The Progarchives site

I'm still in for expanding the mp3 archive, and perhaps the whole idea of the streamable mp3s.

What if, at least, the album of the week was fully streamable/ Or something like that?

Reviews are very important as well, second on my list, but as I said before, i think they are too subjective for only one or two reviews on a certain rare album to be enough to determine the type of album it is. I think the review system works the best when an album has like 15+ reviews, and a critical average in stars accumulates. So, if an album has overall higher scores, one knows it's good, and vice versa.

If I could vote, and multi-tagging albums was an option, that would be my priority -- especially if a search albums by genres function was implemented.  For instance, I wish it was easy to search mulkti-genre for an "avant/Zeuhl/Canterbury" album (the "subgenre" would be prioritised depending on the order of the choices).

Adding more artists to the site: that's constantly being done.  It expands rapidly that way (though rather slower than it should).  It's preparing the bios particularly that is time-consuming (I have several that I've been meaning to do but an addition that I've prepared takes me more hours than most), and categorisation can be very laborious.

Expanding the various subgenres?: yes, I definitely want that.  I talk about this more later. I would like subsubgenres (this would also be very useful for Prog Related so to more easily find music that is related to a particular category, but would work best once we have implemented multi-tagging.  For instance, please suggest me a band in the related category that is not deemed Prog enough for a Prog category that is particularly related to Krautrock, Zeuhl, Avant Prog, Canterbury Scene, or Acid Folk music). As it is, it's difficuly to easily search for such music at PA (and in fact, I would turn to other sources for such searches). 

Focus on writing reviews without one:  Yeah, that's important.  I've only written one review, but have been meaning to do another for Jean-Paul Prat's Masal for many months (my favourite album that I discovered thanks to Eclectic team work, and one of my earlier evaluations).  It is such a great album, yet no reviews in almost a year). Of course people like to review what they know.  Many of the obscure reviews come from those who added (or had others add for them) obscure bands, but it's so much work already just to prepare the addition.  Truth be told, I find a well-written bio more helpful than individual album reviews.  I like it when the bios review the albums a bit.

Adding more mp3 samples to the site?: As I am wont to say, an mp3 is worth a  thousand words.  That's how I discovered a huge amount of music here early on (back then they were downloadable, but I like the convenience of streams).  Love just going to a category page and treawling through all of the mp3s -- great way to expand knowledge.  I'd rather one good mp3 off of an album over 50 reviews of that album.  I don't use reviews to get people's thoughts on albums I know so much, and I prefer to let my own ears jusdge the music as much as possible.  It's actually the ratings which get my attention, and a well, written bio, more than what's written in the reviews.  If there is a  good for me mp3, though, that's generally enough.

Simplifying the genre and subgenre system? I would like it simplified in a way, and expanded in others.  I would like it set up more as a tree (preferably a dynamic one done in flash).  What's important is the ease of discovering music of interest, and for that I like things well and distictly categorised with similar artists/ bands).  As it is, I would rather have subcategories and subsubcategories that are not listed on the front page (those would be master categories). For instance, Prog Metal would be a master category, after clicking on that, one would be taken to the progressive metal divisions.

I want more subcategories (and/ or multitagging).  I'd like a category for progressive rock that while progressive would not normally be considerd Prog (Prog Related works somewhat well for this), and category that highlights key "progressive music" artists that are not rock but have influenced it or share traits with music in categories here.  Examples would be Coltrane, Glass, Stockhausen).  I would have temporal limits.
I'd also alike a holding cell category for bands that have not been placed in their categories yet (and have that open to all to add, but have strict guidelines).

Swan Song wrote: More MP3s > More reviews about albums with no or lesser reviews > More artists

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for your reviews!   I'd definitely put more artists higher, though.  Incidentally, we can't add mp3s for every artist as some, as well as the labels, don't permit them (big mistake I think).  Of course the artist has to be added before the mp3s, but if it had not been for mp3s, I wouldn't have invested in many artists.

Swan Song wrote: I think that having MP3s for Jean Paul Prat, Bijelo Dugme, Attila Kollar, La Pura Realidad, Estradasphere or Subterranean Masquerade is much more important than having MP3s for King Crimson or Pink Floyd. Reviews would also be nice, but MP3s are an easier start IMO for promoting lesser known bands. Adding new artists are going well, as always, I don't think that can ever be an issue of concern.

Good points.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: I think that mp3s are much less important today than they were 4 years ago ... most bands have their myspace page with several full length samples.

Adding more artist, more artists, and some more artists.

But with a good biography. There's no point of piling random names in the database that mean nothing to almost nobody.



I know it's difficult to write a good bio, especially if the band is obscure - I am myself guilty of writing of some biographies that are not par excellence, but if there's no bio, there should be a review. Since reviews are getting written by a member's personal preference, not as a goal to be achieved (I'm talking about a whole body of forum members as a unit), then we should add more artists..with relevant info (bio and/or mp3's).

I'll chime in on the bio thing    ..biography writing is challenging in itself, then sometimes there's lack of info, foreign languages, conflicting information, multiple bands with the same name and style  ..but really a bio should be written even if it's just a few tidbits of info you were able to get; a year, band member names, instruments, influences,  it can be done !!

 

tszirmay wrote: Why can't I vote?

It's not in a section of the forum which allows polls.

I think here the discussion, which is about how to improve the site, is more useful than the poll.

Dean wrote: [ 1. Collaborators have the priority of adding bands   Ok but sometimes they do not have the time to adding bands quickly examples, i ask to be added Humus and is more than a month and no signs of they, other example Macromassa. i think that the Admin team have to do more work of supervision of how is working a team. Some teams are quite lazy   2. Prog reviewers don't have the strict obligation of posting reviews more than they were awarded the distinction thanks to the merit of having written good reviews - but still it would be also abberant to picture a Prog Reviewer not reviewing at all.   Please check this: http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=9206 that picture already exists!!!! 3. Sub-genres business, when discussed, involves Admins, the Webmaster and Collaborators altogether (and I'd add the forum was sometimes consulted too) - but, as a priority, except perhaps the multi-tagging issue (still, not even this one perhaps), it was never one   And members who were the mayority of these site 5. Focus on reviewing - was almost never a priority. Everyone reviews when they want (and the ideal would also be when they're ready to review - but let's not diverge into that...).   Agree with that point!!!!