Threads Keep Disappearing - Suggestions - Forums : Best Ever Albums

albummaster

Janitor

Gender: Male

Location: Spain

Site Admin

Thanks everyone for the points made, I think the sensible (and right) thing to do would be to keep the listening thread (but make it the conduit for all types of listening activity, so that the forums are focused towards more longer-form content). Keeping the one thread provides the value spoken about by other people, without having too many threads of the same type which was the main underlying issue prior to this discussion.

Last edited by albummaster on 35 hours ago; edited 1 time in total

baystateoftheart

Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 30

Location: Massachusetts

How about keeping the album listening thread separate so it can stay focused and useful, and creating one catch-all thread for all non-album listening/watching?

I have another suggestion that would require some technical work on the back end - not sure how practical it would be. Whenever someone tries to post a single BEA link with no other comments on any forum, that would trigger a review screen with a message saying something like: discussion is important to keep the forums lively; please add a comment to your post. If desired, the user could bypass the review screen to post anyway, but it would encourage people to be a little less low-effort.
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Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 66

Location: London Town

baystateoftheart wrote:

How about keeping the album listening thread separate so it can stay focused and useful, and creating one catch-all thread for all non-album listening/watching?

That sounds like the ideal approach to me.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

baystateoftheart wrote:

I have another suggestion that would require some technical work on the back end - not sure how practical it would be. Whenever someone tries to post a single BEA link with no other comments on any forum, that would trigger a review screen with a message saying something like: discussion is important to keep the forums lively; please add a comment to your post. If desired, the user could bypass the review screen to post anyway, but it would encourage people to be a little less low-effort.

I like this idea. I offered a similar idea upthread requiring posts to be a minimum word/character length, to eliminate posts that are only BEA or YouTube links. The idea was shot down.

As to users defending 'what album are you listening to,' citing it as a source of recommendations, I know I'm outnumbered, and AM has made it clear it's not leaving. However, I stand by my claim the thread is almost entirely useless, and it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if users instead started new threads about albums they've listened to and did little write-ups/reviews. I think that would show care, and would more effectively spread the word/recommendation to others on the site, as opposed to blankly posting about it on one catch-all thread where every post gets buried within a few hours. And yes, all those similar threads (what song, live performance, music video, etc) need to go. I think most of us agree on that point. I also think most of us agree users need to put in a little more effort. If there's an album you're listening to right now, and you like it and feel compelled to share it on BEA, would it kill you to drop a few lines about it? Why not post about it in a more dedicated thread to get more notice?

Personally I fully support either a word/character limit, or baystate's proposal dissuading (or better yet disallowing) posts from only being links.
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Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

CA Dreamin wrote:

baystateoftheart wrote:

I have another suggestion that would require some technical work on the back end - not sure how practical it would be. Whenever someone tries to post a single BEA link with no other comments on any forum, that would trigger a review screen with a message saying something like: discussion is important to keep the forums lively; please add a comment to your post. If desired, the user could bypass the review screen to post anyway, but it would encourage people to be a little less low-effort.

I like this idea. I offered a similar idea upthread requiring posts to be a minimum word/character length, to eliminate posts that are only BEA or YouTube links. The idea was shot down.

As to users defending 'what album are you listening to,' citing it as a source of recommendations, I know I'm outnumbered, and AM has made it clear it's not leaving. However, I stand by my claim the thread is almost entirely useless, and it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if users instead started new threads about albums they've listened to and did little write-ups/reviews. I think that would show care, and would more effectively spread the word/recommendation to others on the site, as opposed to blankly posting about it on one catch-all thread where every post gets buried within a few hours. And yes, all those similar threads (what song, live performance, music video, etc) need to go. I think most of us agree on that point. I also think most of us agree users need to put in a little more effort. If there's an album you're listening to right now, and you like it and feel compelled to share it on BEA, would it kill you to drop a few lines about it? Why not post about it in a more dedicated thread to get more notice?

Personally I fully support either a word/character limit, or baystate's proposal dissuading (or better yet disallowing) posts from only being links.

I'm, again, right in the middle of this. My reasons for hoping the albums thread stays are based on two things: the fact that there ARE attempts (sometimes successful) at conversations there. And the historical relevance of the thread. However, if it goes, I will be okay with it. Sad, but okay.

I am absolutely for removing all of the other "What Are You ___ing" threads. I am also against having one "megathread" for all of those things. We're talking about making those things go away...well, let's make them go away. If you include them in what is already a massive thread with big traffic, those things are going to multiply. By a lot. This will make the point being made about posts being lost in less than a day multiply VERY quickly. Also...I check that thread every single day as a moderator fore duplicates and such. Combining everything like that will make that task nearly impossible once it gains momentum. And ultimately, keeping those kind of posts but just moving them into one thread does nothing to discourage posting like that. At all.

