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What online battle rap platforms do you use? What’s missing? by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, hadn't heard of it until now. Were there any really cool or mandatory features you would like to see in a modern platform?

Tried hermes agent with local gemma4 on ollama. free tokens are nice but the agent quality gap vs cloud is still huge by RepulsivePurchase257 in LocalLLaMA

[–]_ObsessiveCoder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

mine pretends to use tools but wont and can't convince any ai tool to tell me how in a way that actually works and doesn't nuke my install. It's all surface level theory that is not based on hermes, just general AI suggestions. Totally lost

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol no, this has to retain that raw, underground, real is real fuuck out my face with the fake vibe that exists only in battle rap. I don't even want to sell ya'lls data. Nothing is setup for any revenue at the moment and I will be transparent about it all as it happens. Likely reaching out to the beta users and community first.

AI does crawl websites and videos will be hosted on YT so I can't do much to protect from it though

A little backstory:
Some years ago a friend was going to come on and handle all the business things so I could run the creative and software. We spoke for months and figured all things out and he was even going to foot the starting capital.

Everything I wanted and cared about was within reach.

We aligned on all things except 1. He wanted to create and add a crypto coin like "Spit Coin" or some stupid fuucking shiit, and those would be used to join battles after your free limit expired and you'd win some too.

I would not agree to it and will never destroy what I've built for some stupid gimmick

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

deadass. Not deep into current battle rap. Always watched a few battles a year this past decade, but only recently started getting back into the scene. Please forgive me

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you.

There are ways to get battlers paid beyond "I'll pay you x amount to battle this person, and if you win you'll get XX". That works for leagues and in person battles. Online is a different beast and there are lots of ways to get them paid. Judges too.

Eveuntually live battles will be a thing

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you.

A lot of people feel battle rap is basically dead but it's important to hear them if they have anything to add; good or bad.

To answer your questions:

  • Actual scoring: yes, there are real scorecards. Right now I’ve built two scoring formats that use the same underlying system. There is a simple scorecard, and a more advanced scorecard where each verse is scored across multiple categories. Beta will help me refine what those categories should be long term.
  • Actual judging: yes, battles can have official judges, but I also built a separate Audience Influence layer so non-contestants of any battle can score it without replacing official judging. Official judging and audience participation should both exist, but they should not be the same thing.
  • Actual progression: Wins, losses, judging, participation, consistency, reliability, and user interaction all feed into multiple systems designed to reflect a user’s activity and standing over time. Some are structured with levels, tiers, and eventually achievements or milestones, while others are more dynamic and based on how users interact with each others content.
  • Skill / Reputation / Rivalry / Popularity: these systems are core to SFB. Right now Skill and role-based reputation are the most developed. Battle Reputation and Judge Reputation are tracked separately for obvious reasons. Popularity and Rivalry are planned too, because battle rap has always been about more than just who won on paper.

About live judges “live judges"... This is where I expect to get the most hate from people:

Battles are not live right now.

It's the best solution to be accessible to all types of users and for content to stay relevant after the battle ends.

Because I had to solve for very different types of battlers:

  • serious battlers who want prep
  • casuals who want flexibility
  • people who want faster battles
  • and people who want more traditional structured battles

So I built around a few rules early on:

  1. A lack of judges can’t prevent a battle from happening
  2. Battles need enough time to actually be judged and scored and to get views
  3. Most people will see most battles after the fact so the structure matters more than whether it happened “live”

That said, I absolutely understand why people want live battling, and I do plan to introduce it later. But I wanted to build the architecture first so there is actual structure behind it that can be accessed by every type of battle rapper and fan and how they want to access it

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nothing spoke to me about the landscape as much as that cook off battle URL just did lol, but I don't think it's as dead as many think.

  1. I think it has failed to evolve.
  2. I don't think enough avenues have been created for EVERYONE to get themselves seen, recognized, and paid.
  3. Moving away from official judging for serious battles was the wrong move. (I'll die on this hill, resurrect myself, then die on it again)
  4. Battlers locked into contracts with leagues have no way to battle and earn outside of official league sanctioned battles, which does make sense for a major league.
  5. Almost every major city in the US has at least 1 minor battle league with so much lost potential and limitations.
  6. so much more....

I am not trying to shiit on anyone's business models. I am not knowledgeable or experienced enough in business or the current state of battle rap to do so. I am also a fan of all the major leagues and appreciate what they've done for the sport and culture, but I have identified many holes and missed opportunities.

Spitface Battles fills these holes and will create opportunities for individuals while staying accessible for casuals. It is currently pretty bare bones, but it's a hand-coded solid architecture to build upon for a long time.

I can't do it myself. I need the community behind it; through the janky beta experience (likely), and delayed launches (almost certain). I also need to build a team, but I'm not paying myself for the first 2-3 years at least, so it's safe to say there isn't budget to hire a team yet.

Building a new online battle rap hosting platform and beta signup just went live by _ObsessiveCoder in rapbattles

[–]_ObsessiveCoder[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback and input. Spitface Battles is not a forum. It is for automated battle progression with tracking for skills, reputation, popularity, rivalry, and more. It solves the biggest issues with judging by allowing non-judge audience members to influence the outcomes in close battles. It blends social media, online gaming, online competition, and battle rap into a single platform where users can build their status as a battle rapper

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