So here's the issue:
We made a quiz guessing people's age by the music they listen to that's from the 1980s and before, (you can find it here), and it was edited in a way that pissed more than a couple people off, ourselves included.
How was it edited?
We formatted our quiz by age. Those who picked a low amount of songs were babies, children, teens, etc. However, for those who picked the majority of songs, we put that they were older, or at the request of one of us, that they were hipsters. We didn't put this to try to point the people who listen to older music out as "edgy" or "alternative", but rather to acknowledge people who just happen to have a preference for older music.
And then our quiz was edited and deemed a "quiz" by the community.
Here is the edited description of the result choice "old": "You definitely have your own record collection and listen to the same songs as your grandparents, with NO SHAME. What even is the Billboard Hot 100?"
Okay, so what's wrong with that?
I'll be honest: I don't remember exactly what we typed in for this result initially, but I can guarantee you, it had nothing to do with listening to the same music as your grandparents or not knowing what the Billboard Hot 100 is. What we put was something like, "you have good taste in music either because you're old and have experienced these things or just because you like that kind of music." This bothers us because this edited version doesn't include those who just prefer older music, and with the inclusion of "not having any shame as listening to the same music as your grandparents", it kinda makes it seem like something you should be embarrassed about, and that's not what we were trying to do.
You can see it in more than just the results. Our quiz was renamed "Check Off The Popular Songs You've Listened To And We'll Correctly Guess Your Age." We never said we would guess your age correctly, henceforth why it's called a guess. The description says "Are you a teen or an old fart?" This once again shames the idea of listening to older music by calling someone who just so happens to like older music an "old fart." That's not what we were trying to do at all.
There were people upset in the comment section, and while I'm sure every Buzzfeed quiz has their share of 11 year olds complaining in the comment section, there were actual teens and actual young adults disappointed in the fact that they got called "old" just for having a different music taste. This kind of music that a lot of them grew up with thanks to their parents, and I will say it again, shaming them is not what we were trying to do, but someone else did it by "contributing" to our quiz.
So what are we trying to say about contributions?
Contributions would be 10x more effective if they were put in the forms of recommendations by other community staff rather than changing someone's work entirely. The quiz we made had changed songs, pictures, titles, and more. How can we take credit for that when half of the work we did isn't there anymore? It may have been our idea, but the quiz that is up isn't what we made, and frankly, it bothers us that we can't undo the contribution. It takes away what we wanted the quiz to be about, and it makes us even more uncredible in the creation of the quiz. It also makes us seem like a bunch of ignorant a**holes because of someone else and what they did to our quiz.
TL;DR
Contributions need to be fixed so that the creator's direction for a quiz doesn't get altered by some person who didn't make the quiz. It helps other people keep their vision how they want it, and portrays the work done by original creators instead of contributors.
Share This Article
