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Poll
Poll: This is the last poll. Hopefully you had a good time.
| Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked QuestionsAbout this documentThis FAQ was compiled by w-ber in June, 2006. If you have any questions unasked and unanswered here, contact him at w-ber(monkeytail)ormgas[dot]com. Do the same if you have any corrections, or find typos or factual errors. Version history
Categories
About Ormgas
About the music we play
About listening to Ormgas
About user ranks
About voting
About the forums
About chatbox and IRC
About polls
About submitting material to Ormgas
About private messagesAbout the arcadeTechnical issues
About OrmgasWhat is Ormgas?Ormgas is a radio station. We aren't your ordinary FM or AM radio, though, as we broadcast only through the Internet, straight to your computer. We play almost exclusively OCReMixes, with the occasional pre-recorded radio show. (Although currently VG Frequency is the only one.) Ormgas is run completely by volunteers and is as noncommercial as a website can be. We get no money for this. To be frank, running the place is sometimes a nuisance, but more often than not it is great fun! Read on to learn how to register, what you can do on Ormgas besides listening to the stream — things such as voting on remixes, chatting on IRC, and discussing on the forums) — and about great many other things. Who is in charge here?Main culpritsThe main culprits are the workhorses of Ormgas. They keep the engines oiled, wheels turning, and do the dirty work in maintaining the site.
Generally, contact ravon if you have problems with the site or connecting to the streams, and w-ber if the streams are silent, new OCReMixes don't end up on Ormgas, or the playlist goes haywire. AssistantsThe assistants help in moderating the forums, cleaning up small glitches, entertaining members, and are generally jolly good lads.
RetiredThe following people have retired from administrator duties. Our sincere thanks to you for helping us in making Ormgas what it is today. Can I contact you?Send an Ormgas private message to, catch in IRC, or e-mail ravon or w-ber. You can try the other members of the staff, too, but they have enough sense to not let an online community disrupt their daily, peaceful lives. The two mentioned practically live here. Note: be sure to read this FAQ from begin to end before you contact us. Lots of questions have been asked and have answers here. In case you cannot log in and still need to contact us, send e-mail to marco(monkeytail)ormgas[dot]com. Where is the server located?The WWW server and two of the streams are located in Stockholm, Sweden. The highest bitrate streams are located in
Why should I register?There are numerous reasons.
However, it should be noted that you do not have to register in order to listen to the stream! Registering is completely voluntary, but you will miss out a great deal if you don't do so. Note: in no event will we ever give away your personal information. We will not send spam mail. We will not sell your e-mail address. We have absolutely no interest to do so. If you still doubt, rest assured that we take no offense if you do not register and simply listen to the stream. The main goal of Ormgas is to let anyone listen to streaming OCReMixes wherever they happen to be. So how do I register?See the link titled Signup at the left part of the page, right under the login box? Click there. If you are over 13 years old, select "yes" and "continue". If not, follow the directions. Enter a nickname you would like to use. The system will inform you if the name is already in use so that you can select another. This name does not have to be your real name, and in fact almost all users at Ormgas have an original username. Your username can be changed only in exceptional circumstances, so be sure to choose well. Also, do not pick an insulting name. We will remove your account if you do so. Fill in the password you want to have. Make sure the password is at least six characters long and contains a mixture of capital letters, small letters, and numbers. Although you probably will not save highly confidential information on Ormgas, it is still not nice if your account is compromised because of a weak password. You can make it a phrase if that is easier to remember. Type in your e-mail address. We will not spam your e-mail address. The address is used to verify that you are a real person, and to, for example, send notifications about private messages. Select next whether you want to hide your e-mail address from the rest of the users, and pick the correct timezone where you live in. (If you don't know your timezone, you can find it at time and date.com.) You are ready to go! After you click "register", a verification e-mail will be sent to you. You will have two weeks to verify your registration; wait longer than that and the account will be deleted. This is to prevent anyone from using false e-mail addresses. Follow the instructions in the e-mail to finish your registration. Won't you spam my e-mail?No. We have no desire to send spam e-mail. In fact, we are strongly opposed to spam. (ravon sometimes uses the Ormgas server to kill spam servers. You can ask him for more details.) Your e-mail address is needed because
You can, for instance, receive notifications when someone replies to your thread, if you like. Do I need to pay in order to use your services?No. Registering to and using Ormgas is completely free of charge. This is very unlikely to ever change. How can you afford this?Our ISP (Internet Service Provider) in Sweden is Bredbandsbolaget. They offer cheap and reliable high speed connections (100/10MBit for ~$25) with very few strings attached. Unfortunately, their connection across the Atlantic is not fast enough for Americans to stream from Stockholm at much higher bitrates than 56 kbps. This is why we have relays. The costs of the mediacast1 relay are covered with donations and small change from ravon's own pockets, and the two others are currently free of charge for us. Why should I donate?You do not have to donate. There is no obligation to do so. However, we are doing this completely on a voluntary basis. ravon is paying the costs of the mediacast1 relay from his own pockets. Donations are used to cover those fees. However, it should be noted that even if there are no donations, the relays will not cease to function! It simply means that ravon will need to pay more himself. The donation page was originally set up because some members kept asking how they can donate. So there you go. If you think you have enjoyed your stay and the music, please consider donating out of kindness. It will help keep Ormgas running, you can show your appreciation to us easily in that way, and it will give you a good conscience. How can I donate?You will need to have a PayPal account first. Go to the donation page, click "PayPal Donate", and follow the instructions. If you live in Sweden, ravon is able to receive bank transfers. Contact him to arrange for this. For discussion about alternative ways to donate, there is a thread in the forums. What does Ormgas mean? How do you spell it? How do you say it?Ormgas is Swedish and literally means "snake gas". The story behind the name was long a secret, until one day on the IRC channel:
