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chris	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 12:59 PM Right now there are 94 forums, which is excessive. I\'d like to combine a lot and get it down to, say, 20 or less. Any suggestions for how to reorganize things?
chris	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 1:08 PM Some ideas: Combine all Visual Art forums into the main one. Combine all Promotions forums into the main one.
evansorchid	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 1:15 PM Let's make it an even 100.
evansorchid	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 1:29 PM Well let's look at this.....starting at the top. Ninja conspiracy.....dump it. Post your videos here.....keep it. Staff announcements.....dump it, we don't have a staff. The Laugh at the spam forum....dump it The new Dmusic Charts.....dump it The Verbal Abuse forum.......keep it, we need somewhere to vent. Maybe you could put the Staff announcements here. What is an evangelical christian....dump it, NOW! Help....truncate it into one section. Music.......We do music? Maybe slice it down to Bass, collaborations, Drums, Gear Up, Guitar, Keyboards, Recording, Vocals. Take out Album Reviews, Banjo, Battle!!!, Beats, DMusic Radio, Gig Reviews, Submit Your DM Picks, The Spotlight. The General Forum.....keep Main, Interact, Thoughts for the Day....take out Celebrities, Comedy, Favortie Online Video, Poets, TV and Movies. Music Business......Just keep the main page. Dump.... I hate the RIAA, OMD, P2P, What is copyright? News.....keep the main.....dump everything else. Software......keep the main.....dump everything else Visual Art.....keep the main....dump everything else Promotions.....keep the main....dump everything else. Leflaw's Forum....DUMP IMMEDIATELY Boycott RIAA backup forum....Dump it. That's my suggestions......
ShadowMom	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 2:39 PM Combining the Miscellaneous Forum with the General Forum... The Spotlight, much as I enjoyed it, is no more, and it was mirrored in the news section on the front page. New DMusic Charts isn't necessary. DMusic Radio is not live anymore, but there is still a radio on the front page, with streaming playlists set up by users. Some of them have also departed, but the playlists are still there. Ask D1 about Gothic Nights.
chris	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 3:04 PM OK, some progress has been made.
chris	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 3:16 PM Not sure what to do with Visual Art and Promotion.
chris	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 3:24 PM Cleaned up/merged a lot of the Music subforums. We're now down to 62.
evansorchid	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 3:25 PM You were supposed to change Leflaw's Forum to Spike's Crib. Oh well.....
spyed	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 6:48 PM You know. Considering how light the conversation is... I'd like to see the forums condensed to ONE forum, plus a Suggestions forum. Would that really be so upsetting?
ShadowMom	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 8:54 PM What would that do to all the "main" threads?
Distilled1	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 10:28 PM is there a way to sticky any threads to the top like any that get the same questions etc?
JennyK	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 6:08 AM Does anybody actually read this before posting? I'm no by any means but I do believe these are good points: "You are welcome to post on our forums provided you follow a few simple rules. Feel free to ask questions here, talk about music, exchange information about hardware or software, or basically anything you want to talk about. We ask that you post "on topic" by posting in the appropriate forum. We do not allow threads created nor maintained for attacking, threatening, slamming, nor harassing other users, artists, admins, or DMusic in general. We also shall not allow spamming the boards, profanity in subject lines, subjects in all caps, nor continued off topic posts. Follow these simple rules and we will all be cool. Failing to follow them may result in your post being deleted and/or your account being disabled by an administrator (the ones with the gold lightning bolts)." Well, all I'm saying is that a recently resurrected thread is one of many that I would like to se gone for the above reasons. this is of course users, like me, having little or no respect for common courtesey and I hate moderators... I'm just saying.
