Being unfollowed on Smule

[[Member A gu…]]

20 minutes ago, opentype said:

There can be various reasons. People have different personalities and different reasons to open songs. So their actions will also be different. And they might be in a good mood, they might be in a bad mood. We cannot know that. 

I like to think of an OC as a chance for an interaction that both sides enjoy. A chance. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no set of obligations for opening a song (like “you shall listen to all joins”, “you shall acknowledge/thank all joiners” …)  and there should not be. Remember, it’s just a hobby app we use in our spare time. I would even go so far as to say that expecting acknowledgement is itself questionable. If I join an OC, I enjoy just that. The singing and having the recording of the duet. The person opening the song liking it too would certainly be the cherry on top of the cake, but acknowledgement shouldn’t be necessary or even what I am after.

And after thousands of duets on the app, I am also not a fan of generic “thank you messages” anymore. I rather hear nothing than getting a “thank you” that I know isn’t sincere and just left because it’s what one is supposed to do. So, in the same spirit, I am also avoiding to leaving such replies. But if I am truly thankful, I will say exactly that very clearly. 

No one is obligated, and i do enjoy singing on the app, but of course people want some kind of connection, or interaction or an acknowledgement when they sing on the app. Otherwise it will just feel like you're singing with a bot. And i could just sing with the artist of the song if i didn't want people to listen to my joins, they mostly sing their own songs better anyways. For me listening to joins is just a sign of respect, people are taking the time to join you. OC's are invitations to sing, when you invite someone on a party for example they can choose to come or not, and if they come you wont refuse to engage with them otherwise why invite them? Same here if you invite someone to sing with you why wont you listen to it? Otherwise why not close your invitations, no one will bother you that way. 

Thank you messages are not insincere. You can choose to not comment nothing wrong with that but some people just want to thank the people that took their time to join them or just want to compliment them on their singing if they liked it. 

[[Member Roge…]]

never mind about anyone or anything on smule, just focus on your singing, if people like your voice they will definitely follow you

[[Member Roge…]]

Just remember you are singing for yourself not for anybody. let other people follow you,be the master of your own. Don't be influenced by others

[[Member A gu…]]

24 minutes ago, Rogerlococo2020 said:

Just remember you are singing for yourself not for anybody. let other people follow you,be the master of your own. Don't be influenced by others

I do that, i'm not asking for a follow but when you're being unfollowed after you somewhat connected it can be hard to not get influenced by it and to not take it personally. But i moved on from it though 😊

[[Member My2C…]]

On 11/4/2021 at 1:12 AM, A guest said:

No one is obligated, and i do enjoy singing on the app, but of course people want some kind of connection, or interaction or an acknowledgement when they sing on the app. Otherwise it will just feel like you're singing with a bot. And i could just sing with the artist of the song if i didn't want people to listen to my joins, they mostly sing their own songs better anyways. For me listening to joins is just a sign of respect, people are taking the time to join you. OC's are invitations to sing, when you invite someone on a party for example they can choose to come or not, and if they come you wont refuse to engage with them otherwise why invite them? Same here if you invite someone to sing with you why wont you listen to it? Otherwise why not close your invitations, no one will bother you that way. 

Thank you messages are not insincere. You can choose to not comment nothing wrong with that but some people just want to thank the people that took their time to join them or just want to compliment them on their singing if they liked it. 

Well said. 

If someone spent a few minutes to join you, it is only polite to listen and thank the person. I really do not understand the people who open songs then don't listen to joins. Might as well open solo.

Smule is a social media platform - and rightly so, with social media, interaction is key. Hard to explain that to someone who do not understand the concept. As with followers/unfollowers, people do get abit upset over such numbers because it is social media. That is how social media works.

 

[[Member Roge…]]

Most women they don't think smule is a social media. They just want to sing. Which means they don't really want to talk with anybody on the smule. Especially there are a lot of guys taking smule as some of a dating site if you know what I mean

[[Member sdr…]]

On 11/3/2021 at 10:42 PM, A guest said:

No one is obligated, and i do enjoy singing on the app, but of course people want some kind of connection, or interaction or an acknowledgement when they sing on the app. Otherwise it will just feel like you're singing with a bot. And i could just sing with the artist of the song if i didn't want people to listen to my joins, they mostly sing their own songs better anyways. For me listening to joins is just a sign of respect, people are taking the time to join you. OC's are invitations to sing, when you invite someone on a party for example they can choose to come or not, and if they come you wont refuse to engage with them otherwise why invite them? Same here if you invite someone to sing with you why wont you listen to it? Otherwise why not close your invitations, no one will bother you that way. 

Thank you messages are not insincere. You can choose to not comment nothing wrong with that but some people just want to thank the people that took their time to join them or just want to compliment them on their singing if they liked it. 

Very well said.

