as much as i appreciate the fact you are the like person of the site, but personally i completly disagree with that but opinions and ethics are that and people have different views of everything...

Tbh I agree I don't have anything against new people taking part or whatever, but unless somebody comes to the chat and talks to us often, we simply don't know them, and wheres the fun if we're taking part with people we don't know and aren't friends with?

I couldn't agree more.
This contest started for friends and it should continue to be like this. Sure, not everyone can be on here every day for hours on end but noone is that busy that they can't say 'hello' once in a while.
It becomes very clinical and as if it's just for the songs...and that wasn't its original purpose. Its purpose was to find something pleasant to do and since we're all esc fans we found something to do with music.

JE SUIS D'ACCORD. I agree ofc, I am fed up with randomers who rarely come to chat, and use escchat solely for a contest.

I agree with jw.

Ditto. if you can read this, you've have too much time on your hands...yes Ollie, that means you

I agree too but how will we tell people that they can't enter once they chose a song and sent it to the host????

wohoo finally an idea i can easily agree....

Tell whom? Some of those we don't even see on here..loooooooool
The song just won't be accepted..end of story.

I mean won't you tell them that they can't participate? Will they just come to the site for the contest only to see that their song isn't listed? If that was to happen to me I'd feel that the people in this site aren't welcoming and that will just make me never want to visit the site again. Maybe if a rule was added about this, it would be better... Although idk how such a rule can be...

btw if u take a look at the countries that participate in the contest there are only about 4-5 people who don't come to the chat regularly (and i dont know if these people come these days as i haven't been in the chat either for some days - don't disqualify me ) so we are still too many... I mean, we had problems voting when we were 19 and we wanted to vote for more than 10 songs and this problem is only getting bigger. So, imo we don't have to include people who don't come to the chat very often in the contest but we still need a semi.

completly agree kots which is why i disagreed with jw - the part i have highlighted in bold is exactly why i disagree, a simple semi can be held, for those who are wanting to see these new members then i suggest a rule of them coming into the chat at least once a week - however that still leads to the question of thier real motive into coming into the chat. and if you look at the 'new members' in the contest - only 2 have neveer been on the site. the other 2 'new' members come on here every now and then
*dingo becoming a late night regular therefore just the fact you personally havent seen him when some of you dissapear at 9pm uk time when he comes on around midnight*

i also do not think it is fair to penalise sam *davids bf* at this very moment in time due to the fact they are both busy atm and need time to do stuff

to say no to a new member immeadiatly without realising they could ask to take part of the contest as an ice breaker to get a sense of peoples music taste and then slowly intergrate themselves into the site/chat i personally think is unwelcoming.
why cant a semi just be held?

There are several ways to solve such a problem tbh, I reckon we need to have a lengthy debate on the subject.

Not dissing Sam (Dave's bf) or anything, but I have NEVER seen him on the chat, and thus I would not find it fair to let him participate just because of his relation to Dave, and not let others do so.

A semi-final is the logical way around this, but seeing as we can't seem to agree on the right process then I think it needs to come to a vote, with a majority win. We can't accomodate for every single need people have, but we should try and do our best and at least make it fair.

For me, the problem isn't the number of participants neccesarily, because I really don't mind listening to 33 songs, however the problem is that I basically don't know 5-10 of the participants. I know that sounds weird but as I said earlier, the idea of the contest is to have fun with people you know and if we don't know who is behind the songs it starts to get really clinical and monotonous. So for me, having a semi final wouldn't solve the issue.

But anyway as Stew said, tbh we need a poll or a debate or smth to solve this

Novterbia - MADWOFLY
Terryfic TASI_TERRY
Dhakan
Barborderlos - DINGO he is on late at night
Mamoland - JLAN , almilas adorable older sister
Kiermakistan - KIEWEN for those who dont know rofl
La Isla Bonita
ColdIsland -ICELANDIC GIRL- random timings but so nice
Eigerland - JAREK
Portugalia - KATIA

so that is 6 debut countrys of which personally i know half, i forgotten which one is sam (davids) and out of the list about i added 3-4 people who are regulars added for a joke that people should know who they are


p.s i fully agree on chris' last comment if the regular members make more of an effort or sth to get new people more involved and such then it will be easier

I agree with Chris ^.

As for a rule, maybe it could be based on amount of time as a member? (1 month full?)

Edit: I know that Terryfic is Tasi_Terry or something, but I've not seen her for a while.

Oh, now I feel guilty as I contacted people in that list about the contest.

La Isla Bonita is Manuel & Dhakan is sam I think, now the list is complete lol

But anyway, i'm definitely not saying that Icelandic Girl, Dingo etc etc should be stopped from participating, because they've come to the site not just to take part in the contest, they've also talked to us on quite a few occasions The problem is, when somebody starts coming just to take part in the contest, and don't bother coming to talk to us, cos it kinda takes the fun out of it. Because surely if anybody has enough time to listen to 33 songs, they must have enough time to say hi once in a while, no?

I'm all for new participants as it keeps it fresh and alive, and its always good to get diff. types of music in, but when somebody only takes part in the contest and doesn't interact with any of us (regardless of whether we know who it is behind the country/song or not), like I said earlier it kinda becomes clinical.

I appreciate alot of people are very busy and don't neccesarily have enough time to talk to us, especially as the summer ends and people are back at work/school, but if theres enough time to listen to 33 songs, theres enough time to say hi