A Guide To Hosting

Posted March 29, 201312 yr

A GUIDE TO HOSTING

Congratulations on being able to host an edition of the Buzzjack Song Contest! As we’re sure you are aware, hosting can be a daunting task. But don’t worry! We’re here to help!

DATES

The first thing you need to do is come up with provisional dates within which you plan to run the contest. You need to send these dates to a BJSC moderator. We will check if they’re suitable and we’ll let you know if they’re OK. While we’re busy fretting over dates, you’re encouraged to create a ‘Green Room’ thread. This thread will be used to post the dates once they’re finalised and to inform the members of any changes or information they need to know. Also, it gives the members a place to discuss the current contest before Confirmation opens.

THE CONFIRMATION PROCESS

So, that leads us to the next thing. Confirmation! This will probably be one of the really stressful moments of your time hosting. Once you open the confirmation thread, you will most likely receive a ton of confirmations within the first few minutes as people rush to confirm their entries. Vultures! But worry not. You need to take note of each confirmation. If there are two or more people confirming the same song or artist, you need to inform the unlucky member(s) that they’ve been beaten to it. This is very important. If this isn’t done, things can get messy and then the masses will protest and cry bloody murder, which isn’t something you want to witness (believe us).

NB: to make this easier for you in the long run, you should use the standard confirmation template. Ask members to confirm their entries by sending you: the artist’s name, their song, a Youtube or Soundcloud link (any site hosting a video or the audio of the song is fine) and, if possible, a mp3 download link. If the member does not send the mp3, you will be required to get it yourself. (if you have trouble finding the mp3, let us know)

Once you’ve had time to take note of each confirmation and sorted out any duplicates, you need to send the list to a BJSC moderator. . But remember: this list must not contain the names of the countries. The list should only contain the confirmed artist and their song and the amount of times people tried to confirm certain songs. This gives us a better idea of what’s popular on Buzzjack. You need to send this list pretty snappily, preferably within 24 hours of confirmation opening. We need the list to weed out any songs that are ‘cheap’ or too well known. While we’re doing this, you need to send us any further confirmations. We’ll let you know during the confirmation process if we have ‘vetoed’ any songs. Please make sure that you notify the member(s) concerned. Again, this is to avoid a revolt among the peasants.

NB: it’s important to remember that during this confirmation process the moderators do not know which member sent which song. But this applies to everybody else, too. As a host, you should not leak the list or tell anybody which songs are confirmed and/or who they are confirmed by. Only you (the host) should know the songs and who has sent them. We cannot stress this enough. Refusal to abide by this rule will lead to your immediate execution.

Confirmation has now closed. This means that you need to send the moderators a complete list of confirmations. The BJSC moderators will just make sure there’s nothing in there that shouldn’t be there. Once we’ve given you the green light, you’re free to post the semifinal thread. But wait! Before you open the semifinal thread, you need to decide on a few things. This part is a bit of a headwrecker, so make yourself a cup of tea before you read this. If there is an even number of participants (let’s say 50), then two semifinals of 25 would be great. But you want to abuse your position as host and autoqualify, don’t you? Don’t lie, we know you do. In that case, you can put yourself directly in the final. But that would leave you with one semifinal of 24 and another semifinal of 25. That’s hardly fair! You need to make sure that the runner-up in the previous contest autoqualifies as well. You need to PM this member to make sure that’s OK with them. If they agree, then you two can grab your place in the final while the other 48 countries battle it out. When this happens, then both autoqualifiers would vote in both semifinals.

If there is an uneven number of participants (let’s say 51), then only you will autoqualify. This would leave you with two semifinals of 25 songs each. Perfect! As you are the only autoqualifer, you will be required to vote in both semifinals.

Remember, a typical final usually consists of between 30 - 32 songs. If you are the only autoqualifer, then you can have the number at 31 songs to facilitate 15 qualifiers from the semifinals. If there are two autoqualifers, then you can push this up to 32 song in the final, thus still allowing 15 qualifiers from each semi. Confused? Yes? Good! (Honestly, if you’re still confused then PM us and we’ll sort it out!)

NB: This is the usual practice. If you wish to buck the trend and be difficult, let the mods know and we can advise you on how to proceed.