I agree completely. There is an expectation when you open an oc that others will join. And the OCs are usually accompanied by a request to join them. An obligation to listen is certainly part of that request. If some people do not fulfill that obligation, the best option is to delete the recording. As I mentioned in another post make it a point to delete every one of your joins after a maximum of 10 days if they were not liked or commented by the opener. You will be doing a big favor to smule also by freeing the storage on their servers.

In one of the interviews given by smule, they were much concerned about their increasing storage requirement. That seems to be the main challenge in front of them. It will be better if they could channel the effort to find more storage space into making the app better. In recent versions of smule the default for video joins are reset to audio only. It is an indication that they storage requirement is becoming a problem.

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, Rogerlococo2020 said:

Most women they don't think smule is a social media. They just want to sing. Which means they don't really want to talk with anybody on the smule. Especially there are a lot of guys taking smule as some of a dating site if you know what I mean

Solo is the option if they only want to sing. Why open OCs? Certainly a solo is a fuller version of the song and they can send it to others to listen. Several people sing the full song as an OC and send them with the "NOT AN INVITE" tag. That way only people interested in listening to them will open it. That is a much better way than making others listen to them forcefully and disregard after you join them.

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, My2CentsWorth said:

Well said. 

If someone spent a few minutes to join you, it is only polite to listen and thank the person. I really do not understand the people who open songs then don't listen to joins. Might as well open solo.

Smule is a social media platform - and rightly so, with social media, interaction is key. Hard to explain that to someone who do not understand the concept. As with followers/unfollowers, people do get abit upset over such numbers because it is social media. That is how social media works.

 

Very true.

It is time smule comes up with automatic deleting of inactive recordings. What I mean by inactive is joins without likings and comments for a duration of 10 days after they are made. 😁

[[Member open…]]

12 minutes ago, sdr said:

An obligation to listen is certainly part of that request.

Says who?
It’s not a rhetorical question. I am serious. Please explain where that’s written or agreed upon. Because there needs to be something like that which makes it an “obligation”—otherwise it’s just a personal opinion or personal expectation and NOT an obligation. 

And as I said before: How do you know they did not listen? Let me be even more blunt: What if the join simply wasn’t very good. Do you expect them to click “like” even if they did’t like it. Do you expect them to say “thank you” even if they are not really thankful? That’s asking everyone to be continuously dishonest, just because some people can’t handle not being permanently acknowledged for every activity on the app.

8 minutes ago, sdr said:

Solo is the option if they only want to sing. Why open OCs?

There aren’t just two options. Even a person who (for whatever reason) will sometimes or even often not interact with every person joining will likely enjoy SOME of the collaborations. That’s normal and expected. But in order to be discovered by that other person who isn’t following you yet and might join for a great duet, you will have to start an OC. 

You are essentially proposing that every Smule singer makes a choice:

• A) If its an OC, you must interact with every join
• B) If you cannot make that commitment, create solos and private calls only

It’s a weirdly restrictive way to handle human interactions, especially in a private/hobby field. 

And a personal anecdote which I think defeats that approach: Years ago, I used to join a singer who I would consider a much better singer than me. She got tons of joins for each OC and got joined by other singers who I would consider much better singers than me. So, not surprisingly, the first 3 or 4 times I joined her I got no reaction from her. She would thank the exceptional singers who were probably already her friends, but not me. According to your system, I should have deleted my joins and not join that person anymore, who violated that supposed ‘social Smule contract’ of having to acknowledge everyone all the time. But I kept joining her, because I like the duets even WITHOUT her acknowledgement. And after a while, she started paying attention, started to love my joins, even started to join me and we create several of my all-time favourite performances on this app. Your system would have prevented that from happening, so I am glad I do not use it. 

[[Member elys…]]

2 hours ago, My2CentsWorth said:

Well said. 

If someone spent a few minutes to join you, it is only polite to listen and thank the person. I really do not understand the people who open songs then don't listen to joins. Might as well open solo.

Smule is a social media platform - and rightly so, with social media, interaction is key. Hard to explain that to someone who do not understand the concept. As with followers/unfollowers, people do get abit upset over such numbers because it is social media. That is how social media works.

 

For me, I do try to spare some time to listen to people who joined me with the exception of those who joined me without using earphones as the echo and background noise just make it plain impossible for me to listen and they are also damaging to my hearing. For those, I will just leave a short note to thank them for joining.

I know there are others who dislike me "thanking" and "liking" those recordings as they find the comments and likes to be insincere. However, for me, I see the "likes" as an acknowledgement that I have listened (or at least tried to listen) to the particular join. It doesn't necessarily mean I totally love the recording. For exceptional recordings, I will usually favourite them.

So what I am trying to say is that this platform is just one for us to enjoy singing and listening to others sing with us - there is no need to read too much into others' action (or inaction). There is no one set rule that fits all ...different singers have different system which they use to interact with their joiners. You just need to find those who seem compatible with your own system and join them often.

