DISCLAIMER: This "The only FAQ that matters - SO FAR" thread is at this point to be seen as a Demo and/or a Beta Release. I have summoned up Q&As from the original thread, included later suggestions from various contributors and given the whole thing a bit of structure. When and/or if it ever becomes the official/real thing ChuckyG himself will give it an overhaul and cut some, add some, rephrase some, etc. Until then; here goes:

Q: Why is the site called amiright.com?
A: AmIright was originally going to be a "debate/joke of the day" website when ChuckyG registered the domain name. He decided there were too many of those sites already, and thought it was also a good name for the misheard lyrics collection on his 80s website, inthe80s.com. It's the type of question you would ask if you tried to identify a hard to understand lyric. "He's singing, 'there's a bathroom on the right'. Am I right?"

Q: Who decides what parodies can be submitted?
A: ChuckyG. He owns the website and maintains the scripts that runs it. He’s also responsible for approving new song parodies for the website. For more information check out ChuckyG.com.

Q: How often is the site updated?
A: Normally 6 six times a week, Monday to Friday and once over the weekend. There is no fixed rule on this though, it might be more often, it might be less, but the exceptions have been vary rare over the last years.

Q: I only have part of a song written, can I just submit that?
A: There is a section called "Parody Fragments" on the site.  Parodies under 10 lines in length should be submitted there. Parodies of nursery rhymes, advertising jingles, or other short works should also be submitted to the fragments section.

Q: I have written a parody in another language than English, can I submit that?
A: Yes, but since the majority of visitors here prefer English it might be a good idea to state that clearly in the parody title if you want to avoid negative comments about it. Something like this will do: “In Gibberish: Parody Title”.

Q: Am I allowed to submit songs I wrote myself that are NOT parodies of other music, i.e. original works?
A: Only if you perform it and record it. Lyrics to original works are not allowed.

Q: How do I go about recording my parodies and putting them on the site?
A: Amiright does not host song recordings. If you record a parody, you will need to find a web host or a service such as Soundclick that can host the song recording for you. A discussion of how to record parodies would require a seperate FAQ of its own.

Q: Can I submit the lyrics to my favorite Weird Al parody? (Or any other parody I didn't write).
A: No. Please only submit original works that you have created yourself. Not something you heard on the radio, or downloaded off the web, or you received in email. If you didn't write it yourself, don't submit it.

Q: Are there any topics that I can't write about?
A: Anything that’s insulting to individuals that are not famous. Parodies advocating violence against individuals or groups are forbidden (i.e: No parodies about harming the president or your next door neighbour or fellow AmIright writer). Also sexual topics, especially if they graphically describe sexual acts. Stuff that can be interpreted either way, so called double entendres, is generally allowed. The complete rules for posting parodies can be found on the submission page. Here is the direct link: http://www.amiright.com/parody/submitting.shtml

Q: I’ve noticed that some parodies poke fun at the President of the USA, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and other politicians. Is AmIright a political site in disguise?
A: No, AmIright is above anything else a parody site. Some of the writers here likes to dip into political subjects now and then and holds it to be an axiom that it ain’t really satire until it offends someone. Other parodies might actually express the political or religious view of its writer. Unless the top and/or bottom comments sections has been used for clarification it’s sometimes as hard to tell the difference as it is in real life to judge a person from a short newsflash quote taken out of context. As long as within the rules above either is neither encouraged or discouraged. No benefits are given to any specific such view, new parodies are posted in the order they are submitted and sorted on the new updates page based on their originals in reversed alphabetical order.

Q: What do I do if I see a parody or comment that clearly breaks the forum's rules?
A: If a parody violates the rules of amiright, send an email to chuck@worcestermass.com or leave a personal message on inthe00s.com for ChuckyG. If a comment on a parody violates the rules (spam or profanity), use the "Report Inappropriate Comment" link on that message to report it for review by the moderator.

Q: Why did someone give my parody straight 1s when everyone else gave me 4s and 5s?
A: If your parody expresses an idea some people may disagree with, they might vote it all ones to spite you. This isn't really in keeping with the spirit of the site, but there's no way to enforce it. The other reason is that some people are just jerks. To balance this as far as possible there’s a cookie function in use to prevent people from voting more than once on any single parody and a twit control to prevent comments on the same parody to be posted closer than every fifth minute.