<ravon> Guess: Well... A guy called our support staff at work and
asked if our product supported more than one help model. However, its real meaning has been discussed at length in our forums: ormgas, a mineral or vegetable? Spellings vary somewhat. You may write oc@ormgas.com, ormgas.com, Ormgas, or ormgas. There is no consensus on this yet. This FAQ uses Ormgas simply to be consistent, but this does not mean it is the official interpretation. Here is how ravon says Ormgas: ormgas.wav (0 kB). When was Ormgas founded?January 15th, 2004. Actually, the streams were available a year before ravon decided to create a fancy WWW page around them. There are two threads in the forums about the history: The History of Ormgas and Looking back the year 2004. What hardware and software do you use?The server, called Gimp, is a barebone containing an Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.0GHz, 512MB RAM, and a dead silent 40 GB Seagate Barracuda. We've chosen Gentoo Linux as the operating system because of the system speed and easy maintenance. For streaming, we use Icecast, a free software SHOUTcast-compatible streaming server, IceS, a free software audio streamer, Music Player Daemon, a free software audio player, and a set of custom, home-brew scripts and software for generating the playlist and for other related tasks. I like this idea. I think I will copy you.Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Keep in mind though, that server and bandwidth costs (especially in North America) can get ridiculously high for this sort of activity so good luck with that. Also, we have secret powers, so don't mess with us too much. I have a cool idea. Who do I send it to?Great! Why not post it in the forums? Creative, enthusiastic people are the lifeblood of a fan site like this, so if you have ideas on how to make this better or more appealing, we want to hear from you. You can also contact ravon directly. How can I search the site?By navigating to the forums and scrolling down. There is a search box way under there. Another way is to bookmark http://oc.ormgas.com/search.php. Yes, we know this feature is sort of hidden. We are working on making it more visible and easily accessible in future. Can I search the remixes for easier voting?You can, once you have voted enough. See Do I get something for leveling up? Once this happens, a search box will appear on the front page. The search parameter can be any string longer than two characters, and can be in either the name of the remixer(s) or the title. There are X members, but the biggest member number is Y. What gives?Some of the members who register never activate their account, and are therefore deleted after two weeks of inactivity. Their member numbers aren't reused, however, so there are holes in the member number list. Just ignore it. Note: we will not delete accounts in other ways than this. I want the inactive members removed!We will not delete inactive members (i.e. members who have activated their accounts but have not used it much or at all). This has been discussed in the forums a couple of times; most recently in The thing going on with all the new members? What is your affiliation with OCReMix.org?We are a separate entity entirely. The administration and the servers are different. The only things in common are the remixes and their metadata. Of course, there are many members who are members in both communities. We are not officially endorsed by OCReMix.org. However, we are not entirely unofficial, either. We like to call ourselves semi-official. About the music we playWhat is this you are playing?Ormgas plays (almost) exclusively OverClocked Remixes from OCReMix.org. See the next couple of questions. What is a remix?A remix is a rearrangement of a piece of music. The author of the remix usually changes the style, tempo, genre, general feeling, instruments, structure, and a variety of other things in the original song to produce a new interpretation of it. The purpose or goal of the remixing process is to create something new from something old. Remixing does not mean plagiarism; the remix has to have a certain "level of originality" in it to make it a remix. Quite often, simply adding a drum track or changing an instrument or two is not enough. What is a video game music remix?A video game music remix is a remix of a piece of music from a video game. The piece of music can be just about anything: the theme song, the highscore background music, level background, etc. Video game usually means arcade games and games for consoles (such as Sony Playstation, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Commodore 64), but many people use it to mean any kind of game playable with a computer, console, or arcade system. The genre of the game can also be anything from adventure to slash'em'up. There are many video game remixing communities in the Internet. To name a few, there are OCReMix.org, VGMix.com, and R:K:O. What is an OCReMix?OCReMix, or OverClocked ReMix, is a remix of a piece of music from a computer or video game, submitted to, judged at, and available from OCReMix.org. From their FAQ:
Only high-quality video game remixes have a chance to become OCReMixes. OCReMix.org has a special Judges' Panel that decides whether the remix is original enough and of high enough quality to be accepted. Read more from their Mission Statement. Where do you get your music?We get our music from OCReMix.org. Where can I download the songs?If you register, you will be able to download the currently playing song straight from Ormgas. To mass-download more remixes at a time, please visit OCReMix.org and check their torrents. All remixes are available there for individual downloading as well. Why can't I download all the remixes from Ormgas?Ormgas is a streaming Internet radio station, not a file server. We simply do not have the resources or the bandwidth to act as an OCReMix mirror. How is the playlist generated?The playlist is generated using a special script. It takes all the remixes, puts them in a bag, shakes for a while, and then starts heaping them up. In other words, the playlist contains all the remixes in our database (and that includes all remixes currently available at OCReMix.org) in random order. Once the playlist has been played through, this process will repeat itself. The playlist length is currently around three and half days. Do some remixes get played more often than others?The policy of Ormgas is
