Help Me!
This is a prototype
Mooso is a an experimental prototype brought to you by BBC Radio Labs. We don't know how long it will remain here and we make no guarantees as to its reliability or performance. We're doing this to learn things and we will do our best to make it better and welcome your feedback.
- What is it?
- How do I play?
- What do I need to play?
- How do I score points?
- What sort of tags should I enter?
- What do I win?
- How do I become a Mooso?
- How do I play over instant messenger?
- How do I add Mooso as a Google Mail IM contact?
- Why can't I play right now?
- What if no-one else is playing right now?
- What happens to my data?
- Alert us?
- Anonymooso?
- Why doesn't my tag appear on a round / artist / track page?
- What's 6 Music?
- Terms and conditions
- Any more questions?
What is Mooso?
Mooso is a music tagging game. Listen to BBC 6 Music and tag the songs that are played. If you match other players' tags then you score points.
How do I play?
First, sign up to Mooso. Then...
Step 1. Listen to BBC 6 Music
On your radio or on the web – it doesn’t matter. 6 Music will automatically start playing when you hit Play.
Step 2. Enter tags and similar artists for the track playing
Hit the Play button on the site to get the pop-up play window. When a song plays on BBC 6 Music, a new round starts and you can start entering tags. Tags are words – short descriptions of the music that could be genres, instruments, similar artists (you get more points for this!) or anything else, it’s up to you. But be quick, you’ve only got two minutes from the start of the song.
Step 3. Match tags and artists with other players to score points
You get points by matching tags with other players, but you can't see what those other players are entering so you'd better make sure you're entering good tags. The more tags you match against other players the more points you win, the higher up the leaderboard you go and the closer you are to becoming a Mooso.
What do I need to play?
Mooso supports Chrome, Firefox 3+, Internet Explorer 7+, Opera 9+ and Safari 3+. You will also need Flash Player 9.
How do I score points?
You score points for a tag if enough other players also entered that tag in the same round, but you've got to match several players - so you can't just cheat with your mate!
Matching a tag scores 5 points. But if you match a tag that is an artist (who we've heard of) you get 10 points. And even if you don't match anything you will get 1 point just for trying.
What sort of tags should I enter?
Anything from genres and instruments, to moods or similar artists. But to score points your tags have to agree with other players' tags. Have a look at the tags page to see the kind of things that score points
What do I win?
Nothing, there are no prizes. You just win points, kudos, reputation and bragging rights. Try to get to the top of the leaderboards or become a Mooso.
How do I become a Mooso?
If you play Mooso enough and score enough points then you will be awarded the prestigious "Mooso" badge. Well done.
How do I play over Instant Messaging?
If you have a Jabber or Google Mail account then you can play Mooso over Instant Messaging (IM). In your favourite IM client just add moose@mooso.fm as an IM contact in the usual way (see below for how to do this in Google Mail) and type "play" to start. The Moose will send you a message when a new round starts and then you can send it tags just by typing, you'll get a score at the end of the round. Type "help" to see all the commands.
You can play Mooso over IM without registering but if you want to add to your Mooso score and profile then you need to link your IM address to your profile. To do this make sure you have your IM client open and then just go to your settings page and enter your IM address. Wait for the Moose to message you a secret code and then enter this into the box on your Mooso settings page. If everything works your IM address should now be linked with your Mooso account and we'll even try to merge in any points you might have got previously when playing with this IM address.
Unfortunately Jabber and Google Mail are the only IM services we support. This is for technical reasons, we are using the XMPP/Jabber protocol.
How do I add Mooso as a Google Mail IM contact?
Sign in to Google Mail and look for the navigation panel on the left. Expand the Chat panel where indicated.
You should then see something like this. Click on the circled "Add contact" link.
A pop-up window will appear (you may need to turn pop-up blocking off) where you can add the Moose as a contact - enter moose@mooso.fm
The Moose should now be shown as one of your contacts in the Chat panel and you can start a chat at any time
In fact, it will probably have already started a chat with you, welcoming you to Mooso. Type "play" to start playing.
Why can't I play right now?
You can only play the game when 6 Music is playing a song, that's the point. But for technical reasons the game doesn't always know what 6 Music are playing (this happens when there’s a live session or some new tracks) - and we can only apologise for this. We also schedule the game to be off-air at certain times, usually through the night. Check out the schedule to see when you can play Mooso.
There is also a limit of 100 simultaneous players, if this is reached you won’t be able to join the game. Try coming back later.
What if no-one else is playing right now?
It will be hard to score points. Maybe get some friends to play along too?
What happens to my data?
If enough players tag an artist or a track with something then that data is used to build more pages and links on this site - take a look at an artist or track page and click through some of the tags or similar artists to start discovering new music.
That's the principle behind this game - as well playing a game you're also creating tags that describe the music we play, which we can then use to help you discover more music. It was inspired by the ESP game and Luis Von Ahn's ideas of "human computation".
Alert us?
Because this site shows information that has been entered by players, occasionally you might see something which has sneaked past our state-of-the-art filters and is offensive, libelous or makes you unhappy. If you see something like this then just click the "Alert us" button at the bottom of each page and tell us about it.
Anonymooso?
You might sometimes see players listed as "Anonymooso" on the site. These are people playing over Instant Messaging (IM) who haven't signed up yet. But don't be jealous, you can do that too by linking your IM account with Mooso and they're not getting any fame.
Why doesn't my tag appear on a round / artist / track page?
Firstly, tags only ever appear if they have scored points, i.e. they were matched by several players in the same round. Additionally, several people need to have entered a tag independently for it to appear on an artist or track page.What's 6 Music?
Whaaat? You don't know?? 6 Music is a BBC radio station, available on DAB digital radio, digital TV and on the web. 6 Music brings together the cutting edge music of today, the iconic and groundbreaking music of the past 40 years and unlimited access to the BBC's wonderful music archive.
Terms and Conditions
The information you provide will be held by the BBC in order to run the Mooso service. Information about your playing of the game will be published on this site, together with your username. We advise that you do not create a username which would allow you to be personally identified. Your email address will not be published, and will only be used by the BBC for the purposes of contacting you about the Mooso service and your account, e.g. for verifying your account. It will not be used for direct marketing purposes and will not be passed to others outside the BBC. Your personal information will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy for more information. You must be 16 or over to use this service.
All tags that you enter as part of the game are collected. We intend to anonymise this data and then make it available for research purposes under the BBC Backstage Licence.
Any more questions?
Contact us at feedback@mooso.fm
About Mooso
Mooso is brought to you by BBC R&D, BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Labs