swag\.~*-=Website/Community Feedback for Reboot=-*~./swag

[Circuitfry]

We're gonna give this website a structural, organizational, and visual facelift.

Compilation of Ideas:

• Music production wiki
• Video/radio chat/IRC ** Don't get blocked at work sites lol
• Work with sci: facelift for toastbeard
• More integration with partnering websites
• New forum theme
• Tumblr integration/music news blog
• More moderators [Freewave, the4thImpulse, Kyoga etc] [Goal: 10]
• Send users directly to post
• General Music Discussion subforum and Brony Community Discussion? (added by Freewave)
• Facebook page with events
• Gaming/IRL events besides Cons
• Tutor presence
• Musician specialty list (vocals/instrument/genre)
• Critique voting system
• Karma system?
• Notification for new PMs and topic responses.
• Chanboard style critique section.
• More global community events!
• Don't remove the spam thread.
• Tighten up on spam otherwise.
• Admin-given label tags [Good advice] [Etc]
• Genre critique threads (can't you guys make it??)
• Customizable titles.
• Forum on music gear.
• Sample pack events.
• Alternate stealth-mode theme
• Auto-lock after 45 days no new posts, allow exceptions.
• Minimum character amount.
• "Go to first post in topic since your last post" button
• Spam Subforum to filter out dat crap / organization
• Organize the Events page to move dead projects to the bottom.
• Spoiler tags
• DON'T put the chat on the forum front page.

More. Gimme.

[DXsmiley]

More frequent updates! *cough*
[/notentirelyserious]
I support the music production wiki.
Also have music composition component as well (scales, intervals and the like).
Minor adjustment: When I make a post, I'd like to be sent directly to it, rather to a message asking me if I want to go there or not.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Music production wiki is a great idea.

On that note, a stronger tutor presence. We have a tutor thread and such but we could do more with it, like a chatroom specifically for it etc.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

also, if possible, get this place more traffic.

We've only got about 10 really regular people here most times.

[AJ_]

Facebook, live event status to warn or attract artist on events

Gaming events? IRL events besides Cons?

[LFP]

Awesome circuitfry!
forum redesign, music blogs and other new stuff all of my support! <3
Oh and more active mods is awesome too!

Music production wiki is a great idea.

On that note, a stronger tutor presence. We have a tutor thread and such but we could do more with it, like a chatroom specifically for it etc.

While this is a good idea I don't see the possibility of having dedicated tutors being very high.
The guides (and other threads) tells you most of the basic stuff you need to know and to answer more advanced questions a lot more effort from the tutors would be required.
Due to the tutors not gaining anything on doing that it could quickly turn into a painful job with no reward...

I could see it working if you either get some sort of reward thing going.
Get a lot of people to moderate a sort of ask blog.
Or if you host events like "ask xx person your music questions day" once every now and then..

Anyway, this is sounding awesome and I'm looking forward to the changes =)

[Stars In Autumn]

This is the worst topic title.

[ExoBassTix]

a stronger tutor presence. We have a tutor thread and such but we could do more with it, like a chatroom specifically for it etc.

Aye.
I am so much in favor of this. The thread is fine as it is, but it has to be found by those who need it. When that doesn't happen, it's kinda useless. It's not frequented that often (I don't believe for one second that anyone of you has had a stream of people wanting advice of you). So maybe more visibility for the thread.

Uhm... In the new forum theme, will you remove the little square in the bottom-left corner?

[Lying Pink]

This is the best topic title.

Fix'd.

One suggestion, which is probably something anyone could start, but I thought I'd post it here... we've got a list of singers on MLR, for when people need a collab partner with a voice that doesn't sound like coal trapped under a cellar door. As far as I'm aware we don't have an instrumentalist list though? Might that be a useful thing to start?

[hackd]

Really looking forward to the addition of video/radio chat and the music news tumblr blog integration, and I think live event notifications (I read this as live-streaming?) would be a cool addition as well.

I think the proposed 'tutor chatrooms' would also be nice but it may not be the best way to go about it as was brought up. Perhaps if we could reference users in a more in-depth manner, say by genre like you can on Freewave's site, it could be easier to find someone who can help you out. It may be a good idea to have a 'tutor' title users can choose to turn on and off so it would be obvious who is free to help out. Then instead of having a dedicated chatroom, discussion could occur via skype or irc.