(This was never stated explicitly before this FAQ, though.) We strive to implement this policy in practice. For the playlist, this means that every remix will be played once during the playlist rotation. The only exception now are newly added remixes; they will show up two or three extra times in the first playlist generated after they were added. The songs are in MP3 format. Isn't what you do illegal?The original OCReMixes use MP3 as the encoding format. Free MP3 decoders are available, and playing music encoded in MP3 breaks no patents. OCReMixes themselves, although using originally copyrighted material as basis for new arrangement, can be freely distributed and listened to, as well as streamed. Please check OCReMix.org for all the legal mumbo-jumbo. In short, we break no laws or patents. Who is the dude talking on the stream?That man is Larry "Liontamer" Oji, the DJ of VG Frequency (see the next question). What is VG Frequency?VG Frequency, or VGF for short, is a radio show by Larry "Liontamer" Oji, recorded and broadcast at WMRE, Emory University's student-run radio station. The show is about new video game music remixes, and it does not restrict itself to purely OCReMixes but introduces remixes from a wide variety of sources, including many other video game remixing communities. New episodes are no longer being made, but the recordings play regularly at Ormgas. The playlists are available at the VG Frequency forum. The episode to be played is selected randomly at the end of each playlist rotation. Do you have any shows besides music?We regularly play recordings of episodes of VG Frequency. Other than that, there are currently no other radio shows. According to a poll in November, 2004, roughly one third of users voted a separate stream for shows, one third didn't mind the shows playing in the stream, and one third wanted all shows removed. We have yet to decide if the shows should continue playing or if we should create a new stream for them. (Unfortunately, our current system does not allow direct linking to polls, but it is available from the page of old surveys, number 50. The comments are also available.) What are those short and strange audio clips between songs?They are called jingles (and sometimes infomercials). They are short and often funny breaks to the ordinary music, and their purpose is to advertise Ormgas and OCReMix.org, and to let the listener know which radio station he is listening to. Jingles are and have been made by you, the members, and by remixers. If you want to submit a jingle, see How do I submit a jingle or an infomercial? Note, however, that we will play no advertisements of commercial products on the stream. What is the queue beep?The queue beep is a special unlockable feature that you can get if you vote enough. If you have the mini playlist window open, you will hear a beep when a song starts playing that you haven't voted on. At the time of this writing (July, 2006), the beep effect works only in some browsers and on some platforms. It is unfortunately restricted to Internet Explorer and Firefox for Windows. We are sorting out different alternatives for implementing it in a more platform-agnostic way. I have a request for a particular remix.We don't create the music we play. If you want a particular video game song or soundtrack to be remixed, head over to OCReMix.org and talk with them. OCReMix.org lists information about and tutorials on how to go about the remixing process itself, in case you decide that you want to express your own musical talent. If you meant that you wanted a certain remix to be queued up in the playlist and played in the next few minutes, this will be implemented one day. Stay tuned. Where can I find OCRemoved (or the songs that were removed from OCReMix.org)?This is not really related to Ormgas, but it is a frequently asked question. Follow these links: The list of all removed songs along with the reason for removal is at the OCReMix.org wiki. About listening to OrmgasWhy would I want to listen to Ormgas when I can just download all the songs at OCReMix.org?By all means, download the songs! They are made to be listened to. However, if you listen to Ormgas, you will be introduced to all the remixes equally. Although this means you will hear songs you don't like, it also means you will hear completely new songs. Besides that, we have a whole community of people here who love to listen to OCReMixes and talk about them. Listening is just one part of Ormgas. What is a stream?When talking about Internet radio stations, a stream is the central concept. Very simply put, it means the same thing as the airwaves in traditional radio; it's where you grab the music from. Less simply put, it is, as the name says, a continuous stream of data from the server to your computer. In order to listen to an Internet radio station, you will need to connect to a stream like this using an application called media player. See also What are all these numbers and the odd "kbps"? and How do I listen to Ormgas? What is a relay?A relay in the Internet streaming radio lingo means a streaming server whose main purpose is to relay the streams to the clients or other relays. Relays are used to distribute the load, or to provide servers geographically closer to the users (thus increasing potential transfer rates, bitrate, and audio quality). They also increase the number of listener slots, that is, how many people can listen to Ormgas at any given time. We have currently four relays: two in the USA and one in Finland, in addition to the main server in Sweden. The US relays are mainly intended for North American users, and the Finnish for European users, but they can be of course used by anyone around the world. What is Ogg Vorbis?Ogg Vorbis is a free as in freedom audio encoding codec. It is unpatented, freely available (both without charge and as in free speech), and has a very good quality to bitrate ratio at lower bitrates, which makes it ideal for a streaming radio station. Why are you not using MP3?We did, at the beginning. However, we decided to switch to Ogg Vorbis, simply because
