My newest idea!

[Wiley]

Hmmm.....  Yes there are many doubts  And there are other communites out there!  And  I am here because I choose to be.  Being almost the only female these guys all treat me fairly and are like brothers to me.  Yes you have gotten a lot of feedback! I have been here almost a year.  And this only the second major issue I have seen! The other being the uploading of MP3's!!  Which our thoughts were over ruled there also.  I am sure you will do what you want regardless.  I hope to hang around as I would miss everyone here.  But if it gets to unfriendly and to big I, for one, will move on!!!

[Pine]

ehehe..love the Micro House! Goodbye utility bills!


Pedro, i'd like to know just what it is you envision. If you could wave a wand, what would you do with this site?

[64Guitars]

Some important points have been raised which I very much agree with:

• People find this site while searching for information on their Boss recorder. Although the "Post your MP3" section is the most popular feature of the site, I doubt that anyone found the site while searching for somewhere to post their songs. BR support is the primary initial attraction to this site.
• What we all love about this site is the sense of community. I think this is largely due to the small number of posting members. It allows us to get to know each other and make friends. A big increase in the number of posting members would diminish this sense of community.

There are pros and cons to expanding the site. More members means more interesting discussions, song posts and potential collaborators. But, realistically, most members will not have the time to read all of the posts and many great posts will be missed. Opening the site to everyone, regardless of the recording hardware or software they use, means that the site will lose its identity as a BR support site. So, chances are that people Googling "Micro BR" or "BR-600" will not find this site. Or, if they do, their first impression might be that it's not for them as it seems to be too all-encompassing and they're looking for something more BR-specific.

Currently, the focus of the site is divided between BR Support and Song Posting. Really, these are two separate things. For song posting, I think it makes little difference which recorder or DAW was used to create the song. So, my first thought was that you could create a separate site for general Music/Songwriting (regardless of recorder) and leave BossBR.net as a BR-specific support site, moving all current song posts to the new Music/Songwriting site. However, after thinking about it a bit longer, I realised that it would probably destroy the sense of community that we currently enjoy, so maybe it's not a good idea.

I believe that the sense of community will be diminished as the number of posting members grows. However, membership growth is inevitable, whether the site is expanded or not. So we need to find ways to limit the number of posts we need to read each day. That's a very difficult thing to do. We don't want to miss any important or interesting topics, yet we don't have time to read everything, so something has got to be filtered out. The difficulty is in determining the criteria for that filtering. I think that filtering based on BR model is a mistake because all of the BRs are basically the same and we can learn a lot from each other. And, as someone else pointed out, one of the great things about this site is the variety of musical styles - rock, folk, jazz, country, and more. So I don't think filtering on musical genre would be a good idea. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do think that I'd have different criteria for song posts than I would for the rest of the site. Also, I think it might help if there were separate "unread messages" lists for song posts and the rest of the site. Which leads me back to my idea of two separate sites for BR Support and Music/Songwriting. I don't know. This requires a lot more thought.

I'm not sure if a "fully featured Music/Songwriting community" that's open to everyone, regardless of their recording hardware/software of choice, is a good idea or not. But if you decide to go ahead with it, I hope that you will consider creating a separate site for it and leaving BossBR.net either as it is now or at least as a BR support-only site (ie; everything except song posting). I think it would be a mistake to expand the current site into an all-encompassing music/songwriting site because it would lose its BR identity and its sense of community. But creating a separate site would allow you to try your idea without changing BossBR.net. And maybe you could defer your decision about moving BossBR.net song posts to the new site until a few months after it's started. That will give you more time to think about it and see how things go with the new site.

Finally, I agree with everyone who said they'd like to see all of the "Post your MP3" boards combined into a single board. The number of posts in the non-MicroBR boards is pretty small, so it won't greatly affect the total number of unread posts for Micro BR owners. And it will ensure that everyone's songs get a fair chance, regardless of which BR they use. Instead of separate boards for each model, we can simply ask that everyone state in their post which model they used. I'd also like to see the General Discussion boards for each model merged into a single board, as I've said before (see this message).

[Oldrottenhead]

i agree with pretty much of everything you said 64, i know a few of us hark back to the "good old days" when you could keep up with all the posts lol, bin a long time since i could do that, the site has grown and will continue to grow and we still have that community spirit, back in the day it was like a little village where everyone knew each other, now i feel its like a small town, where you know most people but cant always remember their names, but its a nice town to visit. maybe in the future it will be a nice city to visit with its own little suburbs et al.

[hooper]

Okay, my 2-cents worth... 

The music café that has evolved here does seem to have become the hub of activity whether by design or not.  I have participated in on-line home-recording forums for over 10 years and this beats them all by miles in terms of the talented musicians, good-vibe with community attitude, and all around quality people. 

I wouldn't mind seeing the categorizing of posts by BR models go away one way or another.  However, I hope that all song posts would not get thrown together into one big MP3 pile-up.  It's already gotten 'bad' enough in the Micro BR Post Your MP3 section where a new song can get posted and eventually crowded off  Page 1 on the same day. And it's probably not too unusual for lazy folks like me to not often look much beyond the first page since there is already more going on here than I can keep up with anyway. 

I think it might be good to have separate 'Stages' for MP3 performances. At least, some way to keep all the traffic from piling up in one place. For example, something such as:

* COVER SONGS - We all know what that means. (Love 'em!)   

* ORIGINAL SONGS - When someone posts a recording of an originally written and produced song, something has taken place that is a clear step beyond recording a cover song. I think it would be fitting for original songs to be appreciated in a context specific to that. 

