Yes, the contest starts on Wednesday each week and entries in by the following Monday, We need a couple days to listen to them.
Here are the top 5 picks from different judges so far:
https://steemit.com/openmic/@meno/songwriters-challenge-week-1-my-top-5-entries
I just wanna know where i stand points wise and what the judges are looking for.
Hi @limabeing, quite similar to the Open-Mic, each judge has their own set of personal criteria that they employ to arrive at their respective top-5's each week. So to answer your question most directly, each judge is looking for something unique to their ear.
The beauty of such autonomy and diversity is that it brings a wide range of possibilities from the judging panel.
What's most interesting is when there is a commonality in selections amongst the judges. Such commonality means that an artist has touched the individual judges in a similar way - but perhaps for a multitude of different reasons. That's how winners are typically selected.
In the Open-Mic contest, after taking all of the judges picks into account, @luzycypher takes such commonalities into account prior to selecting the final winner for the week. In the Open-Mic contest, luzcy is the final arbiter in deciding who will place in any given week.
In slight contrast, the Songwriter Challenge has no such final arbiter or "decider" to render either a weekly or overall winner. As such, I've suggested a purely objective point system based upon each of the judges top-5 picks.
And as you might have guessed, there is no more of a fair and objective way to select weekly or overall winners than by the "commonality" of cumulative points accrued by a given entrant over the course of a given week and for the entire 8-week stretch as well.
Points are only awarded to those that reach the weekly top-5 from any of the judges. They maintain those points as the contest moves forward. If they make it into another of the judges top-5, more points will be added to their total and so on throughout the balance of the competition.
As mentioned in an earlier response, I've also suggested some special measures beginning in week-5 so as to keep hope alive for new entrants who haven't had the chance to participate in the first half of the contest and/or for those who have but are not ranking within the standing top-5.
Again, these are just some suggestions that I've put forth, and we'll just have to see how the rest of the judging panel @krystle, host @meno, and sponsor feel about it.
I hope that helps to answer the part of your question about points. Thanks!
Wow. So its purely subjective. To me thats not a songwriting contest and disturbs me. Also That means that the work ive done this week counts for nothing towards the guitar which was of course my main motivation for doing this. As u can tell in my recording its a pos. I hope that the judges reconsider this. Because if you have a point system based on agreed upon criteria its less subjective altogether
Performance 12345
Melody 12345
Lyrics 12345
Unique Use of theme 12345
Then tell everyone why the top 5 got these points and list the points for those not in the top 5 somewhere
For those coming in late, perhaps every other week their could be a bonus contrasting theme that if yiu also use that you get an extra 5 points.
By no means is it purely subjective, I use ALL of the above criteria you list and then some - (6 categories in total vs. your 4) in my personal scoring criteria @limabeing. So does @krystle, and so does @meno... All of us employ each of those categories and MORE!
However, there is simply no getting around some level of "subjectivity" even amidst the tightest of constraints scoring entrants amid very specific categories.
What you consider "a good performance" I may consider "fantastic."
What one may consider being simply "good" use of theme, melody, or lyrics, another may consider such "phenomenal."
I trust you get the honest and realistic nature of what judging is all about.
The performers and artists are not lifeless robots void of feelings and emotion - and nor are the judges. We're all simply human.
I trust that much you can agree with and understand.
At the end of the day, this is NOT the Olympics but rather a friendly competition amongst supportive artists seeking to challenge themselves and each other to better their crafts, develop friendships and collaborations, and most importantly, to have fun and to experience the joy that music brings to each and every one of us.
PS.
It would be overly cumbersome to track each and every entrant's point's (though I personally considered it) Ha!
After a great deal of realistic discussion, we've decided to only track those entrants who place within any given Top-5 list.
That's not to say, however, that there won't be incentives and realistic opportunities for someone to come from behind - or out of nowhere and begin "placing" - especially in the latter half of the contest... :-)
You articulate that really well @passion-ground.
To @limabeing (great handle, by the way) I understand your curiosity.
We want you to focus on writing, performing, and building connections with the community here. Let us worry about the judging details. Have fun.