Great ideas so far, really hyped for the future.

[DJ Skrudge]

Maybe a karma/+1 thing, for use in the technique and/or music sub forum? That might give people a little more incentive to actually review other people's tracks, or provide advice.

Ooh, ooh, maybe ranks for number of posts, displayed above users' avatars! Like rank 1 is New Member, at 50 posts they become a Contributing Member, 200 posts is Regular Member, 500= Frequent Poster, 1000= Guru (or something). It might also give people that extra push to contribute more to things (although I realize a lot of posts come from the spam thread -_-)

I'll think of more as they come.

[itroitnyah]

Ooh, ooh, maybe ranks for number of posts, displayed above users' avatars! Like rank 1 is New Member, at 50 posts they become a Contributing Member, 200 posts is Regular Member, 500= Frequent Poster, 1000= Guru (or something). It might also give people that extra push to contribute more to things

(although I realize a lot of posts come from the spam thread -_-)

That is exactly why it would not work. It should be more of a thing linked with the karma/+1 idea that you gave, where the people who have a lot of karma would have higher ranks, etc. And then mods could disable karma for specific threads (not sure if that would be possible, although the mods and admins could try) so that people don't get karma for all the wrong reasons.

I personally think that with a voting system for replies and topics would be a great idea, change the logo and site design up a bit (although don't put an equalizer, pair of headphones, studio monitors, mixer and dj tracks/spinners, that type of design is waaaay overused, and perhaps you could exclude vinyl and octavia from the design as well, that'd just add to the cliche in a pony way). Perhaps we could put the irc box on the right edge of the screen and use that to replace the spam thread or whatever. Also, I still like my idea to sticky threads with frequently asked questions (such as "mlp with no bgm" and such) to the main page so that they're right there, as well as the tutor thread and mlr beginners guide to music thread.

[DJ Skrudge]

And then mods could disable karma for specific threads (not sure if that would be possible, although the mods and admins could try) so that people don't get karma for all the wrong reasons.

I know for a fact this is possible. If this goes ahead, I recommend only enabling this feature for The Music, Technique and Sharing forums, they aren't necessary at all for the others.

Perhaps we could put the irc box on the right edge of the screen and use that to replace the spam thread or whatever.

Yes, this.

[LFP]

Why would you want replace the spam thread D:
Where is mods gonna merge topics if you do

[Freewave]

Maybe a karma/+1 thing, for use in the technique and/or music sub forum? That might give people a little more incentive to actually review other people's tracks, or provide advice.

Ooh, ooh, maybe ranks for number of posts, displayed above users' avatars! Like rank 1 is New Member, at 50 posts they become a Contributing Member, 200 posts is Regular Member, 500= Frequent Poster, 1000= Guru (or something). It might also give people that extra push to contribute more to things (although I realize a lot of posts come from the spam thread -_-)

I'll think of more as they come.

Yeah +1's, IE Brohoofs and that would be awesome (i like the blank flank, pony, pegasus, unicorn, alicon levels myself for posting levels) if they can code that. +1's should only be in certain subforums, not off-topic/spam. I will say that IF CF wanted to do a MASSIVE overhaul and a completely new forum structure he could talk to feld0 on http://mlpforums.com/ as he was very interested in trying to do more for the music community (after launching the free pony.fm hosting site) and many of those features are already on that forum. If you think having a completely updated, personable, and more modern style forum would be great CF then I'd talk to him about your options. I know Makkon's ideas of how this site should act and look may be different from yours.

I would ask you to be careful in adding chat feature INTO this website if you were considering that. An old brony forum i used to go had an irc chat window built in at the top of the foum and i cant visit that site because it and chat apps and programming is blocked from work. Would hate for that to occur here as i'd likely rarely be back on otherwise. Likewise others could be effected as well.

Better communication with the users, more input, tumblr, change in site appearance, more tie-in's with toast beard and other small sites would be awesome. I think while the brony universe is kind of in limbo with some big wigs leaving that having mlr try to unite the music community back again and be more of a central force would be a great idea. There's also a lot of small sites out there that cater to brony music that rarely get community support and that would be great to see that change.

If you need more mods and would consider me lemme know. You definitely still have some great candidates out there.

[the4thImpulse]

Definitely add a karma/reputation thing that can be removed on specific threads or sub forums.

