[Morrigan's edit]
Post your feedback and suggestions about the site software here. Bug reports are the most appreciated, but any suggestions for future enhancements and feature requests might be taken into account.

THIS THREAD IS NOT FOR COMPLAINING LIKE A LITTLE BITCH. (It is also not the proper venue to discuss the forum software, or data entry questions unrelated to the software.)

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[/Morrigan's edit]


The new system looks great, but I have a little complain...

We are loosing a lot of info about non-metal bands. I mean: there are some bands (the ones that not are featured on the encyclopaedia) which we can not include on each musicians profile.

For instance, take Peter Steele.

Ok, we can link him to Carnivore and Type O Negative. Cool.

but we lost the info of him being on Agression or Fallout.

I think that the info on "lineup" should not be deleted.

The new bandpage is completely garbage. I use to say this quite often (and usally it turns out to be true, sadly): I probably visit this site less now. So boring, because MA is one of my everyday sites.

You'll probably find this is a bug Rivers.

I wouldn't be surprise if they just change it back to the old layout.

It looks great. It's a bit different, but just need some time getting used to it. I liked the old band page lay-out a bit better though, but the new one isn't bad. Just need some time getting used to it I think.

I do really miss not being able to see all the bands/project the members have been. You see some, but not all. That's the only real complaint I can think of.

I do like that you can add a specific line-up to each album. That's a real nice addition.

EDIT: On some bands pages the line-up it says "Nothing entered yet. Please add the artists - you can use the legacy lineup as help."
When you click on legacy lineup you get the list of members with all other project. If that legacy lineup would be the standard on all band pages I (and I think alot more people) would be very happy.

Wow what a drastic design page, i agree the band page looks crap now the old design is perfectly fine as it is, now its just weird places all..

First of all, I would like to point that this is not a destructive criticism at all. I have enjoyed this web page for year, and I fpund it quite usefull, and I have discovered lots and lots of people in fanzines, etc use it as documentation for interviews, etc. That´s why I posted my opinion here...

If this is an Encyclopaedia, we can not afford loosing valuable info.

The most important thing I miss is not being able to see all the bands/project the band members have been. When you enter the line-ups with the new system, you erase the "legacy lineup". So, as DonHoorn has said, I think we should ask the administrators to let the "legacy lineup" stay in all band pages (perhaps cohabitating with the new system).

What's your opinion?

And, as an example, look the old info you can read about My Dying Bride:

Current line-up
Aaron Stainthorpe - Vocals (1990-) (Sailors With Wax Wings, Disincarnate (guest))
Andrew Craighan - Guitars (1990-) (Abiosis)
Hamish Hamilton Glencross - Guitars (2000-) (Solstice (Gbr), Seer's Tear)
Lena Abé - Bass (2007-)
Shaun Macgowan - Keyboards, Violin (2009-) (Narcotic Death)
Dan "Storm" Mullins - Drums (2007-) (Sermon of Hypocrisy, Kryokill, Bal-Sagoth, The Axis of Perdition, Epitaph, Code, The Enchanted, Thine, Broken (Gbr), Mine[thorn])

Live members:
David Gray - Drums (2010-) (Akercocke, Salem Orchid (Gbr), Church of Satan, The Berzerker, Photographing Girls, The Antichrist Imperium)
Former/past member(s)
Guitars:
Calvin Robertshaw (1990-1999)

Bass:
Adrian "Ade" Jackson (1991-2007)

Keyboards:
Martin Powell (1991-1998, also violin) (Anathema (Gbr), Cradle of Filth, Cryptal Darkness, Sarah Jezebel Deva)
Johnny Maudling (Session 1998-2001) (Bal-Sagoth)
Yasmin Ahmed (Session 1999-2002) (Ebonylake)
Sarah Stanton (2002-2008)
Katie Stone (2008-2009, also violin) (A Forest of Stars)

Drums:
Rick Miah (1990-1997) (Abiosis, Khang, Lazarus Blackstar)
Bill Law (1998) (Dominion)
Shaun Taylor-Steels (1999-2006) (Vagrant God, Solstice (Gbr), Anathema (Gbr), Ironside)


