Des-Lab
06-29-2008, 01:06 PM
Hello fellow tapers. It's Sunday again and time for the weekly site updates. As many of you can see, a lot of changes have been made to the site since last weeks bulletin.
First, you will notice that all of the boards have been organized into categories (i.e. tape, music, etc.). I'm hoping that this will lend itself to better organization and ease of use when discussing and looking for a particular topic.
Second, you will see that several new sub-forums have been created including an all new category, "Mixing And Multitracking". That category is for anyone who wishes to talk about the large format studio machines. Or anyone who has a home recording studio type setup. In there, you can also talk about 'creative' mixing. For instance, Yours Truly has a twelve channel mixer in my system and I frequently use it to make creative mix tapes. When I say 'mixed', I am not referring to the typical hodgepodge of one song from this album and that song from another all compiled onto one tape, I mean actual mixing-like most radio stations and club DJ's do it: where two songs actually overlap one another; fade ins and outs, segues, and so forth.
I'm not [initially] expecting much out of those forums. But in a move to expand the site (but remain within the parameters of tape), I feel it appropriate to have a dedicated spot for those as well.
Next, I expanded the non-tape section into several sub forums such as vinyl, CD's, etc. Again, those are provided for convenience since almost all of it directly or indirectly ties to tape as well. But rest assured. It's not a sleight-of-hand attempt to try and expand beyond what the core values of the site are. If you think of some [for example] Japanese sushi restaurants that, as an added convenience for those who might come but not like sushi, also happen to sell steaks or hamburgers, you will begin to understand the thinking behind that decision.
I expanded "The Marketplace" board into four distinct categories: One each for buying and selling. Another for alerts-be them neat items for sale, great bargains for sale, BS listings, and so forth. And the last is for "what should xxxx item be worth if I try to sell/buy it? It should be pretty basic and self explanatory. Before, all four categories were stuffed into one board. And for purposes of buying/selling, I don't want those to be lost in a gaggle of "check this out" topics. Also, in that particular forum, I have enabled the ability for all registered users to delete their posts. That way I don't have to constantly monitor and moderate them. When an item sells, the OP can simply go in and delete it. It makes no sense to have items no longer for sale still shown as active posts.
Which leads me to my final point: Site access.
yes. Originally, I had it completely locked out to all non-registered users. I explained the reasons I felt that way. But after careful consideration, I decided to repeal that policy and allow all guests to view the forums, although they still cannot post or view attachments. I weighed the pros and cons of both. And decided that if I want to see the site grow and be promoted, I'm going to have to allow visitor access first. There is no altruistic motive here. I'll be quite frank and quite transparent. I want TapeHeads to eventualy become *THE* premier tape based site on the Internet. Up to and including bringing in some paying sponsors. But that's not going to happen if no one can "cold-call" check it out. I'm very aggressively marketing it on as many other boards as I can and my next step will probably be to buy premium search results on Google (how did you THINK they made their billions?). I'm serious about this.
Should I begin to see any funny business begin to happen, I will again promptly lock it up and reinstate the 'ticketed passengers only' settings.
Well I guess that's about it for now. It's certainly a lot. But if you'll excuse me now, I think I'm gonna sit down and do some recording myself. Got all my chores done for the weekend. And it's a perfect Sunday for that.
Take care y'all and thank you for those who continue to help build the site.
Matt "Des-Lab"
Sunday, June 30 2008
First, you will notice that all of the boards have been organized into categories (i.e. tape, music, etc.). I'm hoping that this will lend itself to better organization and ease of use when discussing and looking for a particular topic.
Second, you will see that several new sub-forums have been created including an all new category, "Mixing And Multitracking". That category is for anyone who wishes to talk about the large format studio machines. Or anyone who has a home recording studio type setup. In there, you can also talk about 'creative' mixing. For instance, Yours Truly has a twelve channel mixer in my system and I frequently use it to make creative mix tapes. When I say 'mixed', I am not referring to the typical hodgepodge of one song from this album and that song from another all compiled onto one tape, I mean actual mixing-like most radio stations and club DJ's do it: where two songs actually overlap one another; fade ins and outs, segues, and so forth.
I'm not [initially] expecting much out of those forums. But in a move to expand the site (but remain within the parameters of tape), I feel it appropriate to have a dedicated spot for those as well.
Next, I expanded the non-tape section into several sub forums such as vinyl, CD's, etc. Again, those are provided for convenience since almost all of it directly or indirectly ties to tape as well. But rest assured. It's not a sleight-of-hand attempt to try and expand beyond what the core values of the site are. If you think of some [for example] Japanese sushi restaurants that, as an added convenience for those who might come but not like sushi, also happen to sell steaks or hamburgers, you will begin to understand the thinking behind that decision.
I expanded "The Marketplace" board into four distinct categories: One each for buying and selling. Another for alerts-be them neat items for sale, great bargains for sale, BS listings, and so forth. And the last is for "what should xxxx item be worth if I try to sell/buy it? It should be pretty basic and self explanatory. Before, all four categories were stuffed into one board. And for purposes of buying/selling, I don't want those to be lost in a gaggle of "check this out" topics. Also, in that particular forum, I have enabled the ability for all registered users to delete their posts. That way I don't have to constantly monitor and moderate them. When an item sells, the OP can simply go in and delete it. It makes no sense to have items no longer for sale still shown as active posts.
Which leads me to my final point: Site access.
yes. Originally, I had it completely locked out to all non-registered users. I explained the reasons I felt that way. But after careful consideration, I decided to repeal that policy and allow all guests to view the forums, although they still cannot post or view attachments. I weighed the pros and cons of both. And decided that if I want to see the site grow and be promoted, I'm going to have to allow visitor access first. There is no altruistic motive here. I'll be quite frank and quite transparent. I want TapeHeads to eventualy become *THE* premier tape based site on the Internet. Up to and including bringing in some paying sponsors. But that's not going to happen if no one can "cold-call" check it out. I'm very aggressively marketing it on as many other boards as I can and my next step will probably be to buy premium search results on Google (how did you THINK they made their billions?). I'm serious about this.
Should I begin to see any funny business begin to happen, I will again promptly lock it up and reinstate the 'ticketed passengers only' settings.
Well I guess that's about it for now. It's certainly a lot. But if you'll excuse me now, I think I'm gonna sit down and do some recording myself. Got all my chores done for the weekend. And it's a perfect Sunday for that.
Take care y'all and thank you for those who continue to help build the site.
Matt "Des-Lab"
Sunday, June 30 2008