Yeah, so

[goroth]

BILF is pretty awesome.

If anyone with rad organisational skills is reading this...
I can help run stuff, but it will be run poorly

Screw it, I'm going to get this ball rolling a little bit. Poll is open for 7 days.

[backwardsvoyager]

I wanna enter this year, never did before now.

I think people should have to submit demos to be able to win, but not have to to be allowed to enter. I like the idea of picking a winner based on what their board actually does, because really like all of the entries are porn anyway and the winner would just reflect the general consensus on the coolest pedals and layout otherwise. Which is cool and all i just feel like it gives people who can afford 'nicer' gear more leverage to some degree. Just thinking out loud anyway.

I don't reckon size or theme or anything for categories really matters, so maybe just keeping it to the 'Uncle Grandfather' category and the 'everybody else' category?

[Uncle Grandfather]

so maybe just keeping it to the 'Uncle Grandfather' category and the 'everybody else' category?

i would enter but I don't use a pedal board, i use a table

[UglyCasanova]

I clicked the top one because I love hearing other people's boards, but in hindsight I know all duders don't have recording equipment or camera phones (yes, some still don't). Would be awesome to hear all of your boards non the less

[Eivind August]

so maybe just keeping it to the 'Uncle Grandfather' category and the 'everybody else' category?

i would enter but I don't use a pedal board, i use a table

[coldbrightsunlight]

I love the idea of demos but I also want to see max numbers of boards, so I think just the finalists should have to do it (anyone else is welcome to and I'll love it but you don't have to to enter).

[skullservant]

Yeah, I think demos should be a finalist thing. I also like having categories, even if it's just number of pedals on the actual board itself (that seemed to be more fair, less random, make sense)

[spacelordmother]

Yeah, I think demos should be a finalist thing. I also like having categories, even if it's just number of pedals on the actual board itself (that seemed to be more fair, less random, make sense)

This. I liked the idea of the categories last year, but they were too subjective and it made things a little chaotic. Small, med, and large would be pretty cool I think.

[Disarm D'arcy]

Yeah, I think demos should be a finalist thing. I also like having categories, even if it's just number of pedals on the actual board itself (that seemed to be more fair, less random, make sense)

This. I liked the idea of the categories last year, but they were too subjective and it made things a little chaotic. Small, med, and large would be pretty cool I think.

Voted fuck categories but this actually makes sense.

[PetZounds]

Heya, I like spreadsheets and numbers and organizing things.
I wouldn't mind giving it a shot if someone 'more qualified' doesn't wanna do it.

I think just small and large would work pretty well.
Small could be like 7 pedals or fewer, or something arbitrary like that.

EDIT: Also this isn't until January, right?

[Wes Mantooth]

MY thing with demos is then it turns in to the the battle of the rigs more so than just pedals unless you're recording directly in to an interface.

We should do battle of the rigs and boards I think.

[whoismarykelly]

Its rare that a board battle doesn't inevitably lean toward rewarding the rich. Obviously the guy with $20,000 in insane pedals is likely to win over the guy with a bunch of gear off the shelf at GC. People on forums just like fancy stuff. We'll at least until the voting is done out of hate for the rich guy and then he's at the bottom of the list LOL. Thats why the HC BOTBs ended up having budget and DIY divisions. Just something to level the playing field or create a better discussion about the boards in question.

When you add demos its just doing the same thing. A guy with nice recording gear and skills can make a great demo of his board. A guy that reads the forum on a phone and then only has that phone to record a demo isn't going to stand a chance.

[PetZounds]

Its rare that a board battle doesn't inevitably lean toward rewarding the rich. Obviously the guy with $20,000 in insane pedals is likely to win over the guy with a bunch of gear off the shelf at GC. People on forums just like fancy stuff. We'll at least until the voting is done out of hate for the rich guy and then he's at the bottom of the list LOL. Thats why the HC BOTBs ended up having budget and DIY divisions. Just something to level the playing field or create a better discussion about the boards in question.

When you add demos its just doing the same thing. A guy with nice recording gear and skills can make a great demo of his board. A guy that reads the forum on a phone and then only has that phone to record a demo isn't going to stand a chance.

I feel like a well done, small budget board could win out against a small board with 5 super expensive but not coherent pedals.
But I feel like a certain amount of rewarding those with expensive stuff is inherent to voting on the coolest boards.
I tend to drool over the crazy unobtanium pedals a lot more than a well-placed Soul Food.

I agree with what you said on the demos, I don't think they should be required.
I think it might be better to have voting be on pictures alone, and then the clips can come later on after all the voting is done.
Just to level the playing field and make it as close to being 'about the board' as possible.

[cedarskies]

Yeah I remember last year a lot of the small boards got a lot of votes. I think that it is because it makes it easier to imagine the sounds coming from them. Big boards can sometimes just look confusing and distracting. Not totally based on purpose and utility

[goroth]

Yeah, my board was/is worth a shitload and MEC's sexy little number shat all over mine in the voting haha. I thought the year before when we had demos that people were pretty good at listening for what the pedals were doing, and not necessarily who had the nicest recording, or guitar or whatever. IIRC most of the demos were iphone recordings.