And compare it with the info of the new version:

Aaron Stainthorpe Vocals (1990-present)

Andrew Craighan Guitars (1990-present)

Hamish Hamilton Glencross Guitars (2000-present)

Lena Abé Bass (2007-present)

Dan "Storm" Mullins Drums (2007-present)

Shaun Macgowan Keyboards, violin (2009-present)


Past Members:

Bill Law Drums

Rick Miah Drums (1990-1997)

Calvin Robertshaw Guitars (1990-1999)

Martin Powell Keyboards, violin (1991-1998)
See also: ex-Cradle of Filth

Adrian "Ade" Jackson Bass (1991-2007)

Johnny Maudling Session keyboards (1998-2001)

Yasmin Ahmed Session keyboards (1999-2002)

Shaun Taylor-Steels Drums (1999-2006)

Sarah Stanton Keyboards (2002-2008)

Katie Stone Keyboards, violin (2008-2009)



It's very very poor!

Artists have now their individual pages. I guess you can add all that info there. It's in order to make the band pages more easy to read I'd say, there's thumbnails for everything else you need to know, so you don't have a page flooded with too much information.

Yes, I guess you can add all that info on the artist's profiles, but I see two problems.

1) When you upload the new artist's profiles, you erase the "legacy lineup", so it's imposible to check it anymore to send all the info about avery single member in the band (and do that would be tedious, anyway).

2) I don't think the old pages were flooded with info. You can check a band with a single glance... Now you have to check current members, past members, live members... And the worst thing is that there is less info that in the old version...

The legacy thing really gets deleted? The old MA page is still up though. And less information? What information? I thought there was more.

Seriously? The site has been up for about 10 hours and already people are complaining. This new version is going to be awesome. Anyone who seriously thinks this design sucks needs to get patient quick or prepare to be in for a ton of disappointment. I for one, love this new layout and believe it will bring bigger and better things for the site. I love the way the pages look, and I love how simplistic they kept it whilst giving the artist and band pages dynamic as ever.

I can only cross my fingers that they give the advanced search function a specific date option for album searches.

Edit: I don't know if or how long a beta version of the site was up. So 10 hours is an estimation on when the post on the first metal archives came out with the link to V.0

As far as I know, yes, the "legacy lineup" is deleted:

For example, check the Napalm Death' page.

-You can see the lineup is in the new mode. You can not find the "legacy lineup" anywhere. If you check the "View update history" thing, you will find that someone has uploaded the new data, but in no case you can see the old "legacy lineup". If you try to edit the bandmembers, you will find a message: "If the line-up is incomplete, you can use the legacy lineup as help". Cool, but if you click, nothing happens, and if you try to open it in other window, you obtain a 404 error, "Page not found".

-And yes, it's less information. Although now we have info about the labels, etc (which is a reallu cool thing, I think), now we have loss all the info of the "legacy lineup". Now you don't see that Mick Harris (for example), also played on Anorexia, Pain Killer, Motherfuckers From Mars, Doom (Gbr), Scorn (Gbr), Drop Dead (Gbr), Martian Brain Squeeze, Clang, Fret, Lull, Monrella, Quoit, The Weakener, Certain Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Equations Of Eternity, Flux (USA), Hygiene, Matera, Praxis (USA), Trace Decay... (which all are non-encyclopaedia metallum bands), but are very valuable info.

That's my opinion.



-

I agree with you, what you mention is the undeniable good side of the new web page... But we are discussing other topic: the loss of information.

Look at the bottom, it is there.



Even if V2 lost all the legacy info, it still doesn't support less info. MA started up empty, if info is missing people will fill the gap. It's not because someone didn't entered some info yet that the website support any less info. MA was always in a "never finished" state, info needs to be continuously added or modified, that's how encyclopedias work.

I like it!

At the bottom? In Napalm Death' page?