Q: I know it is allowed to vote your own parodies once but is this considered poor practice?
A: That's up to you, why you would bother to do it is anyone’s guess.

Q: In parody comments how do I space so that it doesn't look like a huge paragraph?
A: What you need to use is the <BR> tag. Two of them back to back give a line of space between paragraphs.

Q: How do I make special characters like the trade mark symbol and others if I want to use them in a parody or a comment?
A: In order to get any special characters into a parody you need to use the HTML Entity Reference for it. Preferably not the number ones, but the ones that spell out what you’re using, they are an ampersand (&) followed by a defining moniker and a necessary semi-colon at the end. There’s currently quite a list at http://www.cookwood.com/html/extras/entities.html

Q: Is it possible under parody comments to make the same colour changes and what not as it is on the forum pages? If not could it possibly be implemented?
A: No and no.

Q: Why do some authors opt out of allowing comments?
A: Comments are a way for an author to get feedback. If an author for some reason doesn't want feedback, it really shouldn't be a problem for the reader. Many of the older parodies on Amiright doesn’t have and never had comments enabled simply because they were submitted to AmIright before the comments feature existed. Sometimes people want comments, sometimes they don't, that's why the feature was set up the way it is now when it was first implemented. As for the deliberately opted out since then it’s most often on parodies written on controversial themes, instead of comments about the author's writing skills, these parodies often receive comments that amount to people arguing the points of view expressed by the fictional narrators of those parodies. William Tong, for example, has literally received death threats simply because people have a different political view. There’s also the chance that not allowing comments is a pure and simple mistake. When submitting a parody, you have to check a box to enable comments, it's not the default, and sometimes authors forget to check it or think they've checked it when, in fact, they've accidentally clicked just enough outside of it that it didn't take. We are human, after all, so let’s not assume malice for what sloppy rushing can explain. If you don't like it that some parodies don't have comments enabled, scroll down to see if comments are enabled BEFORE you read and rate a parody and if they're not enabled, don't read or rate that parody. If you’ve already read a parody and for some reason feel an absolute need to comment on that parody there’s nothing to stop you from starting your own thread about it in the forums section.

Q: I’ve submitted a couple of parodies myself now but I don’t appear on the author's page. What’d I do wrong?
A: Authors appear on the parody page when they have written 10 or more parodies, sometimes with a few days delay. Authors who have written 25 parodies or more can send a brief bio to ChuckyG via email to appear on the top of their author page. If your author name is not 100 % the same each time you submit (spelling, capitalization, spaces), it won't count towards the total.

Q: I submitted my bio nearly a month ago. Was it rejected or is that like a monthly update?  And if I want to modify it how do I do that?
A: Chucky probably haven’t had the time to do it, it’s a secondary feature. You can resubmit a bio if it needs updates and it’ll be done in due time.

Q: When I look at my author's page, one of my parodies is missing from it, why?
A: Your name must be typed exactly the same each time you submit. This means every letter needs to be lowercase/uppercase exactly the same way, spaces, punctuation, you name it.

Q: What do I do if my submitted parody appears twice?
A: Send an email to chuck@worcestermass.com or leave a personal message on inthe00s.com for ChuckyG with the URL (web address) of the parody that should be removed.

Q: What if I submit the wrong parody, or notice typos in it after I've submitted?
A: Modifications can NOT be made to a parody once it has been submitted. You can send a message to ChuckyG at chuck@worcestermass.com and ask for a parody to be removed. You can then resubmit the corrected parody. This however will result in the votes and comments from the original submission being lost.

Q: What if I decide to update my parody after writing it?
A: Again: Modifications can NOT be made to a parody once it has been submitted. You can send a message to ChuckyG at chuck@worcestermass.com and ask for a parody to be removed. You can then resubmit the corrected parody. This however will result in the votes and comments from the original submission being lost.

