Should we further divide our categories?

[Rolow]

It seems to me that the population at Songcrafters has grown quite a bit.  That's great, a lot of good music goin on.

But it also seems that with this growth, it may be harder to achieve our top goal - (along with collabs and Festivals) to listen to music and comment on it, and to post your own music and have others comment on it.  If it is true that the population has grown, then there is a lot more music being posted which makes it harder to listen to it all (impossible?), and harder to get comments because everyone is picking and choosing what they listen to based on.... what?

Would it be appropriate to further divide the categories and thus create less populated segments?  A logical divide might be, within the original and cover categories to have acoustic and electric categories.  There might have to be some definition of what is predominately acoustic and what is predominately electric.  I suspect the electric categories would be larger than the acoustic ones, but we will have spread out the posts a bit.

Just a thought....What do ya think?



Rolow

[T.C. Elliott]

I'm not nearly as active as I once was, so my opinion should carry little weight these days.

That being said, I prefer less categories rather than more. If there were a way to tag posts and then search or sort by tags then you could have the best of both worlds, but that seems a pretty hard thing to implement here. (Although I could be wrong.)  Although if there were multiple categories then I would love to have a recent posts forum. Rather a button that would sort all posts from all boards by post date. And further subdivide it by songs and non songs. That would be perfect for me.

But, honestly, I don't have an issue with the way it is right now. I'll be interested in seeing how others feel. (A few years ago there was talk of a reorganization of the site which I thought would be very good and there was enough of an outcry that it never happened.)

[Groundy]

I'm with TC, I too prefer less categories,
As the old adage goes, If it's not broke dont fix it.

Alex

[Oldrottenhead]

Taking my admin hat off and speaking as a user/member.

Lately I have had little time for music making, listening and commenting. Can't recall last time I wrote or recorded a new song.

When I do get time to come here, I like to check on the latest songs player. That helps me catch up on song posts by other members but i am not sure how long songs stay on the player, so I can often miss some song posts. My suggestion would be for new song posts to be on the new song player for a longer period of time.

[Hook]

I'm a less is more kinda guy. The problem isn't in the site, it's the members that consistantly post yet never comment. I'd say we have 4 to 6 that post somewhat regularly, get support yet don't return it. That's probably never gonna change.
I love the latest song jukebox and I usually listen to the active members first. When I listen, I listen to the whole tune and I almost always comment, weather one song or 10. With that said, my time has been limited lately and I haven't been as active as I'd like.
I notice Johnny Robbo apologises for his lack of participation and I wish he wouldn't because when he listens he listens and comments like a man on fire. You don't have to log in daily or weekly to be an active member. Hell, only be active when you have a song to post, just  remember how lucky you are to have a positive place lime this to post your recordings and pay it forward.
Rock on my friends!

[ODH]

I wasn't really aware that the membership has grown to any great extent.  Looking at today's Latest Songs Jukebox there's only six songs in the past four days, I wouldn't call that unmanageable.  And there's only ever been around 20 votes or so in the festival polls.  So I don't see any particular need to for changes.  If it ain't broke, don't f#ck about with it.

I do feel the weight of responsibility with regard to listening and commenting on others; although it's always a pleasure to do so, I do worry that I'm not diligent enough.  I am aware that I am more inclined to comment on a submission from a member who I know comments on others' regularly, though.

I like Jim's suggestion about keeping songs on the Latest Songs for longer, although not for so long that it becomes a daunting juggernaut.  I go there first most times I visit the site.  Ten days?

[alfstone]

My suggestion would be for new song posts to be on the new song player for a longer period of time.

+1

Alfredo

[64Guitars]

I wasn't really aware that the membership has grown to any great extent.

It hasn't.

When I do get time to come here, I like to check on the latest songs player. That helps me catch up on song posts by other members but i am not sure how long songs stay on the player, so I can often miss some song posts. My suggestion would be for new song posts to be on the new song player for a longer period of time.

I like Jim's suggestion about keeping songs on the Latest Songs for longer, although not for so long that it becomes a daunting juggernaut.  I go there first most times I visit the site.  Ten days?

Till now, the Latest Songs player has included songs posted in the past 3 days. It's hard to determine the ideal number of days to include since activity on the site varies quite a bit over time. At the moment, activity's a bit low so there are currently only 5 songs in the Latest Songs player. If I increase the number of days, it will be better for now, but what about when the site's really busy? I'm afraid some people might feel overwhelmed if they see 60 or more songs in the player, so they might not listen at all. But if they see only 5 songs, they might think they've got enough time to listen to them and comment.

I'll change it to 7 days for now and we'll see how it goes. If, after a few months, people still think it should be longer, I'll try changing it to 10. On the other hand, if people find 7 days too long, I'll try dropping it back to 5.


Update: I've made the change to 7 days, so there are now 19 songs showing instead of 5. We'll have to wait and see what it will be like when the site is busier.

[Hilary]

If it ain't broke, don't f#ck about with it.

Yep.

[bruno]

Probably best to leave it as is.
Its been a bit slow on here as late - but still totally love the site. Sometimes the energy runs a bit low - but there's still new tunes, and always "the next one ..." - so keep going y'all.

This place always has the capacity to surprise!
B