Separation of Music and B.S.

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: ard mhacha
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 01:27 PM

Brilliant solution, there are some people on the present BS threads that sedom , if ever, contribute to a music thread.                                                             The only music they like to hear is the rattle of a war-drum. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 04:55 PM

"...I will not venture there."

That a promise?

Myself, I quite like singing the odd song in the talkie bar, and having the odd discussion in the music bar. But the bouncers haven't ejected me yet.

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:06 PM

Ah, GoyleGarg, you keep declaring your love for me and who knows what may come of it?!

Rick, I was just sorta quoting you, darlin'...as I thought I'd read a couple of comments by you in BS threads saying you didn't feel guilty about being in BS threads now?*bg* No matter, glad you're feeling better.

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:49 PM

Hi kat. You know I guess facial expressions are soooo important. I was completely joking both times. Funny, but I get my jokes all the time.

But...I know what ya mean.

So what's this about you and Gargoyle being an item? It's about time!

Cheers

Rick (all posts comprised of 78% humour)

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 06:09 PM

It was the deadpan expression that didn't give you away! Reminds me of my Uncle...unless you watched for a tiny twinkle, even a hint of a glimmer in his eye, one never quite knew until later that he'd been pulling one's leg.:-)

About time, eh? It has been a rather long time, hasn't it? I think this might really work.

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: lamarca
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 06:45 PM

I've been off the boards for a LOONNNGG time - came back to look at Jonathan's Obit and found the new arrangement. I think it's great!

I've gotten involved with another discussion board. There are several things I really like about it:

1. It's divided into different "rooms" divided by topic, each with its own listing of threads in that room. There's a General room where threads both on and off topic are started. There's a "Games" room where threads like the Mudcat Tavern, virtual stories, etc take place. There's a "Tech Help" room. There's a separate forum for Political Discussions, to prevent arguments starting on the main board. You get the idea.

2. There's a volunteer moderator for each room who only steps in if he or she gets personal messages complaining about a flame war starting, or a grossly inappropriate thread. The moderator can "close" the thread to further posts.

3. Each thread is labelled with the title, the nom-de-Web of the person who started it and how many posts it has - with a counter to show you how many new posts have been added since you last logged in (a feature for members only). This is great, as it lets me click on threads started by a friend, skip over the sixty zillion threads started by the same person, etc. if I so desire.

4. In each Room, you can set how far back you want to see the threads. For Rooms where there isn't a lot of posting, you can set it for 1 week; for the General Room set it for 24 hrs, etc.

I would visit Mudcat more often if there was a similar structure - a room for Lyric or Tune Requests, a room for gig and CD release announcements, a room for Games like the Tavern, a Social room (it sounds so much nicer than "BS") for non-music discussions among our social group, and a general Music room for chat about everything vaguely musical - song origins, neat parodies you've discovered or written, instrumental techniques, 12 step programs for instrumentoholics, musical activism re PELs, etc.

Barring that (and I know it would mean a hell of a lot of work for Max, Jeff, Joe and all the other hard-working folks who try to take care of this unruly kingdom), I really like the separation of BS. How does it work, though?    Is it totally dependent on the honor system - counting on the person who starts the thread to label it BS? Does someone transfer a thread that is started in the non-BS section inappropriately?

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 07:55 PM

I can take a stab at the last bit. I'd guess that there is a "tag" which we don't see. If a thread is started as "BS:", it gets set automatically, on starting the thread but otherwise it isn't set. The site admins can later change the setting of this "tag" if need arises.

In other words, it is initially an honour system but can be over-ridden at any time.

As for the rest, and I'll in no way argue about it being right for MC, the common approach is to have forums (or rooms) and categories on top of that. That way, you can say have a general approach, eg. music or subdivide music as well as divide into rooms with a moderator. How you choose to display is another matter, most go for the "room" aproach but perhaps the split view here is better for MC, personnally, I like it.

I'm feeling nervous here as I don't want to be thought of again as putting out rows or criticisms when I'm only trying to answer a question but if you are interested, try my search (here. Just put "Jon" in as a user name and play around with changing the "search in" list boxes (the second takes priority) before hitting "search" and you should get (thread wise) anything I posted, anything I posted musical or even find anything I posted on musical instruments.

Jon (only trying to share information and I think that bit illustrates at least part of a commonly used structure)

Subject: RE: Separation of Music and B.S.
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 25 Mar 03 - 08:02 AM

I just want to correct my "stab". I had a look and found in the create thread "view source"

SELECT NAME="ThreadCategoryID"
OPTION VALUE="1"
OPTION VALUE="2"Lyrics Request
OPTION VALUE="3"Lyrics Add
OPTION VALUE="4"Tune (melody) Request
OPTION VALUE="5"Tune (melody) Add
OPTION VALUE="6"Chords Request
OPTION VALUE="7"Song Origins
OPTION VALUE="8"Review
OPTION VALUE="9"Obituary
OPTION VALUE="0"BS / non-music
OPTION VALUE="14"Folklore
OPTION VALUE="13"Technology

I hadn't realised but each thread now has a "threadcategoryID" that can be changed. Mudcat under the surface is really a multi-forum system now!

Jon