Mysterious Song Contest - General Discussion

[Josh's Tattoo (Inactive)]

Thank you all for your comments, been really helpful in trying to find the best method for people to enjoy MSC/JMSC more, we will take all on board. We are currently in discussions on how the deadline format shall work for upcoming editions

[Gilberto]

I love how you didn't include FoM in that list lelelelel. I'll try to add as much feedback as I can:

I love the idea of first come first serve, imo that and the designs are the best characteristics of the contest. I'd say keep that.

What I actually think could be improved in MSC are mainly two things:

- There's a huge opening of songs, I mean, there can be beyond realistic relations with artists and countries (Dami Im for North Korea for example, and some more), that's a big let down in my opinion, maybe you could reduce that rule to parents only instead of grandparents. And whatever the outcome here is, be strict with this rule, it's very important.

- Deadlines, I'd say it'd be better to have stablished deadlines, like 7, 10, 15 days or as many as you consider. I know, I've been there, it sucks to see many people not voting, and with all the pain I have to disqualify them. At the end those same participants will most likely keep failing to vote in next editions. Generally I give at most one day after the deadline when I send PM's to those who are left and that generally works. Don't be afraid of diqualifying people, even if your number of players reduce to 40 or even 35, it will go back up soon.

I'm 50/50 about you allowing ''overused'' songs, considering the few recent editions.
About JMSC, I lost interest when an edition took months to finish, can't say much about that.

Finally, I wouldn't base myself on likes on your posts to measure interest, consider a lot of your players are kind of 'new' to the forums, or some others just don't tend to like posts, that doesn't mean they dislike it or anything. But let's admit the interest is dropping, it's good you opened this discussion.

If you enjoy hosting it, if you have the time and if there are at least some few people interested in it, there's no need for you to close it.

[Josh's Tattoo (Inactive)]

Dec 29, 2016 0:33:06 GMT 1 Gilberto said:

I love how you didn't include FoM in that list lelelelel. I'll try to add as much feedback as I can:

I love the idea of first come first serve, imo that and the designs are the best characteristics of the contest. I'd say keep that.

What I actually think could be improved in MSC are mainly two things:

- There's a huge opening of songs, I mean, there can be beyond realistic relations with artists and countries (Dami Im for North Korea for example, and some more), that's a big let down in my opinion, maybe you could reduce that rule to parents only instead of grandparents. And whatever the outcome here is, be strict with this rule, it's very important.

- Deadlines, I'd say it'd be better to have stablished deadlines, like 7, 10, 15 days or as many as you consider. I know, I've been there, it sucks to see many people not voting, and with all the pain I have to disqualify them. At the end those same participants will most likely keep failing to vote in next editions. Generally I give at most one day after the deadline when I send PM's to those who are left and that generally works. Don't be afraid of diqualifying people, even if your number of players reduce to 40 or even 35, it will go back up soon.

I'm 50/50 about you allowing ''overused'' songs, considering the few recent editions.
About JMSC, I lost interest when an edition took months to finish, can't say much about that.

Finally, I wouldn't base myself on likes on your posts to measure interest, consider a lot of your players are kind of 'new' to the forums, or some others just don't tend to like posts, that doesn't mean they dislike it or anything. But let's admit the interest is dropping, it's good you opened this discussion.

If you enoy hosting it, if you have the time and if there are at least some few people interested in it, there's no need for you to close it.

I agree with everyone that you have said and we will take it on board thank you Gilberto! 

[MaRtIn]

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MSC:

- It's accessible. MSC was the first contest I ever joined in this forum because of the easy accessibility of joining thanks to the "first come, first serve" rule. That's one of my favorite things about the contest. That was also the point when MSC was at its peak.
- It's inclusive. Because of the "first come, first serve" rule applied in each edition, each player can jump between countries for however many editions they want. What really fascinated me about the contest is how in almost every edition, we have at least one debuting country, and in recent editions, it's usually an obscure, underused country like Bhutan and Uruguay. The last time there was no debuting country was Edition 13, so that's really amazing.
----- As for overused songs, I don't mind it. It's the players' choice on whether to vote for it or not.
----- As for unrealistic representations of artists (like Dami Im for North Korea), I don't mind it either.
- The designs are unique. PowerPoint FTW! But seriously, there's definitely a lot of effort being put in the designs per edition, especially Edition 30 (my favorite aesthetically). The effort is even better shown through your website. It could use some polishing here and there, but overall, great job.
- It's straightforward. It's nice that you're not as flashy as NVSC/FC by not including Sneak Peeks, Betting Odds, Roleplaying, etc. The focus is only on the contests themselves.

---

WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT MSC:

- It's too lenient on deadlines. A popular saying in show business is "The show must go on." Personally, I'm patient, so I don't mind the loooooooong wait because I'm busy with other things. However, there are others who will forget about it because no deadline are set. Setting deadlines will motivate them to vote. If they fail to vote in time, too bad. I would even suggest sending PM reminders to really put pressure on the players.
- It's too slow. What I mean by that is because of the lack of a solid deadline, the contest becomes stagnant, so the interest dwindles. If you're going to have people stay interested in this contest, you gotta get on with the program, which means setting strict solid deadlines. I think I just repeated myself, but whatever. This essentially applies to JMSC Edition 04. What took so long?

---

DO NOT CLOSE THIS CONTEST.

- Unless you want to.
- However, there are more than enough people who are willing to participate in MSC, myself included. We can go back to 21 countries like in MSC 24 if we have to.

---

Have a good day.

[Guilep]

This is one of two contests of this forum which I still take part

[LazyPam]

I'm not for closing the contest because it's one of the rare contests where I can have Sweden . But now on serious note - I love the contest because everyone can have an opportunity to have their chance. But there's always something to comment or don't like.

For instance:
Don't hesitate of having a deadline. Many people use you because you don't have one and still someone won’t vote.

Don't hesitate of giving bans or strikes for people who didn't vote. After all, it's been a fu**ing month.

And the last - don't hesitate of rejecting songs. The overused ones. For instance, I love "Zaljuljali smo svijet", but Nina has a great album and there are other singers.

So here you go. My feedback.

[Dylan]

Don't close the contest!

You're doing a great job And its a shame that it's not being appreciated more often.

Don't be afraid to add a deadline - anything after that will lead to strikes and DSQ's (depending on how many didn't vote) and well it'll help with punctuality. If people don't like this they can withdraw - simple. You don't need 50 participants to have a great contest.

I'd consider revising the rule of eligibility for artists (like dami im for North Korea ) and perhaps making it parents instead of grand parents. It'll probably help because unlike the grandparents rule it can't really be taken advantage of.

[willsong]

Let me first stress that you're doing an amazing job on the hosting and the recaps! Please continue hosting this contest!

I do second the points on deadlines and artist eligibility.

Next, I have to be honest, my interest in MSC has declined lately. This is partly because my interest in the forums declined, but also ironically through its own success. I've been in the contest since edition 9, and I've participated back when there were only 20 participants. And tbh, I liked it better back then, because with a smaller group of participants it was still more open which kinds of songs would do well. I feel like since there are 50 participants, originality is mostly stuck in the semi-finals, and the winner is usually some kind of middle of the road song. This has nothing to do with MSC in particular, but I think this happens with nearly all large contests. The more people to please, the more generic the top songs, and I don't really like that. But that doesn't take away that in terms of looks, this is definitely one of the best contests out there, I'm always looking forward to these recaps, they look great. Keep up the good stuff!

[you]

This is an amazing contest but the times between editions are too long - you need to stringently impose deadlines.

[you]

This is an amazing contest but the times between editions are too long - you need to stringently impose deadlines.