rolldabeats relaunched!

[hegglar]

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for the efforts, guys!!!!!

[droprecords]

Is there still the text file version for easy copy & pasting available, i can't see how to get to it from the items main page if there is? I used that a lot!

[maxstile]

Is there still the text file version for easy copy & pasting available, i can't see how to get to it from the items main page if there is? I used that a lot!

 

 

yeh this too, that was handy

[haste]

I never knew that was so popular!

 

It'll be re-appearing very soon :smile:

[0-AID]

Should be just underneath the header on your collection page. Are you not seeing it there?

 

Nope!

[yandexx]

Great new website! I really like it, thanks.

 

A few bugs:

http://www.rolldabeats.com/artist/dom_and_roland gives an error in Opera, I believe it should be & not just ampersand.

<li><a href="/artist/dom_and_roland">Dom & Roland</a> <a href="/favourite.php?a=del&id=57" class="tooltip" title="Remove">[x]</a></li>

 

http://www.rolldabeats.com/person/rob_sparks gives some errors on your side.

 

EDIT: first bug already seems fixed (I'm not sure anymore, please check).

[elhornet]

also if you click the ebay link for doms profile, the search it sends is for Dom+&+Roland

[vortex]

using firefox 3.0.6...no issues for me with the add to favourites etc :pro:

[.lm.]

sorting your records (by cat#, label, artist, title, format) in the collection page isn't working properly

 

so no-one else has this problem?

 

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7158/collb9.jpg

[haste]

so no-one else has this problem?

 

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7158/collb9.jpg

Yeah, you're right. Mine's a little wonky as well!

 

I'll look into it

[haste]

What a lemon I am...the excel export wasn't showing cos of some wonky if statements.

 

It's up there now!

[FuZion]

User-added release ratings

Rate your favourite, or not so favourite, releases using the stars on the release pages.

Any chance of being able to rate tracks individually. Albums, for a start, can be a mixed bag & I have some singles where one side I'd 2 star & the flip might be a 5 star. It's unfair to average out because the 5 star deserves better, but the 2 star doesn't deserve the boost.

 

Also, I have some releases where I know the month they were released. Would it be possible to be able to list releases as for example, June 2003, if we don't know the exact date.

 

Thanks, FuZion.

[hanswurst]

Any chance of being able to rate tracks individually. Albums, for a start, can be a mixed bag & I have some singles where one side I'd 2 star & the flip might be a 5 star.....

Same for the genre! i know that it is standard to have a genre attribute for an album but not for singletracks of an album. but this standard is absolutely nonsene. its 2009 and time for a change!

[thijs]

Would like to give full props to Haste and Phokus for keeping the site at the high level it is currently at.

[haste]

Any chance of being able to rate tracks individually. Albums, for a start, can be a mixed bag & I have some singles where one side I'd 2 star & the flip might be a 5 star. It's unfair to average out because the 5 star deserves better, but the 2 star doesn't deserve the boost.

I had thought about doing this and, yes, it would be possible. I'll just need to rewrite the way the scripts work and wouldn't take too much effort but would need a fair bit of thought about how to offer the option in the interface.

 

The issue here is how do you then calculate release ratings? Would it be as simple as grouping together all the ratings of the tracks on that release and working out an average for the release?

 

This would seem sensible but would make some releases have incredibly high ratings

 

For instance, this is a mix CD with lots of good tracks on it, most of which are likely to get rated pretty highly - http://www.rolldabeats.com/release/warner_...ng_uk/wsmcd060/ - but as an album does it deserve to potentially be rated as one of the highest in the database?

 

I can see the site working in this way giving some very misleading results. As you also point out some amazing tracks come out on releases with terrible b-sides. If the b-side gets a 2 and the main track a 5 the average rating wouldn't be that high whereas on Discogs, say, that release is 5 star rated and for good reason.

 

There's certainly a big advantage for rating individual tracks as we could pull out the top rated ones in the database but I do definitely want to have a trustworthy way to rate physical releases, hence why I decided to go with a release rating.

 

Perhaps rating releases is not the way to go at all and it should just be based on tracks.

 

Anyone have any opinion on the matter?

 

Also, I have some releases where I know the month they were released. Would it be possible to be able to list releases as for example, June 2003, if we don't know the exact date.

I think we do this already, don't we? If you know months of releases that don't have dates then please post them up

 

Same for the genre! i know that it is standard to have a genre attribute for an album but not for singletracks of an album. but this standard is absolutely nonsene. its 2009 and time for a change!

Genre is done by track, not release.

 

e.g.

 

http://www.rolldabeats.com/release/elektra/ekr220t/

 

if you add a genre to an album in the system is applies that genre to every track that is on the album. If you have different genres in a release then the release picks up and displays all of those

[hanswurst]

Genre is done by track, not release.