zedsalt	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 7:33 AM Are we speaking, strictly, of esthetics, or are there technical difficulties due to the number of forums? The proliferation of forums is part of DMusic's charm, but categories which have a single forum, I'd agree, are a bit clunky. Or just a couple forums, for that matter. "Staff Announcements" and "DMusic's Favorite Song and Artist Award" could be placed into a forum about dmusic.com, along with all of the "Help" forum. "Suggestions for Featured Artists " would be a better fit for that forum, too, than it is for "Promotions". "The New DMusic Charts", "DMusic Radio", "Submit You DM Picks", "The Spotlight", and "Submit News Tips" would be a good fit for such a forum, too, I think. "Advertisements" could be moved into the "Classifieds: For Sale Or Trade" (and we probably ought to drop the word "Classifieds", since we aren't classifying the ads). "How to get your music heard!" ought to be renamed, in hopes that we may then get at least half of the posts there appropriate to the forum. "Post Your Videos Here" wouldn't suffer from being moved into either the "Promotions" or the "Visual Art" forum categories. "Ninja Conspiracy", "The Laugh at the Spam Forum", "The Verbal Abuse Forum", "What is an Evangelical Christian, Anyway?", "Battle!!!", "Leflaw's Forum", "Boycott the RIAA Backup Forum", and all of the forums under the "The General Forum" heading would be apt for an "Interaction" category. I think it'd be a good idea, if we do streamline things considerably, to give "Collaborations" its own category, though. I think we ought to do anything and everything we can to emphasize and encourage that aspect of the site. These are all just personal opinions, obviously, but I'd like to make a plea along with my suggestions: let's not hurt ourselves with this. If there are core functionality issues which could be solved by thinning out our forums, that's one thing, but let's not rid ourselves of anything positive (like our ridiculous number of forums) for no good reason.
zedsalt	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 7:40 AM Taking a good long look at the forum main page, it appears my last statement was already a little late in coming. It remains to be seen whether there are fewer reasons to visit DM, or if it's merely become more difficult to find them. Either way, we're going to have to get used to fewer listens.
ShadowMom	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 8:18 AM That might be one way to look at it, Zed. Another might be that we'll get an infusion of new blood. I choose to be optimistic. Merely condensing things a bit should actually make it EASIER to find things.
kingo	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 8:42 AM In all my years of coming here (granted, recently that's been very rare), I can probably count on one hand the number of times I actually browsed the forums by forum category. I always just use the list of latest updated threads. Categorizing this stuff that way is fairly useless, I think. Tags are a better way to go.
spyed	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 9:02 AM Hey guys, It would just be nice to see healthy conversation in a forum to justify its existence. The way these things should work is simple. A "blather" forum is created, and people use it so much to talk about one thing or another that the moderators create a specific forum to address the members who don't care about that topic and just want to return to blather topics. Back on the blather forum, people discuss any and all things, and moderators watch to see if there's another common strain forming with lots of activity behind it to create a third forum for, to encourage the behavior. This instills loyalty in to the new forums that are created, and gives life to the forum. Any time you open up forums, and you don't follow this formula, you have forums with inactivity and you have new and old members alike a bit overwhelmed with where to discuss things. So that's the spirit and reasoning of this process. Again, not interested in deleting the data in the existing forums, just want to see need for them before reintroducing them. Cool? When Chris gets around to it I want him to make those changes, and bring us down to just 1 forum so we can see how much conversation there is across the network per day! And lastly, the reduction of lots of features increases attention on the existing features; like listening to your music. So I'd get used to more views to your music not less.
spyed	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 9:04 AM kingo: right on!
evansorchid	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 10:29 AM Hmmmmm.....blather forums???......moderators???....one forum??? Ya'all can do what ever you want to do, and I'll probably still stick around.....but I don't see the point in criticizing or making a salient point on something that I don't quite understand. You've basically stated this One Forum/Blather Forum idea, but I'm still trying to imagine it........... So?...uh, you start of with One Forum.......is this what you had in mind???? __________________________________________ Moderator: Welcome to the One Forum.....can't you just feel the power?.....Whoa, is that Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background? Artist1: Yeah, ain't it cool Artist2: Yes, we love Spyed. He's the best. Artist3: Come and listen to my music at this link.... Moderator: Artist3 you've gone off topic. You have been warned. You post has been deleted. Artist1: Yeah, I just hate spammers Artist2: Yeah, me too. Artist1 So what were we talking about? Artist2: How cool Spyed is. He's the best. Artist4: Does anyone know how to plug in my Yamaha Keyboard Controller in such a way that I can interface it with both the MIDI capabilities of both pre-existing VSTs and an external mulit-effects processor? Artist1: WTF is he talking about? Artist2: Beats me? Moderator: Artist 4, I am creating a branch off the One Forum for other artists to discuss your question. If no one responds to your question within 48 hours then your post shall be deemed irrelevant and extirpated from the One Forum chronicle. A black mark shall be placed beside your account for the creation of an impertinent forum post. You could be subject to censure if you continue to create pointless chatter in the blather forum. Moderator: Blather on my minions..... Artist1: Yeah, ain't it cool Artist2: Yes, we love Spyed. He's the best.
