Forum upgrade?

[Joe Muscara]

One thought that strikes me about what's been written above. A number have wanted better YT and video support, I would agree with that. But, I'd also like to have the ability to have audio clips as well. Ideally, they could be hosted here, probably limited to established members. But even if they weren't, somehow having embedded audio in posts would be better than always having to go somewhere else, and some of those free sites suck.

 

Other things that may not have been said already:

 

Better mobile support.

 

Most other fora do a good job of keeping track of threads that have been read. On this forum, if something happens like my browser crashes, I completely lose my place on every thread.

 

Modernize the posting process: The window that opens up for posting is definitely ancient. Further, the mobile process is not very user friendly, and likely inhibiting folks from adding content from their mobile devices.

If you look at the Casio Music Forums, that post system is one of the best I have seen. It posts without reloading the page, and all the tools are on the page with the post box. There's no need for a separate page for the full reply screen.

 

That forum also has excellent user management. When a user is marked as a spammer by an admin or mod, all their posts disappear. When we've had some spammer post tons of spam posts, the cleanup was instant. I don't know what it's like here, but it could be useful.

[Bill H.]

Image issues are the only thing I'd really like improved. A few days ago I spent way too much time trying to post a pic of the first UB-Xa prototype (something that's up in other forums) but to no success. Links... nothing worked. Maybe I just suck at how to do it here... dunno, but if it were easier that would be really cool.

[Joe Muscara]

A bigger bannination hammer.

[Joe Muscara]

Seriously, I love what this place could be that Dave is getting at. The forum is excellent, but making it an even better resource for keyboard players with content and other abilities could be awesome.

[Moonglow]

Let's not branch out but stick to what's working and fix what isn't.

An excellent guiding principle, IMHO. Keep the corner bar feel versus making it a big fancy nightclub.

 

I also like the idea of keeping a limited number of sub-forums to avoid fragmenting our group. Similarly, I dont know what a chat function does (I dont do Facebook, Twitter, etc.) but hope it wouldnt overly restrict access or result in too many side bar conversations. I enjoy the dynamics of our full group!

[Muad’Dib]

Increase security on this forum. Safari tells me the website is not secure when I sign in.

Also, being able to change Avatars without too much hassle. It was frustrating, when my last avatar dissappeared, and than had a hard time adding a new one, because the image was the wrong size. However, it was resolved, by a fellow member. Had to delete part of the image code to get it too work.

 

I know its hard, but sometimes change is good. Even on here.

[Synthoid]

Plenty of great suggestions.

 

Plus one more.

 

Tom wants free beer.

 

 

[Tom Williams]

I'm already content.

 

Desires are much the same as others:

• +1 Image scaling
• +1 file hosting -- images and mp3's
• -2 infinite scroll pages -- if that's necessary for a "better mobile experience" then I am agin it.
  

By the way, even though it's not a stated goal, I am willing to pay some for this -- say, up to $6 Aus / annum, per existing precedent.

[mynameisdanno]

Yeah, the thing I want most is for history to be preserved, if possible. There's such a wealth of info in the archives of this place. If simply upgrading to the latest UBB is the only way to retain it, then that's my vote.

 

+1 image rescaling and hosting would be nice. But I know it would probably make this place more costly to run.

 

Mobile-friendly display would be nice but I also am not a fan of infini-scroll.

[Tusker]

Most of my ideas have been already stated by others (preserve history, improved search, media friendly) Here are three remaining thoughts ...

 

a)Not sure if this was emphasized above but ... I wonder if it would be possible to make some kind of hashtagging or organizing of history so that you could "browse related threads" while reading a thread? While today I am grateful for the "we've already discussed this topic in this thread" posts, perhaps in the future, the machine would organize some of the information, so that the wonderful discussions we have can focus on a particular slice of topic. This type of feature may also reduce the incidence of redundant basic questions.

 

b) I love the idea of Steve and Mark and Jerry (and others) using this as a crowdsourcing platform. Bring it on.

 

c) Expanding on the above, I'd love to see us brainstorm more methods of crowd participation, perhaps around composition help, or sound design help, or mixing help. This may be automatically possible with media friendliness, or it may be something to think through at the workflow level For example, licensing a general midi player might enable someone to ask how to voice a chord, enable a second someone to key in some notes which would be visually represented with available audio, and a third someone to adjust adjust them (as an alternative) in the third post. A reader could click, listen and contribute.) I understand that this sort of intricate "workflow design" may not be possible with current tools but you asked. When this forum began it introduced some revolutionary ways of interacting, and I am hoping the revolution continues!

