2013 roadmap

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albummaster
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  • #1
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 15:17
  • Post subject: 2013 roadmap
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Once upon a time, on a sofa far, far away, BEA was born because I was looking for ideas to add to my music collection. I threw some crude code together which aggregated a few lists, and gradually a website grew up around it. BEA started out as a hobby where I'd spend a few weekends a month adding new features; and this gradually continued, until seven years later, I'm still trying to finish it! Brick wall Mr. Green

So, this is the time of year when we take stock of where the site is currently at, and think more strategically about what features are needed to take the site forwards. Gradually, BEA is growing in both scope and volume. At the start of the year, there were about 18,000 albums on the site and there are now about 30,000 (a 66% increase in the size of the site); and with the introduction of Custom charts, there should now be enough for people to do and keep people engaged with the site. The servers were upgraded three times in 2012, so there's enough spare capacity (hopefully) to take us through the busy end of year period, and well into 2013.

The membership ladder that was born a couple of years ago is now complete, and there are only two big items remaining from the original list: 'premium membership' and 'charts by tag'. Both of these will be added in 2013. I lost time in 2012, mainly due to my day job getting in the way during the first half of the year, and despite my best efforts, I was unable to make up the lost ground in the second half. The number of outstanding features on my list remains at about 200 suggestions, which was the same as at the end of 2011 (numerous items have been ticked off and added during 2012).

There are now seven moderators including myself who help to keep a bit of sanity order on the site, and I'd like to thank here everyone that has helped out this year with the site. So, a big thanks (particularly) to the moderators: an_outlaw, Jhereko, joyofdivision, Magenta, Necharsian, Romanelli, 19loveless91 & ShaneSpear who have all been involved and been a great help. I'd also like to thank the people that are helping in the background to moderate the data, which is a vital task that often goes unnoticed. So, thank you to everybody that contributes, but particularly (again) to Romanelli, Mirek & harkan as they are the biggest contributors, because without these people, the site wouldn't nearly be so up-to-date. On the forums, I'd like to thank Jhereko, Hayden and harkan for running some great tournaments this year, and all the usual suspects for entertaining us so well over the last twelve months. We have a great community here, and everybody has helped contribute to that.

2013 roadmap (and estimated delivery date*):

Premium membership
  • Premium membership (Q1 2013) - 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 (Q2 2013) - Carried over since 2011, 2013's most important improvement will be some kind of tagging system that 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.

Alongside the above
There are quite a few other things on BEA's radar for 2013, but the following seem the most interesting at the time of writing (mostly harvested from the forums):

  • iPhone/Android application
  • Add an album/chart of the day page where all winners are listed
  • Ability to 'add friends' and make recommendations to each other
  • Provide a BEA API (to allow 3rd party apps)
  • If album by more than one artist, allow each to get a credit
  • Find a better way to deal with artist name variations
  • Show a list of possible entries for your chart
  • Allow multiple versions of each release
  • Upgrade the forum software
  • Extend the search page to search within member names and chart titles
  • Show a graph of the rank history for each album to see the movement over time within the overall chart
  • Add an option to show more items on a single page, e.g. 10, 25, 50, 100
  • Filter band stats by year or decade to see best bands in each decade
  • Tidy up presentation of wish list page
  • Separate reviews and user comments
  • Recent 'activity stream' per member or object (or whole site) e.g. posts, mods, ratings etc

Priorities may change during the year, and lots of other changes will also be implemented in 2013 (this is a subset of 200 items!)

Unfortunately, my day job is taking up about 60 hours a week right now, which is limiting the amount of time I can spend on BEA. The site would grow a lot faster if I could work on it more often. 2012 has been another good year for the site, and I look forward to 2013.

Thanks to everybody for all of your support.

albummaster

* The timescales have the same caveats as ever: BEA is not a 'job'. It is a hobby. I'd like to spend more time on BEA, but I also need to make a living. Being able to deliver 'on time' depends on other commitments outside of BEA.


Last edited by albummaster on 01/07/2014 08:36; edited 3 times in total
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RFNAPLES
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Gender: Male
Age: 75
Location: Durham, NC, USA
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  • #2
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 16:17
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Thanks albummaster for all you do too!
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
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Wombi





  • #3
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 16:23
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Can't begin to thankyou enough Albummaster. BEA is a staple of my day to day life and that's all because you've crafted something amazing here.
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CellarDoor
Shoe-Punk Loner


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Age: 38
Location: Marseille
France

  • #4
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 16:35
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Merci AM !! Very Happy

2012 has been another great year for BEA. Love what you're doing !
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thejoj96





  • #5
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 20:15
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thanks master
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gtroda





  • #6
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 20:34
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Thank you albummaster! This site is fantastic and has really become a part of my day to day life. I appreciate all the effort you put into this for our enjoyment!
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Jasonconfused
If We Make It We Can All Sit Back and Laugh


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Location: Washington
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  • #7
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 20:38
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Thank you albummaster! I'm fairly new here but since I joined, hardly an hour goes by that I'm not doing something on BEA (For this reason an android/iphone app will work wonders for me).
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Norman Bates



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Age: 51
Location: Paris, France
France

  • #8
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 21:29
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Thanks AM! Great site, great job, more still to come in the way of greatness: perfect.
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joyofdivision





  • #9
  • Posted: 12/20/2012 21:35
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Thanks for all your efforts albummaster Applause
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Saoirse





  • #10
  • Posted: 12/24/2012 13:57
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Yes, thanks AM, it's been a great experience since joining BEA! All those planned ideas sound exciting!
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