Forums Redesign Suggestions

[lemonstar]

I stopped using the site a long time ago - it was a horribly complex site to navigate - it's still too big and complex imho - personally - I'd prefer a much simpler looking site instead of an all-things-to-all-musicians site - you could reduce it to the critique forum for me and probably not even include all of the sub-forums.

[john]

14 hours ago, lemonstar said:

I stopped using the site a long time ago - it was a horribly complex site to navigate - it's still too big and complex imho - personally - I'd prefer a much simpler looking site instead of an all-things-to-all-musicians site - you could reduce it to the critique forum for me and probably not even include all of the sub-forums.

 

Many thanks Lemonstar.

 

It might not seem it but we did remove about 14 boards, have simplified navigation by better structuring it. It is an ongoing process, but we are improving focus. The site was always more than a critique site, but it did get too diverse.

 

on the main site end we got rud Of devoted areas for separate instruments, and the boards that went with them. Now we have one performance board covering all instruments. We reduced the multiple music biz boards removing 4 of those.

 

We also archived off a lot of old posts. Still there in the archive area. The only old topics in the live area are the still active ones. We tidy that up a couple of times a year on top of some automated stuff.

 

There are plans to focus more on 3 aspects on the journey of songs, songwriters and artists. Writing songs. Recording and producing songs. Releasing songs. As we move forward we will propose some changes to streamline the boards. This includes structuring the boards for each focus in a similar way. The net effect will be less boards, easier to navigate... as I hope the changes while you have been away have improved to a degree.

 

We have experimented with a couple of new features. One is more successful than the other. The less successful one we may re-purpose or remove.

 

The general thrust is to simplify around our core topics, and to add resources to support those topics, cutting away dead wood. Over the last year we have lost a few members, but gained more. Overall experience has become far more positive. You can’t make an omelette without cracking some eggs.

 

Just like any member, the site is on a journey, trying to improve. Member comments like yours are very important. While we can’t always implement everything everyone suggests, or do it immediately,  it is influential on any decisions staff make.

 

Cheers

 

John

[lemonstar]

The site looks different to how it was when I was using it more and yes - it's not so bad now for getting around,i.e. quickly finding what I'm looking for. If the site had the facility to allow me to set my own home page, e.g. in my profile, and to take me there whenever I log in or click on a home icon, the site would feel more like what I want - for me this would probably be:-

https://forums.songstuff.com/forum/213-critique/

 

I like that the archives are still accessible.

I've built and maintained a few sites - I have a Joomla/Moodle site for my work and a wordpress blog and built the website for my sisters' business at least twice so I know how much time and effort it takes just keeping things going with security patches etc let alone developing the site - you have a lot on your plate with a site of this size and complexity.

[lemonstar]

Has anyone else asked for a workshop forum where you can post fragments or clearly incomplete songs in the hope of getting help to move forward through suggestions and critique that open up possibilities for a poster who has the mindset that they are actually very open to making changes? The song critique forum, from what I can sense, doesn't have the right vibe about it - I'm on a poetry website, the one I keep coming back to because it has the right people and vibe (Poets Graves - PG) where people routinely workshop their poems from rough sketches to finished pieces - it seems to me that people aren't really posting or even replying with the same attitude in the song critique forum so maybe that's because the current lot of active users see it as the place to try and garner praise for a finished songs and that's not what I'm looking for at all.

[john]

On 10/2/2018 at 7:58 AM, lemonstar said:

Has anyone else asked for a workshop forum where you can post fragments or clearly incomplete songs in the hope of getting help to move forward through suggestions and critique that open up possibilities for a poster who has the mindset that they are actually very open to making changes? The song critique forum, from what I can sense, doesn't have the right vibe about it - I'm on a poetry website, the one I keep coming back to because it has the right people and vibe (Poets Graves - PG) where people routinely workshop their poems from rough sketches to finished pieces - it seems to me that people aren't really posting or even replying with the same attitude in the song critique forum so maybe that's because the current lot of active users see it as the place to try and garner praise for a finished songs and that's not what I'm looking for at all.

 

Not that I remember, but it is a good idea. I agree that garnering praise is not what it should be about. It certainly isn't what we want to encourage.... constructive discussion with analysis and qualiity suggestions is the aim. We plan to add a how to video to drive improvement in the critique board, and a promo campaign to recruit focused member groups. All should help. We do have some good contributing members... indeed a few honed their critique skills here... but we can always do with more

[lemonstar]

On 10/3/2018 at 7:10 PM, john said:

 

Not that I remember, but it is a good idea. 

Re:workshop

It's interesting that @cisco chose to post what is clearly the early stages of a song in the lyric critique section

 https://forums.songstuff.com/topic/50477-o-lordorhave-i-talked-to-you-today/

This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping to find - the song critique subforum doesn't feel like the right place judging by what I've seen posted and by the nature of the responses. 

[john]

4 hours ago, lemonstar said:

Re:workshop

It's interesting that @cisco chose to post what is clearly the early stages of a song in the lyric critique section

https://forums.songstuff.com/topic/50477-o-lordorhave-i-talked-to-you-today/

This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping to find - the song critique subforum doesn't feel like the right place judging by what I've seen posted and by the nature of the responses. 

 

The lyrics board historically had a lot of Work In Progress lyrics, but the Song Critique grew from the recording and production board, and I think members often fell they had to produce far more of a finished track. We certainly used to get more tracks in progress, but you are right that the dominant usage has been for more complete tracks... which is not the intended purpose.

 

I have created a trial restructure that currently only staff can see. Once happy, I will push it out for all members to see. In that restructured set up, all Critique boards are sub boards of Work In Progress categories. The proposed strategy uses redirects to the existing boards, at least as a way to bridge to a final re-.org, or possibly to sit alongside the existing structure. As a parallel stream effectively adds more visible boards,  that would not be my preference. The fuller restructuring would also see a few boards merged, which is not something we can simulate.

 

When we present it to members for feedback, we’ll post up the full proposal. If it were a minor change we would probably just go ahead and do it... but as this is forums wide, I want to get member’s input. The dual set up is likely to last up to a month to allow members to really try as much of that new structure as possible, and to become as familiar with it as possible.

 

If you don’t mind I would like to move this convo to it’s own thread as it is becoming a bit off topic now?