[TommyRude]

Predictive search: would help people to get to relevant content faster, easier... better

 

YouTube: enable the ability for full screen without having to go to YouTube (faster full screen, better experience)

[GRollins]

Image hosting.

 

Grey

[theGman]

Image sizing, like button, search. Thanks

 

[Geoff Grace]

As a composer, I spend roughly as much time at VI-Control as I do here. Their software has a number of features I would welcome here:

 

When I click on a thread I visited before, I'm taken directly to the posts that I had yet to read. All of those posts are marked as "new."

 

Members are able to embed audio files. Sometimes, those files are examples of their compositions; other times, they contain demos of patches from new products to share with other members who want to hear more examples than manufacturers typically give.

 

I'm notified anytime a member quotes or likes a post I made. The notification gives me a link to their quote, or to my post they liked.

 

I can bold, italicize, etc. using normal key commands.

 

If I want to call someone's attention to a post, I put an @ sign in front of their name, and they're alerted to my post. For example, "@Mike Martin, do you know the release date for the PX-S3000?" or "@Dave Bryce, congratulations on the Eagles' Super Bowl victory!"

 

There's a History link at the top of every page that takes me to the last 50 threads I visited. The threads that have new posts since my last visit are bolded.

 

All that said, I will add my voice to everyone else's that the most important thing is to leave our history of threads and posts intact. Harmony Central provides a great example of software upgrades gone wrong. I'd hate to see that happen here.

 

As always, Dave, I appreciate all you do on our behalf!

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[David Emm]

I'm already content.

 

Desires are much the same as others:

• +1 Image scaling
• +1 file hosting -- images and mp3's
• -2 infinite scroll pages -- if that's necessary for a "better mobile experience" then I am agin it.
  

By the way, even though it's not a stated goal, I am willing to pay some for this -- say, up to $6 Aus / annum, per existing precedent.

I'll +1 Tom here. I'm not married to the idea of a massive archive on-site. I enjoy the forum as a current thing more than a historical reference. Text uses little space, but pics are another story. Whatever makes it easy to manage will work for me.

 

[b3maniac]

I would mostly wish for:

- Image hosting

- Image resizing

- Improved searching ability

 

Don

[KeyMoe]

This.

 

+1 Image hosting

+1 improved Search

[Geoff Grace]

So, lets say - for arguments sake - that we were going to finally do something about the ancient forum software and the related issues weve been having.

In this hypothetical scenario, are we talking about a site wide upgrade of all of the forums or just the Keyboard ones?

If it's the latter, then perhaps we could simply archive everythingas has been done with other forums at this siteand start fresh with new software.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Markay]

Some excellent ideas here particularly re image, audio and video and new types of media hosting.

 

However admin load has also to be considered. This forum seems to require relatively light touch in editorial editing, and backend database maintenance. I suspect that this balance between sysop load and functionality has allowed this forum to remain relevant and manageable despite the onslaught of other social media platforms that have come along since it started.

 

Upgrading media hosting is going to increase the amount of data that needs to be stored and software support. Trust the upgrade plan when finalised charts a realistic path to keep sysop and admin support to an acceptable and sustainable level.

 

The above comments are made in the context of the forum being what it is, an adjunct to a existing publication. As a platform reinvented as a knowledge based new media alternative, well that sounds really exciting and would warrant a new build from the ground up, keeping the existing forum content as an invaluable historical resource.

 

[miden]

What about elements of commerce? For example, I was thinking about all the compilations we did and that made me wonder if there was a way to allow the (established) community members to sell their own music here for whatever price they want, keeping all the $...?

 

We already have commerce going on with the Garage Sale sub-forum, of course.

 

dB

 

Yep, great idea...the only thing I would change is that you guys, forum administrators should get a percentage. 10% :idk after all you are providing the space and the e-commerce engine. And regardless that there are other sites doing it, I can see no harm at all in creating such an option for memebers here.

 

If you hear a song in the shameless plugs you really like? Well it'd be easy peasy to simply pay a fee and be able to instantly download it!

 

jm2c of course, other views may (probably hahaha) be different

[marino]

In my opinion, the only thing in need of serious improvement would be the search engine. The time limit is silly, and more often than not, within those limits, it can't find the results you need, or it shows just the first portion.

Of course, improving the search engine would be useless if it doesn't have the ability to preserve *all* the old archives.

 

Image hosting and resizing would be welcome, too.

 

I vote against thumbs up/down and similar schemes; I think that KC doesn't need that.

I would think twice before adding too many subforums, too... it could become confusing.

