View Poll Results: Poll for the Song A Week Social Group Week #549

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  • Rakes of Mallow (IT)

    2 16.67%
  • Mike in the Wilderness

    4 33.33%
  • I'm Going Back to Old Kentucky

    6 50.00%
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Thread: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

  1. #1
    Registered User Barbara Shultz's Avatar
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    Default Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    This poll is for the Song A Week Social Group Week #549.

    One vote per member of the social group. Please feel free to link to videos of these tunes, as a reply to this discussion, to help others decide!

    If you are a regular member, you know that our polls have been weekly polls, for years, but that over the last few months I've been experimenting with changing that. Our poll will be a biweekly poll. Hopefully, that interval will be enough to keep your interest, and also give you enough time to learn it. I plan to announce the winner sometime around Friday, July 16, in the Song A Week Social Group forum.

    If you are not yet a member, there's a link at the bottom of this post that will take you there! Please join us over there!

  2. #2
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Here’s the thread to The Rakes of Mallow.
    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/g...722&do=discuss

  3. #3
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549


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  5. #4
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549


  6. #5
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Yes, you can.
    You just have to join your social group, or ask a question in a current social group thread.
    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/group.php





    .

  7. #6
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Fun fact (to read while you in the line waiting to vote)


    You can invert all percentages
    So if a friend asks you what’s 13% of 50
    -it’s the same as 50% of 13 which is sometimes easier to work out.
    Then you say to your friend, ‘this is the answer’.

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  9. #7
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Only 2 people among the 1000+ members of the Song a Week Social Group, who are possibly from Kentucky.
    Last edited by Simon DS; Jul-10-2021 at 6:22am.

  10. #8

    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon DS View Post
    1000+ members of the Song a Week Social Group
    Well, people have been quoting those high Song-a-Week membership numbers for years, but the reality is that a large percentage of those "members" haven't logged in even once in the past 2 to 10+ years. This can be verified by perusing the first page or two of the alphabetically-sorted SAW member list and clicking a sampling of member names to see when each member's last activity (login) was.

    Some members are even deceased, yet they are still counted as "members" because neither they nor their heirs have logged in to un-join.

    Of course some people read without logging in (I do that frequently). But if it's been years and years since a member has logged in, chances are they're not doing the mandolin thing anymore. There are obviously exceptions to such generalizations - for instance there's a tech-security website I've read regularly since the 1990s but it's been 10 or 15 years since I logged in there, as my only interest there is reading, not commenting. So 'activity' (logins) don't necessarily reveal the whole picture.

    It's tempting to look at the large "view" counts on certain Song-a-Week posters' videos and assume that all those views came only from Song-a-Week. But some of those people have pre-existing Facebook or other social-media followers, or they utilize other extracurricular non-SAW mechanisms that increase view counts such as email lists or even the simple "notify subscribers" YouTube setting that can pull in dozens or hundreds of views from outside of Song-a-Week.

    I still think a huge part of the reason people start, but often don't continue for very long, with Song-a-Week is because that portion of the forum uses a somewhat different version of the forum software that makes us jump through hoops just to post a simple piece of sheet music or tab. I don't know what the rationale is for that, presumably it's on a different server and the reduced functionality likely has something to do with cost savings, but it does not make for a user-friendly experience for those who are less technically inclined. Not everyone is going to be able to understand (or remember) the convoluted process for posting a simple PDF sheet music file, for example. It doesn't work the same way as it does on the main forums like this one.

    Last I checked, there isn't even a way to be notified of new posts to specific threads of interest, at Song-a-Week, completely different than the main forums. (This makes it difficult to keep track of replies or questions about stuff you may have posted months or years earlier.) Plus there are no little niceties such as the "thanks" button, and no one-click way to quote a post to reply to (I resort to manual copy/paste, which I've finally figured out how to do even on my phone, but most SAW posters don't bother doing that so you're never quite sure what exactly is being replied to). There is no list formatting (even if you manually type the code), the differences go on and on.

