Important Doom Musicians Guild-related announcement (UPDATE)

[Jimmy]

Since about a year ago, the DMG forum has been online and has offered its services to anyone who requires help for their project's soundtrack. If you're looking for totally original MIDIs on demand, please visit the forum and lodge a request which our crack team of MIDI artists will subsequently claim and fulfill.

Please go here and check it out.
http://jimmy.phenomer.net/forums/

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Now, onto the real crux of the matter. Hold onto your butts, it's not really good news.

While it does pain me to say this, I fear that I shall no longer be taking direct requests. There are a number of reasons for this decision:

(1) The DMG forum has seen very little attention since its inception. This is due in large part to me not actively promoting it enough or indeed keeping the community alive. I'm a bit of a shitty admin. That one's on me.
(2) I feel bad when I get requests and don't act on them immediately. Unfortunately my inspiration is somewhat bipolar. Oftentimes I'll find myself utterly unable to work on a particular track for a completely unidentifiable reason - in this case, I'll often blag it and come up with something but it likely won't be all that satisfactory. Other times (only occasionally) I'll blitz through a request and have a 4-minute track done in a couple of hours.
(3) Often I let my requests pile up until I feel like I'm totally incapable of getting them all done. I'm a bit like this at the moment because recently I've had a ton, and haven't acted on them due to a project between myself and my brother consuming a lot of my concentration.

In future, I'd like to ask that all your requests go to the DMG forum, linked above.

It is important that I state at this point, that the requests I am currently working on are NOT going to be immediately dropped, nor will they be turned over to the rest of the DMG. I'm not that lazy and uncaring. I will keep working at them until they're all finished to the absolute best of my composing ability. But after that, I will no longer take any more direct requests. If you send me a PM asking for help, I will have to decline, and instead point you to the DMG forum where you can make a formal request to our guild of highly-talented Doom-playing composers.

Did I set up the forum so that not so many people would send me requests and I could laze about all day and not have to work? Er, no, not exactly. I love doing requests - and all of the requests I've had have been reasonable and, when I've fulfilled them, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm very happy to have helped out so many Doomers with their various projects and to have been such a reliable source for original MIDI material that so many people have come to me directly asking for assistance. Since 2008 when I set up my first MIDI thread on Doomworld, I've been incredibly grateful for the kind words of praise I've had. You guys all rock. :D

Unfortunately, in a way comparable to how sporadic my inspiration is throughout my work process, my commitment to individual projects, even those of my own make, is, at best, uneven. I often find myself drifting away from projects unless I give myself a strict timescale. And even that doesn't always work. I can't really help it. I have to have a laser-beam focus on something, or else it hardly ever gets done. Even if it does, it's not to a satisfying standard. When my requests snowball until I can't cope, it really impedes my ability to work at my best.

With the system that DMG has in place, I'll be able to cope with things a lot better. Chances are that I'll be the first to claim your request - and I will keep taking requests as long as they're posted there - if another Guild member does not. The only difference there will be is a more efficient means of project leaders who need all-new material to lodge requests. I'm hoping this won't sit too badly with you guys.

Again, thanks so much for sending me those requests, and for the encouragement regarding all the original work I've done so far. Couldn't have done any of it without you. :D

Peace out, all'a'y'all.

[Bucket]

I'm not sure why you need more than 10 boards just for MIDI composition. You can't expect the community to grow that way. I'd always wanted to have a MIDI board on this forum but the admins feel it isn't even worth that.

[Guest]

Jimi, you do whatever you gotta do to allow yourself to keep writing music. Anything that facilitates this is a good thing.

Thanks for the midis man.

[Blastfrog]

If the DMG was moved to the Doomworld forums, I'm sure that it would be getting tons more attention. I'd really like to see that happen, as I'm sure others would too.

[Ralphis]

I pretty much agree with Bucket, I always thought that the large amount of sub-forums was very overambitious and really didn't lend itself to growth

[kristus]

What Bucket and Ralphis said. Any forum should strive towards having as few sections as necessary. Not as many as possible.

[Tango]

yeah, i think combining a lot of those subforums would be pretty easy and sensible. it would be nice to see some more activity there though, certainly.

[DoomUK]

Imagine if Doomworld had separate forums for Shareware Doom, Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II, The Master Levels, TNT, Plutonia, Doom64, Doom 3 and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. T'would be a mess.