Q: Can I change the name/nick I’ve submitted my parodies under?
A: There’s currently no existing script for that, which means it’ll have to be done manually by ChuckyG. Unless you’ve been here a really, really long time and contributed substantially to the site and its community, don’t count on it getting on his next five year agenda. ;-). Thus, the basic answer is No, not without removing all of your parodies for the website and resubmitting them and in the process lose all of your previous comments and votes. New writers are strongly recommended to not submit under the first, best nick that comes to mind. There’s no rule against it, since it would be impossible to uphold, but bear in mind that among other things it’ll enhance your copyright claim/note to use your real name when you submit parodies.

Q: Why do I have such a low ranking on the author's page and how can I move up in the authors' list?
A: Your rank is only based on the number of parodies you have written. This is not a mark of who's better than who, or any kind of quality statement.

Q: How can I get more recognition for my parodies? They aren't attracting many ratings and comments, how can I increase my exposure?
A: ”Do onto others” is a centuries old wisdom that still holds true! It is recommended that you as a general habit spend some time commenting on other people's parodies. There are approximately 50 new parodies every day, surely you are familiar with some of their originals. (And reading other peoples parodies on songs you know is also a way to improve your own parody writing technique). You can also register for membership on the inthe00s board and join the community and once you get warm in your parody writers clothing you can join the contests on the Parody Contests board. It's also recommended that you send a link to your parody to friends or co-workers, maybe a link in your signature line if you post on messageboards. This helps not only your parodies, but might even bring new visitors to the site, who will in turn vote on other parodies. William Tong had 2 of his more than 1000 parodies on amIright mentioned in USA Today in 2002. There are occasionally requests from people who want to include a parody in a newsletter or other publication. Make sure you leave some means for people to contact you in the header or footer of your parody just in case someone spots your parody and would like to use it.

Q: Am I allowed to link to www.amiright.com from other sites? I have a parody I did that I would like to link to some other sites?
A: That’s not only allowed, it’s encouraged!

Q: What kind of original song should I parody if I want the best chance of my song being noticed?
A: So called Golden Oldies stand a better chance to be recognized by more people, if for nothing else simply because they have been around longer and chances are that more people therefore have been exposed to them. However, don't let that discourage you from making a parody to a brand new song or an odd genre, you'll probably do best with music you yourself like to listen to and if others that like the same type of music can see it being parodied here chances are that they'll too find it worth the time to write in that genre or to that new song.

Q: Is there anything else I can do to improve my parody writing skills?
A: Some of the articles under the URL: http://www.amiright.com/articles/ are about parody writing techniques and they are written by experienced parody writers. There’s also a brand new thread about it in the forums section of the site where you can ask specific questions and quite possible get a rather quick response: http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,10527.0.html

Q: Someone wrote “DKTOS” as a comment on my parody. What does that abbreviation mean?
A: Don't Know The Original Song. It's impossible for anyone to know every tune people parody. A really funny parody however, can be funny even if the reader has no clue how the song sounds, that’s probably why someone took the time to read and comment on your parody even though they didn’t knew the song. Other abbreviations ending with OS are probably variations to DKTOS, since the parodists here has a tendency to come up with new variations for things like that too, listing them all would be impossible so if you don’t already know them you have to judge them within their contexts, or just simply ask the commenter what he/she meant, either on the same parody of yours or in a comment on one of his/hers.

Q: I’ve seen the abbreviation “SOTM” on comments to other peoples parodies. What does that abbreviation mean?
A: Song Of The Month. It also means that the author has submitted that particular parody to a feedback exchange program and competition on the forums part of the site. Anyone can join that competition but it requires from the authors to comment on the submitted works of everyone else, among other things. Specific details are to be found on the Contests Forum SOTM submissions and the SOTM voting threads during the first week to ten days of each month when a new round starts. There are also other regular competitions, ABC rounds being the most popular and hence ABC is another popular abbreviation on comments.

Q: Do I get paid for (any of) my submissions here on AmIright?
A: No. What you get is feedback via votes and/or comments left by visitors to the website. If you’re to come up with a way to turn your parodies into legal money some other way, Good Luck!

