Music Talk and Charts and Challenges, Oh My!

July 2, 2008 9:52 AM

New stuff for Music! We've added a Talk section, a page dedicated to Challenges, and made the Charts more obvious.

The Talk section is something we've been kicking around for the past year or so. Where can musicians uploading music to MeFi talk about how they record, what they write songs about, and where could they collaborate? It doesn't quite work in MetaTalk because it's for a smaller audience and can quickly get too specific for the general site discussion that takes place here, so we made a new virtual copy of MetaTalk, but for just MeFi Music-related things on Music itself. You can post a limit of one thing a week to the Music Talk section.

The Challenges have been going well, giving people something to chew on each month and gracing fans of the MeFi musicians with tons of new material every month. The problem was, we didn't have anywhere to archive old challenges and show off the songs they've uploaded (each challenge has a player with just songs for that challenge). We created a dedicated page and will be filling it with the previous challenges as we track them down (each month we were wiping them completely so it's hard).

We've always had a Charts page, but it wasn't very obvious in the past, so we added that as a top level tab.

That's it, go forth and enjoy the new stuff.

posted by mathowie to MetaFilter Music at 9:52 AM (57 comments total)

Yay! This is awesome, thanks everyone!
posted by Jofus at 9:55 AM on July 2, 2008

Also, we've trained a quartet of ponies to wear straw hats and sing barbershop; they're available at reasonable hourly rates to interested recordists.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:57 AM on July 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

Yay!! It looks pretty swell.
posted by cashman at 10:03 AM on July 2, 2008

mathowie=patron of the arts.
posted by Cranberry at 10:11 AM on July 2, 2008

Very cool, bravo!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:17 AM on July 2, 2008

What's the hourly rate for the ponies to absolutely not sing barbershop?
posted by sleevener at 10:36 AM on July 2, 2008

Finally, I can call out frenetic on his dastardly lack of Theramin and Huaca.
posted by Plutor at 10:40 AM on July 2, 2008

It used to be $16/hr, but in response to price adjustments from our competitors in a nearby metropolis we were compelled to raise that price by 25%.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:41 AM on July 2, 2008 [3 favorites]

It used to be $16/hr

Same as in town.
posted by porn in the woods at 10:47 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just got a reproduceable database-looking error message when trying to preview a comment over in the Talk section.

I hope a pony dies every time that happens; I don't even make $20 an hour.
posted by sleevener at 10:52 AM on July 2, 2008

Oh damn - Like I need another place to nerd out about recording techniques. You guys rule.
posted by god hates math at 10:53 AM on July 2, 2008

sleevener, thanks for the heads up. It's working now.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:57 AM on July 2, 2008

This ROOLZ!
posted by ORthey at 10:58 AM on July 2, 2008

Cool. The Talk page is very awesome, by the way, I know I'll be hanging out there a lot.
posted by sleevener at 10:58 AM on July 2, 2008

Hey, thanks a lot for doing this. It's really a great addition to that part of the site.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:04 AM on July 2, 2008

Fantastic. Thank you very much, this is going to be a very, very good thing.
posted by micayetoca at 11:24 AM on July 2, 2008

This is awesome, mathowie and pb, thanks!

A minor suggestion: the contributions to MeFi Music should be changed to "n posts" instead of "n songs," since n now includes both MP3s and threads on the new Talk page.
posted by danb at 11:24 AM on July 2, 2008

WIN
posted by not_on_display at 11:34 AM on July 2, 2008

Thanks danb, I updated the wording on profiles and in the music rss feeds.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:35 AM on July 2, 2008

Really fantastic. Thanks.
posted by Eideteker at 11:36 AM on July 2, 2008

suggestion: on Challenge page, have the playlists pop-out-able.
posted by not_on_display at 11:37 AM on July 2, 2008

Talking about music is like moderating about architecture.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:50 AM on July 2, 2008

pop-outs ahoy!
posted by pb (staff) at 11:50 AM on July 2, 2008

Barbershop ponies (no straw hats though)
posted by PercussivePaul at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2008

I'd like to restate my reaction to this. I was kind of multitasking when I left my previous comment, and so it ended up sounding very, very mellow, which isn't at all fair after I had been bustin' the admins' balls about features like these. So, here, for the record, is what came to my mind when I discovered this thread earlier today:

NOOOOOOOOMAMMESSSSSSSSSSS..............qué chidoooooooooooooo, that's the best fucking newwwwwwwwwwwwwwws, pinche mathowieeeeeeeeeeee, qué buenoooooooo, al fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

and thanks again.
posted by micayetoca at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2008

Wow! Looks great. Thanks.
posted by Sailormom at 1:06 PM on July 2, 2008

Overdue revision: mathowie and pb = patrons of the arts.
posted by Cranberry at 2:01 PM on July 2, 2008

To be completely honest I actively oppose the arts, but matt issued a direct order in this case.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:15 PM on July 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Holy crap, things just keep getting awesomer and awesomer!!!
posted by snsranch at 3:01 PM on July 2, 2008

Hurrah for this and thank you.
posted by motty at 3:31 PM on July 2, 2008

HUzzah!
posted by davejay at 4:48 PM on July 2, 2008

Astro Zombie writes: Talking about music is like moderating about architecture.

Note: "Comments" have been disabled for this user's Music posts.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:50 PM on July 2, 2008

HUzzah!