And about the second thing you comment:

During five years I have uploaded rare info to the encyclopaedia that I was founding on rare zines or magazines or stuff. If the info of the "legacy lineup" it's erased, much of that info will be erased too. And, to tell you the truth, and speaking by myself, I will not be able to found much of that info again. And I think it's a silly thing to reconstruct info when it could be easily preserved if you maintain the "lineup legacy".

Click lineup, click legacy lineup, scroll down.

Where?

http://img703.imageshack.us/i/snapshot394.jpg

I kinda wish it was done different as well. old page was just better in seeing everything in a glance. I don't like having all the extra unnecessary clicks to see all the information. it actually makes me less interested in seeing all of it.

and the font size is pretty damn small. I'm not adjusting my display settings just for this single site. and it's not that i have bad eyesite or anything. it's just really small.

Oh sorry, you need to click edit first.

My apologies, I didn't look far down enough to see what was being discussed in specific. I just take it with the mindset of "it's a work in progress". Whatever flaws there may be, will soon be fixed.

Ok, I click edit, and yes, it apperars a link to "legacy lineup", and I click on it but... http://209.59.186.200/~metalarc/lineup/ ... y%20lineup

No problem, I want the best for the encyclopaedia, like everyone of us

Fuckin' love it.

The ability to just see a bands albums and ignore the rest of the discography is wonderful.

Haters gonna hate.

Some people have no idea what goes into making a website like MA.

honestly knowning about creating a website has nothing to do with if an earlier version is viewed in a better light because of the ease of use and simple layout of everything.

All the metal bands that an artist has been in will appear in line-ups once that artist has been added to all these bands. For non-metal bands, these could be added to the artist's trivia section.

V2 is simple to browse and the layout is a lot better and more organised. It's just new and different, so people need to get used to it. In a few weeks I suspect nobody will miss v1.


Yes. Also, Rivers, the "legacy lineup" isn't deleted. It's just no longer shown on the actual band page if some members have been added, but it can still be used as a reference on the lineup edition page. But, some have said that it could be useful to have it on the band page still, so we'll probably put a way to add it back. Still, it's not going to be there forever: once all the relevant artists have been entered for a band, and all these artists have been added to every band they participate in (and their non-metal bands can be listed in their respective trivia section, as HellBlazer said), the legacy lineup will become obsolete pretty fast.

I don't know where else to suggest this since the other big thread isn't for feature requests, but why can't the site scale to the user's screen resolution like the forums do? I don't know the technical details behind how this works but most sites do it and having a site only use a small strip down the middle looks kind of tacky in 2011.

You may have a reason for not doing it, I don't know, but it's just a thought.

well my problem is the actual font size used on the archives. it's way too small.

also I just happen to think it's much more unnecessary clicking to see shit but, whatever on that. I don't care as much about that.


edited down to what I was refering more too.

I'm looking forward to the "similar artists" feature once everything gets going.

Don't be stupid. Be a smartie.

Open the legacy lineup in two additional windows, one for the current lineup and another one for the past members, and add them all at one go by copying them from window to window, and you won't miss a thing.

Sheesh, use some common sense, dudes...

Yeah, I use common sense, but... do other use it? That's the point I'm afraid.

I already don't miss it. The layout is much more practical, returning to the old version and it fells more... cheap? Just the ability to browse through albums or eps only is a feature I'm very, very happy with. Makes browsing through albums of bands with huge discographies (Sabbat, Motorhead) much less of a pain. And it doesn't stop there.

Rule #1 in life: be quicker than the retard.

Haha.

Nice one. Anyway, I supose there is no problem expresing my opinion.

Definitely not. You have a good point there.

Trust me, the data is going to be just fine in two months from now. We have some very hard-working mammals around, with plenty of knowledge and drive.

As for the "past line-up" page showing a huge unorganized list. Well, the good thing is that that can be fixed in the future just by changing the php code. So it might be ugly now, but making it better won't require us to manually update a million pages. It'll probably come in a round of improvements later on.

I can already see the mess caused by the fact that the line-up should be re-added by users in V2 for instance check Cannibal Corpse's page.