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I never take anything the wrong way unless it is intended with malice, LOL! If we dont talk , how do we learn, right??
The way I deal with it, is I do not and probably will not rely on a computerized rotation or play list. I had over 40 singers last night, and used Hoster, so this got put to the test. I keep my rotation on a legal pad next to me, in ink. I put as many songs on the playlist as I can...the people who let me know what song they want by telling me or using a slip. Slips do not hold their place in the rotation, the list on the legal pad does. That never gets lost, blown away or crashes.
Last night, there were a lot of people changing their songs, or letting me know last minute. I merely put their songs at the bottom of the Hoster rotation system (keeping the rotation on the legal pad accurate, in the correct order of singing). I kept the playlist sorted from top to bottom, then when things got really busy or the singers changed their songs, I would just play the song from the bottom of the playlist on Hoster, which then does not show the next singer. As I got to a field of several singers that were queued in the proper order, I would drag the playlist to that point in Hoster. Far less confusing that way, and keeps the show moving.
These policies and how you handle it depend on how many singers you get I suppose. If I had 7-10 singers a night, I would have more time to be anal about rules, but then again, there would not be that much attention to downtime. 10-20 singers, your time gets taxed, and people get more antsy about when their turn is. 30-40 singers or more, you just try to keep things moving, keep people happy, stay fair, eliminate downtime where possible and not demand too much of the customers who are drinking and not studying
"my rules", LOL.
Even with that chaos, I can keep the show moving as fast as it takes for the singer to grab the mic. If I can keep them communicating, I can still queue the songs fast enough that no one notices.
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