www.punk-archives.com

[Pete]

[Yeah, it's not a real site. Yet. But I assume you all know of metal-archives.com and it's extensive listing of metal bands.

Why is there no such site on punk bands?

I was thinking, someone on here has to have the technical skill to set up a database like the one MA has, and someone else (maybe even me) must have the cash to get some server space and the domain name. Then we could all, the MX punks, help out and add bands, information, reviews, discographies and whatever. Plus get our friends involved, and make the site just as huge as MA.

Just a though. What do you think?]

Discuss.

[AIRIC]

I think this would be an excellent idea and I bet some of the punX in here would even throw down some money.

[Pete]

My only issue is that I know jack shït about making PHP/databases. I could host and manage the site, but I couldn't develop it.

[AIRIC]

I think Reiner may know some stuff. Also, you seem to know people in the Pit and I'm almost positive there's some people in there that know that stuff that would be willing to help us out.

[Pete]

Ah, that's true. I'm also involved in a bunch of e-zines, and they have nifty PHP thingies, I could check with those people too.

[Pete]

Great! Seriously, all I need is a template to start working from, and then we'll just go from there addaing bands and whatnot.

[KingOfSka]

I think this would be an excellent idea and I bet some of the punX in here would even throw down some money.

I would, if the content was to my liking. :)

[Pete]

The only problem, is he's not really a punk fan. He's into metal, but lately, I've gotten him into hardcore. I'm waiting for him to get home.
Yeah, at least pitch him the idea.

Obviously we'd feature hardcore too, even metalcore and grindcore would be on it.

I would, if the content was to my liking. :)
Obviously most kinds of ska, particularly punk-ska and/or skacore, would be more than welcome on the site!

[KingOfSka]

Obviously most kinds of ska, particularly punk-ska and/or skacore, would be more than welcome on the site!

Haha. Even if it was just punk, I'd still be willing to donate.

[Brain Toad]

This is actually a pretty good idea Pete. I'd love to contirubte some bands and it'd a much better resource then our own Punk Band List. I actually thought to turn that into a site.

I don't know anything about PHP and databases though, I've been meaning to learn but don't have time. As for hosting, I recommend Serverselect, Eric runs a good ship and it's cheap.

[albert_bass]

^
Hahaha, don't have time, but you post here don't you? Heheh that's the old excuse.

I'd gladly collaborate with the design and all that but I haven't had time to learn PHP or databases yet :P

But I support the idea and be sure I'll contribute to that site as much as possible with writings. I hope this goes on, because I'm sure it would be successful

[Brain Toad]

^
Hahaha, don't have time, but you post here don't you? Heheh that's the old excuse.

I'd gladly collaborate with the design and all that but I haven't had time to learn PHP or databases yet :P

But I support the idea and be sure I'll contribute to that site as much as possible with writings. I hope this goes on, because I'm sure it would be successful

Posting here takes no effort.

Learning a programming language would take a bunch of studying and I already have to study for school, etc. So it's a perfectly valid excuse.

[albert_bass]

I was just f'ucking around darling.

I'm too lazy to learn it too with all the studies and **** but hopefully I will someday.

What's true is I'd really like to see this become a reality and I'll try to contribute and even donate.

[Brain Toad]

It's really easy getting people to donate I've discovered from my own experience, I'm sure we'd have no trouble raising the money to maintain hosting and a domain name.

[Matt?]

really cool idea

[sweboy]

Online punx unite!

Great idea Petahontas. Are you thinking sputnikmusic style, submit and set in stone, or wikipedia style, where other people can edit the material?

[Flagjacket]

I'd help. We can take this beyond the MX community and start looking in other punk communities for online support.

[DaveToopes]

I would do my best, I'm not great with computers though. If I ever have some money I may do a donation.

[REINER]

I doubt I'd ever be able to create and maintain a database, especially for something this large, but...

There is always the Wiki format you can use, especially since it's free to use. I thought about starting a webpage using that, but I never bothered to read up on it and how it works. But since it's free you can probably configure it yourself with maybe some help on forums. That is if you go the community driven way. Or you could just grant access to certain people.

[ThisUserIsAPipebomb]

I'm definetly up for contributing to this site if we get it up and running.

