Album purchase links

Dean wrote: Nope. Can't get behind this one. Any user who can edit a link can edit in a spam / abuse. We spend enough of the day editing spam links out of the forum - to have them littered through 30,000 random archive pages is a fricking nightmare in the making. Any hacker could write a routine to do this in minutes.

M@X wrote: We offer the artist to decide the links ( I will manually handle this with artists or genre team)

I think this is the best compromise: it provides only restricted access (hence no headaches for the Admins) but makes it possible for small bands to have an extra promotion.

^ That would be perfect, we'd get rid of those huge product search engines.

Dean wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: ^ But users can already edit, and they don't spam - I didn't see this point being contradicted!   They don't spam because we are not inviting them to come here and advertise their products - we don't make it easy to add links into any editable part of the database.   This will be a user editable link - it's an open invitation for abuse and misuse for anybody to add a link to wherever they like without verification/approval of the site owners or administration.

But if we implement what I'm asking there would be nothing new from what we already have now. So if we don't invite spammers now we won't be inviting spammers then. The links will be inactive, so the target won't receive any traffic from them. Links can be already added like that - I added myself download links for free released to some of the albums I've added. Was there any harm?

Dean wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: And by placing a link to purchase a product you're advertising the product, not the seller.   If you are advertising where to buy a product then you are giving a free advertisement for the person selling it. There is no ambiguity or clever playing with words here - if someone is selling the album they are the seller, if they are not paying for the link then it is free.

^ But users can already edit, and they don't spam - I didn't see this point being contradicted!

And by placing a link to purchase a product you're advertising the product, not the seller.

Recently a guy from a band I am friends with visited his band's PA page. He was horrified. It was difficult for me to explain him what are all those commercial links that flood their page. At first they challenged him visually, then they bothered him because none had anything to do with his band. After that he asked he asked me to set up the proper links if I'm an "insider", and left. I thought he was going to be amazed and thankful, at the end I was feeling like an idiot... This is why I started this thread.


Edited by harmonium.ro - June 18 2010 at 15:43

If we have the direct purchase link as part of the album information, then any user can add the link and also any user can edit out spam and / or abuse. From what I know this facility hasn't been spammed so we could give it a try.

Also, I think that making it possible to add multiple links would be a good idea, and the same for differentiating between links for digital download purchase and purchase of the physical album.

Thanks for taking this into consideration M@x


Edited by harmonium.ro - June 18 2010 at 14:34

it's a very good idea,  PA's curse is its volume of artists

Dean wrote: The built-in search links pay for the upkeep of the site and maintenance of the servers.

I didn't know that, sounds cool. As I said, I wasn't proposing to scrap them. However, for many underground bands, the search engines don't pay nothing because the albums don't appear on eBay or Amazon, so

- the engines show only irrelevant results so no one is clicking on them
- the engines show nothing at all

So my idea is to supplement the search engines, not to lose them.

Dean wrote: Unsolicited links would be open to spam and abuse.

Adding purchase links would be an option in the "Add new album" and "Edit this entry" facilities and we know that, even though they are open to any registered user, they were never spammed (spammers target the forum) and the abuse was nothing that we couldn't handle (mainly bootleg additions, dubious compilations, etc.)

Dean wrote: There is also the extra work involved in maintaining the links across 5,400 band and 28,500 album pages (validation, removal of dead links etc.)

The answer is: volunteer work. Just the like rest of work on PA is done. If I add an album, it's no big deal to also paste a link for direct purchase. Sometimes, when it's a free download album, I paste the link in the "Release information" field. I wasn't asking for a run-through of all the PA database in order to add purchase links, I was proposing to have this facility for those who want to use it.




Edited by harmonium.ro - June 10 2010 at 07:51

Vompatti wrote: aginor wrote: I use (and most norwegians) use CDON.NO for bying CDs and our biggest music store Platekompaniet (Rocordcompanie)is actualy quite good on progrock, not that they have a prog section but they have all the famous and also some rare bands at farly low prices (but most KC and Genesis have shockingly high prices) Whenever I buy from CDON the guys at the post office break the CD cases.

happend to me as well and when I orderd In the Glass House it took over Half a year for it arived in the mail, maybe becouse they had to import it but enyhow and then they are rude enough to send me an Late Fee bil when they are so d**mn slow to get it shipped and put to my mailbox so I dont know when it arrives. and I don't have the time to sheck the mailbox evvery day to see if it have comed (i have also a bahceleor degree to take care off)

aginor wrote: I use (and most norwegians) use CDON.NO for bying CDs and our biggest music store Platekompaniet (Rocordcompanie)is actualy quite good on progrock, not that they have a prog section but they have all the famous and also some rare bands at farly low prices (but most KC and Genesis have shockingly high prices)

Whenever I buy from CDON the guys at the post office break the CD cases.