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Search & Discovery

The Basics

One of the nicest things about FAWM is finding a song from someone you’ve never heard before, and really enjoying it. But sometimes, you might feel in the mood to listen to a very specific genre of music, and the FAWM website will let you track down just what you’re looking for (if a fawmer has written something that fits).

You can drink directly from the firehose, or be as discerning as you like in the sort of music you choose to listen to. It’s up to you.

Shuffle

Shuffle works like the shuffle feature on the original mp3 players: click on the “Random Songs” button on the Songs page of the website, and you will be taken to a randomly chosen song.

And just like those early mp3 players, sometimes the results you get won’t feel random at all, but that’s just part of the fun!

Browsing Songs in Different Ways

The Songs page has several different options for browsing songs, and you can choose whichever method works best for you. It will remember which method you selected the last time you logged in, and will use that method the next time (so you don’t have to change settings every time).

Filtering the songs displayed

The Songs page can show you everything that has been posted to the site by clicking on the All songs button. However this can be overwhelming, because that’s a lot of songs. So the site can also filter the complete set of songs so that you only see a subset of everything which has been submitted. Just click or tap on the menu buttons which are laid out at the top of the page. Filters provided include the options to only display songs:

  • From fawmers in your watchlist

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show songs from people you are following, i.e. who are on your watchlist.

  • Songs that nobody has commented on yet (zongs)

You can set the Songs page so that all it will show you is a list of zongs (songs with zero comments). “Zong busting” is a laudable thing to do!

  • From fawmlings

You can set the Songs page so that all it will show you is a list of songs posted by people who are new to FAWM this year, i.e. “fawmlings”. Taking part for the first time can be scary, so leaving an appreciative and welcoming comment helps to make FAWM a nice experience for newbies. We want them to come back next year, and you can help make this more likely!

  • That are lyrics only

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs that are lyrics-only.

  • That include a demo

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs which have a demo recording you can listen to.

  • That feature a video demo

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs which have a video demo hosted on sites like YouTube or Vimeo which you can watch while you listen.

  • That are collabs

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs which were written by two or more fawmers working together.

  • That were written for skirmishes

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs that have been written in response to a skirmish.

  • That were not written for skirmishes

Because skirmishes can result in a lot of songs being posted at the same time, you can set the Songs page so that nothing tagged as a skirmish song will appear.

  • That were written for one or more weekly prompts

You can set the Songs page so that it will only show you songs that have been written in response to one or more of the weekly prompts.

Hashtags

The FAWM website tracks hashtags (such as #instrumental or #slothcore) and if you click on a hashtag, you will be shown a tabbed page where you can choose to see a list of links to places:

  • Where the hashtag was applied to a song
  • Where the hashtag was mentioned in the forums
  • Where the hashtag is mentioned in a fawmer’s profile
  • Where the hashtag is used in a skirmish

For example, if you’re a fan of #progressiverock (and who doesn’t like a daily dose of #prog ?) clicking on the hashtag will let you find all the songs written for the challenge that have been described using that tag.

On some of the website’s pages you will see a list of the top three or four Trending Tags that are popular at the present moment. If you’re struggling to find inspiration, why not pick one, and write a song that fits?

Forum Categories

The Search field on the website will also return results from forum discussions.

The forums are split into a number of different categories. You can choose to browse everything there is, or just posts made under one of the following headings:

  • General
  • Games and Challenges
  • Collaboration Classifieds
  • Songwriting/Composing
  • Demo Recording
  • Website Tech Help and Feedback

When you start a new forum thread, use the drop-down list at the top of the editing page to select which category your post should belong. Don’t worry too much if you forget; the moderators can move a thread to the appropriate place afterwards.

FAWM network number

When you visit another fawmer’s profile page, you may see a small icon that looks like a triangle immediately underneath their username, with a number next to it. This is the FAWM equivalent of Hollywood’s Bacon Quotient or mathematics’ Erdős number. It’s the length of the chain of fawmers connecting you to that fawmer. If you’ve collaborated directly with them, the number will be 1. If you’ve both collaborated with a third fawmer (but not at the same time), the number will be two. If the website can’t find a link between you, the icon won’t appear.