I can see where you guys are coming from, and I think the only difference with our perspectives is that my goal is to draw as many people into this idea as possible, and, if we're lucky enough, add to the memberbase of the forum through that (although that is certainly an unlikely scenario), and your goal is for a true competition, and setting the standards higher so only those with talent would really take part.

Honestly, I am generally on side with early culling of misfits, because it makes things easier in the long run and certainly improves the quality overall of whatever it is that you're running, but my concern in this case is that we would end up with just a couple contestants jerking each other off musically because our member base is so low.

Of course, this concern is mitigated by the fact that we have a fair number of people here who are genuinely interested in a music contest.

Like you, I'm not trying to be argumentative, it's just slightly different goals and a different view on the situation, although there is no real extreme differences between our ultimate desires - a chance to be creative and share that.