Okay guys, here it is, NWR3 BETA release

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheRealWaldo
  • Start date Start date
Yeah, I've got one kids song, Chris.
I also looked in that catagory, but it was quite dusty.
I don't know if many kids will show up, but the moms and dads will.
 
Hold it. How did you get access? Did you sign on?

Lemme go see here...

Ok, I can see links to lo, hi, and d/l links on the Genre pages now, but I haven't seen any on any of the bands I click on. Like "Jon's Troubled Mackie" (witty, i must say)... does this person have anything uploaded, or am I gonna see nothing one way or another (because there's no music for this artist)?

Lemme look around a bit more...

Okay, do we have to click on "Discography" to get to the music links? All the bands I've seen (again) have no music listed there, either.

Ok, I'll hit Dobro's site...

1) Search for Dobro. Cool, works. Neat search engine there, I guess it'll find cross references, too (oh SHIT there's gonna be a lot of "props" on everybody's pages, especially from HR.com...)...

2) Click on Dobro's page listing, 1st one, good, cool...

3) We BEGIN on the "biography" page, right? May I suggest "bolding" the "biography" part up right, or doing something to suggest that those four links there are part of a navigation system that you're already in? It would help, especially if you do need to click on...

4) "Discography." This link isn't going to work well if this is where the music is (I haven't found any so far in this section). I think people expect to see song listings right off the bat, instead of hunting for them (espeically if they know NoWhere radio and, like me, see that many bands don't have anything uploaded).

5) "Review." Alright, I'll post a review on Dobro's "Wonderful" CD. I'd like for this input field to be a vertical scroller as opposed to the horizontal scroller it defaults to right now. Keep "Enter" as a line break, though. Looks as though you're expecting people to use "enter" for line breaks, but most entries will exceed the horizontal space allotted for input. I suggest making the JS or vB box like this one in HR.com, where it only scrolls up/down, as opposed to left/right.

6) Shit. Now it wants me to sign in. I have NO IDEA what I created our account with a while back, but have no option to sign up, either. Perhaps either a logon BEFORE we write reviews, or a way to signup after we've tried to posted a message. (yes, I see the link up top, but I don't think..... shit, this site stuff is a bitch)

Okay, abandoned the "review" thing 'cuz I don't have an account I can remember there. Ugh.

Uhm, I don't see music. I'll have to sign in, right? Uuuuuurgh.... :mad:

:D Is this helping, btw?
 
Hehe, I dunno Kelly, there's been a few thousand plays already today, so somebody is finding the tunes!

A note on download/streaming/radio play/etc.:

Each and every artist has the ability to modify permissions on each song. I.e., they upload a song, but want it played ONLY on the radio station. There will be no links to stream or download in that case. Or if they want it played only, but not downloaded, etc. etc. The songs ARE listed in the discography section, just like a standard 'press kit' would have, but they are grouped into sections. I.e. 'Singles' is one where the songs don't fit into albums, and their own albums will follow that (if they entered any).

I will be adding (on the biography, or index page) a special little 'featured songs' bit, where the artist can select key songs out of their albums for display on their main page.

There is probably about 20 artists on NoWhere that signed up for accounts, but have not uploaded anything. This is sad, and they will be notified in coming weeks that their accounts will be deleted if they show no activity.

The little Nav bar on the artist pages will be improved as I have time, there will also be several dozen 'templates' they can choose from, all very different. This is only the first of the 'templates'.

I implemented the virtual scrolling because artists were thinking that because they hit the end of the line, they have to press 'enter', thus mucking up the database, and making their pages look awful.

Things like this, it
doesn't cover the whole page and
makes the paragraph
look unprofessional.

So, I've disabled 'Wrapping' to prevent any further messes.

I suppose I could eventually implement an 'option' for those text boxes, but it would require a bit of work.

As far as reviews, you gotta be a member to post, so that I can ban yer ass from doing it if you spam or annoy an artist.... I'll have to get EndlessCoda to make modifications to his script so that login is required BEFORE the review edit page comes up, I was not aware of this, because I am always logged in. EndlessCoda did the new review system for me.

And yes, that signup button on every page actually does allow you to sign up... I'll ad a couple extra buttons on the pages and maybe that'll help make it more obvious.

As far as this 'Jon' guy, I have no clue what he was doing, but he signed up three artists under exactly the same name, two in exactly the same genre, and one in a different one. After he did this, he didn't bother to delete the other ones either (and yes, there is that ability, it's right there with the add artist buttons).

It takes alot of work to keep the cleanup going and maintain all of this, when artists screw up, or miss things. I've got endlesscoda working on the help system (which I hope he gets started on soon) that will make things a little easier. Plus, once I get the e-commerce stuff done, I can maybe afford to buy some food and get enough energy to work on the look.

Anyways, the music is there, you just gotta go to the 'Singles' section or the particular album where the artist has listed it...

