Document some of the decisions we've made in the past for songs

[singaround]

Examples:

• Reduce in-jokes or explain them
• Cut long songs where possible - not everyone loves an endless ballad

[Owl237]

Some general principles that I've been applying - recording them on this issue for future reference. Most of these are more about the formatting than particular songs.

• if there's a significant Auntie Shanty addition to a trad song, the line is marked with a blue diamond (🔷). This is to avoid newcomers feeling "caught out" - if they're leading a song that they think they know, it seems polite to at least warn them that it might be heading off in an unexpected direction.

• if a song has a complicated chorus, then repeat the full text of the chorus often enough that it can be always visible on a phone screen. It may not need repeating after ever verse, but potentially after every other verse or every third verse. See "Home Boys Home" for an example. Needs some editorial judgement - very simple choruses possibly don't need this, and if the chorus only happens a few times it may be clearer to include the full chorus throughout.

• if a chorus changes at any point (for example, the 'heart may be broke' change in the final chorus of "Mary Ellen Carter") then write the changed lines in blue. This is to draw people's attention to the fact that something has changed. The same thing occurs in "This Dreadful Life"

• if a song has multiple voices, use green text for one, blue for the other, and purple for 'both' - see "Maid Upon the Mountain" and "Jutland" for examples. Bright colours are difficult to read.

• if a song is well-known under another title (eg "Wellerman" vs "Soon May the Wellerman Come"), then create a 'redirect' page. The title of the song should be followed by the "↝" symbol and the page should be tagged as 'redirect'. See the 'Wellerman' page as an example for this. This is to help people find songs in the alphabetical list. We're not aiming to list every variant of every title here - just well-known variants of well-known songs.

• if a song is not included but we've got an 'alternative version', then create a redirect page. The song title should be followed by the 'recycling' symbol (♲). There should be an explanation of why the song is not in the book, and link to the alternative(s). See 'John Kanaka' and 'what shall we do with the drunken sailor' as examples. Again, this is to help anyone looking for the song in the alphabetical list.

• 'inland' songs are generally avoided, unless there's a reason to include them. The "Songs of the Inland Waterways" website has a lot of these songs ( https://www.waterwaysongs.info/ ). My criteria is that if a song is on SotIW, then we shouldn't replicate it on Auntie Shanty. (Exceptions might be made for a specific 'Oxford' song, one written by an Auntie Shanty regular, or one with a very 'shanty' structure)