Pack Hosting

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Should I host a pack?

At some point while charting, you may get the idea to host your own pack, a plan to release a collection of your own files, however when you do that, you should keep in mind something very Specific. Every experienced charter who hosts a pack, has a set of clear guidelines that even they themselves have to abide by - this can be anything from song choice, to chart type, or even pack type. As a beginner charter, I would earnestly recommend not making a pack immediately. I know it can be tempting, but you should instead focus on submitting to other packs, and getting feedback to improve with first.

I made the mistake of making my first pack immediately, and you can see for yourself how badly it went, Here. The people in the thread were nice, however, if you download the pack, you'll see it's... Terrible, in every sense of the word. Once a pack is released, it will be permanantly out in the public, and as such, it will be permanantly tied to you, and your reputation. This is why it is so important to think before hosting a pack.

I want to host a pack anyway!

If you decide to go through with hosting a pack despite what I've said above, there are risks and pitfalls you have to avoid on top of what was mentioned prior. The most common of which is the pack just never getting finished or falling apart.

I'll go over a few of the risks here, but not all of them. For starters, a lot of people make the mistake of charting files for their pack, but then sending those files to other peoples packs after they're finished. This can cause a pack to be stuck in permanant limbo, as you chart a file for the pack, then send it away repeatedly. The way I personally approach this is, if I chart a song for the pack, it stays in the pack no matter what, and only goes elsewhere if I personally think the chart does not fit the pack anymore. It sounds simple, but as you chart more, you'll realise that you only have limited time, yet have many packs you want to send charts to.

Another pitfall is to start accepting submissions from friends. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it does make your obligations within the pack significantly higher, because now other charters are relying on you to release their charts, and then you have to give them feedback for their files in your pack. Doing this can cause you a lot more stress, and can cause you to sometimes go easy on other peoples charts, accepting charts you don't quite agree with - lowering the pack's quality.

How can I make my pack stand out?

A big thing people like to see from packs is a theme. If a pack is just a mishmash of your charts, that's fine if you're an established charter, but when you're new to charting, or aren't popular yet, it can kill peoples desire to download your pack. Instead, a lot of charters make packs that target something people like, and go from there.

To give you some examples, I personally made Chordial with Sheenoboo, to make some easy chordjack practice charts, and because people downloaded it for the practice charts, they ended up giving my charting a chance, adding credibility to my cdtitle and name to make decent charts.

In a much more standout case, charter Celebelian made a pack that was entirely focused on a specific aethstetic - STEP PROJECT. In this, every single song and piece of GFX in the pack was focused on following the cyberpunk style, this level of cohesion got people's attention, and they gave the pack a shot, resulting in them playing Celeb's charts, and falling in love with them (As is evident by people who still to this day recommend the pack to people). I will show just how coherent this pack was below:

Having a clear goal, or theme, can give people an excuse to download your pack when they otherwise wouldn't when you're not an established charter. From there you can then do your own thing and gain goodwill of players.

How do I organise submissions?

There's a number of ways people organise their submission process, but the most common one is to have a "pool" of charts that people have submitted, and an "accepted" section for charts that you 100% know will be in the pack. This way you give yourself more time to critique the charts. The downside to this is, once you accept a chart, you can't, under any circumstances, go back on your word. The second you press send on a message saying you've accepted a chart, that chart should be **guaranteed** to release in your pack unless the charter says otherwise.

The most common way judging works is quite simple, someone will dm you a zip/rar of a chart, you'll look at it, give feedback, then tell them if its pooled, rejected, or accepted. If pooled, the charter will await feedback to get it accepted, and if rejected, the charter will leave with the chart, either working on it or abandoning it.

Lastly: Try to avoid changing the aim of your pack mid-development after accepting submissions, it can completely ruin peoples trust in you as a pack host.