Granted, the songs we play are in MP3 format, encoded at 128-192 kbps. See the next question. Isn't there a quality loss in transcoding?Transcoding means decoding (audio) data from one format and encoding the same data into another format. As all OCReMixes are in MP3 format, with bitrate varying from 128 to 192 kbps, and we stream in Ogg Vorbis, we have to transcode all streams. Since both Ogg Vorbis and MP3 are lossy codecs (which means that they discard data that the human ear can't discern), transcoding from one to the other means that different parts of data will be lost, so yes, there is quality loss. However, we had to transcode even before we switched to Ogg Vorbis. In fact, we had to transcode even the highest bitrate stream (then 128 kbps), even though some OCReMixes are encoded in 128 kbps; this is because many are of even higher bitrate. Since we were already transcoding (or actually re-encoding), the point "we can't switch to another codec because of quality loss" became moot. Another thing is that we are currently broadcasting at quality less than the original songs. In part, this is because this way the quality loss from transcoding is not as audible, and in part because this way we can have more listener slots in the streams. One way to increase quality would be to get the originals of all OCReMixes, for example in WAV or FLAC form. Unfortunately, this is very unlikely. How do I listen to Ormgas?In order to listen to a stream, you need a special program called a media player or an audio player. This usually comes bundled with your operating system or computer. To start listening, simply click on any of the numbers at the top of the main page. The numbers represent different bitrates, and as of now, the available ones are 80, 56, and 32 kbps. The highest is meant for DSL and broadband users, while the lowest is meant for modem users. If you want to link straight to the streams, use the following URL's:
See also the next question. What programs can be used to listen to Ormgas?You can use any player that can stream from a SHOUTcast or Icecast server and that supports Ogg Vorbis streams. We know of at least the following programs, but this is certainly not a definitive list. If you know a program not listed here but which works, please notify us! If you want to listen with Windows Media Player, that is also possible. Also, see WinAMP doesn't play the streams! if you have problems with WinAMP. More players are listed at Xiph.org's Wiki. However, it is unsure if all of them support streaming Vorbis with HTTP. To listen to Ormgas, your player will need to have this support. Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
Unix, Linux, *BSD
MacOS XUnfortunately, iTunes does not support Ogg Vorbis streams and cannot be used to listen to Ormgas. However, you can enable rudimentary support by installing the Xiph Quicktime Components. This is not enough to listen to our streams, though. BeOSMorphOS
Platform independent (Java players and such)PortablesWhat are all these numbers and the odd "kbps"? Where is the simple Play Now button?Streams come in various parameters, the most important of them being the bitrate. The music we and all other Internet radio stations send is encoded into a form that takes less space. (We use Ogg Vorbis.) This is mandatory, because transferring unencoded or uncompressed audio is too bandwidth consuming even with modern Internet connections. If we sent raw audio data at CD quality, only five people could listen to Ormgas before we ran out of bandwidth! Bitrate means how many bits are used to encode a chunk of audio data in a fixed time interval. It is usually expressed in kilobits per second, or kbps. Because there are many different kinds of Internet connections, some faster than others, we have available streams encoded in different bitrates: 80, 56, and 32 kbps. The highest is meant for DSL users and is broadcast from the relays. The two lower ones are located in Sweden, and the lowest one should be low enough for even modem users to enjoy the music. My stream keeps dying or stops or has weird pauses in it. Is your server broken?This can be totally unrelated to our server. Internet being what it is, there may simply be a faulty router somewhere along the way, or the network is congested. It is also possible that our ISP has routing problems. Did you check that your computer is fast enough to decode encoded audio in real time? (Well, most computers since 1997 ought to be.) Try increasing the buffer size of your media player, and try a different stream. Try a different program. Does your firewall allow listening to Internet radio stations? Ormgas uses TCP ports 8000 (Swedish streams) and 9156 (US stream). If none of the above work, it may be a problem with our server. Check the news section and the chatbox and ask if anyone else is having problems. The last thing to do is to contact us. Include as much information as you can. (Simply saying "It doesn't work! Fix it!" will make both you and us feel incompetent and angry.) How can I get a better connection?If you live in Europe, try the Swedish streams or the Finnish relay. If you live in the USA, try the one of the US relays. In short, try the different streams until one works. Unfortunately, we don't have resources to have relays all over the world. If none of the streams work for you properly, you are out of luck. Sorry. I'm behind a restrictive firewall. Help!No sweat. Most restrictive firewalls still allow port 443 (https), so we've done a quick and dirty workaround. Simply copy and paste one of the following URLs into your favourite player.
If I want to listen using Windows Media Player, what should I do?Microsoft does not support Ogg Vorbis in their products. Additionally, we have had many bad experiences with Windows Media Player, but if you do want to listen with it, there are a couple of plugins available for the player. Try one of the following. After installing one of the OggDS filters, Windows Media Player should be able to stream from Ormgas. How do I listen using a Squeezebox?Our member pilif has created a howto: Squeezebox - Success. Can I listen with Sony PSP?Our member Swappo has created a howto: PSP users - Look here! WinAMP doesn't play the streams!Install the full version of WinAMP. The Lite version doesn't include the Ogg Vorbis plugin, which is needed to listen to our streams. What is the mini playlist?The mini playlist is a small window that contains the bare essential information about the currently playing song and the upcoming songs. You can open it by clicking the link "Queue" on the front page. The mini playlist was created to circumvent the need to update the whole front page. Besides that, it is handier to place next to other windows than the full front page. About user ranksWhat is a rank?A user rank in Ormgas means how much you have participated in the different aspects of our site. The more you post to the forums, chat (in both the chatbox and IRC), and so on, the higher your rank will be. Rank is sometimes called rating. This inconsistency is unfortunate and will be resolved some time in future. As for now, the ranks are the following.