Remove the spam thread from the site completely and then enforce a no spam policy.

[ExoBassTix]

I've been on plenty of forums where you have a user title (standard on Newbie, Regular User and whatnot) (even though this one doesn't have it (why?)), and you can customize it to something else.
I would very, very, very much like that to be here as well.

And then mods could disable karma for specific threads (not sure if that would be possible, although the mods and admins could try) so that people don't get karma for all the wrong reasons.

I know for a fact this is possible. If this goes ahead, I recommend only enabling this feature for The Music, Technique and Sharing forums, they aren't necessary at all for the others.

And maybe the Challenges, Contests And Events and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic sectors. I don't know. Just exclude the spam thread, and you should be fine really. The rest is good enough to be called "contribution" in my opinion.

Perhaps we could put the irc box on the right edge of the screen and use that to replace the spam thread or whatever.

Yes, this.

For two reasons, no.
1. It'll make MLR a living hell for iPhone users (PLEASE!!!)
2.

Why would you want replace the spam thread D:
Where is mods gonna merge topics if you do

+1 for that.


EDIT - just remembered two points of improvement for the forum.
1. Reply email notification.
I think it would be very, very good if you could check a checkbox upon replying to a thread, saying "Receive email notifications for replies". I always find such functions very useful and use them a lot.

2. PM email notification.
I think we should be able to choose if we want email notifications for PMs.
Because I never actually see that I have a PM. The 0 just turns into a 1. No notifications, no additional bold on the "(X new messages)" to show that something changed.

If any of the two already exists, whoops, and do please tell me because I couldn't find those functions myself last time I checked.

[CDPP]

Awesome circuitfry!
forum redesign, music blogs and other new stuff all of my support! <3
Oh and more active mods is awesome too!

Music production wiki is a great idea.

On that note, a stronger tutor presence. We have a tutor thread and such but we could do more with it, like a chatroom specifically for it etc.

While this is a good idea I don't see the possibility of having dedicated tutors being very high.
The guides (and other threads) tells you most of the basic stuff you need to know and to answer more advanced questions a lot more effort from the tutors would be required.
Due to the tutors not gaining anything on doing that it could quickly turn into a painful job with no reward...

I could see it working if you either get some sort of reward thing going.
Get a lot of people to moderate a sort of ask blog.
Or if you host events like "ask xx person your music questions day" once every now and then..

Basically this. I'd go so far to say that we should adopt something similar to /r/edmproduction and have producer AMAs if possible. That and more feedback sync listens. If there's one thing that's hard to get on the forums, it's feedback.

[vladnuke]

The karma thing seems vital for the music section, as people like incentives for their contribution.

Honestly I'd like a bigger focus on the music threads, with comment-less threads being highlighted to let people know to click on those.

Another thing that'd be cool is meetups. Im sure enough of us live close enough to eachother to do a meetup.

Anyway, thanks for all your considerations/eventual hard work!

[Freewave]

Awesome circuitfry!
forum redesign, music blogs and other new stuff all of my support! <3
Oh and more active mods is awesome too!

Music production wiki is a great idea.

On that note, a stronger tutor presence. We have a tutor thread and such but we could do more with it, like a chatroom specifically for it etc.

While this is a good idea I don't see the possibility of having dedicated tutors being very high.
The guides (and other threads) tells you most of the basic stuff you need to know and to answer more advanced questions a lot more effort from the tutors would be required.
Due to the tutors not gaining anything on doing that it could quickly turn into a painful job with no reward...

I could see it working if you either get some sort of reward thing going.
Get a lot of people to moderate a sort of ask blog.
Or if you host events like "ask xx person your music questions day" once every now and then..

Basically this. I'd go so far to say that we should adopt something similar to /r/edmproduction and have producer AMAs if possible. That and more feedback sync listens. If there's one thing that's hard to get on the forums, it's feedback.

You know the idea of a seperate mlr CHAN site where people post there tracks for feedback and everything recent is VISIBLE from the front page, where you can still comment, and give feedback would be cool, especailly if it would be available to the public. While i don't want MLR to necessarily be spread out to multiple sites i do think the music section here especially does suffer from few people offering feedback and that's quite a lot to do with the layout of it, the amount of threads on it, and the amount of people who offer a hand on there. I don't know what we can do with that section (maybe +1's to people who help there) but if that means thinking out side the box then maybe do that. The rate the track above you thread works pretty well but i doubt thats the answer. Maybe a weekly sync listen of new material, similar to a toast beard but not themed and just for mlr newbs.

