NEW V123 FEATURE "TAG ANOTHER TALENTS DEMO ANONYMOUSLY&

Maxine Dunn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 675

Hi All ~

Did you guys get this email today? Incase you didn't, I'll copy it here. And, once you've read it, can someone please explain to me what the heck "tagging" means? Especially "anonymously tagging another person's demo?"

My first response is that I don't want any other talent ANONYMOUSLY adding ANYTHING to my auditions especially not keywords that are not of my choosing! What's with the anonymous aspect? And if it's our competition that's going to be tagging our demos....how can we know WHAT they're tagging? Some may have the best of intentions, some may not.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Max

Email is as follows:

Hi Maxine,

Voice123 is proud to introduce a new Premium Talent feature: Demo Tags!

This is currently a community experiment, giving talents the unique opportunity to anonymously tag a description of another talent's demo, also anonymous.

Why 'tag' someone else's demo?

Plain and simple... 'Tagging a demo' is a very serious and effective online marketing tool used to increase the exposure of a talent's demo on Voice123.

How do you tag a demo?

Don't worry! It is very easy! 'Tagging' is a simple anonymous process in which talent#1 adds a keyword to talent#2's voice over demo. This is currently used on other websites, so anyone familiar with this type of feature knows it is a great way to increase your exposure on a website, in this case Voice123! You will have the opportunity to tag one or more demos right after you upload an audition or reply to a message to someone else in the marketplace. Tagging of demos is completely optional.

Eventually, when the initial tagging is complete, a future update will allow the owners of the tagged demos to remove the tags they do not agree with, yet will not know who actually left the tag originally. The process is safe, anonymous, and helpful in learning how to increase your online exposure.

Voice123 will monitor this new feature, and will determine if it is working, while exploring new ways on how to better improve the Voice123 experience for all users!

Important note!

We will be rewarding free one-year subscriptions to FIVE Voice123 users during this process! We encourage all of you to take full advantage of this opportunity! The more tagging you do, the higher your chances are of winning a FREE one-year subscription!

At Voice123, we strive to provide you the best service and exposure possible for marketing yourself, and this is a very popular tool we believe you can all benefit from.

We are always looking to keep Voice123 above the cutting edge of the online voice over industry.

This article was initially posted on Voice123's blog. You can post your comments there:
http://voice123team.blogspot.com/2008/06/voiceover-demo-tagging.html

Thank you so much!

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

I don't want anonymous people tagging my demos. This is horrid. It must be stopped! Who knows what nuts and freaks are out there in cyberland and I refuse to have my professional name sullied by anonymous people. There could be rancor, there could be jealousy involved, there could be silliness but it damages people. This is terrible. Oh Alex and 123 people...stop this now.

Ron Reid · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 98

Okay. I'm going to be as diplomatic as I possibly can. I will leave it to someone else to take off the rose colored glasses and pull an Alice Cooper. I have been listening to, and tagging demos for the last three hours. I have been in the voiceover business for 30 years. I must now come to one of three conclusions:

1. 95% of the demos I've listened to on the "Help the Community - Tag Demos!" website are so amateurish as to induce nausea.

2. Feel shame and anger that voice 123 doesn't have a better
filtering process in place

3. Feel lucky that this is my competition!

Sorry people. I've got to go have a drink and calm down! Shocked

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

Oh you are absolutely right. And another thing that should be STOPPED. The RATING SYSTEM which is meaningless because
1. Who is doing the rating? What are the rater's credentials for rating a voiceover talent?
2. What was the likert scale based on? "good," etc is not enough
3 What were the rater's motives in giving this rating? Reasons?
It is degrading and silly.
Join in here people and let's get these two things stopped now...the tagging and the rating of us.
And yes, I agree totally that we should be grouped into advanced and professional, beginners, audio engineers with professional studio, non-engineer, beginner in audio recording, or something of this sort. I've been preaching this for years but nothing happens. We pros should be set apart from the beginners with laptops sitting in bedrooms trying to use a cheap mic to audition for a job.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008, 17:35 (GMT) Post subject:

And I'm going to be as honest and fair as I can here.

I'm saying this with no facetiousness, I mean it:

Based on idiotic crap like this, and asinine time-wasting garbage like the Voice123 yoga lunacy, and the never-ending exodus of quality talents, I give Voice123 another 2-3 years before it closes its doors.

It is NOT on the cutting edge of this industry and things like Smartcast, tagging and V123 yoga don't do anything to improve online voicecasting for either the client of professional talents.