I'll work as hard as I can for as long as I have money to keep the internet connection running (4 more weeks).

W.
 
Kelly, to get the music, you click on Discography, then click on Singles, and the mp3 list appears. It wasn't obvious to me either the first time in.

Waldo - I decided to do like Kelly and just try navigating around a bit. I decided to be someone who wanted to find dobro's stuff on Nowhere (grin). I went to the home page and did a search on 'dobro'. What came up was four links to messages I'd put in the chat forum or reviews I'd done, but nothing linked to my page at Nowhere. This is a pretty serious obstacle, but I don't know if it's the search engine or the new program you're using.

Okay, so I went into genres instead. I clicked on Pop and Rock, and Show All Artists or whatever it's called. It lists only ten artists a page, and you have to painstakingly go through one page at a time to find the name you're looking for. Because the site is still relatively new, 'dobro' is on Page 3 (I'm glad I didn't call myself ZZ Top, like I was thinking of doing...). But as the site grows, 'dobro' is going to find himself on Page 4, and then Page 5, and then Page 12. This is pretty cumbersome, and it assumes that my imagined visitor to Nowhere already knows my stuff is in the Pop and Rock category.

If I tell someone - yeah, check out my stuff at Nowhere - I'd like it to be easier for that person to find my stuff without a direct link to my page. And when they get to my page, I'd like the music to be a lot more obviously available. If Kelly and I had problems finding the music, what's it gonna be like for someone new to the site?

It should be easier for people to find what they're looking for, I think.
 
1 Can you alphabeticize the All Artists thing? Click on a letter to get all the artists whose names start with that letter?

2 Can you get the search facility to come up with artists' music pages?

3 Can you have artists' music listed on their page, without having to click on anything? Nowhere's all about the music, right? Why not make it easier to get to?
 
Isn't nowhereradio.com/dobro obvious enough?

Yeesh! Lol, anyways, I know what you are getting at.

The search engine currently used is only temporary. I have no control over what gets indexed and what does not.

The new 'proposed' search will go through all entries in the database and return results. I might have to stop all advancements until I find a job however... Bills are paid off for the next 3.5 weeks, after that, I have no money to keep NoWhere online, let alone feed myself.

There will be more options for listing artists down the road, as I had stated, alphabetically, by rating, etc. I will not however list by 'most played' and crap like that, because I believe that is what makes the current industry as crappy as it is.

I have been thinking about providing the option to list a set number of playable songs on the main index page, it will not however be the full list, as some artists have 3 or 4 full albums uploaded, and it would be a very long, very ugly page....

I was thinking maybe listing 5-10 songs on the index page, and having a 'more songs here' link at the bottom taking you to the discography section. That sound okay?

Plus, once the template system is done, you'll be able to put whatever you want on whatever page you want... Well, almost, there'll be a few million options there.

W.
 
Well now!

I had no idea that I could just type in www.nowhereradio.com/(artist name) and get there. Sweet!

That beings me to a conclusion that I've been leaning towards for a while now.

Nowhere needs a help section pretty badly. You might do well to sink your time into soldifying what features you have and getting them well documented. Nowhere has a lot of potential, but I'm worried that folks won't stick around if it gets the reputation for being difficult to navigate and administer.

And good luck finding a job, Waldo! Job hunting sucks so I feel for you.

Take care,
Chris
 
The reason Nowhere continues to grow is because it's a sincere pumpkin patch.

The reason Nowhere continues to be exciting is because Waldo's carrying the whole thing, and nobody knows from one month to the next if he's gonna be able to continue so to do. Not even Waldo. :)
 
As I wrote in the message to that guy who was being nutso, EndlessCoda is on the job of the help system. It's a pretty intensive job, and of course, I'll be filling out alot of stuff once he's got the basic code done, but I need to get the 'income generating' stuff on NoWhere done.

I can't float it forever, so it's gotta start floating itself.

I've made a few changes in the sign up procedure, and login and stuff like that, little ones I figured I could do quickly... Hopefully it'll address some of the questions. Definately won't take care of them all, there is soooo much to maintain...

Chris> Check out your 'get links' section. More stuff will appear in their as well. Your 'short URL' is what the nowhereradio.com/whatever is, so if you want it to be something different, just change the 'Short URL' spot in your artists admin.

I've also been trying to compose an e-mail to go out to all the artists describing the changes, however, it's taken me three days, and I'm over 200 lines already...

Bit by bit, it'll get done, but I think it's got to go on hold for the simple reason that I need money for my surgeries... If I can make enough, that'll mean I can work on NoWhere for the few months that I'll be laid up in bed (post surgery).

Please be patient with me folks... And sorry Dragon, didn't mean to start this whole feedback thing in here, but maybe it'll get you to get in touch with me!!!! Hehe, no seriously, it wasn't my intent to do it in here, but at least it's getting you page views.

W.
 
No impatience on my part, Waldo. Just concern. I hope things work out well for you.
 
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