Song Contest 62 - Votes and Behind the Scenes!

[Song Contest]

Welcome, one and all, to this, the fabulous sixty-second MafiaScum Song Contest!

List of Previously Entered Songs

How to Participate in the Song Contest:

1. Find a song that you like on any internet medium that isn't restricted or private.

2. Fill out the following application and send it to the Song Contest account:

APPLICATION

1. Country (this is ONLY an alias for anonymity; your entry can have nothing to do with the country that you pick. The reserved countries can be requested, but the original submitter has priority to them. Privately ask if you have a country preference)

2. Name of Artist

3. Name of Song

4. Representative Picture of Artist (absolutely NO animations allowed; I resize it to 400x400 regardless of dimension, so aim for that resolution if you don't want your picture to look like ass. Only JPG, PNG and non-animated GIFs allowed)

5. Media (most people use youtube, but nothing is explicitly forbidden unless it is not accessible by everyone)

Please note that if there is a misspelling, I will try my best to fix it, but no promises. If you send this application to any account but the Song Contest account, it will be disregarded.

3. Wait until I reveal the entries. You may or may not be cut depending (as stated at the end of this post).

4. Once entries are revealed, PM the Song Contest once again in the following format by rating countries:

12 - Country A
10 - Country B
8 - Country C
7 - Country D
6 - Country E
5 - Country F
4 - Country G
3 - Country H
2 - Country I
1 - Country J

Countries that you like should get higher points. Please rate fairly by giving all countries a listen. Only country names, not artist or song names, should be submitted. You may not vote for yourself. Everyone, regardless of entry or cut status, may vote, so you can still participate even if you chose not to enter or if you got cut! However, if those that entered and are accepted do not vote, two things will happen: They will get a 20 point penalty and be banned from entering in the next contest, so please consider that before entering.

5. Wait for results. It's that simple!

Reserved Countries

St. Lucia
Bangladesh
China
Macedonia
Mali
Abkhazia
United States
Slovakia
Kyrgyzstan
France
South Korea
Colombia
Wales
Nepal
Hungary
Japan
Malaysia
Liechtenstein
Canada
Germany
Finland
Sweden
Belarus
Iceland
Scotland
Tuvalu

Deadline for entries is noon EDT on Friday, March 1st.

If we get more than 26 entries, the 26 participants in the competition will be decided based on the following criteria:

1. First-time entrants

2. "Big 5" consisting of the top 5 in the current rankings guaranteed entry (hitogoroshi, Matias, JDodge, Korts, ChannelDelibird)

3. Last winner (next spot down if the person in 1st is guaranteed. Same for 2nd, 3rd, etc...) (quadz08)

4. Honorary and Current Song Contest Team (Porochaz)

5. Any entrant who was cut in the period of the last 3 contests (except those cut for not voting) and has not used their guaranteed bid.
3 Contests remaining: (Quilford)
2 Contests remaining: (orcinus_theoriginal, redFF)
1 Contest remaining: (N/A)

6. Everyone else (except non-voters)

The following people have been banned from this contest for not voting in the previous contest: (xRECKONERx, Flameaxe)

Anyone who does not make the cut is guaranteed a spot in one of the next 3 contests.

[Song Contest]

Welcome to the sixty-second MafiaScum Song Contest!

Ireland



Serbia



Kyrgyzstan



Hungary



Sweden



Iraq



Angola



Finland



Tuvalu



Japan



St. Lucia



France



Slovakia



Scotland



India



Samoa



Macedonia



Mali



Belarus



Germany



United States



Taiwan



Philippines



Wales



Palestine



Sao Tome



China (AGar), Australia (N), Paraguay (Panzerjager), South Korea (Alice Glass) and Canada (Hiraki) have been cut and have been given an automatic bid into one of the next 3 contests.

[Song Contest]

Here is an inside look at the process of how the Song Contest works! We'll be using SC 61 as an example.

We first gain a ton of entry PMs. This is a little while after I posted the topic for SC61.



Typical PM entry. Using Prana as an example here.



Here is the spreadsheet used to put entries in. We mainly look at these when counting up all of the entries...very rarely, someone will read a PM, marking it as read, but not put down the name. This sucks and has caused me embarrassment in the past. But assuming we don't have any issues, this fills up.



It looks like this when filled up. Above the dark red line are the guaranteed entries. Below it are ones that need to be randomed.



I then go into random.org's list randomizer, put down the 3 letter olympic codes, then hit the random button.



