Another suggestion (maybe mentioned before): how about one button on the band page which you can simple click and that page will be printed (that also means that page in preview become printable and then we can print it in standard format)?

Do you mean like the Big Four tour, when the rest of the guys join Metallica on stage? That shouldn't be added.

No, more like this. So say Alestorm played a bunch of shows in a few different places and they have the same guest vocalist come out and do a song with them. I witnessed once of these shows.

You could add that vocalist with the period of time he participated, sure.

Was that Admiral Nobeard in Paganfest 2009?

No it was Balfabar Nosugref of Detsörgsekälf that played with Alestorm on one song each time at 70,000 Tons of Metal and at the Toronto Paganfest tour show date in 2012.

What's the consensus on female artists that change name through marriage? Should we write it like "Jane Doe (née Smith)" in the real/full name box or the bio? Found this woman.

Here's her MA page.

Write her current name in the real/full name field and "Née Miller." in the bio. Whenever the information is available, any appearances before the marriage should of course be credited with her name at the time.

I've updated her page accordingly.

Really glad to see the new Tours & Gigs sub-forum. Great idea.

Thanks

Is there any problem going on with browsing collections? I can't seem to browse my own as it keeps saying "loading" and doesn't do so. I've tried it on other browsers and same thing. It's been going on for a few hours now.

Nah, it's fine for me.

It's probably just a slow computer, some computers are EXTREMELY slow!

For hours? I've had problems with tabs that say loading for a few seconds before I refresh the page a few times. It works fine. Something's probably wrong with the network. Though I must say, there hasn't been as many major problems with MA in a while.

You're funny. Too bad I have an I7 system!

I've dumped the cache, logged off and on again, rebooted my PC and still it's the same. I'll try and reboot the router later on to see if a new IP makes any difference.

Well, it's still the same way even after rebooting my router. It just stays there saying "loading" and doesn't load anything.

It's not your connection, I think it's something in the data of your collection... but I can't debug it because it's private. Would you greatly mind making it public briefly? You can PM me when you decide to do that.

I didn't want to create another thread at the risk of getting a warning and I'm not sure if this is the right thread but here's one suggestion.

How about adding 'year of joining' in the user profile page? I'm not referring to the forum member profile page. Not that a joining date is that important but I feel it adds a facet to one's profile especially when he's a contributor of sorts...or for how long he's been associated with the website. Out of the 200,000+ users registered, I doubt not more a couple of 1000 visit the forums regularly (just a feeling). So one doesn't really know when did, for example, UltraBoris join MA. Speaking from my own experience, I'd check out a bunch of reviews...find a good enough reviewer. I'd want to know for how long he's been on the site. Rather than scroll through his reviews and see the time-stamps.

Does anyone else feel that way?

It's there under "Registration date", but only since v2. That information was not registered in the database prior to that, so you can only check the forum profile instead (and that may be slightly inaccurate since the forum was created a few months after the main site, but for everyone who joined after August 2002, the date will be accurate (the forum account is created at the same time that the site account is activated, so they will be synched).

Thanks for the info Morrigan, but I still can't find the "registration date" listed on any profile, whether it's the current version or the V1

O_O

She means that the registration date is only stored in the database for users who registered AFTER V2 landed.

Ohh, I see what he means. Yeah, that date isn't shown for non-mods. Hmm, not sure why to be honest... >_>

Yup, I'm one of the metal mortals. So does it make sense for the reg date to be shown on the user profile along with age, gender etc? Anyway, don't mean to drag this issue for long.

Would it be possible to create a list in order to blacklist some artists, like old painters

ex: Gustave Doré: I reported him y'day for deletion and today he's once again added by oogboog, who can't even use google to add CORRECT information as he's not swedish but french

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9

There should be a warning message telling people this artist is "blacklisted" and thus should not be added

I agree with Haat here. I forgot that Doré was previously deleted (frankly, I had never heard of him anywhere before that). Not everyone know these old artists, so there really should be a blacklist.

Can we add non-metal bands to labels like we've been doing so for artists? Labels like Roadrunner have a notable set of non-metal bands signed like Slipknot, Nickelback, Hatebreed, etc.

What is it with you and trying to add as much non-metal information as possible? I have no idea why anyone would go on a metal website to find out what non-metal bands are signed to a label, anyways.