What is my rank?You can see your current rank and other statistics any time in your profile page. Click on the link called Profile on the left side of the page. Your current score and rank (rating) are at the bottom. How do I get more points?You can get more points by using the site. The actual algorithm is a secret to prevent abuse, but you will get points for at least posting to the forums and chatting, as well as voting. What are the benefits? Do I get something for leveling up?In a true role-playing style, we will reward you if you participate enough in the activities. Rewards come in the form of unlocked site features. The first category is about features that you can unlock by voting.
The second category is features unlocked after certain amount of participation in general. (Can be something else than voting.)
Why don't you have top lists of users of the highest rank?Because this site is about OCReMixes. Creating a top list of the highest-ranking users would emphasize the wrong things — namely, that the purpose of the site would be to collect points, not to listen to OCReMixes and vote. This is not what we want. The rank is a personal thing, a bit like the belt system in karate. I heard someone say there are VIP users. Who are those?VIP users are a selected few who have been hand-picked from the Ormgas user database. They either represent a certain demographic group (excuse us for saying such a dirty word) or have proved to provide good ideas and opinions about developing Ormgas. Whenever we are in doubt if a feature should be implemented or we'd like an opinion about something Ormgas related, but do not want to make it public yet, we will consult the VIP users. The VIP users don't have much benefits compared to normal users. In fact, the biggest benefit is that they have sometimes access to information about new features and changes at Ormgas before other users, and have some influence in these matters. However, it should be noted that having a "special interest group" like this does not mean that we wouldn't listen to all our members. If you have any feature suggestions, want to voice your opinion about current features, or anything related to it, we have a forum just for the purpose. Please do not ask how you can become a VIP user. We will contact you if we think you could become one. About votingI can vote? What do you mean?There are two kinds of voting: voting on the poll and voting on the remixes. This section considers the latter. Voting means simply applying numerical grades to the remixes we play. This way everyone can tell the community what they think are the best remixes, and do so effortlessly and in large quantities. Voting is the most blatant aspect of Ormgas. It was originally implemented because OCReMix.org didn't have it (and still doesn't). Sure, you can discuss and review the remixes in the OCR forums, but raw and consistent numerical data is lacking. Being able to vote is (one of) the most important features you get when you register. See also How do I determine what rating a song should get?. How do I vote?Whenever you see stars next to a remix on Ormgas, you can click on them to vote on that particular remix. Don't panic if you accidentally clicked on the wrong star. Wait around 20 seconds, and you can change your vote. However, you can never remove your vote. (The waiting period is to prevent mechanized voting through scripts or some other unethical means.) See also the next question. How do I determine what rating a song should get?The scale used on Ormgas is a simple numerical one.
Of course, because the votes are numerical, there are many other ways (thread available only to registered users) to interpret the scale, but the main point is that 1 means bad, 5 means good, and the rest are in between. Historical note: the symbols used to be plain numbers for the first two and half years of Ormgas. They were changed to stars in August, 2006. Where do I vote on all the remixes at once?No place in particular. We understand it is frustrating to go through the remixes individually at the beginning, especially if you already know all the OCReMixes by heart and you have to pick them from the randomly generated stream. However, if we allowed such an option to all registered users, how could we ensure that everyone is frank with their votes? There are people who only want quick benefit, and who would simply vote 3 on all remixes. (There have been several cases where scripts were used to vote on all remixes to quickly increase your score. These people were dealt with.) There are a couple of exceptions:
In other words, vote enough and you will be able to vote on recently played songs and the queue, plus the top 100; after that, you can search for songs (in order to vote, perhaps); and finally, you will be able to enter the Valley of the Missing Songs, where you can find all the remixes you haven't voted on yet. What is the Valley of the Missing Songs?The Valley of the Missing Songs is a special place that you can enter once you have voted enough. When this happens, a link will appear in your profile page, and you can find there all the remixes you haven't voted on yet. What is the Top 100?The Top 100 is a list of the 100 remixes rated the highest by all members of Ormgas. Theoretically, this is the list of the 100 best OCReMixes of all time according to the listeners, but in practice there are many members who think the Top 100 is dominated, wrongly, by Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Zelda remixes. How is the Top 100 generated?The song rating is calculated with a complex algorithm using the latest innovations in number theory. Or that's how ravon wants to explain it. The formula will remain secret to prevent abuse. Why won't you let me see other people's votes?You can. One of the rewards is