Woosh. Counted out, Quilford misses it this time. Sorry



I then randomize everyone who's in to make it a random listed order.



I note this in the spreadsheet and sort by this order. By this time, the top row shows all of the entries in order; when a person enters a vote, the vote is listed down their column.



Now I do pictures. Don't mind the wrong text on the picture; I open up an old Photoshop template and change the text later (I should change the font every now and then but I get lazy).



Layers include Song Name, Artist, Country, and the picture itself. This is what the picture looks in full form. Each picture takes about 30 seconds at the most to do.



Let's fast forward. Here are all the entries and their original photos (we need the originals later).



Upload them all to Photobucket in an album! Yay!



Here is the constructed entries post. I usually make this by 1. linking a random picture in the album and replace the img tag from the post the contest before, 2. copy that 26 times, 3. change the country name within the img url and the youtube linked text, 4. changing the "Welcome to blah blah Song Contest!" text at the top to reflect the current contest.



The worst part about this is linking each youtube link and posting it to each entry...this takes like 15 minutes. I have to go into each post, find the link, copy it and paste it in where the media link is for each entry. Blergh.



See, the highlighted one is all done. Do this 26 times...



...and you have the entries post! Hurray! Now I sit around and vote and remind you all to vote and we all have a good rabble.



Here's where things get tiring...this takes 2-4 hours, varied upon the number of voters. In this picture, I am doing the votes. After all of the votes are tallied in the spreadsheet (to the left), I then go to a different template for photoshop where I now have a bunch of things to enter: 1. The person entering in the song, 2. The country, 3. their votes on the left side, 4. their votes on the right side, 5. the current tally on the left side, 6. the current tally on the right side, 7. their original picture and 8. if applicable, any faded red for the entries that cannot get 1st place. It takes forever...



Hey, here they are on photobucket. I put them on one at a time. I used to do all of them and put them all up, but I stopped doing that because it created a false illusion of superhuman photoshop powers and also took away any tense atmosphere the contest provided.



Then I put them up. I use the same method as the entries, this time, without the pesky youtube URLs. Just need to change the country name in the URL, because otherwise, the URL is the same.



Here's the whole spreadsheet in finality. 12s are denoted in gold. X's go where there can't be a vote, and Green names means you have voted. If I remind you to vote and you have voted, that means I just forgot to make your name green. Oops.



When this is all over, I then edit the Song Contest wiki for any person entering in the future to know what was entered in the past. I also update the rankings based off of these! Hurray!



JD may or may not post the formulas and inner workings of the rankings system. I can only provide an insight on the process of how it looks to you guys. Enjoy!

[N]

My list of songs I want to enter keeps growing. I don't know which one to pick.

[Hiraki]

BEHIND THE SCENES?

COMMUNISTS

[ChannelDelibird]

Entering my colleague's friend's band. They're better than that sentence makes them sound.

[quadz08]

CDB enters U2

[Parama]

Post-rock!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

...it's short?

HURRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

[ChannelDelibird]

CDB enters U2

My colleagues are football journalists, not footballers.

[quadz08]

Ha. Well played.

[quadz08]

I just followed you on twitter, btw.

[ChannelDelibird]

Scenes! Back atcha.

[evilpacman18]

Maybe I'll enter rap

[Knight of Cydonia]

Maybe I'll give it 0 points

[Hiraki]

maybe you both suck

and i am determined to win this contest

i will get KoC's points by submitting something from japan

EPM's points for classical

and everyone else's points because it's cheapcheapcheap

and you literally can't hate it

[Mastermind of Sin]

My list of songs I want to enter keeps growing. I don't know which one to pick.

I have the same problem!

[quadz08]

I typically pick my entries very late. >_<

[Knight of Cydonia]

i will get KoC's points by submitting something from japan

just how easy do you think I am

[Scigatt]

i will get KoC's points by submitting something from japan

just how easy do you think I am

Every time you have voted and I submitted a non-troll song, you have given me points. Low points, but still. Just sayin'.

Also, egopost.

[Hiraki]

i will get KoC's points by submitting something from japan

just how easy do you think I am

i am winning this contest

so easy enough

[Parama]

Rightsiding like a pro

[evilpacman18]

EPM's points for classical

It's not that simple. Unless it's Takemitsu I can't think of any Japanese classical that will get a 12 from me.

[Hiraki]

how about

uematsu

[pappums rat]

how about

yamaoka

[evilpacman18]

Oooh I thought you meant Classical, not "Classical."