ShadowMom	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 10:47 AM I rather like the idea. There were so many forums here that were never used, unless a spammer dropped in. And it doesn't prevent anyone from still posting their own thoughts. But it will keep those forums away where one user asks the same question that's been answered 50 times, or where absolutely no one else is interested.
ShadowMom	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 10:57 AM If I understand correctly, though, a moderator would decide which forums would be created. Threads, though, within the main forum? Would users still create those, or would there be no threads, just discussion? For instance, to use Spike's method: User #1 Starts a thread like "Looking for a Good Club in Chicago. Anybody know one?" User #2 Responds to that thread with "Yeah! But it's in Detroit." So if that thread got a LOT of responses, a moderator could make it a separate forum. If not, it just fades away. Is that the idea?
JennyK	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 1:23 PM Haha, I am so confused. I'm sure it will be good in the end. I just can't help but thinking a moderator in a DM forum is at risk of being just as hated and spat on as a ticket maid in Toronto. Any volunteers?
JennyK	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 1:24 PM Or is that parking maid.
JennyK	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 1:25 PM Meter maid? Ok, I'm done. See people, I don't drive.
caseyfallen	Date: April 8, 2011 @ 2:30 PM So now we need the moderator to make a thread about Toronto Meter maids?
JennyK	Date: April 9, 2011 @ 3:00 AM
MsGlockenheimer	Date: April 9, 2011 @ 7:20 AM There should be a Forum Thread completely devoted to Chickens.
zedsalt	Date: April 9, 2011 @ 7:45 AM So, if we want to see our favorite forums return, we should post as many things as we can think of which would better fit the deleted forums? Lord knows I can spin gossamer-thin logical threads in order to go almost completely off-topic; I do that unintentionally all the time. But it would probably be more effective to post in the least appropriate forum possible, right? That would likely get the most and quickest attention.
zedsalt	Date: April 9, 2011 @ 7:45 AM In the spirit of the post, I probably should've put that in the Cakewalk forum.
moam	Date: April 9, 2011 @ 9:29 AM On 9th Apr 2012, MsGlockenheimer said: There should be a Forum Thread completely devoted to Chickens. I approve of this message
evansorchid	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 8:13 AM On 9th Apr 2012, MsGlockenheimer said: There should be a Forum Thread completely devoted to Chickens. Oh Lord......please don't validate this carnal behavior with a thread devoted to chickens. I'll leave it up to you, Jon.....your choice......Intervention, incarceration or exorcism. We care about you Jon.....but this copulation with chickens fetish has got to stop.
JennyK	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 8:22 AM "but this copulation with chickens fetish has got to stop" So he says.
imemine	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 9:03 AM Sooooo, going forward would THIS be considered "off topic"?
evansorchid	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 9:17 AM Who went off topic? I was merely expressing my opinion about the creation of a Forum thread that would be devoted to a topic that others and myself might find distasteful. BTW Ime, your application for Forum moderator has been denied.
moam	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 9:32 AM I was totally joking I don't honestly expect there to be a subject dedicated to chicken But that would be pretty damn hilarious (sad) if dm actually went ahead and did that I would approve, as previously stated above
JennyK	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 4:38 PM Why would we need a chicken forum really. Just search through all of them and there they are. Between the lines, referenced, adored, used in poetry, in music, in letters of passion. It is an integrated part of DMusic's soul now and it is as it should. I say Chickenss should never be considered off-topic nno matter which thread they peck and cluck cluck their way into. Now that, dear people, is the essence of DMocracy!
moam	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 4:43 PM I love you JennyK
FraDonaghy	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 5:15 PM If ever any proof was needed that less forums are called for, along came the chickens (yet again) and settled the argument. Back in the days when we had 4 TV stations there was less choice but ironically more quality. Now that the market is flooded there is never anything worthwhile on, just filler and ads. Less is more.
