Members Unalaska Posted December 26, 2009 Members Share Posted December 26, 2009 The user interface is nice on HC now, easy to get around and post etc. The people here are quite nice and very helpful even if they disagree on gain structure too (wink wink). Because there are guitar forums and bass forums and even drummer forums other people come in here and expect the same type of "post yer fav jailbait pics" and "Nieche is dead" threads you get with other forums on HC. When the questions get actually answered in a clear concise way it can throw the OP's. If the site becomes a PITA I'll move on, PSW is great but a little clunky. I don't know of any others. I need to change my user name here, it's been 8 years since I went to Unalaska and I sure ain't from there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted December 27, 2009 Members Share Posted December 27, 2009 I sent a private message to one of the admins telling him of this thread. This is what I wrote and what I got back: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted December 27, 2009 Members Share Posted December 27, 2009 I sent a private message to one of the admins telling him of this thread. This is what I wrote and what I got back:Jeez - just go over to the 2.0 beta forum if you all want the straight skinny: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forumdisplay.php?f=134 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted December 27, 2009 Members Share Posted December 27, 2009 Jeez, looks like "Open Jam" jumped ship a couple weeks ago:http://www.theopenjam.net Maybe not such a bad idea if "those" forums and the serious ones went to different sites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted December 27, 2009 Members Share Posted December 27, 2009 Jeez - just go over to the 2.0 beta forum if you all want the straight skinny:http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forumdisplay.php?f=134 I did go over there. Didn't see much in the way of a message being "gotten". I figured this would make a nice petition for the admins from our township. A lot of us have spent a considerable amount of our "web time" here for the past 5-10+ years. I value HC and the community and would like to see it continue and not die on the vine due to wholesale changes that seemingly get wrong the basics like simple navigation and unreadable subject titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 27, 2009 Members Share Posted December 27, 2009 They already know about the graphic issues that people have. The other issues are the left pane being taken out in 30 days after the site goes online to increase the size of the center column. Another is the thread "main page". The title should come before the author. Also, there should be a way to page through the thread so when you go back from page 10 to page 9, you don't have to start over at page 1. Another is the menu items. It's clunky and hard to navigate. Colors of the background and text are an issue. All these are relatively easy to fix; Graphic issues. What do you all think of the site while overlooking the above graphic issues? Anderton has been working hard on finding out (even on Christmas) what is GOOD about the site, so the designers can start working on making it better. They already know about the bad stuff. sheesh look at every forum to see how bad people think it is. My opinion is that they fashion the new software to have a similar feel to the existing site. Many have stated that they should have done more development before sending it out for beta... I agree on that. Many have expressed that the general population should not even be aware that major upgrades are happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted December 28, 2009 Members Share Posted December 28, 2009 The other issues are the left pane being taken out in 30 days after the site goes online to increase the size of the center column.I think they said "reduced" not "taken out" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 They will be moving all the stuff into drop down menus on the top. From what I understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 What I don't get is why recreate the wheel? I suspect there is plenty of "off the shelf" software available. A logical assumption is that as many as a half dozen commercial applications were considered. I can't imagine this result is the best of several that were reviewed?!? I can't even comprehend how what I saw could be a commercial product. It's just odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 Here's a message stickie from the beta forum:I am adding this because I keep saying the same things over and over in different threads, and unless people read everything, they're not going to see these comments. So, I'm consolidating answers to the most common comments in this doc.1. Please remember that the beta site you are seeing is NOT the production site, which is being developed in parallel. There is just enough material ported over to the beta site in order to check it out.2. The beta site will function more slowly than the current site and the production site. We will not be spending time to optimize something temporary.3. To those posting comments like "How could HC release this without consulting with the community?," the whole point of this beta exercise IS about consulting with the community before releasing the new site. The beta is not presenting the community with a done deal, but a first approximation.4. Changes and tweaks will continue well after the launch, so please don't feel the importance of your comments diminishes once the new site launches. The new site has a forum devoted exclusively to feedback.5. The comments about specific issues have been EXTREMELY helpful. One of the developers emailed me to say that almost all complaints of substance have been addressed, or are being addressed. The more specific and concise your comments, the more helpful they are.6. Some have provided feedback on the many features of the new site they like. This is equally helpful