    The powers-that-be may think these technical concerns aren't a problem that can't be offset by a little extra promotion once a year or so to gin up some temporary interest, but the problem is the *retention* rate. People sign up but then fall off the radar. All these things combined present an additional layer of discouragement and difficulty for the average non-techie person who just wants to share some music.

    Anyway, preachin' to the choir I suppose. "It is what it is." Those of us who are used to it, don't pay it much attention anymore, as we've found workarounds or just tolerate the despair. But *new* SAW members *are* apt to eventually notice the technical differences and, getting back to the topic, that undoubtedly contributes to people signing up but not continuing for very long (lots of "members", but participation by only a small number of the same people all the time).

    The only thing that counteracts the technical issues, is that people there are friendly. That helps to offset the discouragement that would otherwise set in.


    Quote Originally Posted by Simon DS View Post
    Fun fact (to read while you in the line waiting to vote)

    You can invert all percentages
    So if a friend asks you what’s 13% of 50
    -it’s the same as 50% of 13 which is sometimes easier to work out.
    Then you say to your friend, 'this is the answer'.
    Very cool! But, what's the shortcut for doing square roots?

    (A zillion years ago when I was in high school prior to digital calculators (and in beginning-level classes where most of us hadn't yet progressed to packing around a slide rule all the time), there were square root tables in the back of the books. But I stubbornly refused to use the tables - I preferred to work out square roots by hand. All long since forgotten - nowadays I don't have the slightest clue how I did that, but it was easy at the time and didn't take very long. I just liked the process. And speaking of fascination with process, yeah I was always one of those people who wrote out just about *every* step when working with equations, I found it enjoyable and it had the additional benefit of making it easier to look back through the equations if there was need to track down errors.)

  11. #9
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Jess, you have thought this through really well, and I feel that you have maybe got to the root of the situation with many of your comments. I recently commented on the tiny number of votes registered for the Official Poll tunes - the current poll has nine responses at the moment, and this is pretty typical of the results over a long period of time. I confess to being someone who rarely votes in this poll, mainly because I very often do not know the tunes, yet I am one of the regular band of contributors to the SAW Group but my postings are usually of "Other" tunes I have decided to record myself then post in the group.

    You mention the fact that it is such an encouraging group and we regulars all tend to support each other very strongly. I just feel guilty about not voting very often when I see the work that Barbara puts in tirelessly to keep the group going.

    Thanks for your reflections.
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores

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  13. #10
    Registered User Frankdolin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Interesting comments... I would just like to add IMHO, I think everyone is hopefully doing what they want to do here. And I think "everyone" does a great job at having fun. No one should ever feel guillty about anything they do here, unless they've been offensive some how, but that's very rare. Mandolins.

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  15. #11

    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Agree that Barbara does great here.

    As to voting on tunes, if it's a tune I already know, I usually don't mess with it because it's already been done. As to tunes I *don't* know, I've become very finicky in my old age - unless a tune really appeals to me for some reason, can't see much point in bothering to learn to play it. Even then sometimes I vote for something on first impressions but then I do more research on the tune and change my mind and decide not to bother with it after all. Bottom line is I end up not voting very often, and sometimes even when I do vote, I don't always manage to get anything recorded.

    For the tunes that appeal to me enough to follow up on, it's always interesting and, for me anyway, musically educational to hear other people's interpretations and versions.

  16. #12
    Registered User Barbara Shultz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Poll for the Song a Week Social Group Week #549

    Thanks for the input, and those of you who are still participating. I feel we are coming close to the end of polls.... maybe I'll stretch it even further out, and have them be once a month, for those who like the whole idea of polls, and group participation. This group has morphed into more of a place, a friendly, supportive place, where our members record tunes that they love, and submit them..... sometimes they get some others who decide to learn the tune and add it, sometimes they just get some nice comments. But, it's quite obvious that our most active members are still quite actively learning, playing, recording and submitting tunes, so as long as this group can be the venue for that, I'll keep it going!

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