 

e.g.

 

http://www.rolldabeats.com/release/elektra/ekr220t/

 

if you add a genre to an album in the system is applies that genre to every track that is on the album. If you have different genres in a release then the release picks up and displays all of those

perfect! thanks again :smile:

[droprecords]

I never knew that was so popular!

 

It'll be re-appearing very soon :smile:

wicked, nice one. i'll get by without for the time being somehow! :biggrin:

[ib_su]

BIG respect! :pro:

[FuZion]

I had thought about doing this and, yes, it would be possible. I'll just need to rewrite the way the scripts work and wouldn't take too much effort but would need a fair bit of thought about how to offer the option in the interface.

I've had a couple of ideas here, I'll try to knock up a mock pic at some point, see if it gives you an idea or 2 to work on.

 

The issue here is how do you then calculate release ratings? Would it be as simple as grouping together all the ratings of the tracks on that release and working out an average for the release?

Yeah, I'd roll with the averaging idea & maybe showing the total ratings.

 

eg. Album average of 4.6 over 135 track ratings

 

This would seem sensible but would make some releases have incredibly high ratings

 

For instance, this is a mix CD with lots of good tracks on it, most of which are likely to get rated pretty highly - http://www.rolldabeats.com/release/warner_...ng_uk/wsmcd060/ - but as an album does it deserve to potentially be rated as one of the highest in the database?

I think using an averaging system, albums such as this would still get reasonable ratings. It'd be highly unlikely that any album would average 5/5 over time. In the end too, an album like that may be highly considered, but there's always a couple of duds that some individuals might have wished weren't included, holding the rating to a reasonable average.

 

Another couple of things you could consider would be not to allow ratings of individual tracks that are listed in mixes & only being able to rate the mix as a whole (But these may result in extra work on the database, by adding fields not in to state which releases are mixes, which are singles, albums or EP's). This could open up further by allowing to show the highest rated Single, EP, Album, Mix CD etc... As I say, that could be a massive amount of work due to the sheer number of entries.

 

Perhaps rating releases is not the way to go at all and it should just be based on tracks.

Further still, maybe opting for a kinda of iTunes method. Calculating an average for each album but if a user prefers, they can click over that rating to give their own overall. Say a 20 track mix ends up with an average of 4.8, but that person would rather give it a 4 because of the few tracks that let it down for them. This would obviously require a way of resetting this rating as someone might rate an album & later decide they'd rather use the averaging system.

 

Hope there's a couple of notes that offer food for thought here.

 

FuZion.

[geist]

I think the new look is fantastic, and takes the functionality of RDB up a notch.

 

So far I've been using the comments feature to type in a review as I record newly bought vinyl into my computer. I'm interested to read other people's comments, especially on tracks I have not heard before.

 

The integration with audio clips is a nice feature, and the layout of information just has a better presentation/look overall.

 

I can definitely see how this could make the website more accessible for a casual browser of the site. I'm definitely going to tell fellow dnb headz I know about this.

[haste]

So far I've been using the comments feature to type in a review as I record newly bought vinyl into my computer. I'm interested to read other people's comments, especially on tracks I have not heard before.

Thanks for the comments, really glad you like the new stuff.

 

We'll be making all these new features more accessible once more content has been added. The home page will feature latest comments, sound clips and things like that to go alongside the latest additions. Right now there's not enough in the system to do that but it's great to see that loads of you have been commenting away.

 

The more you do it the more we'll expand on the features :smile:

[skib]

nice update! :smile:

[haste]

I've had a couple of ideas here, I'll try to knock up a mock pic at some point, see if it gives you an idea or 2 to work on.

 

 

Yeah, I'd roll with the averaging idea & maybe showing the total ratings.

 

eg. Album average of 4.6 over 135 track ratings

 

 

I think using an averaging system, albums such as this would still get reasonable ratings. It'd be highly unlikely that any album would average 5/5 over time. In the end too, an album like that may be highly considered, but there's always a couple of duds that some individuals might have wished weren't included, holding the rating to a reasonable average.

I think the whole problem here is that no album, other than a compilation, will ever get a good average rating.

 

An artist album will always have a few tracks on it that are 2/5 (or even less) while a crappy compilation will possibly have every track being a 5/5 in some places. This also begs the question, what happens when not all tracks have been rated. A non-rated track would essentially show up as a 0/5 if it were included but to rate an album with an average but leave out a few of the tracks doesn't seem like a sensible idea either. Many people might only rate the best tracks and not the crap ones.

 

Another couple of things you could consider would be not to allow ratings of individual tracks that are listed in mixes & only being able to rate the mix as a whole (But these may result in extra work on the database, by adding fields not in to state which releases are mixes, which are singles, albums or EP's). This could open up further by allowing to show the highest rated Single, EP, Album, Mix CD etc... As I say, that could be a massive amount of work due to the sheer number of entries.