as it lets us know which features are most important to you. For example, many people initially commented that we should get rid of the sidebar on the right. However, those who've logged lots of time on the site have mentioned that it has now become one of their favorite features. Both pieces of data are valuable, as they show that a) we need to do a better job of explaining how to use the right sidebar, and b) we shouldn't be too hasty in thinking about pulling it.7. It is NOT necessary to comment on getting rid of the left Nav bar. That is already in progress; it will be replaced by something that provides similar functionality without taking up space from content.8. Unfortunately, we have never seen a piece of software roll out without some kind of issues. While we have high hopes that most issues will have been covered when the rollout occurs, we will be continuing to work on the site to improve it in the weeks, months, and even years ahead. This is a long-term project to create the ultimate site for musicians, not just a quick tweak that loses priority as soon as it's functional. 9. We thank you for your past support, and expect to continue earning it in the future. This site is being changed because we want to give something back to the community and make HC a better, more powerful site. Granted, there are some big changes that may be disorienting at first, but we are confident matters are heading in the right direction, and that ultimately, after a period of acclimation the majority of the community will be very happy with the end result.__________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 What I don't get is why recreate the wheel? I suspect there is plenty of "off the shelf" software available.What they are doing is integrating the forums with the rest of the site content. Right now the forums are really a separate site from the rest: http://www.harmony-central.com There is no "off the shelf" software to do all that ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 And here's another from Anderton about why HC 2.0 came into existence: Okay, you want to know how it came into existence? 1. Endless complaints about VBulletin being slow. 2. Endless complaints about the search function. 3. Endless complaints about the scheduled maintenance screens on the forum, and on down time in general. Most of the above were accompanied by "VBulletin is crap, what's wrong with you guys, the site's been down for hours, it's slower than molasses, when are you going to act like a professional website, I'm going to leave this place which has been total crap since it was bought by MF." Interesting how in just the last two weeks, it has been magically transformed into the best, most user-friendly, most easily-navigated music site ever! 4. Complaints about not being able to link to videos. 5. Complaints about not being able to find relevant information. 6. Complaints about mods not getting rid of spam posts fast enough. 7. Complaints about inconsistent moderation. 8. Complaints about show reports not being posted fast enough. 9. Complaints that HC looked really dated. ("When was your site designed? Friggin' 1995?" "Well, actually, yes...") 10. Complaints about that "stupid logo my third-grader could have designed." There are more, but those were the ones received on a regular basis. And then there were the complaints from me (in addition to complaints 1-8, which I echoed): 1. Restrictions on what can be posted in forums and pro reviews - audio, video, picture sizes, etc. 2. Inability to create custom groups of people who are interested in specific things. 3. Inability to create focus groups for manufacturers - I was even able to do that in 1995 when my forum was on AOL. 4. Inability for the community or even the editors to publish/upload articles. The current HC has no content management system! None...zero....zip. Yes, I realize that's hard to believe, it's hard enough for me to believe. If I want to post a video review or even just an article, it takes an act of God with the current site. 5. No way to flatten pro reviews into documents once they were done. 6. Search function couldn't pull up relevant results from the entire site, only from the forums, and that barely worked. 7. No way to do stuff like have an "HC Radio Station" where the community could upload their music. 8. No chat rooms where we could have chats with industry people and artists. 9. No way to tag forum posts properly in order to turn them into a database of useful knowledge. 10. No way to do site-wide ratings so people could see, for example, which of the 180+ NAMM videos were deemed most worth watching. And about a zillion other minor things, those are just the biggies. The people at HC made a case that maybe it was time to get off a 1995 code base that had a ton of patches - some pages had four different coding languages used on the same page! - and no matter how painful or difficult the process, re-tool the site so it could function in the 21st century. Multiple developers were interviewed over a period of close to a year IIRC. Each had plusses and minuses. One reason for going with Jive was the modular nature of their software, so we could make changes and extensions without having to jump through too many hoops. For anyone to fabricate a statement out of thin air like "This was never about fixing the forums and it's an afterthought, its been about cashing in on the social networking craze and turning that into something that generates business somehow" requires a far stronger word than simply "clueless." I guarantee that person cannot offer the most minute shred of evidence to back up any part of that statement. It has always been about fixing the forums first because that's where we got the most complaints and that's the biggest part of the site. The rest was "Well if we're going to fix the forums, we might as well integrate them with the rest of the site, include site-wide ratings, clean up the video theater, add a content management system, etc. etc..." And that's the reality of the