[Blastfrog]

What I'm saying is, what if the DMG was just 1 subforum in the special interest category of the Doomworld forums? It would see so much more attention than just being it's own separate message board.

[Jimmy]

The idea with the many subforums was organization. There are perhaps too many, though I'm not sure how having so many could impede the community's growth. Surely it's more places for people to post? :P

In seriousness, though, I will attempt to condense it down. I'm thinking we could probably do without the "WIP"/"Finished" subforums at least, and have the whole MIDI section devoted just to posting works, finished or not. :)

Having the DMG as a single subforum on Doomworld is plausible but a bit impractical. The DMG is multi-purpose - it houses the resumes of all of its members, it's a place for members to post their latest works, it's for non-members to make requests, and it's the home of the SpeedMIDI sessions and slightly dead Community Album project. Without a set of strict posting guidelines the place would be a bit of a fustercluck. :S

On a slightly related note, you guys are welcome to come down to #doommusicians on EsperNet for discussion and things. We've also got a SpeedMIDI session taking place over the weekend.

It would be really nice to see the forum really taking flight, yes. :) I'll do as much as I can to help it.

[purist]

Unless the amount of sub-forums is deterring midi composers I don't see how it would dissuade people visiting the site. It couldn't be much easier to make a request.

[Ed]

With that said, I think Doomworld should streamline it's forums into two sections: "Doom" and "Not Doom"

[Ralphis]

purist said:

Unless the amount of sub-forums is deterring midi composers I don't see how it would dissuade people visiting the site. It couldn't be much easier to make a request.

Too many forums results in less posts in each which, to the passerby, makes the forums look inactive

[Blastfrog]

Am I the only one that thinks the DMG would be better off here? I mean, I'd use the place, but it's too inconvenient to go to another forum, and I'm far too lazy to register to yet another place anyway. :P Besides, is there anyone there that isn't already here? Moving it here would give it so much more exposure, and also eliminate the costs of running another site, so you'd save money, Jimmy.

Surely I'm not the only one that feels this way?

[Gez]

But do the forum admins here feel like creating a new section in which Jimmy would have moderator powers?

[Jimmy]

Just thought I'd let you guys know that this week's SpeedMIDI session is in effect. Come join us - you have until 12:00AM GMT+1 on Monday to create a MIDI (or more than one if you'd prefer) and submit it at the official thread.

No theme this week. Just get on with it! :D

[Jimmy]

Recently I've had more personal requests than I usually get - I think three have popped up in the last week alone - and it brought my attention back to this thread.

The fact is that recently I've been pretty slow with all of my requests (and I'm pretty sure there's a few people who are still waiting on me on requests... from quite a while back), but I've simply had other projects on my mind (yes, personal ones... but really they aren't going to get done at all, otherwise). I've also had terrible internet problems lately so my time online has been somewhat limited.

So, two things:

(1) Please, ALL requests should be launched formally on the [DMG] forum, rather than by asking me directly. The format that request posts should follow on the forum allows me to keep track of what needs to be done easily.

(2) The [DMG] forum really needs a lot more attention. Musicians, if you're bored, check there if there are any outstanding requests you'd like to take up (and there are a few of you! See how many of you made résumés here). Requesters, please continue posting there - although, if your request is a big one, help the musicians along by giving as detailed an initial request as possible, and pitching into the ensuing discussion - perhaps just request three tracks at a time or something like that, if you have a much bigger request in mind. The forum has been in a semi-dead state for quite a long time now, and there's hardly any other discussion on it at all (but this is mainly due to me being a shitty admin and not keeping things alive myself). We do have alternative discussion sections (remember that the forum is not all about making people do work!), so go there for some idle chatter, music-related or not, from time to time.

So I wholeheartedly apologize for my slowness in fulfilling your requests as of late, but I will do my best to pitch into discussion on the [DMG] forum and fulfill my direct requests that are still outstanding. I will also organize some more community events.

You all know where the forum is at - let's kick this thing back into gear!
http://jimmy.phenomer.net/forums/

Thanks,
- Jimmy

:)

[PRIMEVAL]

I should probably be more active on those forums...but it's rather hard for me to be active on more than one. I hear where you're coming from, brother, and I know exactly how you feel...inspiration can be a bitch. Do whatcha gotta do, good luck and godspeed.