Q: Can I sell my (any of my) parodies?
A: If someone is willing to pay you for them, sure. If it's a recording however, the original songwriter under US law is entitled to a fixed amount of money for the original work, and if you use the original recording, the performers of the music are also entitled to financial compensation. This subject is complicated, and beyond the scope of this FAQ.

Q: Do I own the copyright for my work?
A: This question really requires a FAQ of its own, and that can’t be provided here, but for starters lets just say that you own what you write as soon as you write it, but in order to be able to prove that you wrote it is strongly encouraged that you state on your parodies "Copyright of Your Name" (replacing your name with, your name). Then it is technically copyrighted under US law (provided you are a US citizen). If you want, you can print it out and send it to the US Copyright Office along with a filing fee. If you send it to the copyright office and someone reprints it without your permission, you can bring that person to court, and if the court finds in your favour, the minimum is $10,000 per incident. Such a procedure requires lawyers and a lot of time and the site and its owner is in NO way responsible to help you out with it.

Q: What if somebody plagiarizes my parody?
A: If it's on amiright.com, contact ChuckyG at chuck@worcestermass.com, and provide the URL of the original work and the plagiarized work. If it's clearly plagiarized it will be removed. Song titles alone are not considered a plagiary. Song titles can not be copyrighted, and are frequently reused in the real world, the same thing happens with parodies. Great minds think alike. If it's on another site, there's not much ChuckyG can do for you.

Q: What if someone puts my parody on another site?  Is there any action I could take?
A: You can ask the person who posted it, to remove it. You can look up the ISP the site is hosted through, and ask them to remove it if that doesn't work. Unfortunately, the Internet encourages people to repost things, so it may not be possible to have every instance removed if something proves really popular. If you're afraid of something being reposted somewhere without your permission, don't post it. There is no technology that will prevent your parody from being copied if someone is motivated to do it.

Q: Does ChuckyG himself ever write parodies?
A: Yes he does, about once every seventh year! (There are two so far).

Q: I haven't been to Amiright in a long time, what happened to the top 10 lists?
A: The top 10 lists were seen as a means of exposure, or a means to compete with other authors (before the authors themselves constructed the aforementioned SOTM competitions). Since votes there could be forged with a small amount of knowledge of web browsers, people began to inflate their own vote counts, or vote down the parodies of others in order to move up the lists. Since the lists were essentially meaningless once this began to happen more frequently, they were no longer linked to or displayed on the parody pages.

Q: I haven't been to AmIright in a long time and some of my ratings disappeared, what happened?
A: During an update of the parody database, ChuckyG accidentally wiped out the ratings for most of the parodies submitted after 2001. Once a new vote is registered on a parody whose data was erased, the vote totals get reset.  Unfortunately, backups did not exist for most of the voting data, so a recovery was not possible. Some affected parodies still have votes intact but comments AFTER the date of the loss. Some also show no votes under the author name but when you click on the parody the votes are there. That’s because if a parody hasn't been voted on since the crash, the original vote count will continue to be displayed. The original vote count will not show up in the author listings since the data file used to create the voting results no longer exists. The script that caused all this to happen has been removed. However, it's still possible votes may get wiped out again due to circumstances beyond Chucky’s control. As a general advice you should make copies of all your parodies for yourself and keep them in safe place if you’re afraid of them getting lost.

Q: I haven’t been to AmIright in a long time, what happened to the AmIright Awards?
A: With approximately 1000 new parodies coming in each month now it’s a rather safe bet to say that the task of reading them all outgrew the way that thing was organized. There’s now the SOTM ad lib committee(d) awards instead. (See about SOTM above).

As the one starting the original thread about a FAQ for the frontpage of AmIright I have now taken the time to sort things out, summon it up, rephrase and collect bits so as to tie in with each other, and to generally give the whole thing a preliminary bit of structure:

This is what we have so far: (NOTE: There's one clearly marked question that I need help with).



