A potential solution for the voting system problem in the audio portal, that so many of us musicians have complained about.
This is based on these two root ideas
1. People should only to be able to pass such harsh judgement as a 0 if they have some skill as a musician, and some respect from other talented musicians.
2. 0 Voters who 0 work that someone has put effort into only get away with 0'ing without backlash as no one who isnt staff knows who they are.
So, the solution i propose:
1. You must have had your audio up to a set standard to be able to judge other people's works. I propose an overall score of 3.
2. If you get 0 voted, you get informed in some kind of message as to which users 0'd you.
Role of the NG Staff in this solution:
Reset either all but the most respected artists work to 0, or all artists scores to 0
Any new submissions must demonstrate some skill in making a loop or track. This means audio moderators must have some skill and respect for many genres of music, which those in my experience (denvish) do
Roles of those who submi musict :
There is a potential problem, but i see it solving itself. This is :
Groups such as the scummy Star syndicate who seek to enforce their opinions on everyone else will 5 each other to get 0'ing power as quickly as possible.
BUT (problem solutions and overall benefits)
1. They must submit something that is a decent loop or track, anything that is rubbish, and audio equivalent of B will be 0'd by people who arent in any collective, and by those who are. The audio mods will also play a role in ensuring that absolute shite doesnt get through, which is something they already do i believe?
2. Therefore, they will develop a more mature understanding of what effort goes into peoples music that they make, and refrain from 0'ing good artists.
3. If the star syndicate (for example) start picking off good artists, good artists will seek artists of similar skills and annihilate those who seek to devalue their work. This will be in their interests, as the more good artists get shot down, the less they can protect each other.
Summary: NG staff will have to reset scores back to 0 for all artists, those who have made a name for themselves will get their popularity restored to them by their fans.
The staff will also have to prevent utter crap getting through.
0 voters will be known, so vengeance can be taken which may discourage them.
Good artists will not 0 other good artists, as it would mean they get 0'd and shunned by a group of good artists.
If syndicates do actually make something good, then only the one that makes the work will have the power to 0 vote. However, they could claim it was a collaboration to give them more fire power. BUT we would know who they are, so they would get shot down by many people.
There are two possible problems: The creation of alternate aliases, but again, if they 0 voted using different aliases the good musicians would swoop to annihilate them, knowing its in their interests to look after their own.
And also, the sheer amount of members of these organisations is unknown. But i'm sure some espionage could be arranged....
The overall benefits if this works will be a) making the syndicates less effective
b) the syndicates that mostly produce crap but have some good artists will begin to understand what putting effort into music actually means, and what its like to be group 0'd for hard work if they 0 any of the good musicians.
c) it will stop the good musicians from whining and bitching so much, as they will be getting 0'd off people they can react to, instead of anonymous people.
As a more final measure, those who are in syndicates who constantly 0 others work should be banned permanently.
If you log ip's then this will work, if thats not how it goes (ie dynamic ip's?) they will have to create an alternate alias and start from 0 again, meaning the syndicates will spend more time 5'ing them up than 0'ing us down. And when they 0 any of us, then we annihilate them.
Another problem: time frame: They could 5 themselves to voting power and 0 us before we even get started. Whilst not all syndicates make absolute crap, many do
BUT since only their more skilled would be able to 0 us, they would be less likely to 0 us because of the backlash. I propose collaborations limited to no more than 4 people, as any more than that many musicians working together is unlikely anyway.
If theres anything that i've not foreseen, and you have, please inform me.