JennyK	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 6:52 PM DMocracy for those that never did see the island. Oh, back to topic. As far as forums go.... :blankstare Ok, I give up. What about forums?
zedsalt	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 7:15 AM The one thing inarguably better about the good ol' days of three or four TV stations was that people spent a hell of a lot less time watching TV. "Appointment television", as they're now referring to it, was the rule rather than the exception. Who watched more than two to four shows a week? Well, you had your soap opera buffs, but the overwhelming majority of them were doing other things as "their stories" were on. I think DMusic has already done its part in freeing its users from its Facebook-shaming massive timesucking mental grip, as the more desirable musical interaction has plummeted, dragging the quantity of bathroom humor down along with it.
spyed	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 9:43 AM Seems like we are all ready to at least give a new approach a fair shot. I'll work with chris to change things up a bit and then we can see how it is.... We can always revert back! Looking forward to the change!
ShadowMom	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 1:09 PM
Israfel	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 6:23 PM Whoa. The forums have all kurfluncated on themselves and have left behind a mere shreadlink of their former selves. This will take a minute to get used to but as long as we have access to the Spotlight For....HEY! Just kidding...it was fun whilst it lasted. Agree, there were too many forums that were just hanging around gathering dust.
evansorchid	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 7:08 PM Oh, but at least they didn't touch the Subscriber Forums....right? There are so many dust bunnies in that corner of the site, my allergies would start to act up whenever I ventured a visit.
zedsalt	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 7:50 AM On 11th Apr 2012, spyed said: We can always revert back! That's good, because I...and everyone else who made any suggestions as to how to move things around...neglected to consider something: by doing any of that, we're blocking almost all of the internet search results regarding DMusic. There will still be word of mouth from the few remaining active members, of course, and any threads which remain in their exact original forum will continue to bring new visitors to the site, but for all but those few, DMusic has just dropped off the face of the Earth. The original categorization will have to restored awfully quickly if we want reports of our death to be greatly exaggerated.
ShadowMom	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 10:35 AM I don't know what you are talking about, Zed.
caseyfallen	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 11:21 AM His name is Zed and one day... he'll be dead Yo Yo Yo! Mom! I think he is talking about the fact that all the forums are archived on the interweb search engines. So D-music comes up from time to time in search engines for a randon phrase that was typed. Example: Man types: Do chickens eat Pickles? Google answers with results: 1. Dmuisc.com 2. Chickens.com 3. Picklesemporium.com If they are all deleted. D-music may not come up at all.
chris	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 12:29 PM We actually didn't break direct links to threads: http://www.dmusic.com/forum/comedy/16089 Even though it's in the general forum, the old link still works.
sunshine	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 3:46 PM uhm, whats a blather and who are you people? spike had a good take on the whole thing, except keep the poets. keep the poets or DIE!
sunshine	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 3:49 PM is a blather like a bath lather? or is it a soapy bladder? i think once it was suggested to give zed his own bitch forum, but he really doesn't bitch enough to get that kind of formal pedestal IMO. israfel or myself should have that honor, if anyone gets it.
sunshine	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 4:03 PM actually new people who own the site...a edit or delete your comment ability would be very nice. very nice.
Israfel	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 8:54 PM Why, thank you for the kind words, sunshine! Hahaha! Never realized I bitched that much that it would warrant my own forum but, hey, I'm game! Maybe we can team up and have the Bitch with Israfel and Sunshine Forum! I actually had my own forum once. It was called The Spotlight...HEY! Its still missing! Fun while it lasted though! A nary a chicken lover in sight there either!
sunshine	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 4:40 AM actually, maybe an advise forum. kinda like aunt agony! you don't bitch that much, i just knew you would take it as a compliment! just seems like when that word gets bandied about, you or i seem to usually be in close proximity! Have a great day!