The tracks on the mix will be the same tracks in the database that appear on the 12s so not letting people rate these tracks makes no difference at all. If you mean that you shouldn't show an average rating for a mix then that would certainly get rid of all mix CDs but there are hundreds of albums in the database that aren't mixed and are just compilations. There is no easy way to differentiate these from an artist album or EP and I don't want to have to find a way to do this as it's way too much work and probably needs manual input to do the job properly

 

Further still, maybe opting for a kinda of iTunes method. Calculating an average for each album but if a user prefers, they can click over that rating to give their own overall. Say a 20 track mix ends up with an average of 4.8, but that person would rather give it a 4 because of the few tracks that let it down for them. This would obviously require a way of resetting this rating as someone might rate an album & later decide they'd rather use the averaging system.

You could certainly have a release rating at the top and then individual track ratings below for each tune. Like I say the interface would need to make it obvious that either is possible and my one worry is that this could be confusing. We've already seen some people get confused by stuff that we thought was fairly obvious. Would users really see the point of being able to do both?

 

This is actually my favourite option as it's the simplest technically and still leaves the most options open. It also means that we won't interfere with any ratings that are already in the system and could be slotted on at any point.

[FuZion]

I think the whole problem here is that no album, other than a compilation, will ever get a good average rating.

I can name a couple :wink: Sebas latest just blows my mind for example... Anywho...

 

The tracks on the mix will be the same tracks in the database that appear on the 12s so not letting people rate these tracks makes no difference at all. If you mean that you shouldn't show an average rating for a mix then that would certainly get rid of all mix CDs but there are hundreds of albums in the database that aren't mixed and are just compilations. There is no easy way to differentiate these from an artist album or EP and I don't want to have to find a way to do this as it's way too much work and probably needs manual input to do the job properly

Fair comments, I thought this option might be a massive lump of extra work.

 

You could certainly have a release rating at the top and then individual track ratings below for each tune. Like I say the interface would need to make it obvious that either is possible and my one worry is that this could be confusing. We've already seen some people get confused by stuff that we thought was fairly obvious. Would users really see the point of being able to do both?

 

This is actually my favourite option as it's the simplest technically and still leaves the most options open. It also means that we won't interfere with any ratings that are already in the system and could be slotted on at any point.

A separate rating for both tracks then release wounds like a fair decent way. I guess since it's still early days in the new format, the real test will be over time with more & more ratings being added.

 

FuZion.

[Ornette]

Excellent work, Haste!

 

I myself am working on a website and I know how incredibly complicated it can be, working on the different aspects that people can take for granted. The new update looks great and I look forwards to exploring it in the near future.

 

I possibly will have a couple of critisisms, possibly around the release display page. However, mostly did you not think to add the 'screenshot' icon to the listings, suggested by Iamdek here? I see the '@' collection icon is still there... a little redundant seeing you now have the '+' and '-' indicators on the left! Maybe this could be replaced, with the image indicator

 

 

I think the whole problem here is that no album, other than a compilation, will ever get a good average rating. An artist album will always have a few tracks on it that are 2/5 (or even less) while a crappy compilation will possibly have every track being a 5/5 in some places.

 

The thing you are talking about here, is the mean average. There are other averaging methods available, like median & mode. It is possible to work out an algorhythm that takes these concerns into account, it would take some head scratching that's all.

 

 

The tracks on the mix will be the same tracks in the database that appear on the 12s so not letting people rate these tracks makes no difference at all. If you mean that you shouldn't show an average rating for a mix then that would certainly get rid of all mix CDs but there are hundreds of albums in the database that aren't mixed and are just compilations. There is no easy way to differentiate these from an artist album or EP and I don't want to have to find a way to do this as it's way too much work and probably needs manual input to do the job properly

 

You could certainly have a release rating at the top and then individual track ratings below for each tune. Like I say the interface would need to make it obvious that either is possible and my one worry is that this could be confusing. We've already seen some people get confused by stuff that we thought was fairly obvious. Would users really see the point of being able to do both?

 

I think release rating and individual track ratings would be a great idea, I dont see why that should cause any confusion. Next to each track you would have stars and AJAX options to change rating. There's no reason why that would conflict with a seperate release rating.

 

As well, one good thing about a free standing release rating is that often, an album can be more than the sum of its parts. Relatively crap tracks can indeed work well as part of the overall flow of a album. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On LP is one such example - most of the tracks on that are pretty weak to be honest! yet as an album it is rated as one of the all time classics, heh heh :biggrin: So that might be an argument against having an averaged rating.

 

 

I could go on but I wouldn't want you to feel I was over-exerting my judgement. i am sure you have felt that way in the past! :wink: