Improving the site - any suggestions?

mosc

I'm about to undertake two huge projects, electro-music 2005 and upgrading the forum software. (I hope updating the software will improve performance, especially on posting posts). I say that as a caveat - I don't have much time to implement many new ideas or features for the site. Still, I'm always interested in hearing new ideas and suggestions - even criticism and complaints. Well, forget the last two.

If anyone has any ideas for things that they think would improve this site, please let us hear them.

Thanks...

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:39 am Post subject:

I am not sure really... We have discussed doing something that makes the front page more varied.. news or whatever.. but I guess fixing the speed issues is far more important. The current growth rate indicates that we are doing pretty well at the moment. Adding interesting content is probably more crucial than actual board features. I guess you shouldn´t take on any huge projects right now.

diskonext · Joined: Aug 26, 2004 Posts: 306 Location: London, UK

An idea I always like on forums is some kind of integration of forum posts on the main page.

This is easy enough:
have a forum that's open to everyone (strictly moderated, though), every post posted there appears on the front page. A bit of PHP is all that's needed.

Then again, I never visit the main page, and skip straight to the forums.

The forum itself seems to be feature-complete as is, no need for any changes in my opinion!

Or maybe a 'Interesting Threads' section, a sort of director's cut of the forum content?

-diskonext

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:34 am Post subject:

Gear news and such would be great to getr on the first page.. you know.. 5 last posts or something. I think Howard has something kinda worked out already.
Not full posts.. just the subject and and a few lines..
We can get more hits from Google etc. this way I guess.. and the site looks like it is changing all the time.. which of course it does.. but not on the front page..

Johan Zwart · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:29 am Post subject:

Yes mosc. New posts headings on the frontpage would be nice.
Gear news is not that relevant for me.
Next to the electro-music I have always a tab with the gearjunkies frontpage.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:41 am Post subject:

My only concern right now is that if we are going to improve anything .. we should go for something that will get us b annerads and such.

What about clening up in the Reviews section.. and adding some kind of "Is thsi gear any good" subforum in the How To´s section.. I can sort that .. moving posts and stuff..
We sould probably look into more gear reviews and content like that.

Dovdimus Prime · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 5:26 am Post subject:

Hello my lovelies

I agree with the chap about who said about never looking at the front page. It's not much to look at at the moment though. Maybe the front page should literally just be a 'cover', designed by one of the many artistics members here, perhaps with a few electronic sounds. Or would that be too cheesy?

I agree with the other chap that the forum is perfect - I really do think it's fantastic and can't think of a way to improve it.

In terms of content, the only possible omission I can think of is reviews of released stuff, you know, Aphex Twin's latest wibbles, or Stockhausen's sonatas for bleep, noise and squirpy squirps, or whatever.

Cheers Mosc and other people by the way!

Dovder

Johan Zwart · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:40 pm Post subject:

jksuperstar · Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject:

I like the idea of not only gear reviews, but more "How-To'" sections, like the fairly recent "Mastering" paper. If the site is about making electro-music, maybe some more visibility to FAQs on networking your studio, or tuning windows XP, or tuning OSX, or avoiding aliasing of oscillators. All of this info is in the forums, but if this site was to become a hub for musicians, It'd be nice for the editors/admins, formally, to boil much of this info down (either themselves or administering others) to more accessible forms.

How-tos of burning a CD, and what formats a disc manufacturer would want, and how to market your music.

I know much of this information is available, but only if you know what to look for. Sometimes browsing though a "library" turns on more light bulbs than searching for specific information.