We get a lot of requests from people who want to be able to see each others' 1-3 votes, and to see the current score of any remix. Those features will never be implemented because we don't want a remixer to come here and see that people think his or her remix sucks. What is the little hand with the thumb up next to a remix?The thumb indicates that the remix in question is in the Top 100. This is to let users know that something many people consider a good remix is coming up or was recently played. This was added in July, 2006. There is more information available in our forums. This will appear only to users with more than 200 votes, as seen in What are the benefits? Historical note: the icon used to be a small star for the first few days. It was later changed to a thumbs-up symbol. About the forumsWhat are the forums?A forum is a place where you can discuss things with other people. Specifically, web-based forums follow a certain form where the topics of discussion have been divided into rough categories, called a forum. In a forum, there are threads, which are discussion on a certain particular topic. (And quite often, the topic doesn't stay fixed but lives accordingly when new points are raised.) A thread consists of individual posts by users. A post can be as short as one sentence and as long as a five-page essay. The Ormgas forums have categories for the likely topics you get when you group video game (remix) enthusiasts together. However, we have also had some unexpectedly deep and complex discussions about various political, sociological, technological, and other issues. Note: some forums are available only to registered users. How do I use the forums?Select a forum, and click on a thread that looks interesting. Read the posts in the thread. Do you have something to say that hasn't been said already? Some interesting observations? Or do you think something needs clarification? If so, either click on the "Post Reply" button or scroll down and use the Quick Reply box. The Post Reply button will take you to a special post editor, but advanced users will know some or most of the format tags by heart and can type their reply straight away. To start a new thread, go to the forum that fits the topic best and click on "New Thread". If you post a reply or start a new thread and then notice an error in your message, don't panic. Click on the edit button, available in the top right corner of your post. Similarly, do not double-post. Use the edit button and edit the additions in. Double-posting means posting once, then making an another, consecutive post right after the previous one in the same thread. This is frowned upon, because it artificially increases your score, and shows that you are lazy or ignorant enough to not use the editing functionality. Note: before posting, see the next question. Are there any rules for posting?Yes. They are not complex and there are not many of them. Please spend some time reading them before posting anything. The thread is called Basic rules. It is also considered good manners to follow the general style of the existing threads. Read for a while before posting your first post. Take a look at how the older members format their posts. (Usually the posts are almost unadorned.) Try to determine how much or how little is usually said on a topic, and then try to do better than that. Try to reply with more than one sentence. When you start a new thread, use definitely at least a paragraph. Some members have told us that the Ormgas forums are exceptional among the numerous other forums in the Internet in that the level of discussion is fairly high, and there is low tolerance for garbage. Although we do not strive for elitism, no-one likes reading crap, either, so please try to keep the level as high as it has been. If you make a mistake, don't panic. A moderator will contact you through a private message and gently explain what went wrong and how to do better in future. We were all newbies once. Golden rule: think before you post, and you will do just fine. Tanaric wrote also a good thread called How To Start a Good Thread, which is recommended reading. Do I have to post in the "Hi, I'm new here" forum?No. There is no need to introduce yourself in the forum. The "Hi, I'm new here" forum was created solely to group the introduction posts in one place. If you want to introduce yourself there, go right ahead! However, an equally good introduction is to start a thoughtful and intelligent discussion on some topic of your choice in the other forums. About chatbox and IRCWhat is the chatbox?The chatbox is a semi-real-time chat medium at the right part of the page. Registered members may use it for, well, chatting. The chatbox is a crossbreed between the forums and IRC; it isn't as real-time as IRC, but it is more real-time than the forums. There can be times when no-one says anything in the chatbox for hours, so don't expect to always incite a reaction with a message. Similarly, don't expect all logged-in users to be interested in what you said and demand replies. How do I use the chatbox?Type your message in the text box and press Submit. Your message will join the merry band of the older messages. What does IRC mean?IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. Simply put, it is a system for many people to converse (almost) in real-time. There is a similarity between IRC and Instant Messaging applications, such as MSN and ICQ, although IRC is much older and is multiuser from start. The basic concepts are the IRC network, server, client (program), user, and channel. You, the user, wish to talk to other users. You must first agree on or know which IRC network to use. There are several networks; to name a few, there are IRCnet, Quakenet, Freenode, Enterthegame, and EFNet. An IRC network consists of individual servers connected together. In order to connect to the network, it suffices to connect to one server of that network. Then, you will have to know the name of the channel where you want to talk. A channel is a "chat room". Whatever you type in a channel can be seen by everyone who is currently in the same channel. Channel names begin with '#'. You will need to have a client program in order to use IRC. There are a plethora of different kinds of programs for almost all computer systems ever invented, and thus we cannot enumerate all them here. Popular clients for Windows are, for example, mIRC and XChat. Opera and the Mozilla-based browsers have an IRC plugin. Popular clients for Unices (and clones, such as Linux) are, for example, irssi and XChat. For MacOS, there are clients such as Ircle. For more information, please download an IRC client and read its manual, or visit irchelp.org. What is the name of your channel?Our channel is called #ormgas and it is located in the Enterthegame network. How do I use IRC?Direct your client to an Enterthegame server (such as irc.enterthegame.com port 6667), and join the channel #ormgas (for example, with the command /join #ormgas). Please consult your IRC client program for the details. An alternative way is to use a Java-based IRC client. Java, very simply put, is a technology to run applications inside your WWW browser. We have provided such a client, in case you can't or don't want to install any programs on your computer. Its use is a bit simpler than of a full-blown IRC client. Just type in the nickname you wish to use and click Submit. You will join the channel promptly. Note: the applet does not work with Microsoft JVM. Download the more standard complying Sun Java JVM. For more information, please download an IRC client and read its manual, or visit irchelp.org. What is #ormgas?