Much larger and more successful businesses than this place have bitten the dust over the years due to mismanagement and these are all signs that Alex and company not only are not listening to their paying customers, but apparently don't care. It's only a matter of time, especially as the ratio of unqualified, amateur, crappy talent to pros continues to grow woefully out of balance here. As it does, more and more clients will go elsewhere to find what they're looking for, and more and more of V123's paying customers (the talent) will go elsewhere, too.

They already are.

Maxine Dunn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 675

Hi Ron,

Could I ask you a favor and would you please explain to me what tagging demos IS? Sorry if this is a silly question but I just don't understand the concept. Tag them with what? And how do you get into someone else's demo to mess with it? (And is it demos you're tagging, as opposed to auditions?)

And how can I see if someone has "tagged" my demo, and what they have added? And may I ask what type of things you have added to others' demos? (Just so I know what may be in store for me...)

Thank you so much!

Max

Scott Paxton · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 187

I am totally against anyone anonymously tagging my demos. I have worked hard for many years to get where I am. Who's to say that our wonderful spammer from a few months ago decides to pop in and negatively tag a few of the talents here?

I agree with Betty on the rating system. Why do we need it? How many folks have time after they have submitted demos and recorded for established clients all day to go look at a rating?

I am a paying talent that doesn't need anyone else assisting me in the audition process. Just take my membership fee and stop meddling with my career.
I don't show up at a business and tag the front of the store. Last time I checked it was considered an act of vandalism.

Thanks for letting me share.

Ron Reid · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 98

Yes Maxine.

Tagging is basically adding keywords to your demo...
...or in this case, someone elses' demo.

Descriptive words like:

Sexy
Smooth
International

I have been very kind to the demos I have tagged so far. I have not been swayed by the quality of the recording (which is ungodly hard to do) instead focusing on what I feel the voice would be appropriate for.

However. I feel that I should stop tagging now. From the tone of this thread, I feel like a Benedict Arnold.

By the way...I LOVE your voice!

Maxine Dunn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 675

Trying quite hard to stop my knee from jerking at the moment, but the idea that someone might be adding something to my carefully worded and well thought-out website or keywords at this very moment, is wigging me out. I took a long time creating my web page here so it seems totally innapropriate for someone else that I don't even know to be able to add anything at all. Why is that OK?

I need to get out and go for a walk. To do this without even taking a vague consensus seems like a very bad idea.

And my biggest question I guess is, what's up with the anonymity? And "in the future" I guess we'll be "allowed to remove the tags," but "will never know who put them there."

What a load of *&%^@!* IMHO

Also, what kind of words are being added and where do they show up?

(Rant, rant....) :~)

Oh Ron, just saw you post as I was finishing this rant. Thank you! But couldn't someone also add to a demo, "husky, squeaky, nasal," etc? And what is the benefit of someone else helping us describe our own voice?

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

This is not permissable on a professional (or supposed to be...) site. This tagging thing is for a dating site or a "make friends" site etc. This is horrible. I will not PERMIT IT on my site. No way. I simply will not ALLOW it. Hope you all do the same. Let's get together on this and insist our wishes be heard. We're not teenagers going around asking people to sign our YEARBOOK, for heaven sake! It's demeaning and sophomoric and why am I even wasting my valuable time discussing this ridiculous topic of tagging? What we all need to do is simply FORBID IT. PERIOD. Next question: How to forbid tagging on our site?

Ron Reid · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 98

Your absolutely correct Maxine.

Now. To play devils advocate for a sec.

In a perfect world, this would be like a quick little critique of a persons demo since we will eventually be able to pick the keywords we do and don't like...

...But, what if someone gives you bad keywords and it affects your ability to land a gig before you can clean it up?

Scott Paxton · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 187

I just went to the V123 blog and posted this

Before you go giving high-fives around the office at V123, please look at what your paying customers have to say about "anonymously tagging demos"

http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5880.html

Anonymously I might add. This is the message I got

Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.

Maxine Dunn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 675

HHmmm.... thanks Ron. So, because anyone can potentially add whatever words they want to our demo, it may for example even be a Neanderthal man adding....who may not even have heard a voice-over ever before....and who may add some very unpleasant words....is that it?

And where can I see the words they have added? (If anyone's bothered, of course.)

And I'd rather ASK for a critique and know who's giving it, than just let any old person say whatever...... ok, I'll stop now.....

Maxine Dunn · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 675

How does someone access my demo to tag it?

Greg Houser · **Voice Talent** Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 174