Edited November 9, 2021 by elyssia

[[Member My2C…]]

2 hours ago, Rogerlococo2020 said:

Most women they don't think smule is a social media. They just want to sing. Which means they don't really want to talk with anybody on the smule. Especially there are a lot of guys taking smule as some of a dating site if you know what I mean

This singing app is a social media of sorts- people singing with people. 

When I talk about interaction, I mean singing and listening/commenting(that would include thanking the person for the time they spent to join you). I don't mean the incessant messages in the OTHER box ,trying to 'date' people or intro their Bitcoin biz.

Having said this, everyone,of course, is entitled to their own opinions.  Some agree it is polite to thank/listen, others think nothing of it at all. There isn't a right and wrong to our opinions. We just voice what we feel.

[[Member elys…]]

5 minutes ago, My2CentsWorth said:

This singing app is a social media of sorts- people singing with people. 

When I talk about interaction, I mean singing and listening/commenting(that would include thanking the person for the time they spent to join you). I don't mean the incessant messages in the OTHER box ,trying to 'date' people or intro their Bitcoin biz.

Having said this, everyone,of course, is entitled to their own opinions.  Some agree it is polite to thank/listen, others think nothing of it at all. There isn't a right and wrong to our opinions. We just voice what we feel.

Even though it might be a social media of some sort, there is also no obligation to interact with others, just like how some people like to post selfies of themselves on facebook or instagram but they are not really expecting everyone to like or comment on their pictures. It is also impossible to expect everyone to do just because one posts in a social media.

You are right to say that there are those who agree it is polite to listen and comment and there are those who can't be bothered. We are also free to join those who respond in the way we prefer. If we insist on joining those who have a different belief system than us, then we should be prepared to adapt to their way of interacting or not interacting with others.

[[Member sdr…]]

8 minutes ago, elyssia said:

Even though it might be a social media of some sort, there is also no obligation to interact with others, just like how some people like to post selfies of themselves on facebook or instagram but they are not really expecting everyone to like or comment on their pictures. It is also impossible to expect everyone to do just because one posts in a social media.

You are right to say that there are those who agree it is polite to listen and comment and there are those who can't be bothered. We are also free to join those who respond in the way we prefer. If we insist on joining those who have a different belief system than us, then we should be prepared to adapt to their way of interacting or not interacting with others.

Your example of facebook selfie is not at all relevant in this case. A selfie posting is not directed at someone. On the other hand a join is with the person who invited you, at least indirectly. 

The join involves hearing the opener's singing several times, spending considerable time to make right. During this process the opener's voice is bombarding your ears. In return for all these you deserve a listening at least once and a comment or like on it if it is not that much of a strain on ears. 

If smule will make a small change, that of not adding the number joins to the opener's record count, these issues will vanish. Now the joins are taken to be just numbers they want to add to their record count. That is the reason they do not try to listen to them. If the number of joins looses its relevance, people will close their invites after a few joins, listen to them and then sing another invite or will join others.😁

 

[[Member elys…]]

7 minutes ago, sdr said:

Your example of facebook selfie is not at all relevant in this case. A selfie posting is not directed at someone. On the other hand a join is with the person who invited you, at least indirectly. 

The join involves hearing the opener's singing several times, spending considerable time to make right. During this process the opener's voice is bombarding your ears. In return for all these you deserve a listening at least once and a comment or like on it if it is not that much of a strain on ears. 

If smule will make a small change, that of not adding the number joins to the opener's record count, these issues will vanish. Now the joins are taken to be just numbers they want to add to their record count. That is the reason they do not try to listen to them. If the number of joins looses its relevance, people will close their invites after a few joins, listen to them and then sing another invite or will join others.😁

 

But I don't see the invite as directly inviting anyone though. It appears in my followers' notification board I know, but that is because they choose to follow me in the first place. If they do not follow me (and I do not force anyone to follow me), they will not get the invite at all.

Even when it appears on their notifications, they have a choice to join me or not. I don't join every single OCs that appear on my notif board. I do not send nor share any song on chat with my followers either so if people do not like my voice, they can choose to ignore my OCs and not join. And since they join out of their own accord, I do not think I owe them any sort of acknowledgment actually. I do listen and comment because I do happen to enjoy such interaction but I don't think it is fair to expect it from everyone who is in the game.

And the number of recordings is the least of my concern. 