[Brain Toad]

I doubt I'd ever be able to create and maintain a database, especially for something this large, but...

There is always the Wiki format you can use, especially since it's free to use. I thought about starting a webpage using that, but I never bothered to read up on it and how it works. But since it's free you can probably configure it yourself with maybe some help on forums. That is if you go the community driven way. Or you could just grant access to certain people.

A wiki format would be a pretty good idea, easier than database work. Just got to watch out for page vandalization.

[albert_bass]

A wiki format would be a pretty good idea, easier than database work. Just got to watch out for page vandalization.

It's funny because I was out, and thought about this thread and I came up with the "idea" of a wiki.

Now I came here to say it and found it's already considered. I think it would be nicer to have a PHP page, with a database but a wiki is a good b-plan.

[One Step Beyond]

Don't run it like wiki, that will just lead to disaster with people hatin' on cerain bands or disagreements about certain topics. THere's going to be so many submissions that we'll never be able to catch all the vandalists.

If my friend helps with this at all, I will gladly pitch in some cash for it, since I'd be sure of it's security and such then. I asked him about it, and he said, "I'll look into it when I'm done with this" and left it at that. He asked for links to MA and stuff to, so I know he's checking it out. I really hope this takes off.

[REINER]

If you do use the wiki you can just have it so an admin has to validate each member who joins, so that way you can filter who joins. Just remove the join function and have it so an admin has to setup an account for someone, that way only trusted people will edit it.

I think community driven is the way to go. Even though there will be vandelism, just have a report button and make backups so it can be backed up.

[Brain Toad]

Don't run it like wiki, that will just lead to disaster with people hatin' on cerain bands or disagreements about certain topics. THere's going to be so many submissions that we'll never be able to catch all the vandalists.

If my friend helps with this at all, I will gladly pitch in some cash for it, since I'd be sure of it's security and such then. I asked him about it, and he said, "I'll look into it when I'm done with this" and left it at that. He asked for links to MA and stuff to, so I know he's checking it out. I really hope this takes off.

With wiki you can set it so only registered users can edit it, and most vandals won't take the time to register just to write something stupid about emo.

[One Step Beyond]

Ah, ok. I wasn't too sure how it worked. Having it backup everything seems like it would take so much more server space though.

[Brain Toad]

I don't think it takes that much room, I'm not sure though. I know something the size of Wikipedia probably takes ****loads.

[Times Ten]

http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Ecch223/mainpage.html


That page has so many 80's hardcore punk bands.

[Rise Me Up]

I'd donate.

[Pete]

Online punx unite!

Great idea Petahontas. Are you thinking sputnikmusic style, submit and set in stone, or wikipedia style, where other people can edit the material?
I'm thinking Metal-Archives style, that it's free to contribute as long as you're registered/approved by moderators. The moderator team would most likely be people from this site, if we decide to go through with this as a united MX punX front (oi oi unity).

If you do use the wiki you can just have it so an admin has to validate each member who joins, so that way you can filter who joins. Just remove the join function and have it so an admin has to setup an account for someone, that way only trusted people will edit it.

I think community driven is the way to go. Even though there will be vandelism, just have a report button and make backups so it can be backed up.
Yeah, if the wiki system has that function, it doesn't sound half bad! I'll check into it this afternoon.

Wizard; Keep checking with your friend though. It seems to me that a custom made PHP database would still be the preferred way to go.

[vocman]

punk archives would be handy. I think the metal archives are great, but it's a shame that other musical genres don't have this kind of sites...

[Unban Me Says Cameo]

I would be more than willing to upload a bunch of my cds to go under bands.

[One Step Beyond]

I don't think they'f want to have songs uploaded on the site. They'd probably just list the group's disco, and posisbly a snippet of a few songs if there is enough time and space for that.

[Pete]

I think, if we're gonna reach the level of MA (and have 50,000+ bands), having audio on the server would be unpossobly. But links to audio sites, obviously.

/me goes to check on wiki engine

[Pete]

How does this kinda thing look to you?

http://www.rebukepunks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Rebuke

[vocman]

yeah, that's nice...

[One Step Beyond]

I personally don't really like wiki's layout.

