I hope for all of our sakes that 12th April goes a bit better for Hungary than the last few months have gone for Ben's Sanctuary!

I don't know whether some nations really have an advantage to be get votes compared to others. I personally find it somehow more exciting if the identities are revealed not from the beginning. Just an idea: couldn't be the semi's masked and the identities of the nations revealed when the results of the Semi's are revealed. In this way people start listen with an open ear and might not get somehow biased, while in the grand final everything is as always.

4 minutes ago, DaTilt said:

I don't know whether some nations really have an advantage to be get votes compared to others. I personally find it somehow more exciting if the identities are revealed not from the beginning. Just an idea: couldn't be the semi's masked and the identities of the nations revealed when the results of the Semi's are revealed. In this way people start listen with an open ear and might not get somehow biased, while in the grand final everything is as always.

I really like this idea actually. I don't know if the country/poster sending the artist really makes any impact, but the thing with unconscious bias is that it's exactly that - unconscious!

On the other hand, I like that (unlike anonymous contests like Bop Idol) you have someone/a country to associate the entry to, which probably helps to drive engagement up! (Discussion along the lines of "I really hope [insert country] doesn't DNQ again, this song is really great!" Etc)

I know once before a LONG time ago this was done but every few years the same conversation springs up so maybe sometime in the near future it would be an interesting re-experiment.

But I personally have no qualms with the transparent nature of BJSC as yes it's fun to hype posters' entries and I personally don't think any participant genuinely votes/doesn't vote for an entry just because of the country behind it. I think if this actually happens then they should probably find another hobby!

Ooh, that sounds fun. It's a new twist and very interesting idea to have it anonymous only for the semis but not for the final.

You could also then more easily gauge if people really are giving 'friendly votes' if you see some scores suddenly inflate in the final compared to the semi. It might be worth it for a trial because it's a shame to see so many people looking to either drop out or not vote due to not qualifying (although I do understand other very fair reasons are at play too!). So anything that makes the playing field feel more level for everyone is good in my book.

When we did it in the past in 2010, it was fully anonymous all the way through, and discussion rather died off (and the same countries more or less indeed did well as usual - but it was 16 years ago and we don't have the same countries dominating each month anymore).

By doing it this way you would have plenty of discussion still from the intrigue of the semi results and identity reveal, and then everyone hyping their favourite entries as normal come the final.

The counter point of course, is at the semi stage many people will only listen to half the entries so would have the same 'unconscious bias' for the other half that reach the final that they hear for the first time. But nothing is a perfect solution, and at least everyone would feel they had a fair and level chance to Q.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by gooddelta

23 minutes ago, Dobbo said:

I personally don't think any participant genuinely votes/doesn't vote for an entry just because of the country behind it.

This is just plain wrong!! I'll have you know i will never ever vote for Baleghde's entries PRECISELY because of the country behind it. That would just feel fundamentally wrong to me even though I genuinely love the vast majority of its entries 😤

I notice there's less discussion in the final threads compared to the semi finals threads. It's like the semis is a bigger event than the final. 😮

Sorry to hear that Ben, it's a shame because (having not heard the song admittedly) I would've thought Schiller would be someone that would be likely to qualify based on past entries!

Sad to have lost Dobago and Jupiterdonia this time round:

12 Dobago

01 Jupiterdonia (8 points total!!! Glad I didn't send them in January LOL)

13th Flynnonda

15th Sovarasma

18th Eledan

I wanted to vote for all of the above!!!! Tough semi.

I would be curious to see how an anonymous round would play out, but I suspect the results wouldn’t change much. Unless someone is taking a risk or choosing a complete 180, tastes tend to align pretty consistently. The nations I gravitate towards in BJSC are usually the same ones I vote for in UP/Nuggets (without knowing) etc

7 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

I notice there's less discussion in the final threads compared to the semi finals threads. It's like the semis is a bigger event than the final. 😮

I think there's several reasons for this:

1. We are all still in it at the semis stage and invested

2. We are all hearing the entries for the first time and keen to share/hype/support our favourites

3. Both qualifying and winning feel like massive achievements in different ways, however once we have qualified only one country can win and sure there's always a bunfight and race to come top 5/10 etc but I think by this point it becomes fairly clear that only 10-20 remaining countries are left in contention to have really big hits out of the 60 participants (although surprises can always happen!), so it naturally quietens down for many

Ah just noticed Aelandor didn't qualify either? Semi 1 went rogue...

My Semi DNQ points:

8 Points // Zanmatony // Onlynumbers & KLOFAMA // ONLYFAMA

4 Points // Aelandor // PUPPET SUNSUN // TOTETO

2 Points // Ben's Sanctuary // SCHILLER // Euphoria: Der Traum (Extended Version)

All three were fantastic/standout.

I haven't looked fully at Semi 2 but Sovarasma would have got 6 points or more.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by gooddelta

haven't checked many stuff from SF1, really, but Zanmatony would've been an easy +18.

let me win CB x

It's rather feeling that Zanmatony was robbed with multiple promises of top marks coming from the other semi.

The video that Wardy made himself deserves to be seen as obviously many people vote based on Spotify and won't have got to the listenthrough and seen it there.

23 views is not enough:

I'd really love to see something different trialled for a change, but I just feel the current BJSC mods turn their nose up to ideas or suggestions to the main series unfortunately. I've voiced many ideas over the years for improvements and they always fall on deaf ears. 🙃

Puppet Sunsun didn't deserve such a small applause but at least it did better than poor little 'SUNFADED'. #EndFictionalCharacterSnobbery

On another note, being in the "wrong semi" might be a bigger problem than voting on the country. Could that be "rectified" for one edition or something? 🧐

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by AllStarBySmashMouth

9 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

On another note, being in the "wrong semi" might be a bigger problem than voting on the country. Could that be "rectified" for one edition or something? 🧐

It wouldn't be as easy to solve without making everyone listen to everything in a very short space of time, or scrapping semis altogether.

Hypothetically though maybe each semi could have 15 direct qualifiers instead of 20, and then everyone would have a three-day 'rapid fire vote' to vote on the remaining entries left not in the top 15 of each semi, and the top 10 of that vote would progress to the final too while the remaining 20 or whatever would DNQ.

But that also would come with its own problems: not everyone would vote in that round unless it was enforced with penalties, so it could end up being just as 'unfair' in the end, and it would make each contest longer by a few days (unless you made voting shorter for the other stages).

make a RoTB (rest of the buzzverse) vote!!!!

3 hours ago, DaTilt said:

I don't know whether some nations really have an advantage to be get votes compared to others. I personally find it somehow more exciting if the identities are revealed not from the beginning. Just an idea: couldn't be the semi's masked and the identities of the nations revealed when the results of the Semi's are revealed. In this way people start listen with an open ear and might not get somehow biased, while in the grand final everything is as always.

That's a great idea.

Are there any downsides?

2 hours ago, gooddelta said:

Ooh, that sounds fun. It's a new twist and very interesting idea to have it anonymous only for the semis but not for the final.

I say we do an anonymous final but not the semis 😏