Ott, I had forgotten about that. It was part of my "OTT recruitment days." Like college coaches, I really just puruse the other sites to steal their members and recruit them to our teams. LOL!
Most all songwriting sites are the "Look at me" sites and the majority are from "Valitdators", those that just want to be told how good they are. They don't really want to hear any critism at all. And I frankly understand that too. we all need a pat on the back,and positive reinforcement. I've never really had any problems with that.
It has always been my intention that there would be places to do that and then places to go "deeper" for the real constructive critism. I had always wanted a thread where people could come and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER instead of AT each other.
Then the key as I see it, is the fact that we can gather here and someone like Phil can bring up some popular songs and understand some ways that they got "up there." Then, if you take those elements and put them into your own writing, networking, recording, it all adds up to get a bigger picture of the industry.
I'll confess that I don't go to any open mics unless I am asked. I have to do that on an almost daily and nightly basis, listen to songs and writers and for the most part they really just reinforce my contention that too many people are POSTING things and not LISTENING TO ANYTHING.
Ott, you are 100% right. People want SOMEONE TO LISTEN TO THEM, but invest NO TIME TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE.
That is the whole reason I wanted these threads from the beginning. And am very thankful to the Ramp for allowing us to do so. And why almost without exception,people who tune in here, continue along, meet others and participate, find their songs better, Their ride smoother, and the overall journey more fun.
MAB