The "Abandoned Arrangements" project.

[Cobraroll]

An idea that suddenly fell into my head.

I think we have all seen them. Enthusiastic arrangers who put up a bunch of great arrangements in their threads, but suddenly leave before submitting any. Or what about the trusty guys who show up every once in a while, update their thread, and then disappear until long after the current submission thread has closed. Or those who submit songs, but their issues never get fixed, and the arranger leaves never to be seen again. Or nearly finished in-progress arrangements that go nowhere as the submittor leaves.

Basically, the Submissions sub-forum is full of arrangements, finished arrangements even, that never made it to the site. During my time on NSM, I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of arrangements go this way. As a friend of his, I'd like to use GreekGeek's arrangement thread as an example. Lots of songs, most of them not on site, with the downloads links intact. For now.

As we know, sites like MediaFire delete inactive files after a while. The phenomenom is known as "linkrot", the word alone makes me sad. At the moment, we have dozens upon dozens of arrangements sitting in their threads, waiting for the inevitable deletion while nobody looks at them. Lots of wasted potential. Hundreds of man-hours going down the loo. Their creators have moved on to other hobbies. This is where the "Abandoned Arrangements" project (AKA the "Saving the Sheets" project) enters the scene.


My proposal is this: We gather as many links to "dying" arrangements as possible in this thread. Find new storage for them if need be. I'm aware that the vast majority of them will need slight fixing, tweaking or reformatting before the sheets can go on site, but that wouldn't be very hard work. For most of them, it's a stroke with the 8va brush and fixing our website URL in the copyright section, then saving as a PDF.

Then we let the AA project be a legal submittor for the updates. I, or other AA project volunteers, can submit the files to the submission threads on behalf of the original creator. The original arranger (as well as the fixer, if the sheet required a lot of work) will be credited in the usual way. The amount of submissions from the AA project need not be different from the amount of submissions from any other contributor.

For the time being, we can look at submission threads that haven't been posted in since February 1, 2012. If the creator of the thread has been online any time in the past half year, we PM him/her before polishing the sheets.


At the moment (as in, right now), I don't have time to gather links. School starts in half an hour. However, I usually have enough time to contribute to this (which reminds me, the Arrangement Contest stuff will be done soon). However, I could need a volunteer or two to skim through the sheets as we gather them.



Do anybody think this is a good idea?


Stuff and its status:

[DS] Pokémon Black/White - "Dragonspiral Tower" - Bespinben Zip Submitted, pending approval

[DS] Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - "Mt. Coronet" - Bespinben Zip

[GBA] Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - "Title: Main Theme" - Bespinben Zip

• *Note - Layout MUST be Landscape, so as to preserve the 4-bar hypermeter. Do not modify sheet to change to portrait, it WON'T work.
  *Note 2 - For those concerned about playability:

[GB] Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal - "Johto Wild Pokémon Battle" - Bespinben Zip

[N64] Star Fox 64 - "Start Demo 1 (Starfox Main Theme)" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Battle Against Dusknoir" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "On the Beach at Dusk" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Goodnight" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Guildmaster Wigglytuff" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Temporal Tower" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Time Gear" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky - "Top Menu Theme" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Awakening" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Boss Battle" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Escape Through the Snow / Snow Refugees" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Fanfares Collection" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "File Select / Whiscash Pond" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Lapis Cave" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Mt. Blaze Peak" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "The Other Side" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "There's Trouble!" - Bespinben Zip

[DS/GBA] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team - "Tiny Woods" - Bespinben (Replacement) Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Ending Story" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Ranger Base" - Bespinben Zip

[DS] Pokémon Ranger - "Title Screen" - Bespinben Zip

[K-NiGhT]

I support this idea. I think it'd be good to get more sheets on site, as well as give some closure for the disappearance of said arrangers.

[spitllama]

Are we allowed to submit other peoples' sheets without their consent?

[NasiDe]

Are we allowed to submit other peoples' sheets without their consent?