situation. Sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but sometimes the truth can be just plain boring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 Here's what came up on the search for a studiolive mixer:http://harmonycentral.hosted.jivesoftware.com/search.jspa?resultTypes=&dateRange=all&peopleEnabled=true&q=studiolive+mixer*&containerType=&container=&containerName=&username=&rankBy=29&numResults=30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 Yes, but HERE is what comes up when you go to the main page of the forum. Can you tell what 90% of the threads are about? One bright spot is the new forums have an RSS feed. Using the feed you can actually read the subject of the threads. I've hoped for an RSS feed for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted December 29, 2009 Members Share Posted December 29, 2009 Yes, but HERE is what comes up when you go to the main page of the forum. Can you tell what 90% of the threads are about? One bright spot is the new forums have an RSS feed. Using the feed you can actually read the subject of the threads. I've hoped for an RSS feed for a long time. The RSS feed is a nice addition. The rest is crap. I feel like I'm in a General Electric psychology study. My wife gave me a nice 17" MacBook Pro for Christmas. I thought it would be great because of all the extra screen real estate I would have. Doesn't do me any good if THIS is what I get... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6Imzadi Posted December 30, 2009 Members Share Posted December 30, 2009 One bright spot is the new forums have an RSS feed. Using the feed you can actually read the subject of the threads. I've hoped for an RSS feed for a long time. The link you gave is a jumbled up mess. I don't know how you could read that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 30, 2009 Members Share Posted December 30, 2009 Is the sky falling yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moody Posted December 30, 2009 Members Share Posted December 30, 2009 I think that people will be surprised at how easy the move from version 2 to version 3 of the forum will be (yes really, whatever they say this isn't the first). On the move from version 1 to version 2 in 2000 people were abandoning ship left right and centre, they hated the current version - it didn't work the same way and was more difficult for them to follow (not being what they were used to). However, once actually changed people slowly discovered that they liked the new functionality and could actually make better use of it (as well as posts not dropping off the end of the forum after a couple of months). The sky is not falling in, everything is going to be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shamdog Posted December 30, 2009 Members Share Posted December 30, 2009 To answer the OP: Live Ruckus FTW!http://www.liveruckus.com/forums/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philw44 Posted December 31, 2009 Members Share Posted December 31, 2009 To answer the OP:Live Ruckus FTW!http://www.liveruckus.com/forums/index.php Er you must be kidding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KF650SB1000 Posted December 31, 2009 Members Share Posted December 31, 2009 Did twitter buy HC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members joedobronski Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 Guitar Center Bought HC and they are outsourcing it to Behringer !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shamdog Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 Er you must be kidding? I never kid about teh ruckus :poke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted January 1, 2010 Moderators Share Posted January 1, 2010 Jeez, looks like "Open Jam" jumped ship a couple weeks ago: http://www.theopenjam.net Maybe not such a bad idea if "those" forums and the serious ones went to different sites? No, Open Jam hasn't jumped ship. TheOpenJam has been around for a long time (years). It was started by permabanned people from HCOJ (as they call us) as a porn-friendly, anything goes sh*thole, a penal colony where the worst miscreants could group giggle about masturbation, exchange homophobic insults, post poo pictures without fear of banning, and high five each other after their latest vandalisms committed as alts on the official HC forums. It has nothing whatsoever to do with music, it's for adolescent boys in adult bodies. Periodically they get excited and have a "membership drive," but they seem incapable of understanding that very few adults enjoy a disgusting environment like that. The "real" Open Jam, the HC original has been here since the inception of Harmony Central (it was THE original forum, I believe) and continues to be a place with slightly relaxed rules where almost any topic can be discussed. The idea is that musicians aren't always thinking about music, and there should be some place to go within the HC community to discuss those topics. The original OJ, before the migration of the magazine people here, was largely politics before that topic was spun off into its own forum. OJ continues to be one of the most heavily used on HC, having more posts (4.3 million) than any other forum than Amps. Terry D. P.S. As for "serious," Open Jam forumites have produced and sold two CDs of member's original work, the second a double album. I don't know of any other forum here that can claim that. The CDs are still up for sale at CD Baby. Check them out, you'll discover there are some serious players/singers who call OJ home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted January 2, 2010 Members Share Posted January 2, 2010 TheOpenJam has been around for a long time (years). It was started by permabanned people from HCOJ (as they call us) as a porn-friendly, anything goes sh*tholeWell, every time I peek into OJ it looks just like that. Just "peeked" and the topic at the the top is "Hi, Ojers. Nice to meat you." posted by one "Jim Penis" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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