As you can see, I’ve updated the OP with a new piece of featured art and a new featured song. I decided to be a bit selfish and go with something personal: the song is DECO*27’s “Ghost Rule,” and the art is of Miku’s costume in the Project Diva MV of the song. Ghost Rule is easily one of my favorite recent Miku songs. It’s such a well put-together song, and DECO uses Miku so effectively in it. My favorite part is the bridge (from 2:03), but I love every second of the whole song. I also think the Project Diva MV is one of the best, especially the way Miku moves, and I love love love her outfit. While I doubt any of this is new to the members of this fan club, I thought I’d make the next featured items about sharing something that’s a personal favorite, rather than showcasing something newer or less well-known.
This brings me to an idea I’ve had. I really want this fan club to be inclusive and participatory. I’m just the club’s maintainer; I see my role as just adding people to the members list and making sure the OP looks pretty. I don’t really like the idea of me being the one in charge of the featured art and song all the time. And even if I take suggestions, I’m still the one who chooses, and so it still feels like the power is all mine. I want a way to let every member of this group have that power. So here’s my idea:
Mikurators!
A Miku Curator! Get it? Ok, let me explain.
Anyone who is a member of the Hatsune Miku Fan Club can volunteer to be a Mikurator. This means your name will be added to a list of other Mikurators, who will take turns choosing new featured content for the OP. The idea is that you’ll get to choose whatever Miku content (music/art/MMD video/whatever) that you want, and it’ll be showcased right up front in the OP, rather than buried with all the other posts in the thread. You can do something like I’ve done, which is pick something that’s a personal favorite, or you can spotlight something (a song, a producer, an artist) that you think deserves more attention, or you can just choose something you think the other club members will enjoy. Additionally, I will keep an archive in the OP of all the past featured content (with links to any music, images, and videos), not only to ensure that we don’t repeat anything, but also to serve as a record of what was contributed (and who contributed it) that people can browse.
That’s the basic idea. Please let me know what you think. Also, there are a few details regarding how to implement this idea that I want your input on:
- How often do you think the featured items should be updated? Twice a week? Weekly? Every two weeks? Every month? I think this will depend on how many Mikurators there are. If there aren’t many Mikurators (say 4 or 5), then weekly seems fine, because then it’ll only take about a month to cycle through everyone so that you can have another turn. But if there are lot of Mikurators, maybe we’ll want to do it twice a week, so that people won’t have to wait so long. Let me know what you think about how frequently we should update.
- What’s the best way to determine the order in which the Mikurators get to “mikurate” the OP? Alphabetically by username? Or perhaps based on when they joined the club? (If so, then is priority determined by who has been in the club longer or by who joined most recently?) Or should it be a lottery (with the idea that you can’t win again until everyone else has had their turn)? A particular issue is what to do if a new club member joins and wants to be a Mikurator: do they get shoved to the back of the line? Or maybe they get priority over people who have already mikurated at least once? I’m not sure what would be easiest and fairest thing to do, so I’d like your thoughts.
- What kinds of limits on the amount and nature of the content should there be? Should it always be just one song and one piece of art? Or could there be more? I think it’s important to limit the size and clutter of the OP, so I think I’d prefer to limit the amount of content that can be featured. Also, while currently we have featured art and featured music, could we admit other kinds of Miku-related content? MMD videos and other Miku-related videos that aren’t music seem like obvious things to allow. But should each Mikurator be obliged to include at least one song and at least one piece or art (for example), or should we give them flexibility to, say, include only a song, or only art, or whatever? This question also depends on how much content we’ll allow Mikurators to choose. Maybe we can have two or three “slots” that can be filled with whatever kinds of content the Mikurator wants: if there were two slots, then it could be one song and one piece of art, or two songs, or a song and a video, or a video and art. Finally, I think I’d prefer if Mikurators always choose stuff made by others, and not themselves, because there are other places on the forum for sharing your own content (indeed, as long as it’s Miku-related, you can share your own stuff in this very thread). Anyway, if you have thoughts on whether and how to limit the content that Mikurators can choose to feature in the OP, let me know.
