I am one of those new folks. I just wanted to say that I find the song forum to be incredibly valuable, as a teaching/learning tool, as a source of inspiration and encouragement, as a chance to sit in on discussions among people that actually know what they are doing. It's awesome. 
 
I do tend to lurk more than respond, but I try to push myself to contribute. I have such limited knowledge of this stuff, I just don't have much to say beyond, "Hey great tune!" I also try to get a sense of the culture of a place before I jump in and start making jello. But I appreciate when people give me feedback on what I am doing, so I try to oblige. 
 
that's all.

I think many contributors are being polite in their comments.  No one really want to offend the writer/artist and so there is an air of being polite. Sometimes, good honest opinions are made that it reality, are the most helpful to those looking for help. 
When I have time to listen and comment, I try to be honest and helpful. It would do no good to just say it sounds great when I know it doesn't. 
There are so many talented artists on the song forum that are really good at what they do.  Others are not so blessed. So whenever possible, being honest with how you feel about their work would make a bigger difference in the scheme of things than not. 
 
For those like me that don't contribute often enough, I apologize. I do have many many posts in my online experience that have tried to make a difference. I can do better.  Just would like to see more honest evals than just a polite response. 
 

It seems obvious to me.
Why doesn't the songs forum have the voting facilities (the stars) like the feature requests and the problem reports forum? Every medium has it nowadays.... Youtube, facebook, soundcloud, yada yada.... And they do it to engage...
 
Cheers..

ward s
I am one of those new folks. I just wanted to say that I find the song forum to be incredibly valuable, as a teaching/learning tool, as a source of inspiration and encouragement, as a chance to sit in on discussions among people that actually know what they are doing. It's awesome. 
 

Great comment Ward!  That represents what I was trying to get across.
 
Splat-  I like the Stars idea a lot too.  Quick and dirty.  Not very objective or instructional though, but a good way to get a lot of "instant reviews" for people who don't have the time, patience, or ability to make constructive criticisms.
 
Rimshot-  I totally agree with you.  I see a LOT of praise given in here to work that just doesn't cut it (IMO of course) in order to be "polite". 
 
Face it.. I think we all post our work in the Songs forum because we think we have done something worthwhile, something that people should like, something we think is really good, and to get a little praise for our efforts...cuz there is ALWAYS a lot of praise given in there.  And I doubt if anyone puts his song up if he thinks (or knows) it really sucks.
 
I also think it's human nature to be more on the "praise" (read- polite) side than the critical (read- rude) side.  It takes a little couth and some practice to give negative feedback without making the receiver feel put down, belittled, or harmed in some way, but it CAN be done.  I learned the "Sandwich method" when I was working....  you can wrap a negative comment between 2 positive ones and come out not looking like a b-hole.   (Geeze...hopefully you can find 2 nice things to say about it...)  But there WILL be those times it's a real piece of chit..... LOL
 
So....maybe along with the Stars, there could be several general Remarks checkboxes??? 

I posted a similar thread a few weeks ago. I had not been in the songs forum for a long while and noticed the same things.
 
So I have decided to be more active in the songs forum and try to be part of the solution.
 
By the way I listened to one of your tunes and thought it was quite good.

Voting and stars won't let the poster know why. That's a big part of what the songs forum is all about, in my book.
 
Regards,
Dan

SongCraft
IMHO I believe the lines seem to be blurred between the Techniques and Songs forums so much so that they could be merged into 'one' forum. This would indeed bring more traffic, more participation, more focus on what would definitely be a very useful source of shared knowledge / information.

The intention of the Techniques forum is to ask questions, or give tips, about specific aspects of production. 
"How do I get this sound?"  or "What exactly should I be doing with an aural exciter at my age?", "How to mix two guitars that both sound the same.."
 
The intention of the Songs forum is as a showcase for your hard work.  This often includes Works In Progress, but that's a good way to get feedback on ideas before spending time on something that might be a load of c...

The idea of a dedicated forum to spotlight the "better compositions" is a good idea. It would show off the things that can be done with Sonar.
 
However, it has to be done right or it simply becomes another version of the SONGS forum. 
 
There would need to be a dedicated forum category for it. I don't think a "sticky" inside the songs forum would work well. Perhaps a SUB FORUM as a sticky in the songs forum would be OK. Is that what you meant?
No one should be able to post a song in it by themselves. That would make it a managed forum only. To get a song placed there would be a true honor representing the quality of the work..... musicianship, writing, recording, production, that went into the song which sets it apart from most other songs. The standards would necessarily need to be "high bar" or in 6 months there would be hundreds of songs in it and then it's no different from the regular songs forum.
 
Not everyone gets a trophy for writing and recording a song. Which translates to, there has to be rules and criteria that determine what songs are chosen and why they are chosen to be in the SPOTLIGHT FORUM.  Popular vote? Nominations? A list of people from the forum...a secret panel, to decide? I'm not sure how that would be done, just so it is unbiased and weeds out the rocks and weeds from the truly quality songs and mixes. As this is the Cakewalk forum, I would think the primary focus would be on recording, and production quality with "bonus points" for the musicianship and writing chops.


Done right, this could be good.

Guitarhacker
  Popular vote? Nominations? A list of people from the forum...a secret panel, to decide?

The answer is obvious,
The Forum Hosts decide in a super secret meeting.  So secret in fact that nobody ever finds out the result..
 
That way everyone is happy

I could see how this could easily become a disaster as well..... so proceed accordingly.   Or not.
 
You know the old saying... If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.... but my oh my how we like to try.....
 
All kidding aside, it could be worth a try. If all else fails  and it does become a disaster, the Song spotlight forum could simply be removed.....of course that would also make some folks mad.....