Q: Why do some authors opt out of allowing comments?
A: QUOTE: “I think the other active thread at the moment about why do some authors opt out of allowing comments would be a worthy addition as well. Especially all the reasons given in the followup” ----- CAN SOMEONE HELP ME OUT WITH THIS ONE, I DON’T RECALL THAT THREAD AND CAN’T FIND IT  //  Peter




I think it might be this thread (way back on page 4)

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,8513.0.html

I think it might be this thread (way back on page 4)

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,8513.0.html


Thanx, that one looks like it might be the one, and even if it’s not there was enough to work with to more than well answer the question. I’ve compressed it as much as I can (and modified/inserted it into the “series” above) but it’s still the longest answer:

I think that's a fair summary of what was said.

You might like to edit this sentence



There’s also the chance that now allowing comments is a pure and simple mistake.


to

There’s also the chance that not allowing comments is a pure and simple mistake.

I think that's a fair summary of what was said.

You might like to edit this sentence

to

There’s also the chance that not allowing comments is a pure and simple mistake.


Done!

The top post of this thread has been updated.

Great write up again K1chyd. Bumping this as well so it'll be up towards the top. ;)

Hey, great job with this!  I used to plan on doing one of these and never got around to it; I'm really glad someone else did it.  If you're still looking for suggestions I do have one small one, though:  in the section that asks what people can do to get more recognition for their parodies, I would definitely recommend that they spend time commenting on other people's parodies, not just in the contests but as a general habit as well.  Not offended if you don't use it; just a thought.  Again, great work.

Hey, great job with this!  I used to plan on doing one of these and never got around to it; I'm really glad someone else did it.  If you're still looking for suggestions I do have one small one, though:  in the section that asks what people can do to get more recognition for their parodies, I would definitely recommend that they spend time commenting on other people's parodies, not just in the contests but as a general habit as well...


I can add that, it definitely makes sense to highlight that part a bit more and the Answer to that Question wasn't really the best in the bunch, I can see that now.

How about this:

Q: How can I get more recognition for my parodies? They aren't attracting many ratings and comments, how can I increase my exposure?
A: ”Do onto others” is a centuries old wisdom that still holds true! It is recommended that you as a general habit spend some time commenting on other people's parodies. There are approximately 50 new parodies every day, surely you are familiar with some of their originals. (And reading other peoples parodies on songs you know is also a way to improve your own parody writing technique). You can also register for membership on the inthe00s board and join the community and once you get warm in your parody writers clothing you can join the contests on the Parody Contests board. It's also recommended that you send a link to your parody to friends or co-workers, maybe a link in your signature line if you post on messageboards. This helps not only your parodies, but might even bring new visitors to the site, who will in turn vote on other parodies...

I can add that, it definitely makes sense to highlight that part a bit more and the Answer to that Question wasn't really the best in the bunch, I can see that now.

How about this:

Q: How can I get more recognition for my parodies? They aren't attracting many ratings and comments, how can I increase my exposure?
A: ”Do onto others” is a centuries old wisdom that still holds true! It is recommended that you as a general habit spend some time commenting on other people's parodies. There are approximately 50 new parodies every day, surely you are familiar with some of their originals. (And reading other peoples parodies on songs you know is also a way to improve your own parody writing technique). You can also register for membership on the inthe00s board and join the community and once you get warm in your parody writers clothing you can join the contests on the Parody Contests board. It's also recommended that you send a link to your parody to friends or co-workers, maybe a link in your signature line if you post on messageboards. This helps not only your parodies, but might even bring new visitors to the site, who will in turn vote on other parodies...

Awesome

OK. Whoever wrote this has really p***ed me off

Prime Minister of England???????????????????

I beleive you are refering to the Prime Minister of the UK. THere are 3 others countries in the UK apart from England(booo). Wales (YAY), Scotland (Um. Sorta yay) and Northern Ireland (Meh)

Please correct this. THank YOu

OK. Whoever wrote this has really p***ed me off

Prime Minister of England???????????????????