#ormgas is our IRC channel. This is where many members and administrators lurk and chat. There are times when the channel is live with several people talking, and other times when no-one says a word for several hours. The channel has its most active moments during daytime in the USA. What is an "op"?An op is an IRC user who has the power to moderate an IRC channel. Ops are channel specific, and in #ormgas, the ops are the same as the people in charge of Ormgas. What ops can do is set the topic of the channel (used for informational purposes, not to set the topic of conversation) and moderate the channel through kicking and banning people. If you do not behave, you may be kicked from the channel, and if you return and repeat, you might be eventually banned. If you have any problems in the IRC channel, talk to an op about it. They will try and help you, but you must remember that they are all doing this in their free time and may not be available around the clock. How should I behave in IRC?Be polite and you'll do just fine. IRC is a wild place, but we like to foster an air of friendliness in #ormgas. Attacking other people is a sure way to get yourself kicked or banned. Act like you would with other people in real life. Show them respect and they will respect you. If you are deeply insulted by someone, talk to an op about it. Don't attack back and start a flame war. If the op deems it appropriate, the insulter will be kicked. However, don't take all your troubles to the ops. They are moderating the channel in their free time. Additionally, usually the easiest way is to simply ignore the one who insulted you. This is a lot easier to do in IRC than in real life. Who are those voiced users? Why do some people have a '+' in their name?The voiced users are VIP users or OCReMixers. Being "voiced" (or, as it is displayed in many clients, having a '+' sign next to your name) has little purpose in #ormgas except for marking certain users out of the bunch. Technically speaking, being voiced means that when an op sets a channel mode called "moderated" (+m), only ops and voiced people can talk. This happens very seldom if at all in our channel. What! I was kicked!Being kicked means the same as the yellow card in football: a warning. Take a deep breath, cool down, and join the channel when you have control over yourself again. However, there are times when kicking may have a humorous flavour — for example, when the people involved have known each other for long and the kick is used in some funny context. Some ops do not kick for fun, though, only for real. If your client program has a feature called "auto(matic) rejoin", disable it. Some ops are known to ban people who have auto-rejoin enabled. I was banned!Being banned means the red card in football terms: you are forbidden entry to the channel. You have no way of joining the channel until someone removes the ban — and this may take some while. Usually, bans given are not permanent; that is, you can rejoin in five or ten minutes. However, if your offense was serious enough, it is possible that you may never join the channel again. (This is what happens to advertisement and spam bots.) Do you keep IRC statistics?Although each member has individual IRC line counters, there are separate statistics available at ircstats.ormgas.com. The lines in these statistics may be different from your profile count, if you were not identified the whole time. What is a bot?A bot is a non-human user. They are usually helping ops in channel moderating tasks and provide useful information. There are also malicious bots. For example, some people find it funny to create spam bots that join channels at random and advertise products (similar to spam e-mail). Who is wormgas?wormgas is a resident bot in #ormgas. Whenever a new member joins the site, a news item is posted, or a new remix arrives, wormgas will make an announcement. You can also use wormgas to see the what is currently playing and for several other tasks. You can also talk to the bot. Its replies are seldom sensible, but often funny. Don't be alarmed if you don't understand anything it says. What can I do with wormgas?To see the full help for all commands, type this after joining #ormgas: /msg wormgas !help. This is a command to send a private message to a user called wormgas, with the message being "!help". Alternatively, you may open up a private messaging window in your IRC client with wormgas and type in "!help" (without quotes). All commands to wormgas must be prefixed with an exclamation mark.
Who is ChanServ?ChanServ is Enterthegame's channel bot. It is available in all registered ETG channels. What is ChanServ doing every once in a while?Did you see a line similar to the following?
mode/#ormgas [+l 27] by ChanServ This is ChanServ setting a mode on the channel. +l means "limit", and is used to prevent certain types of attacks. The Enterthegame website has more information about it. How exactly are the IRC lines in my profile counted?Every time you say something in #ormgas, your IRC line count in the profile will be incremented. However, there is a caveat: you need to identify yourself with wormgas every time you join the channel. This is mandatory, because in IRC, your username can be anything, and there is no way to link it with your username in Ormgas without some action from your part. (No, using the same username as in Ormgas is not a solution, because 1) someone could impersonate as you and 2) some usernames, for example those with spaces, are not possible in IRC.) So, here's what you should do:
Substitute "nick" with your nickname and "pass" with your password to Ormgas. You need to be registered to Ormgas for this to work, naturally. Note: the quotes in the !identify command are required! Otherwise wormgas will not know which part of the text is the username and which the password, as both may contain spaces. There are ways to set your IRC client so that you don't have to do this manually every time you join the channel. It's called autoexec or "auto-command on join" in some IRC clients. Please consult the manual of your client. Can I use the chatbox from IRC or vice versa?Yes, you can. wormgas posts all chatbox posts to a channel called #ormgas.chat, available in the same network as #ormgas, namely Enterthegame. The channel is read-only. If you want to send chatbox messages from IRC, that is also possible. Send the message "!help chat" to wormgas for more information. You will have to be identified with wormgas for this function to be available. About pollsWhat is a poll?
