MeFiMu pony: replace MP3 files?

October 29, 2010 9:45 PM

MeFiMu pony inquiry: probably too hard to do but how feasible would it be to add functionality to replace the MP3 in a particular song post?

I and (I think) several other people use MeFiMu as a way of getting feedback on mixes, arrangements etc. Currently, every time you change a mix you have repost a new song, and then the discussion gets fragmented between the different posts. You also run into the 24 hour limit per post but that's another much less critical issue.


The 'evolution' tag allows us to connect different versions of the same song but what would be really cool (I think) would be the ability to replace the MP3 file (in the same way that you can replace on YouTube or Vimeo) so the discussion can carry on in the same place.

Is there any chance of this or is it just too hard, given that you seem to be using a third party player.

posted by unSane to Feature Requests at 9:45 PM (3 comments total)

We've discussed this in the past, and our feeling has been that the discussion happening on a page is about the thing that was posted—no matter what section of the site it is. We rarely edit the content of posts or questions after the fact, comments can provide updates. As with anywhere else on the site, it seems like updating the starting point of the conversation to something new would be a disservice to the people who took the time to comment on that thing. With replacing the file you'd be fundamentally changing things after the fact and people coming late to the conversation wouldn't be in on what happened before. We wouldn't allow a re-write of a post or question after people were discussing it.

I think adding a new track and linking to it from the comments of the older version would be a better way to go, and then someone just joining the conversation could follow the trail if they wanted to.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:58 PM on October 29, 2010

pb says pretty much what I would say. I'll note the exception that if something just plain went wrong with the upload—you accidentally put up a 64K version instead of 192K, or the upload got garbled, or some other similar this-just-plain-failed showstopper—then changing it would make sense.

But other than that, go ahead and upload the new version if you've revised your recording/mix somehow since originally posting, and link the old one, and explain what changed. It's no less visible than a replacement would be, and Music posts aren't some scarce resource that we need to be sure never to "waste" on an update.

If you're running up against the 24-hour posting limit, awesome: you've been busy. Wait until you're not being all prolific and shit before you bother uploading the revised version of your existing track. No one will mind.

You also have the option of hosting the revision of your old track somewhere external and linking to it in the original thread, if you feel that a brand new post would be unreasonable. If you lack hosting and don't like or don't know of third-party options for reliable long-term hosting, you can even drop me an email and I'd be happy to host a revised mp3 for you on my personal webspace.

I personally find the evolution stuff pretty interesting in general, even if the changes from one version to another are fairly small. That we have the capacity here to allow people to sort of display their working process of refinement of a song over time is frankly pretty exciting to me.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:29 PM on October 29, 2010

I always try to back-link to previous versions but it hadn't occurred to me to forward-link so that the new track shows up in Recent Activity for people who commented it.

I see what you mean about the ethos of not editing what was posted.

Cortex, I agree that the evolution stuff is interesting. I wish there was more of it.
posted by unSane at 5:40 PM on October 30, 2010