[[Member _Ram…]]

My Two cents worth:

Some very very talented singers are there singing on Smule with thousands of followers. Two of them I know are lady doctors working like mad now during the pandemic. On a week end they create say three or four invites and each has 250 joins so any where between 700 to 1000 joins. Say it takes 5 minutes to listen to each join, like and comment. We are looking at 5000 minutes. Guess how many hours time this will take About 83 hours. I tell then I join them because I love their invites and not to bother to say thank you or send me gifts etc and they acknowledge it and appreciate it too. Time is of essence here when it comes to be able to listen to every one joining ones invites

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, opentype said:

Says who?
It’s not a rhetorical question. I am serious. Please explain where that’s written or agreed upon. Because there needs to be something like that which makes it an “obligation”—otherwise it’s just a personal opinion or personal expectation and NOT an obligation. 

 

Almost every one of the invites starts with the request: "Please sing with me". Such a request normally implies that the inviter will listen to you. May be it is not an obligation that is written out in ink and paper, but that is how it is understood by me. 

 

[[Member elys…]]

7 minutes ago, sdr said:

Almost every one of the invites starts with the request: "Please sing with me". Such a request normally implies that the inviter will listen to you. May be it is not an obligation that is written out in ink and paper, but that is how it is understood by me. 

 

I don't recall seeing invites that start with that line though. Or at least I don't start my invites that way. I think some people might just use that line without thinking too much abt it - could be just a generic one liner. I wouldn't put so much expectation on the other person just because of this one liner.

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, opentype said:

You are essentially proposing that every Smule singer makes a choice:

A) If its an OC, you must interact with every join

B) If you cannot make that commitment, create solos and private calls only

Interact is a big word here. In smule, a like on a recording means only that that person was there listening to it. It is not that there should be an ensuing conversation about the merits and demerits of the rec.

Forget about the joiner's desire to be recognised, why do people open invites in the first place? Isn't the same kind of longing for recognition which impels them to do so? Then why not reciprocate it?😁

[[Member sdr…]]

9 minutes ago, elyssia said:

I don't recall seeing invites that start with that line though. Or at least I don't start my invites that way. I think some people might just use that line without thinking too much abt it - could be just a generic one liner. I wouldn't put so much expectation on the other person just because of this one liner.

Or may be with a variation on the theme😁

[[Member sdr…]]

42 minutes ago, _RamKrish1012 said:

My Two cents worth:

Some very very talented singers are there singing on Smule with thousands of followers. Two of them I know are lady doctors working like mad now during the pandemic. On a week end they create say three or four invites and each has 250 joins so any where between 700 to 1000 joins. Say it takes 5 minutes to listen to each join, like and comment. We are looking at 5000 minutes. Guess how many hours time this will take About 83 hours. I tell then I join them because I love their invites and not to bother to say thank you or send me gifts etc and they acknowledge it and appreciate it too. Time is of essence here when it comes to be able to listen to every one joining ones invites

If they do not want to listen, why not close the invite? Or they could make it private and send to the people they want to join. Why this longing to show off that they have so many joins? It's insincerity at the core which makes them do this.

[[Member open…]]

5 minutes ago, sdr said:

 In smule, a like on a recording means only that that person was there listening to it.

Again, says who? Where are you getting all these meanings and obligations from? 
It seems like you make up your own rules and then judge people for not following your rules, which they don’t even know. 
It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just declare that a “like” means “I listened”. Or if you do, I can declare, that a “like” means that a performance was actually “liked”, because that is LITERALLY the meaning. Now what? 

9 minutes ago, sdr said:

why do people open invites in the first place?
… why not reciprocate it?

I answered that multiple times already. I doesn’t feel like you actually want to hear the answers or acknowledge any of many points I made so far. Which, is somewhat ironic considering that you care so much about acknowledging things on the Smule app. So, I am out of this discussion. It will only go in circles. 

[[Member sdr…]]

2 hours ago, opentype said:

And a personal anecdote which I think defeats that approach: Years ago,

Such incidents are exceptions. And I do not mind keeping on joining a singer whom I consider exceptionally good, for a few more songs, but eventually you are going to tire out if there is no response. But we are talking about general cases here. The only way to deal with is delete the join silently.

[[Member _Ram…]]

2 minutes ago, sdr said:

The only way to deal with is delete the join silently.

This is akin to "Cutting the Nose off to Spite the Face" Only you will know you joined did not get acknowledged and deleted the join. No one else will Know. so what is the Point. Better option would be not to join an invite unless you like the person inviting you

[[Member sdr…]]

1 minute ago, _RamKrish1012 said:

This is akin to "Cutting the Nose off to Spite the Face" Only you will know you joined did not get acknowledged and deleted the join. No one else will Know. so what is the Point. Better option would be not to join an invite unless you like the person inviting you

There are several benefits.

You heard your own joining and hopefully you liked it 😁

By removing an inactive recording, your profile becomes cleaner. You can more easily see recordings you made with others and listen again to them.

If more people delete their inactive recordings the original opener will take note and will be more polite the next and not ignore listening to joins.

Smule will save enormous amount of storage space. They might use their resources for improving the app rather than run about for more storage .