After a long break from anything music, courtesy of locked doors and armed guards, I’m back. Most people spend their summers visit friends and family, relaxing, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Most people.
I recently had a talk with a few people frustrated with OCReMix. The repeated criticism to anything and everything was getting to them. It might just be their attitude making them come off the wrong way, but I get the feeling there’s more to it.
A good example of criticism can read about in this thread about the Judges’ work-in-progress feedback template they demanded people to use (not in those words). Their attitude to the feedback they got from the community was generally defensive of their new formality, but they eventually adapted it to dampen the community’s criticism of it. While Liontamer and zircon remained fairly civil, other judges seem downright insulting at times. This is hardly the exemplary behavior you’d expect them to set. It makes for a more interesting read.
I also find it strange that they didn’t, to my knowledge, discuss it with the more active wip critics before dropping the form on them. Captain Whiner makes a number of valid points as well as uses the feedback form to critique the feedback form. Captain Positive made his own feedback list, and later explains the importance of positive feedback.
This seemed to have gone in one ear and out the other for some. In talking to people unhappy with the state of the wip subforum and #ocrwip, the irc channel dedicated to wips, there are two things that I find. One concerns the subforum, the fact that a handful of people comment on a lot of wips, and not many more comment on wips of popular games, leaving a lot of wips with a single response. Another concerns the #ocrwip channel, where a lack of civility has discouraged remixers from asking for feedback, or even being on the channel.
Perhaps this is where I should end the post, but I feel I have one last thing to say. Wise remixers usually personally ask judges for feedback before submitting a remix, but this implies some level of familiarity with them. Familiarity is usually achieved through conversation, either on the forum or OCR’s channels. Unfortunately, the nature of the channels isn’t one of civility. I would expect the less populated #ocrwip to be a more focused, civil place, but not according to my sources. Worse than the lack of civility is one of the causes for it: a jdgfgt. The equivalent of a lawyer suing his client.
What’s even worse is that this lack of civility seems to be spreading to other forum members and channel regulars.