zedsalt	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 7:40 AM On 12th Apr 2012, chris said: We actually didn't break direct links to threads Thank goodness! My apologies for panicking; I didn't realize it was even possible to preserve them. That makes for a much less desperate situation, but I'd like to reiterate my concerns of April 8, 2011 @ 7:33 AM, namely, that all of our bragging on â€œourâ€ site about what a special site this is, how like a family we are, etc., makes a lot more sense looking at the old forums page than the current one. It really was part of the charm of this place. And as anyone who has ever said, â€œA lot of people donâ€™t ever even visit the forums on indie music sitesâ€ has pointed out, the forums bring in a lot more people to the important content (the music) than the important content brings into the forums.
zedsalt	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 7:46 AM Speaking of charm, enough of this silly talk about isolating the bitching and moaning! Not only would that make it all an infinitely less entertaining read, itâ€™d make any criticism much, much less constructive. I mean, potentially constructive; criticism is only constructive when someone who matters pays some degree of attention to it.
Distilled1	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 9:12 AM I like it ! I always scrolled down to the recent activity anyway
zedsalt	Date: April 14, 2011 @ 7:42 AM That's where I always start, too. And I've only had about a half dozen or so threads so far where I had something new to contribute, but gave up on trying to find them. Helpful hint: if you can recall a specific phrase from a forum you want to interact in, search engines like Google, Bing, etc. can sometimes find the thread's original, logical address. Another little quirk to keep DMusic VERY exclusive. What fun! Knowing that DMusic exists is like being one of the six or seven people who have actually touched the Constitution in the last century. Sure, it got passed around a lot way back when, but that was before it was hermetically sealed.
JennyK	Date: April 22, 2011 @ 8:06 AM Well, after having it this way for a bit, I officially complain. Yes, I wanted the forum cleaned up but not like this. If there is no middle ground, I would prefer it as it was. End of official complaint.
DannyHowe2	Date: April 22, 2011 @ 9:50 PM On 7th Apr 2012, chris said: Right now there are 94 forums, which is excessive. I\'d like to combine a lot and get it down to, say, 20 or less. Any suggestions for how to reorganize things? I respectfully disagree , I like sub sects , This is the computer age everything is sub sect so if there is a problem with this in my opinion it is not with the number of sects and subs or even sub subs but the search .. incidentally I thought the lay out was very logical and simple , even I could follow it so it would be hard to imagine that anyone could not. I reckon that maybe the idea is that with so much diversity that the posting activity would be at a minimum as compared to a more generalized categorizations and maybe there is some truth to that I do not know but still there seems to be a bit of a price to pay for increased forum activities .. Beyond this though the whole frozen in time charts thing just is not going to work for anyone unless of course the idea is to destroy DM , then I believe you all just might be succeeding.
zedsalt	Date: April 23, 2011 @ 8:02 AM Yeah, after seeing what the severely reduced number of forums did, I believe pretty strongly that even the less severe simplifications suggested earlier in this thread (including my own) would be terribly ill-advised. Itâ€™s time our forums went back to looking like the forums of a â€œrealâ€ website.
Distilled1	Date: May 10, 2011 @ 11:31 AM then we should kill all these and have a Vb coded forum software that works and looks like the rest on the web .. I always thought we should have gave up this code and went to a Vb board
JennyK	Date: May 11, 2011 @ 1:09 PM I agree, I think. Either way; Angelo, Chris, have you figured out yet that this was the wrong way to go about things?
TameasDust	Date: May 18, 2011 @ 3:07 PM Actually leflaws forum was hijacked by me but then again I usually hijacked any forum and even started a few wars .. but being Canadian our guns are frozen for 8 months of the year so we go south and get in on our pals wars .. sorta a tradition since the civil war
TameasDust	Date: May 18, 2011 @ 3:10 PM One forum we really need is Flame Me You Ugly polka dotted Green Slop shooter We really need that forum
TameasDust	Date: May 18, 2011 @ 3:15 PM We dont need any of them useless music forums .. they belong on a music site like um .. DMusic .. yah dont need them here
Lamebrother	Date: August 2, 2011 @ 8:23 PM
TameasDust	Date: September 19, 2011 @ 2:48 PM And they accuse me of diggin up old threads

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