I beleive you are refering to the Prime Minister of the UK. THere are 3 others countries in the UK apart from England(booo). Wales (YAY), Scotland (Um. Sorta yay) and Northern Ireland (Meh)

Please correct this. THank YOu


How can I refuse such a polite request?  ::)

I'm aware that there are four countries in the United Kingdom, since we normally kick all four of your buttocks in Soccer! I can only offer the excuse that when in school in the 70s and 80s I was taught to refer to the whole lot as England and that being the norm didn't really change until 1994 when Sweden joined the European Union. The term UK is still not very common though, media here now prefers the term "Great Britain" (though translated of course), but I will use UK to please you.  ;)

Guess I can be glad I didn't use Canada as an example, some Quebecian would probably have objected to being counted in with sucks pucks...  :P

If you want to add a question about how to obtain clearance for use of the original song, there's a good site/service to direct people to:

http://www.clearance.com  (EMG Clearance Services) 

They have do-it-yourself instructions you can access for free.  For a fee, they offer a "guidance" service (they'll get you the contact info, you do the rest) and, for a higher fee, they'll just do the whole thing for you... you can write and tell them what it is you're needing in the way of clearance and they can give you an estimate on what your fee will be, should you decide to enlist their services. 

There's also info on what clearance is, who needs it and who doesn't, a couple of horror stories about people who used music without getting clearance, etc.  The DIY section is geared more toward film use, so you'd need to adjust your request, accordingly, making it clear that you will be using the melody and changing the words... as they caution, you can't just clear the melody and change the words without having obtained permission to use the original music that way.   

Hope this is helpful in some way.  :)

If you want to add a question about how to obtain clearance for use of the original song, there's a good site/service to direct people to:

http://www.clearance.com  (EMG Clearance Services) 


Thank you for the suggestion, though I think I’ll have to pass on this one. Except for the link to special characters I have so far refrained from adding links to anything outside AmIright and these forums, especially on the subjects of Copyright and Clearance and such things because it’s like Chucky wrote on the original thread; these questions really deserves a FAQ of their own that can’t be provided here.

These things are complicated and it could go to some length if I were to dive into them – as both all previous threads and the current one on the matter goes to prove – I’m afraid letting it get one foot in the door could open up a whole can of Slinky red tape that would overshadow the rest of, and the purpose, of this thread’s FAQ; to provide essential information about AmIright to new parody writers that are either directed here after a while or curious enough to have found these forums on their own.

That said I still think that it’s a valid contribution to this thread to give direction to further discussion on these subjects, do let your above post stay as it is and I’ll add the following link to the latest forum thread about them:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,11364.0.html

Q: How do I go about recording my parodies and putting them on the site?
A: Amiright does not host song recordings. If you record a parody, you will need to find a web host or a service such as Soundclick that can host the song recording for you. A discussion of how to record parodies would require a seperate FAQ of its own.


Now that's a FAQ I'd like to see. I wonder who would start it? Maybe Spaff, or iisryan; both of whom make brilliant parody recordings (although bot have their drags, Spaff doesn't actually do his own, and iisryan can't sing).

Bump for k1chyd...reference to the now defunct whatfreaks.com needs to be removed from your glorious FAQ list.

Happy new year!

Bump for k1chyd...reference to the now defunct whatfreaks.com needs to be removed...


Say what? What reference to what? I don't know what you're talking about, there has never been such a reference and I didn't discover this bump weeks late and BTW it's been fixed now anyway!  ;)

Bump for k1chyd...reference to the now defunct whatfreaks.com needs to be removed from your glorious FAQ list.

Happy new year!


Bump for k1chyd...reference to the now resurrected whatfreaks.com needs to be re-added to your glorious FAQ list.  :)

Bump for k1chyd...reference to the now resurrected whatfreaks.com needs to be re-added to your glorious FAQ list.  :)


Duuh, I keep missing these new posts here now that I've not been so active lately. As for this re-adding,  naaah... it's not Chucky's site anymore, and then I'll get requests to add all other "related" sites too, so I think that'll have to be the separator I'll go by. 8)

There are a few songs that I really want to record, but I have no idea how to use Audacity or anything like that, so how do I make recordings?

There are a few songs that I really want to record, but I have no idea how to use Audacity or anything like that, so how do I make recordings?


Download the software.

Read the tutorial - http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials and http://quicktoots.linuxaudio.org/toots/audacity/

Read the tips page - http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips

Post in the forum - http://audacityteam.org/forum/

Then let us know how much their help system has neglected to inform the public on how to use the software.  :D