Great site, one problem (or) Critics vs. the people.

[seraphlaim]

I'll admit I'm new here. I like that this is sort of a cross between rateyourmusic and acclaimedmusic. I like the merge of critics lists and the people. I like that the agrigator considers both. However, for the life of me I can't imagine how it was decided as wisdom to make a filter by which the people can choose albums for their personal list. Moreover, I can't figure why that filter would be the critics lists themselves. Why should an album have to be donned worth consideration for me to consider it. For a site that does have the wisdom to put our lists side by side with the critics its completely contrary to the spirit and (id assume) intent of the site to do this and I hope users will be able to add these albums ourselves soon. Critics have showed me a lot of great music. Maybe, if this change is made, I'll have the pleasure of possibly returning the favor.
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The greatest wonder is the realization of a question one has not yet asked .

[joannajewsom]

You can add albums to your list, even if they are not on any one of the critics/user charts. There are prompts to help you with this, when you go to add an "unknown" album to your list.
There are a ton of albums on various user charts, as well as my own chart, which do not appear on any of the critic's charts. If I were to add an album to the database that has not appeared on any chart yet, user or critic, it would not immediately recognize the album, but it would add it to the database (it takes a day, if that, to gather all information such as year, cover art, track listing, etc.). Then, if someone were to come along and try to add the same album after I added it to the database, it would now be immediately recognized. In other words, it would recognize an album that was added by a user.
It's not that the site only recognizes albums from critic charts. It only immediately recognizes albums that are in the database already, whether it was added by a user or critic. So the issue isn't critic vs. user, more like albums already on site vs. albums not already on site. But that's not really an issue because any album can easily be added by a user at any time. That's the fun thing about this site: users can contribute to the database, and hopefully introduce others to some lesser-known albums.

I hope that I understood and answered your question. I encourage you to stick around and return the favor by adding some albums which do not appear on the site.

[RFNAPLES]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could add an album to the data base without adding it to our personal chart? Often our personal favorites are great albums but don't really belong within the top 40 of all time.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[seraphlaim]

Great. Again, i am figuring the site out and may have been mistaken. Thanks for clarifying. Regarding the most recent poster. Is there a limit of 40 to how long our list can be? Its likely many of mine that I would add would not be in my top 40 albums of all time. His point seems to be that this is likely the case with most. Users would likely add more albums if our lists could be longer.

Personally I don't see the point in a limit. If we want to detail our top 3000 for that matter we probably don't have very active social lives but its going to expand the site exponentially.
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The greatest wonder is the realization of a question one has not yet asked .

[RFNAPLES]

Personally I am not in favor of increasing the size of individual charts but still see the need of putting other great albums into the data base. Perhaps this could be done through a new separate page entitled an album or band.

I find it difficult to justify increasing the size of personal charts. Is it right to give the same weight to a personal chart as given to the charts that include thousands of individual voters or hundreds of critics?
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[albummaster]

the limit of 40 albums in the member lists is an artificial limit, so if people want it we could increase the limit again. Having said that, the site was never meant to become a database of all music albums, just the best ones (hence the name!) If an album doesn't make your top 40, does it make a great one? Open question...

[RFNAPLES]

Are your favorite albums in the chart? Should your favorite albums always be synonymous with your own greatest ever albums chart? If you have a favorite album not in the data base the only way to add it currently is to add the lesser favorite album to your chart while deleting a more important work or hope that someone else someday does.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[joannajewsom]

I would be up for an increase on the limit. The more, the better. However, I'm fine with the limit of 40. I don't see any problem with the current way albums are added to the database. As stated earlier, this isn't supposed to be an allmusic/rateyourmusic kind of setup. I could name tons of albums I really love which are not on my top 40 or the site (as I'm sure we all could), but I don't see the point of it being on the site if it's not on anyone's chart. Who's going to know that it's even on the site if it's in the database but not on anyone's chart? Given the nature of the site, just adding an album for the sake of putting it in the database seems to be a fruitless endeavor. It's like requesting a candidate be put on a ballot, even though you yourself are not casting your vote for that candidate. When someone comes along to cast their vote, it will be considered.

[RFNAPLES]

Having more albums in the data base would allow us to put more albums in our favorites list not in our chart. These favorites then could be rated and shared but not used in rankings unless added to a chart.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[seraphlaim]

I am new here and feel a little timid about suggesting something that would make radical changes to the site you guys know and love but I personally feel I can hardly even stretch out and share my list at the 40 album level. I recently finished my 40 album list and it just seems so anemic to me. Would people have a problem with a 100 album limit? Seems thats a nice round number than even the critics like when they publish list issues in magazines.
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The greatest wonder is the realization of a question one has not yet asked .