MediaWiki Developer Summit 2015/karaoke rules

Mark and Katie are the masters of Karaoke, they are responsible for coming up with the rules for the MW Dev Summit Karaoke party.

Here are the rules (which must be obeyed):


 * 1) <+marktraceurWMF> New rule, no Lady Marmalade. NOT NEGOTIABLE.
 * 2)  Also: No Journey unless you damn well mean it. I reserve the right to slap the mic out of people's hands, when they don't mean it.

...that is all.

See Mark's general-purpose karaoke rules (under construction).

Katie's thoughts
Karaoke anarchy sucks. I usually prefer setups that have the following characteristics:


 * 1) The KJ establishes a clear and consistent singer rotation, to be used for the duration of the evening. This ensures that everyone gets a chance to participate equally (if they choose to). The easiest way to do this is to create a list of unique participants, in which individuals are added to the ordered list when each participant submits their first song. Participants will be called in the same order all night, as long as they have a song request in for their name when it comes up again. It is particularly helpful when this list is visible to all participants so everybody knows how much time they have before their next request. A smallish whiteboard accomplishes all of these things perfectly.
 * 2) * KJ's discretion as to how duet requests fit into the rotation.
 * 3) ** I'd suggest that one person in the duet must designate it as their choice for that rotation. --MarkTraceur (talk) 22:20, 18 September 2014 (UTC)
 * 4) * It is tacitly understood that successful KJ bribery can, theoretically, alter the rotation on a temporary basis.
 * 5) While anyone may request several songs at once, it is understood that the requests will be spaced out by the established rotation.
 * 6) Participants may only request songs for themselves. ABSOLUTELY NO submitting songs for other people without their explicit consent. Karaoke is terrifying for some people, and intentionally terrifying people is extremely uncool. Just don't.
 * 7) * My rule is "must have emphatic, prior consent from the singer before stepping on stage", but we can play with the wording. --MarkTraceur (talk) 22:20, 18 September 2014 (UTC)
 * 8) Pressuring others to participate should be heavily frowned upon or directly punished, for the same reasons.
 * 9) No song hijacking! The only exception would be if the original requester indicates that they would appreciate assistance. In other words: If you didn't request the song, it should go without saying that the duet microphone's default state is "off".
 * 10) The KJ has the right to deny (or emphatically talk you out of) particular song requests. Reasons may include (but are not limited to) a repeat song from earlier, the song being much too long for the current level of activity, the song having no business being on the karaoke list in the first place without a thoroughly considered interpretive dance section (think 3-minute faux guitar solo in the middle), or the KJ just doesn't like it very much.
 * 11) * KJ bribery can have a certain relaxing effect on this rule, but it is more unusual for it to work in this context.

Katie's Unanswered Questions

 * 1) Do we have a book? Can we share a digital copy?
 * 2) * Mark left the song book for the office karaoke system near his old desk. It should still be there.
 * 3) Normally, I'd ask if we could get paper slips for the requests. However, it's us, so we should probably just designate an IRC channel for requests...
 * 4) * I'd prefer a clipboard, but IRC (or etherpad?) sounds feasible. --MarkTraceur (talk) 22:20, 18 September 2014 (UTC)