THE SEMI FINALS

The semifinals are the fun bit of the contest. Make sure you split the amount of participants evenly into two semifinals. Also make sure that you randomize the running order of both semifinals (random.org is useful for this). Don’t go dictating the order of songs yourself. You are not Jesus. You should include the youtube/soundcloud/etc, links along with each entry. Also, you need to collate and upload the mp3 packs. The easiest way of doing this is to create a pack for each semi, upload them to a good hosting site, and then provide the links in a manner that will not get Buzzjack shut down. If you need help with this part, just ask the mods. Another important step is to make sure you get the members to send their votes to you. The easiest way of tallying up the votes is with a Microsoft Excel document. If you do not have Excel, then you need to be introduced to something called the twenty-first century. Just kidding! If you have a problem with counting the votes, please PM a BJSC moderator. We’ll know what to do!

While the members are voting, you should open an odds thread (complete with the full list of songs) and a predictions thread (complete with the full list of songs but split into their respective semi finals). This allows the members to discuss who they think will qualify with ease or struggle to lift themselves off last place.

If the deadline is approaching and some people have yet to vote, then you should send these members a voting reminder. Ah, so there ARE a few naughty nations that have failed to vote? Tut tut, time for the electric chair! Perhaps something less drastic would be the better option. In the semi finals, those who fail to vote will incur a 33% deduction on their semi final score. Fair? We think so. Please read on to find out how you deal with non-voters in the FINAL (yes, it's a different, more cruel punishment)

So, you’ve been busy inputting the points to your shiny Excel document and now you know the qualifiers! All you need to do is let the members know who’s lucky and who’s doomed for eternity. You need to open a separate semifinal results thread. How you present the results is kind of up to you, but the normal way is to present the qualifiers in pairs (one from each semi) and in random order. After all the qualifiers have been announced, you’re encouraged to post the scoreboards of the nations which did not qualify. Please for the love of all that is holy do not post the full scoreboard. That would be a disaster.

NB: if there is a tie in one or both of the semifinals, you need to break it by the number of 12s that that country has received. For example, if Espen and Numayania both accumulate 87 points, but Espen received two twelves and Numayania received only one, then Espen wins the tiebreak (sorry, Tom!). If both countries received the same amount of 12s, then you apply the same logic and break the tie by the amount of 10s received. If that fails, then it’s done by 8s, and so on. Remember: this is only for the semifinals. Breaking a tie in the final is different, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

THE FINAL

Once you’ve done this and witnessed the outrage that ensues, you can prepare the thread for the grand final. This is similar to the semifinal thread in that you post the running order of the songs (always randomized) and specify the deadline. Again, make sure you get the votes sent to you and nobody else. If for some reason people haven’t voted and the deadline is looming, then you are encouraged to send these members a kind reminder about voting. This is just to cover your tracks. Are some nations STILL being naughty? Those who fail to vote will incur a 33% deduction on their final score AND will be banned from participating in the next contest. This is slightly less harsh than the electric chair, but harsh enough so that people don't forget to vote. Remember: it's your duty to send voting reminders to nations who are edging dangerously close to the deadline.

Are you ready to present the final results? This means you’ll have to post a final results thread.Again, how you present the results is up to you (to a certain extent), but hosts usually reveal the votes one at a time. You’re encouraged to post an updated scoreboard with each set of votes. It’s tedious, but it’s worth it. Once you have announced the winner, you’re kind of obliged to post all the scoreboards (in full). If you don’t do this, then not only will the peasants come after you, but the mods will too.

NB: if there is a tie in the final, then you must break it by the number of votes received. For example, if Ashton and Caerfyddia both accumulate 120 points, and Caerfyddia received votes from thirty people, but only twenty people voted for Ashton, then Caerfyddia wins the tiebreak. You can probably hear Ashton's tanks rolling in as we speak, can’t you?

Once all of these technicalities are done, you can be proud that you completed your hosting duties!

Oh, one more thing! Please, if you have any problems at all or any questions about anything, send a PM to any of the BJSC moderators. We’re not just fabulous dictators, we’re also pretty helpful when we want to be.

XOXO

The BJSC Moderators