Jack's idea about PDF's but the problem with that is how they would be rendered. I think it would have to come down to a system of optionally user-submitted PDF's in order to work, unless we could find a willing programmer(s) to make something that would automatically spit out inputted MIDI's using license-free software like LilyPond. I don't imagine that it would be an easy thing to accomplish, since another web-forum that I used to frequent discussed that very same idea a little over a year ago and, checking back there just now, looks like they haven't made much progress on it since those initials discussion steps.

/longarsedpost