Subject: RE: Digitrad and Blicky
From:
Joe Offer
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 03:51 PM
We haven't come to an agreement what to do with the Digital Tradition. The last "official" edition of the Digital Tradition is 2002. I believe there were some additions to the DT online at Mudcat, but nothing substantial. You can get downloadable DOS and Windows versions of the DT by going to the About the Digitrad page on QuickLinks and then following the "Download" link.
Maybe we'll get around to updating the Digital Tradition, and maybe not. I'm starting to think we should leave the DT as it is, warts and all, as a memorial to Dick Greenhaus and the wonderful work he did on the DT with Susan Friedman.
In the meantime, I've been busy reviewing and labeling and crosslinking all the songs that have been posted. I try to make sure that the word ADD (allcaps) and the song title and author are in the title of every message containing valid lyrics (note, the song title in the message title should be in Title Case, not ALLCAPS). I also try to ensure that lyrics are documented as to source and songwriter name. When I'm satisfied that lyrics are accurate and worthy of use, I try to make sure that the song is in Digital Tradition format, with the title in ALLCAPS and the songwriter name in parentheses on the second line, then a blank line, then the lyrics, and then any notes below. If it's all good, I change the song title to Bold and a larger typeface. Please note: Please post only one song per message, with the song title in the message title - it makes songs so much easier to find.
Now, if you want to find songs, the best way to do it is to use the "Old Advanced Forum Search" in QuickLinks. That page contains most of our Mudcat search engines, but the one you want to use to find messages with songs, is the very first one, the "Subject" box of our old Forum Search.
If you want to find threads by thread name, the best tool is our Filter, which is at the top of the list of threads. Put a distinctive word in the Filter box and set the age back (usually to "all")
So, the old Forum Search searches by message title or the name of the poster, and the Filter searches by thread title. Since these search engines search only titles, they are fast and accurate and up-to-date. That's why I usually use these search engines.
We do have a much more sophisticated search engine, the "Lyrics and Knowledge Search" in the grey box on many Mudcat pages. The trouble is, this search depends on an index that must be generated periodically, and it's a bitch of a job to do and doesn't get done very often - so the searches in the grey box don't come up with messages posted recently (like in the last year or more). You will note that Max has added a "Google Custom Search" to the grey search box - that search is up-to-the minute updated by Google, and it can be quite effective.
But generally, I use the message and thread title searches, and they do just what I need.
Now, there's another valuable tool to be found in the Quick Links dropdown menu on most Mudcat pages - it's the Song Origins & Info database. Most of the songs in this database are traditional. Songs with a known songwriter usually are crosslinked under the songwriter's name, and I'm working with Max to try to get a similar Songwriter database.
So, that's the deal. The Digital Tradition is more-or-less frozen at 2002, and we've been adding and categorizing songs for 18 years since then. In general, the threads will contain lyrics that have been peer-reviewed over 18 years, so they're likely to be more accurate than the lyrics in the DT. We've encouraged people to post multiple versions of songs in the threads, and that can be frustrating to people who want only one, definitive version of a song.
One more thing - I've been trying to develop "Origins" and edited "DTStudy" threads for songs, as much as possible. Oftentimes, I form these threads by moving or copying messages from other threads, trying to ensure that the Origins and DTStudy threads have the best available information on a song.
Hope that helps.
-Joe-
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sj