[Pete]

Me neither, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to switch skin/edit the skin :(


Wait, do you mean the colors and shït, or the actual interface? Because stylewise, I could probably learn to change it, but the way the site functions is pretty set in stone, I'm afraid.

[One Step Beyond]

Stylewise. The funstioning is fine. I just think that some things should be moved around to better suit our needs. It's too encyclopedia-esque, if that makes sense. :-/

[Pete]

Whoa, changing the places of things... Major customization... I can barely change between the already included skins. I'm gonna change the default skin to 'simple', and change the colors (black background and white text instead of the other way around) if I can manage to get that to work.

[Unban Me Says Cameo]

I know I'm not designing it, but I'm just interjecting my opinion of actually really liking wiki's interface and design. It's very simple and very clean and very organized.

[Biscuit_box]

Why are there strikes through some of the words? It looks and is a little annoying.
Use www.pimpwebpage.com for a simple way to make the site look a bit more colourful.
If you're planning to make this a big thing then you'll need to find someone with a good knowledge of the language of the format for this site (I dunno if its java, html etc..)
This is an excellent idea. Maybe people can request bands music, songs etc.. somewhere and coincide it with the mucho punko blog or mailing list. Make it a hybrid of all things usefull

[Pete]

I changed the default template, but it looks even worse, so screw that - wikistyle, here we come.

[One Step Beyond]

Yeah, like Biscuit said, if we're going to make this really big and sucessful, we need to wait until we can get someone who is completely knowledgeable on the coding language and stuff. I'll ask my friend again later, he didn't seem to take off with the idea like I expected he would.

[Pete]

Yeah, a searchable PHP database would r00l, although a categorized wiki might work.

[ThisUserIsAPipebomb]

I think Wiki wouldn't be too bad. It would grow at a much quicker rate I think because punk users could just get on whenever and update things. It should be a restricted wiki style though so strangers can't get on **** things over. Plus, if we have wiki we'll need people to mod all the changes and approve them so people don't put in bull ****.

[Brain Toad]

I think Wiki wouldn't be too bad. It would grow at a much quicker rate I think because punk users could just get on whenever and update things. It should be a restricted wiki style though so strangers can't get on **** things over. Plus, if we have wiki we'll need people to mod all the changes and approve them so people don't put in bull ****.

Having mod approval would destroy the freedom of Wiki. I agree we need to let only registered users make changes and a mod or just a regular responisbile user can make sure others don't screw up pages. What's great about wiki is all the backups so even if someone ****s up the whole page, it can be backed up to its previous form.

[ThisUserIsAPipebomb]

Having mod approval would destroy the freedom of Wiki. I agree we need to let only registered users make changes and a mod or just a regular responisbile user can make sure others don't screw up pages. What's great about wiki is all the backups so even if someone ****s up the whole page, it can be backed up to its previous form.No I didn't mean a mod approves anything before it goes on, just a mod whos updated when changes are made and checks them to ensure they're right.


That's how wikipedia rolls.

[One Step Beyond]

If needed, I could mod just to review changes or something. I'm online 24/7 already, and I need something productive to work on, besides trying to mess with that local forum we use to have. :-/

Edit: Fixed typos.

[ThisUserIsAPipebomb]

Yeah modding would just be checking updates and making sure they're not total bull, and if they are, resetting the back up.

[Unban Me Says Cameo]

No I didn't mean a mod approves anything before it goes on, just a mod whos updated when changes are made and checks them to ensure they're right.


That's how wikipedia rolls.

Actually, most wikifolk just check the history pages for recent changes and see if the changes violate rules. There are a group of designated 'mods' but in all fairness, they don't do much outside of cleaning up.

[Pete]

Okay, so who's on board for using the wiki backbone on the site? If a lot of people are, we could just register a .tk-adress for now and then move the whole wiki onto a server of its own eventually.

[Brain Toad]

I'd use something other than .tk personally, that site has way too many ads and the whole redirection thing is annoying as ****.

[clustifux]

punkrock.org -A listing of punk bands, lables, distro and more. Its changed a lot, and i dont know if its like the metal archives. But it used to have just listings of punk bands and you could browse them by name for a link to their website.

[MILF Hunter]

I agree with Nick.

.tk websites are so crappy.

