2012 roadmap

[albummaster]

BEA has now become too big to maintain in my spare time (if you count working over 30 hours a week as 'spare time'!). The list of new features that need implementing on BEA is growing faster than I can keep up with. Not only that, now that there are more people on BEA, it means there are more support issues & queries to deal with, which takes time away from developing new features.

To take the site to the next level, and become more competitive with the other music sites that are out there, BEA simply needs full time resource to manage the site and introduce new features. However, it's impossible to work more time on BEA (or to pay other people to do the work) unless the site generated revenue.

One way to generate revenue would be to have more advertising on BEA, but this would detract too much from the site and would not be very popular. So, the only other feasible option seems to be the idea of tiered membership, where some people could have access to 'premium' functionality for a small fee, but anyone else can still use the site for free, but receive slightly less features (or 'earn' extra features via a membership ladder).

Some of the changes in 2011 have had this in mind, with the introduction of the new member rank scheme and tiered functionality (up to level 5). In 2012, the membership ladder will be completed up to level 8, and a premium membership option will then be added which will allow people to bypass the ladder for a small fee and gain access to some exclusive features. I still don't think this will generate enough revenue to keep the site going longer term, but it might give the site a stay of execution while I think of some other way to keep the site running. Time is not the only cost, the hosting expenses for BEA are also significant, and to remain alive, BEA needs to generate enough money to at least cover those each month.

So, with the above (slightly off-topic) ramble in mind, what lies in store for 2012?

2012 roadmap (and estimated delivery date*):

Completion of the membership ladder

• Year charts (level 6) (Q1 2012) - abilty to add a best album chart for any year sunce 1950.
  
• Charts 'for fun' (level 7) (Q1 2012) - ability to add a chart with a custom title containing any set of albums that you want (these charts won't count towards the rankings).
  
• Name your own rank (level 8) (Q1 2012) - ability to assign your user account a custom rank/title to stand out from the crowd (e.g. beneath your name on the forums, and on your user profile etc)

Premium membership

• Premium membership (Q2 2012) - pay a small fee, bypass the need to earn member points, and gain acceass to some exclusive premium member features.

Charts by tag

• Charts by tag (Q3 2012) - Carried over from 2011, once the membership ladder has been completed, a tagging system will be added which will allow people to generate lists filtered by 'tag' e.g. filter the overall chart for the best soul/R&B/metal albums etc, or generate a chart of the best 1970s soundtrack albums. Supporting this feature, people will be able to assign tags to anything across the site, and the tag can then be used as a filter for any of the charts.

In addition to the above, there will continue to be the usual ad-hoc improvements that have been happening every month for the last six years. There are over 200 changes on the 'to do' list at the time of writing (mostly harvested from the forums), so not everything is listed above. Lots of other changes not listed above will also be implemented (I might add *some* of these below in a future edit).

EDIT: List of changes to be delivered alongside the above:

• Improved recommendations based on items in similar charts.
  
• Collection analysis (e.g. summary of your collection by year/decade/artist etc)
  
• Rank history of each album (placement in overall chart over time)
  
• Average rating calculation improvements (particularly to ignore troll ratings)
  
• Add ability to leave 'reviews' and highlight these more than normal comments
  
• Make the home page more personalised
  
• Make it easer to browse the charts e.g. filter by chart type
  
• Introduce an option to set your chart as 'draft', and visible to you only until you have finished it
  
• Fix the "weird percentage" issue
  
• Improve the search page
  
• ... & lots more!

(Unlike the roadmap, items in this list may be removed/added during the year as the need arises. This list is a subset of 200 changes just to give a flavour of what might be added. Not everything is listed.)

2011 has been a great year for the site, and I'm sure 2012 can be even better.

Thanks for all of your support.

albummaster

* Being able to deliver 'on time' depends on other commitments outside of BEA.

[RFNAPLES]

Thank you for all you provide the members of BEA. Please go at your own pace. Do not risk the survival of BEA for more features. You are the best webmaster I have seen. We don't want to see you go bankrupt or crazy.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[joyofdivision]

Well said Naples, I agree with all that. And thanks for all your hard work albummaster in keeping the site fresh and interesting
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http://myradiostream.com/joyradio

[GARY]

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Well done Albummaster

About the only thing I can absolutely say actually 'GOT BETTER" in 2011 was your site BEA

God willing I shall be able 2 see these changes planned for 2012.

.
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I owe $100,000 and wasted 4 years of my life.

And all I got was this silly hat



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[Norman Bates]

[Eggman/Walrus/Taxman]

[Xavygravy]

You've done great work this year albummaster! Thanks for creating and maintaining an awesome site!

[Jhereko]

thanks for a great year albummaster and NAPLES is 100% oon the money with his comment. Oh and to make money you should do a Jimmy Wales and plater your face all over banners at the top of the page
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"I need you to be who I need you to be"

[Eggman/Walrus/Taxman]

[albummaster]

I'm going to split this topic into 2012 roadmap & Eggman's book. The rest I am going to delete since it is completely off-topic.