Wordnet 2.0
defines poll as The polls at Ormgas are or try to be mostly funny or tongue-in-cheek. There are sometimes serious polls, whose answers may affect site features or future development. You can vote in the poll by simply clicking on one of the options. You cannot change your vote. All voting will be anonymous, but see also Why am I able to vote several times in one poll?. Just who makes these polls anyway? They suck.All the site administrators have the permissions to post polls, but most of the time it's either w-ber or ravon. Good poll ideas are hard to come by, and not all polls appeal to all people. If you have an idea for a poll, tell us about it. How much value do you put on polls concerning site features?Whenever we're in doubt if a new feature is worth implementing or not, we post a poll about it. Sometimes we think a feature is cool and implement it anyway, but still ask your opinion about it. Don't take the polls too seriously. We value your opinion, but sometimes we just know better than you. Why am I able to vote several times in one poll?There are two kinds of polls:
In public polls, the voter is recognized by his IP address and if he happens to have a dynamic IP address, every time the address changes the poll system will think he is a new voter. This happens, for instance, with modems (including some cable modems) and some ADSL connections. In members-only polls, the voter is recognized by first logging in to the site. That way each registered member has one vote and no public voting is possible. (Polls are still anonymous.) So, the poll is usually public when it's "only for entertainment", that is, has no definite effect on the site itself. The more serious polls will let only registered members to vote. About submitting material to OrmgasI have a great idea for a poll!Very nice! Send it to either ravon or w-ber using private messages or e-mail. We'll put it in the queue if it's good. How do I get my song to play on Ormgas?By submitting it to the scrutiny of the Judges' Panel at OCReMix.org. If your song is accepted, it will be added to Ormgas promptly. There is no other way. I made a neat wallpaper. Can I send it to you?If it's related to Ormgas somehow (Ormgas fanart!), send it by e-mail to ravon. He'll put it in the Downloads section if we deem it good. How do I submit a jingle or an infomercial?Jingles are the short advertisement type of things between songs. Their main purpose is to advertise OCRemix.org and Ormgas, to let the listeners know which radio station they are listening to, plus serve a nice distraction from the main body of music. If you have a good idea for a jingle, or even better, want to make one, we have some guidelines which should be followed.
You can send possible jingle candidates by e-mail to ravon. He'll put it in the Downloads and the regular playlist with a short description if we find it fitting to the station. For example, if it's a song-type, the lyrics would be nice; or if it's not in English, a translation would be in order. About private messagesWhat is a private message?A private message is just that — a message from one member of Ormgas to another member of Ormgas. Private messages are only visible to the sender and the participant. (Much like e-mail and ordinary letters.) How do I send a private message?Find the user you would like to send the message to, click on his name, and click on the icon labeled PM. About the arcadeWhat is the arcade?The arcade is a collection of small Flash games. It is intended to be a distraction, not the main feature of the site, and thus we have not been very keen to incorporate the highscores in member profiles or create more visible top lists of them. I want to play in the arcade!Go right ahead. You will need to participate in the other site activities first, though. The arcade is available once you have over 50 points, as can be seen in What are the benefits? Do I get something for leveling up? Technical issuesWhat's up with the white and light gray highlights on the playlist?Our CSS and layout is just fine, thank you. The shade of grays make alternating lines, helping you to read the list. If the highlight is dark gray, it means you haven't voted on the song yet. This is to enable you to pick with a quick glance what's coming up and get your vote finger ready. Why does the birthday box update in the middle of the day and not at midnight?The ormgas server is in Sweden and thus uses the Swedish timezone, UTC+1 (or GMT+1). This means the birthdays on the frontpage will be displayed during the day in Sweden — which might be 8 hours earlier than your local time, if you live in the States, for example. Timezones give easily headaches, so it's best if you don't worry too much about it. Celebrate the birthday yesterday, today and tomorrow just to make sure! (Or check the profile page for the correct date.) The front page says there are more songs left in the playlist than there are songs available. How is that possible?It's because new songs are played more often than old ones. Whenever a new remix is added to our database, it will be played three extra times in the next playlist iteration. Thus, whenever there are new songs, the playlist will be bigger than the total number of all songs. I want the page to refresh automatically!This has been a popular request, with details varying from refreshing the entire main page to separate parts (like the chatbox or the queue). Unfortunately, we will not implement this in the current system. There is already the mini playlist (available by clicking on the link called Queue on the front page), though, and that should provide some refreshing functionality. Stay tuned for future upgrades! | Streams
Arguebox
Last chance to vote in the Conceptual Music Competition! Following this round, it will no longer be on Ormgas. This round's theme is "Haunted House". Go check it out:
-link-
Hey! Norway was not conquered! It was handed over by that jerk Quisling!
atleast we aren't ugly.
joret:
Norwegians are called "the pathetic people whose country was conquered by turnips". They are easily confused with Finns for this reason.
Finally.. It's spring migration.
Kuroikaze: Really?? Aaah.. What are norwegians called?
Nope, Swedes and turnips are different things. Aren't they?
Joret:
A swede is a turnip in British English. Therefore, all Swedes are root vegetables.
The remixers of the rapgenre in OCR should emulate Immortal Technique: -link-
And I... I am a human being, although that statement is being based on what I think I am.. Maybe we aren't humans, maybe we have a different definition.
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