Through subliminal capitalization of the first two letters of this archaic and largely disused shout of enthusiastic approval, davejay has once again indicated his support and endorsement of Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Your political activities have not gone unnoticed, comrade davejay, and I'll be bringing this up at the next General Meeting.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:00 PM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

NOOOOOOOOMAMMESSSSSSSSSSS..............qué chidoooooooooooooo, that's the best fucking newwwwwwwwwwwwwwws, pinche mathowieeeeeeeeeeee, qué buenoooooooo, al fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

this should be everyone's response when there's a new something or other on the site.
posted by sleepy pete at 6:24 PM on July 2, 2008

NOOOOOOOOMAMMESSSSSSSSSSS..............qué chidoooooooooooooo, that's the best fucking newwwwwwwwwwwwwwws, pinche mathowieeeeeeeeeeee, qué buenoooooooo, al fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

this should be everyone's response when there's a new something or other on the site.

Yes, but shouldn't it have more upside down exclamation points?
¡Qué niño tan fuerte!


Love the new improvements.
posted by chococat at 8:24 PM on July 2, 2008

By the way, on the challenges page, the current challenge is very hard to read with the plain text theme.
posted by dhruva at 9:31 PM on July 2, 2008

quartet of ponies

Break a leg, guys!
posted by ODiV at 10:45 PM on July 2, 2008

micayetoca: "pinche mathowieeeeeeeeeeee, qué buenoooooooo, al fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!"

chococat: "Yes, but shouldn't it have more upside down exclamation points?"

Umm... there's like 39 upside down exclamation points there... how many do you think this announcement warrants?
posted by team lowkey at 11:19 PM on July 2, 2008

the current challenge is very hard to read with the plain text theme.

Shift-refresh to get the latest CSS changes -- it should have looked ok from the start.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:27 AM on July 3, 2008

Ahh. There be updates to Music. Might this explain why I couldn't upload a file about 10 hours ago? It kept loading and loading and loading and....

I just said fuck it and went to bed. I'll try later today.
posted by chillmost at 1:16 AM on July 3, 2008

Are there ground rules for the talk page in regards to how specific or general (or "chatty," I guess) posts can be? That is, on the spectrum from, say, "do you have any suggestions for improving the intro to this song" to "so hey, let's talk about intros and how we approach them and we'll mention some awesome ones," is there a line drawn in there somewhere?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 5:00 AM on July 3, 2008

Does the Music Talk section have it's own RSS feed?
posted by NemesisVex at 5:53 AM on July 3, 2008

Karlos, I think both of those are reasonable points on the makin'-music spectrum.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:56 AM on July 3, 2008

Umm... there's like 39 upside down exclamation points there... how many do you think this announcement warrants?

Huh. I'd read those as the letter "i".
posted by chococat at 7:07 AM on July 3, 2008

Are there ground rules for the talk page in regards to how specific or general (or "chatty," I guess) posts can be?

Ya Karlos, I agree with cortex. Those both seem like kosher topics, completely.

However, I'd love a general banning of Quizes, Polls, Top 5 lists and the like. That would make me happy.
posted by chococat at 7:11 AM on July 3, 2008

One more (potential) issue: I tried posting a Talk thread immediately followed by a new song. I suppose there's a one-per-day limit on Music posts generally, but there's no indication that that's the case. I was able to upload the MP3 and fill out the title/description fields, but hitting "Post" just refreshes the page.
posted by danb at 7:36 AM on July 3, 2008

Ooh. Interesting and, yeah, I think an unintended consquence, danb. I'll poke pb.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:44 AM on July 3, 2008

Umm... there's like 39 upside down exclamation points there... how many do you think this announcement warrants?

Huh. I'd read those as the letter "i".

Unfortunately you are right. Emotion trumped good spelling, as it often does.

And here's another vote for preemptively banning Quizes, Polls, Top 5 lists and the like. I think the point can be made that we need to prevent that sort of chatfilter in order to preserve the often called "usefulness of the site".

A subsite like that (Talk, within the Music section) can be easily hijacked and turned into a very chatty and useless space for "the band you like sucks" type of fights, which would be a shame, as it was intended to actually be a useful resource for the people who use Music (and whoever wants to join in a constructive manner, of course).

We've been longing for this subsite for a long time, and it would be a shame to see it go down the drain like that.
posted by micayetoca at 8:26 AM on July 3, 2008

You should be set to post your song danb, I fixed that bug.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:56 AM on July 3, 2008

NemesisVex, here's the RSS Feed for Music Talk. I also added a link to the feed to the bottom of the Music Talk page.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:11 AM on July 3, 2008

You should be set to post your song danb, I fixed that bug.

Hmm. Looks like I'm still having the same issue. I'll try it again tomorrow.
posted by danb at 9:25 AM on July 3, 2008

It lives! Thanks pb!
posted by danb at 10:22 AM on July 3, 2008

One question: do the posts in Mefi Music close after a given period? In my opinion it would be best if they didn't -it can't hurt- but I was just wondering.
posted by micayetoca at 9:23 PM on July 4, 2008

Nope, they don't close. They're open forever like song posts.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:56 PM on July 4, 2008

WE NEVER CLOSE!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:20 AM on July 5, 2008

It's great to hear that. And pb, thanks again for the new section, I'm loving it and people seem thrilled (and it's only starting). I'm sure with all the good karma you'll accrue for this your next life will be a constant delight in a trouble free world.
posted by micayetoca at 4:14 PM on July 6, 2008

flapjax at midnite: "WE NEVER CLOSE!"

Has this eponysterical thing gone out of favor yet? I'd like to know what the kids think about it nowadays.
posted by Plutor at 6:49 AM on July 7, 2008