Well, yeah, but I have OCD. It kinda irks me that there are some bands missing. It feels a bit discriminating.

Not gonna happen. Add them to the additional notes, if you like.

1. How about deleting "Lyrical themes" field from all bands in general? It's obvious when we look at the band's lyrics. It's very common for each type of genre, just look, for example:

Death Metal = "Death, Gore, Rape, Murder, Serial Killers, Mutilation, Decaying"
Black Metal = "Darkness, Perversion, Anti-Christianity, Devil, Satan"
Thrash Metal = "War, Anger, Hate, Politics, Aggression, Anti-Religion"

Who need it, really? Most of the bands have these words in that field. Maybe for Christian and NS bands it's OK but we can figure it in the genre field.

2. How about adding "Split-up" field for all bands to specify the year when band exactly split-up? If the band formed and split-up many times just multiply this field. It's really a good information and it's better replacement of "lyrical themes" field.

3. How about adding albums without tracklists? What's wrong to see them in the main discography? Why it's still written in the additional notes?

4. How about adding band contact addresses (country/city/street/home/index) and emails in the links, for example (and make it possible)? Or adding a special section for it? Additional notes sometimes full of it and the band pages look awful.

5. How about specifying such genres as "Dark Metal", "Modern Metal", "Traditional Metal", "Depressive Black Metal" and "Atmospheric, Experimental, Oriental Metal", also Viking and Pagan? It's hard to figure out what all this means and it looks non-neutral. Why not Old-School Metal, Slam Death Metal, Goat Metal, War Metal then?

Admittedly, you have a point there. I always thought it was one of the fields most prone to nonsense/inaccuracies/subjectivity and in many instances adding little. But, while I'm personally often not that interested in lyrics per se, many, many other people feel differently and the field still has merit and accurate applications in general. I don't see any reason to remove it.


It's planned.


What's wrong with seeing them in the additional notes? Album entries have to have a minimum of info and an exact tracklist is obviously part of that requirement. There is little point in creating near-empty entries.


Not sure, may be planned. I don't think it's that clumsy to put them in the add. notes for now, though.


Dark metal is an ambiguous topic, but it is to some extent an accepted, legitimate genre. "Modern" is discouraged (at least by me) as it's often a vague, meaningless term, at least when used with nothing more than "metal" to modify. DBM is an accepted genre with a distinct sound. "experimental", "traditional" and "atmospheric" should be obvious. "Oriental" isn't used that much, but I guess it's acceptable. Stuff like war metal and specifying brutal death as slam is controversial as some don't consider them noteworthy deviations, so we stick to black/death and brutal death. Keep in mind that we want the genre field to be accurate, but also concise.

I think the idea of having a genre guide on the site has been thrown around occasionally, but so far nothing has come of it because of its scope and the endless bickering and disagreements involving genres.

To add on a few brief points to my colleague's response:

1. Sometime lyrical themes can come in handy, especially for users seeking certain themes (ie. pirates, vikings) and certain types (ie. christian vs. anti-christian, NS vs. RAC) of music. It does no harm to keep them.

2. One idea put forward is to change "Year of Creation" to "Years Active" and to allow a range of dates. So instead of just putting "Year of Creation: 2004" you can put "Years Active: 2004-2006, 2009-2012." We might look into implementing something like this in the future, but it's at the discretion of the programmers (Morri and HB).

OK! Thanks for quick reply. I think "additional notes" is also most unclearing field so please clarify what should be written in the additional notes and what is not and what's best place to place it (my thoughts after that):

1) See also Band Y - strange note, it's obvious if we want to look at other bands that related to the band X in the lineup. Is it worth to write something like "See also Samson" on Iron Maiden's notes?
2) Split-up in XXXX - yes?
3) Split-up because of [why they split-up] - yes?
4) Band X is a side-project of Band Y - yes?
5) Band releases/other releases - yes?
6) Band contacts - yes (but still better to have its own field)?
7) Band X previously was known as Y / Band Y change name to X - yes?
8) Not to be confused with [band] from the same country - yes?
9) On Band X photo from left to right: John, David, Paul, Bob - hm... I guess most of bands have their photos on MA but only few of them with this notes.
10) Formed in [month] XXXX - some notes contains only that, year of creation with a month qualification. Should it be deleted?
11) Band X formed by [Band Member] and [Band Member] in XXXX, then [Band Member] came in XXXX, they did their album in XXXX... - biography that almost obvious from lineups and discography. What kind of facts about the band should be written in their biography to not repeating other entries?
12) Relocated to [city/town/country] - it can be added in the location, right?
13) [Band member] now living in the [city/town/country] - better write it in biography?
14) The band name means/translates to [English name] - for bands whose names isn't English?
15) Official band name in [language] is X - should it be only in alt. name field or better stay in the additional notes?
16) [Band member] also playing in band X - I guess it should be deleted/replaced because it's obviously when he/she playing in the artist page?
17) [Band member] is a founder of [label] - should be written in the artist data?
18) Compilation appears - hm... one band can appear in very much compilations, it must be physical I guess; many bands from "non-metal" countries have it in the notes for example "Band X appears in the compilation "Brutal South American Noise Vol. DCLXVI" with the track X" - is it good information?
19) Band Y member appears in some live shows and did a guest appearance for Band X in XXXX - what about that?
20) [Mythical/unclear band name] means/refers to [Pagan Gods/fantasy books] - clarifying what's the meaning of band name I guess?
21) Band X is the first metal/one of the first metal bands of ["non-metal" country] - can we exactly know who was the first?..
22) Band X starts with playing [Genre], in the middle of their career played [Genre] and later they finally became [Genre] band - are the notes about genre changing/what releases are metal and what are not should be there?
23) Band X is all-female band - useful I guess?
24) Band X is not NS band/stand on anti-fascist positions - is it useful?
25) Band X calls their style XXX Metal - is it useful?
26) Band X have similar sound to Band Y - what about it?

Sorry for so much, the main question is what should be written and what's not.

Generally speaking, everything that elaborates on or adds to the info given in the various fields can be added to the additional notes. I can't account for every possible scenario, but everything relevant (and neutral) that doesn't have a place in any other fields/entry can be put there.

I'm going to directly address some of your points. The ones I don't address are implied to be okay to add.


That is mainly a leftover from v1. If the nature of the relation is not specified further and the band relation is already visible in the lineup it can be deleted.


No, that's okay. Everything adding to the year (early, mid, January, October, ...) is fine.


Again, it depends on whether it's just repeating information evident from other fields or not. "Formed by" is a worthwhile addition as founding members are not apparent from the lineup. Nothing wrong with a short bio, in any case.


Yes, provided the location field doesn't get too cluttered (unless there's a year/reason/etc.. provided). Otherwise it would be best to keep the current location and elaborate on the history in the notes.


Both should be okay, as it can be directly relevant for the band as a whole too.


I assume you mean different scripts, such as Cyrillic or Greek. The rule here is that the official/generally used version (usually the native one) be put as the main name and the Latin transliteration both in the alt. spelling field and in the additional notes. The band logo (on album covers) is a good indicator for which version to use.


If it's already in the band relations, yes. If not and the relation (his alias in the other band is unknown, for example) is not readily apparent, move it to the artist page. Some people also prefer to add him to the other band with "unknown" (or "unknown (session)") as the role. Be careful about guest appearances, they may already be listed in the other band's albums.


Yes.


Can be added. Digital compilations are okay as well. I use <b>Compilation appearances:</b> as a standard form.


Remove and add to the band/album(s) in question. If he isn't really a regular live musician and just filled in for a show, add it to the artist's trivia. Same if the album(s) he appeared on are unknown.


Can be problematic, yes. When you come across it, just leave it, though. Unless it's very obviously self-promoting nonsense.


Okay to add, unless it's really a 1:1 duplicate of the genre field with just a few more words thrown in. These two are good examples of worthwhile elaborations.


Problematic and potentially subjective. Sometimes also a remnant or part of some non-neutral band bio. Besides, we have the similar bands feature now. Best not to add it, but when you see it, don't worry about it. Unless it's clearly part of some sort of self-promotion.

Are you guys planning to increase the character limit for band names any time soon?

Should I delete artist links on band pages?

Yes. Move them to the artists' pages.

Artist index seems down again

Fixed.

Whatever you guys did to make Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis's name break on their main band page so it doesn't shit all over everything, could you do it for the collection/wanted list screen as well?