We do already have individual album posts...every single day. Album Of The Day is auto posted every day, and VERY rarely get more than a response or two. We also have a music diaries section, which includes several users doing write ups about individual albums. I have one with more than 2200 albums, and it rarely gets replies. Same with the others. Fewer, in fact, than the Albums thread.

I think that ultimately, we're not so big into talking to one another. But let's stop having threads that ENCOURAGE us to not talk to one another.
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albummaster

Janitor

Gender: Male

Location: Spain

Site Admin

CA Dreamin wrote:

I offered a similar idea upthread requiring posts to be a minimum word/character length, to eliminate posts that are only BEA or YouTube links. The idea was shot down.

At some stage in the distant past we did have a minimum word count here which just got annoying for everyone. It's easily bypassed and sometimes legit posts can be very short. If URLs/YouTubes are not allowed without a comment, you'd end up with comments like 'great track' to get around the restriction (people don't always have time or are not willing to add more). The fact that someone posts an album can be enough for a reader to be reminded about that album and play it for themselves. The absence of a comment in this type of thread is the essence of that type of thread and the reason why people love/hate them (definitely seeing both sides).

CA Dreamin wrote:

it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if users instead started new threads about albums they've listened to and did little write-ups/reviews. I think that would show care, and would more effectively spread the word/recommendation to others on the site, as opposed to blankly posting about it on one catch-all thread where every post gets buried within a few hours. And yes, all those similar threads (what song, live performance, music video, etc) need to go. I think most of us agree on that point. I also think most of us agree users need to put in a little more effort. If there's an album you're listening to right now, and you like it and feel compelled to share it on BEA, would it kill you to drop a few lines about it? Why not post about it in a more dedicated thread to get more notice?

Nothing stopping people doing both. If you want to post a thread about album X then it seems most of that content is now in the Music Diaries forum. Possibly another issue is the Music forum losing its identity with the Music Diaries cannibalising content that might otherwise have been in the Music forum (sheer numbers on BEA making it difficult to have both areas flourishing).

Romanelli wrote:

I am absolutely for removing all of the other "What Are You ___ing" threads. I am also against having one "megathread" for all of those things. We're talking about making those things go away...well, let's make them go away. If you include them in what is already a massive thread with big traffic, those things are going to multiply ... We do already have individual album posts...every single day. Album Of The Day is auto posted every day, and VERY rarely get more than a response or two. We also have a music diaries section, which includes several users doing write ups about individual albums. I have one with more than 2200 albums, and it rarely gets replies. Same with the others. Fewer, in fact, than the Albums thread.

I think that ultimately, we're not so big into talking to one another. But let's stop having threads that ENCOURAGE us to not talk to one another.

If the AOTD/COTD posts were removed, there wouldn't be a lot left in the Music forum as most of the content has now migrated to the various Music Diaries (which are awesome) but also 'personal' spaces in the sense that they belong to the authors. Anecdotally, I sometimes feel I'm intruding replying too often to people's diaries - possibly my introvertedness - but I really enjoy reading them (not sure if others feel the same way, but if people aren't talking to each other could this be a factor?). I also have the habit of creating an awkward silence and stopping the flow with my social skills Embarassed

(so there's that as well).

The Music forum is that general space where threads are open to all. In terms of what's there now, the AOTD/COTD posts possibly need revamping to help seed debate (e.g. pulling in comments/track picks etc from rest of site to introduce each album). We're now up to about ~5,000 in each category, so some albums have been AOTD multiple/many times and there are users here who have been visiting since the site started (& have seen each album before & said everything they need to say) and are no doubt bored (making the point here also that the site is also serving people outside of the forums/unregistered users/social media etc, so there's more than one audience for this content). Without wanting to add even more automated posts, would albums in the current year be worth posting as an additional category to help people discover new music? (not sure how they'd be determined yet, but just an idea off the bat).

Above all, the site is meant to be for everyone and it's great people care enough to discuss it here (& truly thankful). Possibly it's time to re-look at how the forums are structured to get underneath the issue to ensure the content on BEA is the best it can be.

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list...

Gender: Male

albummaster wrote:

Without wanting to add even more automated posts, would albums in the current year be worth posting as an additional category to help people discover new music? (not sure how they'd be determined yet, but just an idea off the bat).

I would definitely say "yes" on that. You'd probably get more discussion on new-release AOTDs that way too, though I might just be saying that because I'm a new-release kinda guy and all. Cool

The formula could be something as simple as {current rank-score} / {number of days since release}. Maybe with special allowances for albums that have been ranked #1 for the year on one or more member charts, or just the number of member charts they appear in.

Tangentially-related, I also think it would be cool if the year of release were included in the "Insert BEA link" code, and maybe even revamp the look a little bit, like this two-line version maybe:

The Last Atlant

Cloudburst Of Colours (2015)

It's more text obviously, and I realize the ads appear on the album pages so people might be less likely to load/view them if they only wanted to check the release year, but what can I say... As a compromise, maybe have some sort of "New Release!" star icon there if the album was released within the last 60 days.