 

I've also been talking with Dr. Fortner about the idea of having him essentially do his Keyboard mag gig here - do reviews (interactively), get some of the folks we know (players, designers, etc) to come hang and talk to the community - that sort of thing. JerryK and Mark Vail are a part of that discussion, too.

 

dB

I find this a great idea, if implemented right.

[Tom Williams]

• +1 Image scaling
• +1 file hosting -- images and mp3's
• -2 infinite scroll pages

I'll +1 Tom here.

David, does that mean you increased my evaluation of infinite scroll to -1?

[analogman1]

Improved search algorithms, please.....

[The Real MC]

Improved search algorithms, please.....

 

And include exclusion prefixes

 

IE the search expression "piano -rhodes -wurlitzer -digital" will return all posts containing "piano" but exclude those containing "rhodes" "wurlitzer" and "digital" for those folks who are searching for info on ACOUSTIC pianos.

 

Also nice for "minimoog -plugin -softsynth -vst -clone" when one wants to search for the original minimoog.

[Dave Bryce]

In this hypothetical scenario, are we talking about a site wide upgrade of all of the forums or just the Keyboard ones?

If it's the latter, then perhaps we could simply archive everythingas has been done with other forums at this siteand start fresh with new software.

Welcome to one of the problems...

 

Taking care of just KC and trying to only upgrade and/or migrate only our history and data may be really tricky.

 

The solution Geoff suggested is one of the options. Would make things easier for sure...but obviously comes with its own challenges.

 

The main issue here is that yet another entity (Future Music) owns where we live now, and they really dont seem to care very much about the forums. Weve made a lot of effort to establish a dialogue, but theyve not been terribly responsive. Im told their plan is to eventually find some way to merge us with their MusicRadar site.

 

Not my favorite scenario.

 

Thanks so much for all the suggestions and feedback. I had a bunch of conversations at NAMM with some really good people that tell me they would like very much to help us.

 

dB

 

 

[WesG]

Remember how well the upgrades were received at Harmony-Central............they killed the busiest keyboard forum on the internet.

 

People don't need fancy. They need fast software that is easy to use. Reactive this blah blah that is for the birds. Keep as much of -- or all of -- what's here. And it's plausible that finding someone to support this platform might be cheaper than upgrading to something new when TCO is considered.

[Ian Benhamou]

I went from being a frequent poster to an occasional lurker in the last 5 years or so. Part of the reason is the not so great mobile experience. I rarely sit in front of my laptop anymore except for real work. Id go back to being a frequenct poster if there was either a dedicated app, or if the forum was just much more mobile friendly. Im sure most of you would echo these feelings in 2019z

 

Other than that, better search engine would have to be on the list , although google handles that well.

 

Ability to host images, infiniscroll, and alerts when being quoted or having a post liked would all be essential upgrades.

[Outkaster]

Remember how well the upgrades were received at Harmony-Central............they killed the busiest keyboard forum on the internet.

 

People don't need fancy. They need fast software that is easy to use. Reactive this blah blah that is for the birds. Keep as much of -- or all of -- what's here. And it's plausible that finding someone to support this platform might be cheaper than upgrading to something new when TCO is considered.

\

 

Yeah if you go back to the early 2000's HC couldn't be beat. I still post over there occasionally but came here as people migrated to the forum from there. That said there are some posters over there but it's clumsy to use. I know a lot of people go to Facebook for content that used to be posted only on forums. I prefer these forums as Facebook is a mess for a lot of our discussions I think.

[Joe Muscara]

YouTube: enable the ability for full screen without having to go to YouTube (faster full screen, better experience)

I think that's a limitation set by YT. I don't think we have any control over that.

 

I prefer these forums as Facebook is a mess for a lot of our discussions I think.

I'm in a number of FB Groups and as a person who has spent a lot of time on real forums, comparatively I'd say the Groups experience is hellish. It's not just the crappy content people post, but it's also that the threads are all unfolded and "older" posts are hidden. If you think people not reading what was posted here is bad, it's awful in FB Groups because they don't actually see older posts without a big effort. That's just one of the issues I have with it.

[The Real MC]

Im told their plan is to eventually find some way to merge us with their MusicRadar site.

 

Not my favorite scenario.

 

Good God, no...

 

I just peeked at the MR site. Open an article and it's smothered with ads. I don't even see any forum system at all there, and they'll smother ads between posts like Yahoo did which drove people away. MR is guitar centric and I fear that keyboardists will become the low man on the totem pole.

 

Not feeling good vibes about MR.