I recommend doing another round of Remix Wars after r&r and during the break. The pmv idea bombed but a simple remix a classic and under appreciated track allows people to collab more, remix tracks, and remember that there's still plenty of great older brony music out there to not forget about. If MLR sponsored event albums on a monthly basis (they could pick and choose from whats already out being organized) and helped get them get EQD (half the struggle tbh) we'd get more of those better organized, completed, and more of a community feel.

[Nine Volt]

1. Karma thingy, for certain subforums.
2. Customizable titles
3. Get more traffic here
4. To be honest I'd like to see a movement away from the 'pony music' thing and have this be a more regular music forum.
5. Keep the spam thread.
6. Redesign the site?
7. Make the global announcements section more prominent, and include the more important stickied threads from other subforums, like the MLR Music Guide and the How To Give Good Feedback thread.
edit: 8. If you're going to add the option for email notifications about threads, make it optional.

Remove the spam thread from the site completely and then enforce a no spam policy.

Please, stop. Stop villainizing the people who enjoy or frequent that thread. I always see you saying stuff like this and I have no idea why you hate the spam thread so much, so maybe you should explain so I can get a better idea and maybe have a legitimate discussion. Don't act like it's doing the site any bad though. If anything it's increasing traffic.

Please, Circuitfry, whatever you do, do not remove that thread.

[Freewave]

Makkon was always music first ponies second. That's always been the best empasis for the site. I don't want either of those 2 factors to lose out (plus since you admittedly don't make pony music you might be a bit biased). MLP is the draw to get musicians on here, if people don't want to do pony stuff that's cool but don't forget why the majority are here. Last thing i want is for people to water down the pony influence anymore or look for the community move on just because a few well knowns are moving on to greener non pony pastures. We'll have brand new stuff to write music about in 6 months time when new eps come out and we can still find plenty of uncovered topics if people just use their noggins.

I have no idea why someone would want the one thread devoted to idle chat and spam gone, that seems silly.

[Nine Volt]

Eh, yeah I'm probably biased, but it seems like a lot of new members think this forum is primarily for pony music, which it's not. I have no problem with pony music, I just would rather like it to be a tad more obvious that this isn't a purely pony (music) forum.

[Freewave]

Well it is primarily an MLP focused site hence the site's name and pinkish logo and all the brony music on this site and all the focus on the show. You can't have one without the other. But i agree we need to look outside just that scope and see the forest from the trees. Thats why i do that genre thread so that people can broaden their horizons and look outside of what the herd does. A general non-pony music discussion subforum has been something this site has always been lacking. Since all the music making threads in here rarely have to focus on ponies through technique that has always made it a general music production as the main focus. This place has always allowed anyone who doesn't want to make brony music to do so and be a part of it if they wanted to be.

But at the end of the day 80-90% of the music coming from here does have mlp in mind. I realize that even Makkon was somewhat fighting against that perception and use but his last few songs weren't pony oriented either so its important not to lose why this site was created even if the people who started it have moved on. We just have a whole new batch of musicians taking over and we want to support that and their growth and not dissolve the community. I personally think its a bit greedy if the people who started this now want it to fail cause they've moved on. If it was cool in 2011 and 2012 to make music about mlp its still cool now. MLR has to be a part of the future if its going to continue for at least awhile longer.

[the4thImpulse]

Remove the spam thread from the site completely and then enforce a no spam policy.

Please, stop. Stop villainizing the people who enjoy or frequent that thread. I always see you saying stuff like this and I have no idea why you hate the spam thread so much, so maybe you should explain so I can get a better idea and maybe have a legitimate discussion. Don't act like it's doing the site any bad though. If anything it's increasing traffic.

Please, Circuitfry, whatever you do, do not remove that thread.

Your right, the only reason most people come here is to leave a ":3" in the spam thread, without it the site would get little traffic. I'm not 'villainizing' the spam chat or the people that post there either. Sometimes I forget that most people here are just kids.

Maybe an entire 'spam' sub forum would be best. Call it 'Off Topic', place that at the bottom of the page like many forums have.