I like the idea, but spitllama has the biggest pointer here. We can't submit their work without their permission. It is part of the problem that occurs on Ichigo's sheet side of things and I recently saw that discussed here. For all we know, maybe there is a reason the people stopped working on those sheets and they don't want their work to be thrown in. I can see the point of wanting to gather up the 'lost and abandoned sheets,' but those sheets are the work of other people. You can't just lay claim onto them.

If you can get in contact with the arrangers that worked on the stuff and get permission to do final editing and such, then I could see this not being a problem, but otherwise... I'm not so sure.

Edit: I'm not saying that I don't like this idea. I love it. I just don't think that we should be submitting somebody's work without their consent as spitllama said.

[Bespinben]

Hmm... I think I should make a list of my arrangements that I want submitted to the site during my 2 year absence.

[JDMEK5]

Hmm... I think I should make a list of my arrangements that I want submitted to the site during my 2 year absence.

Do it.


And since Ganon and spitllama have overriding points, what if we changed it up a bit?
I have an idea that can't save sheets already lost to time, but can avoid this happening with future sheets.

We just do what Bespinben is getting at: Make a thread where everyone who is leaving for extended/permanent periods of time, can leave a list of their arrangements that they want to make it on the site.

That way, if anyone knows they'll be leaving forever for example, they can leave a list of their to-be submitted arrangements, and -POW!- we have consent!

That's one idea that just struck me.

[spitllama]

Actually when I saw the title of this topic I was thinking about all those times when arrangers would say "Oh yah... I started that. Wonder where that is. Oh here it is! It's half-finished, not sure why I stopped. Anyone wanna finish it up?"

[JDMEK5]

That's assuming that we manage to contact them and get permission somehow... If it's possible, that's perfect. But it's not likely..

[Shadoninja]

Do it.


And since Ganon and spitllama have overriding points, what if we changed it up a bit?
I have an idea that can't save sheets already lost to time, but can avoid this happening with future sheets.

We just do what Bespinben is getting at: Make a thread where everyone who is leaving for extended/permanent periods of time, can leave a list of their arrangements that they want to make it on the site.

That way, if anyone knows they'll be leaving forever for example, they can leave a list of their to-be submitted arrangements, and -POW!- we have consent!

That's one idea that just struck me.

Seems kind of pointless to have a dedicated thread to something so rare.

[spitllama]

I agree. A simple PM can work just fine.

[fabbemannen]

Actually when I saw the title of this topic I was thinking about all those times when arrangers would say "Oh yah... I started that. Wonder where that is. Oh here it is! It's half-finished, not sure why I stopped. Anyone wanna finish it up?"

^
Anyhow, good idea. I only got one myself that haven't been submitted and it shall not be submitted!

[Cobraroll]

Very valid point, with submissions without the consent of the arranger. I took it for granted that most people would want their sheets to get on site when they put them here, but I realize now that's not the case.

Would it still be "legal" to gather all the sheets here? Regulars visiting our site also tend to lurk the forums, and a topic like this would become an easily searchable place for "not-yet-released" sheets. On the other hand, the sheets can be found in the forums already, but finding them is a chore. I guess re-hosting them would be outright piracy, but just listing the links?

[TheZeldaPianist275]

Did a little research on this just now.
Looked through the submissions and Ganondorf's and Nana1Popo2's arrangements have sorta been forgotten, but both of these users are still reasonably active.  I understand that this won't solve all our problems with contacting people, but it's a start.  Cobra, if you want to message both of these users we might be able to get this underway.

[NasiDe]

I have thoroughly abandoned that topic and I do not want it to be revived. It was before I was knowledgeable in the slightest in regards to what I was and am now doing. The only activity of mine I'd like to get any attention whatsoever is what I work on presently.

Thanks for the consideration, however.

[TheZeldaPianist275]

I have thoroughly abandoned that topic and I do not want it to be revived. It was before I was knowledgeable in the slightest in regards to what I was and am now doing. The only activity of mine I'd like to get any attention whatsoever is what I work on presently.

Thanks for the consideration, however.

  Sorry.