* SONGS THAT USE BACKING TRACKS  - Sure, it's an art form too and some folks here excel at it.  However, I don't think recordings that utilize professionally recorded backers (usually uncredited) should be on the same stage where members of the community (us amateurs) are playing all the parts.

* OPEN MIC -  Usually a singer-guitarist recording a one-take performance 'live' whether at the pub or at home in the shower. That way these solo performances won't be sandwiched in-between somebody else's full-blown multi-track productions.

* OPEN MIC FOR THE BAND - You know, like Blooby's great stuff.


It gets said, but never enough... Pedro, you are a star for what you have created and are maintaining here.  I hope that the phenomenal growth of this community will continue to bring you much satisfaction and encouragement in return for what you put into it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

With humble best regards,
Hooper 

 

[Oldrottenhead]

what ken said i second that

[Geir]

So we need to find ways to limit the number of posts we need to read each day. That's a very difficult thing to do. We don't want to miss any important or interesting topics, yet we don't have time to read everything, so something has got to be filtered out.

I was gonna give a big reply to this, but Ken beat me to it. I pretty much agree with everything he said to this!.

Also, I think it might help if there were separate "unread messages" lists for song posts and the rest of the site.

What would be really useful was a way of listing only new postings of songs. I would like to keep the two unread options we have, as I use both extensively but an option of listing only new postings in the "post-your.." boards would be a really helpful feature!


I'm still a bit worried that the posts will be more "professional" if we open up for all the other recorders out there, especially if we also open for DAW recordings. I think we at least should limit it to stand-alone multitrack-recorders. The reason for my worry of course is that some will feel reluctant to post .... 

Well, I'm gonna stick around anyway, and let's all make it our task to keep the good spirit and friendliness going, no matter what the site looks like!

[Greeny]

I found this place whilst researching the MBR and BR-600, and without the excellent tutorials, would have had a far harder / longer learning curve. However, I do think there is a special 'glue' on here that binds us together that transcends Boss or any other brand. I think this place works because we're all pretty much in the same boat... i.e. all trying to record music at home on our respective digital devices. This means we all face the same issues, can thrive on the same ideas and tips, and are all at a certain level in our musical development. I think the community would suffer if we opened up to songwriting on a wider level, as there could be studio-recorded stuff vying for attention with the rest of our 'amateur' efforts. A 'home recorded' rule could get around this.

Echoing some other comments, it's already hard keeping up on here. Any significant growth would almost certainly impact on the sense of community, and even potentially drive some of the biggest participants away.

I don't know what the right answer is, or even if there is one. I just wouldn't want to see the great spirit of this place get dissolved all in the name of progress. I guess most of us will stick around whatever though!

[Diego Ayala]

While I understand and respect your motivations, the thought of the site ultimately getting larger makes me anxious about the loss of a community-feel. Anybody who has spent an inordinate amount of time on this site (14 Days 6 Hours 36 minutes and counting) does so because of its current manifestation.

That's not to say great things couldn't happen with an overhaul. I guess it's just hard to envision it...its size and its dynamics.

Peace.

Blooby

I totaly agree!  It is hard enough to keep up with all the music in this forum - we have more than just the MicroBR owners -granted the majority has the MBR.  I have an account in soundclick and reverbnation, but have decided to just keep track of this forum --- i tried to follow the soundclick forum and non of my inquiries were answered - so it seems that the BR forum for me is darn good the way it is - and it has kept things very positive, which i need on a daily basis.

This forum landed on my lap by way of Kody Hess (from Nebraska) - I got together with him and his Dad before moving to Alaska for one more jam --- one thing led to another and i asked him what he was using for recording => BR900, which I purchase and he led me to this site...


I think that if a particular BR forum member wants to exchange music/information outside this forum - that's even better => as i think that whatever is learned or exchanged may make it to this forum.

[Bluesberry]

I think it might be good to have separate 'Stages' for MP3 performances. At least, some way to keep all the traffic from piling up in one place. For example, something such as:

* COVER SONGS - We all know what that means. (Love 'em!)    

* ORIGINAL SONGS - When someone posts a recording of an originally written and produced song, something has taken place that is a clear step beyond recording a cover song. I think it would be fitting for original songs to be appreciated in a context specific to that.  

* SONGS THAT USE BACKING TRACKS  - Sure, it's an art form too and some folks here excel at it.  However, I don't think recordings that utilize professionally recorded backers (usually uncredited) should be on the same stage where members of the community (us amateurs) are playing all the parts.

* OPEN MIC -  Usually a singer-guitarist recording a one-take performance 'live' whether at the pub or at home in the shower. That way these solo performances won't be sandwiched in-between somebody else's full-blown multi-track productions.

* OPEN MIC FOR THE BAND - You know, like Blooby's great stuff.

If you do anything, let this be the thing that gets changed, lets support our whole BR community, the quirky bunch that we are, bring all the BR machines together in the breakdown that Hooper suggested.  That is all I want to see, thats my opinion.  I have so little time for this place lately that I am missing all the great music posted lately, I try as I can to listen and comment, but it is hard with all the different spots for all the different machines.  Bring them all together under one roof.  We BR users must stand together and learn our craft from each other, and go forth and become musicians and songwriters together.  This site means a lot to me, before I found this place I was nothing more than a bedroom blues guitar noodler, playing along to backers, over and over.  This site got me writing songs, trying out musical styles I never dreamed of, singing (what a huge accomplishment that was, thanks for the support everyone), colabing with very cool folks all over the world.  I love this site dearly.  I feel like a real musician, guitarist, songwriter, developing singer, and developing keyboardist because of this site.  Lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater here.  Lets make sure the change is what is needed.  What is needed is the merge of all BR machines, I am not too sure about the rest, But I will keep an open mind.