NowhereRadio Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter drstawl
  • Start date Start date

Does NowhereRadio.com provide convenient Navigation of their artists' material?

  • A) You don't need no stinkin' navigation.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • B) The navigation is there. You aren't.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • C) These guys are cheap-assed fuckheads.

    Votes: 5 71.4%

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
That's cool Waldo, I understand what you're talking about. I'm glad you posted in the first place and really glad you decided to stick around.
 
Hey LI, I haven't checked out those other sites, and don't have any plans to in the near future (although I'll keep them hidden on the back burner as backup if needed (Hang in there Waldo) and probably won't, that is unless the poop hits the spinner where I am now (and I don't expect it to). I think Waldo is OK. Hell, it's great to be able to knock heads with someone, then be able to get together later and laugh about it. This builds strong relationships. My wife and I quit knocking heads a while ago though... ...Now she just wacks me up-side the head with a colander. We laugh about it once the swelling as gone down....

Tom.
 
Alright, this seems to be a good place to get honest opinions, and hopefully some ideas.

The new NoWhere is going to come with a new look to go along with the new structure, ease of use etc.

I've been throwing around a couple ideas (very rough sketches basically) on a page at http://www.nowhereradio.com/nwrproto.shtml

The problem is you cannot view it properly with NetScape at this time (due to bugs in their rendering system), but I will address those once I have the look about where I want it.

So, if you have IE, and want to take a look and make some suggestions (color scheme, layout, functionality etc.) let me know.

A reminder, it is a rough sketch, so graphics are nowhere near complete, just an 'outline' so to speak.
 
AAAAUGH! You got rid of those cool architectural gifs! Dammit...

Actually, that's probably a good thing, considering limited bandwidth. However, the little contructs (noun) and frame dealies are REALLY cool lookin'. Perhaps you could keep those?

Another thing: PLEASE allow high-bitrate storage. Maybe 192 bps or so. Cool.

Oh, and what's with the download icon? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't? (i'm more interested in how my browser knows it isn't a link, when it's probably automated to be one from your server; not the "it's in beta, nummy" type of question)

And are you Sjoko's son? :D
 
First off, nope, not Sjoko's son. But have had the liberty of exchanging e-mails with Sjoko a few times, he's a cool guy.

High bit-rate mp3's ARE supported. As a matter of fact, the hi-fi is the exact copy of the file you upload. So if you upload a 256kb/s copy, it'll play at 256kb/s. The lo-fi permanently converts to 24kb/s for modem users however.

I will be adding a feature that will allow you to ad a 'super copy' of the song, with a high bit-rate for downloading etc., but in due time (June's the goal), some other things have to be done first. (Different formats other than mp3, including some loss-less codecs, will be supported eventually also)

As far as the frames, I assume you mean the flash menu on the left side? For the first bit, I may avoid the flash since it seems to cause some issues with certain browsers, but something similar, or better will come about eventually. Keep checking out that page, it'll show changes as I get ideas.

The download icon works only on those songs that the artists have said 'allow all user download' on. I have not completed a secure members only leech script yet, or found one available for a reasonable price. So, in essence, when you mouse over and see 'members only' on the download button, you can't download it (yet). This feature should be done by June as well.

Any thoughts on color scheme? Should I stick with sepia tones?
 
I'm no graphic designer, but maybe a little background color, like something with a little red and yellow in it, would be nice to set things off.

Regarding artist administration, I suggest that artists be able to update songs; many of us are constantly tinkering with this stuff. Also, will the artists' "post reviews" function be made operational soon?
 
Already there as a matter of fact, though not clearly labeled.

If you go into the upload section, where it lists the songs, there is a 'quil' icon beside the songs. You can edit them there. If you wish to update the actual song, just upload the song with EXACTLY the same name (case sensitive) and it will overwrite the old copy.

Also, you can post a review. Just go to your reviews page like a regular user and click on 'Add a new review'.

It's limited to one review per user per artist, but will make some more changes soon (you can put them all in one review for now if you like, I'll make admin pages for that section eventually).

The background colors red and yellow you say? Hmmm, I'll play with that.

W
 
Nice site waldo. Have you considered displaying the record count beside each genre on the "browse nowhere" page? This might be helpful at this point considering some of the categories have no entries. Also, a page count is always helpful when paging through records.
Looking at the flash intro, you may want to redirect the user to the main visitor page after a certian amount of dwell time too.

Just out of curiousity, what database managment system are you using? My SQL, SQL Server?
 
Currently I'm using my own Database software (doesn't really have a name) that I developed myself.

NWR2 (the new design) is going to run off of MySQL since it is free (one plus) and fairly efficient, plus very portable.

Initially, NoWhere was simply a radio station, artists sent me their CD's, I played them. I swung over to this model about 6 months ago and started automatic submissions etc.. So, the browse pages at that point weren't a big thing, low priority. Only the featured artists, or those on the playlist would apear, so there was no need for advanced navigation.

Now of course, things have picked up a bit, I have a few hundred artists in the list and navigation is getting to be an issue. Plans are set to have alot more functionality in searches and such, and dynamic listings.

I'd throw a record count in, but unfortuneatly the database is based on user ID's, and both artists and regular users have them. So, they would 'skip' when you browse the artists. This is because artists have regular user permissions as well as artist permissions so that they don't need two logins. It should all be addressed when the changes have been made, and I've re-written the eighteen and some odd thousand lines of code. I may throw a page count (links to each individual page on every page) in temporarily to satiate a few needs. We'll see how my time goes tomorrow.

Visit the forums and read about the 'proposed search feature' for more details on some of this navigation.

The flash will go 'bye bye' in the new version of NoWhere as well. There won't really be much of the old NoWhere left at all...

1AM here y'all, time for beddy bye. G'night
 
I see. Yeah I like MySQL personally. I use it in conjunction with Access with good results. Though typically none of my sites demand the scalability of such a DBMS. One day.. hehe.
I like the concept of NoWhere, and hope to see it continue to grow.. Nice work.
 
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