first and foremost - a ginormous thank you to the KVR community for the last 3 years of having the "Mix Challenge", and giving us a home. Without KVR Audio and it's userbase, we wouldn't have been at the place where we are now. It's been a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs.
I still don't know how to put this into words to be honest. At one point down the road, it really saddens me to "move away the Mix Challenge" from KVR Audio. But I think we (the Mix Challenge staff) are in a position where we can (and actually need to!) start to run, and not just tiptoe anymore.
I'm here to inform all of you, especially our loyal participants, that...
As of 1st April 2017, the Mix Challenge can now be found via https://www.mix-challenge.com - on it's own forum.
Now before there is a huge uproar, let me please try to explain why.
As some of you know, I've been doing statistics about the Mix Challenge behind the scenes since pretty much day 1. And there is (sadly) a certain trend towards 10 users on average per Challenge. Considering the workload that is put into each challenge from the hosts, the song provider and the mix participants, I think we can do better. Drastically better even.
In fact, this correlates with various PM's and mails I got in the last half year alone, the feedback through the Survey (thank you for that as well!). Those being "oh... I didn't know of you, I literally just found you!", others being like "you're too hard to find", even had the rare occasion with "I'm not signing up to xyz userbase just to join". Add to that, the wish to get a Mailing List, branch out to Facebook (maybe even Reddit and now also Minds), this was more than food for thought as you can imagine.
And this is the main reason why we (Mix Challenge staff) decided to fully go to/move to a dedicated place.
The goal is to have one large/stable tree trunk (being the Mix Challenge homepage at it's roots), and then branch out from there (Social Media, third party communities, etc). At a pace and means that wouldn't be possible to us on KVR Audio. As good as this community is (again, can't say it enough, thank you!).
Not only that, a dedicated place / forum opens up certain possibilities.
Those being:
- users can "subscribe" to sub-forums and threads to always stay informed, even outside of social media (technically possible on KVR Audio too, but not filtered)
- we can send out a newsletter ever so often to all users signed up to the forum, without the need of an engine like MailChimp or similar, a request that has been made several times to "offer a mailing list" (less engines to handle!)
- we can have individual Q&A threads
The Mix Challenge is just at the beginning of a roadmap. There are currently a lot of things going on behind the scenes - and I can assure all of our Mix Challenge participants - you will be kept in the loop! (and I'm also sure, you'll like what we have planned).
How do we go from there?
Mix Challenge 30 will still finish here on KVR Audio (should happen the next days). The old MC01 - MC30 threads will remain on KVR Audio as well and are linked to from the Mix Challenge homepage. But beyond that... we're treading new grounds. And I hope, you'll join this new and exciting journey.
Thank you once more!!!
Thank you KVR Audio, a thank you to all song providers, mix participants, sponsors, backers...
Let us celebrate the continuation of the Mix Challenge - with MC31 - on http://www.mix-challenge.com
You're invited to drop by, say hi, maybe stay even.
See you on the flipside!