[Pete]

Yeah, I know. I have absolutely no money right now though :(

[REINER]

Perfect hosting right here.

* $10 for one full year of Netfirms Advantage Hosting!
* 2 FREE domain names
* 20GB of disk space
* 750GB data transfer per month
* Host up to 3 websites with a single account!
* Support for PHP, Perl, and MySQL
* 24-hour technical support

Easy Setup and Management

http://www.netfirms.com/max

[Pete]

Wow, that looks pretty sweet.

[REINER]

Don't forget you can always put like google ads on the page to help pay for the hosting.

[Brain Toad]

ceDon't forget you can always put like google ads on the page to help pay for the hosting.

Except if you don't have a lot of traffic, those things never produce any money, or take extremely long to.

[REINER]

Yeah, but this is assuming the site takes off. Plus even if you just submit the site as a news article to like punknews.org you are guaranteed a bunch of hits that month.

Assuming you get around to do this will you take into account other genres such as ska (3rd wave atleast), hardcore, pop-punk, oi, etc?

I'll gladly help come out with the meat of the site. You should probably come up with one example that's well done as a model for everyone else.

[Brain Toad]

True. It'll get a lot more hits than my site because of the excessive linking from here.

[REINER]

Haha yeah. Also it'll have more of a point to the site when compared to your site which was just like forums and 8 random reviews. But of course you wouldn't want to launch the site publicly with so little content.

[Matt OH!]

guys if this works it will be so sweet

[Pete]

Yeah, but this is assuming the site takes off. Plus even if you just submit the site as a news article to like punknews.org you are guaranteed a bunch of hits that month.

Assuming you get around to do this will you take into account other genres such as ska (3rd wave atleast), hardcore, pop-punk, oi, etc?

I'll gladly help come out with the meat of the site. You should probably come up with one example that's well done as a model for everyone else.
Yeah, of course everything related to punk will be covered to the best of our collective ability. Everything from crust to power-pop to metalcore to emo to pop-punk to melodicore to grind.

[albert_bass]

I'd love this to happen. I keep on checking the forum just because of it.

[maco]

Haha. Even if it was just punk, I'd still be willing to donate.
hey, fellow ska-freak, howabout you and i get together and make as extensive of a ska one as we can manage? Since this punk one will just have a punk-ska, why not make one that while having that, has 2tone and trad, and hell, throw in rocksteady and reggae. I've been making sites for half my life now (wow....i never realized it was that long), and I've learned enough tricks to make them rather fast. I don't know that PHP crap, but I don't need it. A real database isn't all that necessary, just make it *look* like there's a database.

[L0SerKiD11]

I really like the idea... i like findin some new bands...

[Pete]

hey, fellow ska-freak, howabout you and i get together and make as extensive of a ska one as we can manage? Since this punk one will just have a punk-ska, why not make one that while having that, has 2tone and trad, and hell, throw in rocksteady and reggae. I've been making sites for half my life now (wow....i never realized it was that long), and I've learned enough tricks to make them rather fast. I don't know that PHP crap, but I don't need it. A real database isn't all that necessary, just make it *look* like there's a database.
Seriously, doing one without a database is just not reasonable. You're not gonna be able to keep up once you've added more than 20 bands, plus it wouldn't be searchable, which sucks.

[maco]

oo i didnt think about searchability...i was thinking of "make a page for each country then add a link to it for each band"....alright, fine, for the sake of computer geekiness, maybe i'll learn to do that stuff (ive kinda been meaning to learn a bit of php for messageboards anyway)

[FauxApathy]

I would love to contribute to such a site. I'll keep checking back here, I'd love to compile lists of bands and help categorize them.

[vocman]

I'd love this to happen. I keep on checking the forum just because of it.

Same here

It's a great idea, I hope you guys can pull it off. I think everyone likes to help submitting bands and stuff; It's just that the site needs to be launched first right?

[One Step Beyond]

Guys, count my friend out of this for now. I talked to him about it last night a little, and he really just doesn't seem interested.

:(

[imnotapunk]

I know how to make the site but i need some one to design it for me so i know what to pu in there

[Brain Toad]

If we continue with the Wiki idea (which I think is better than something similar to metal-archives) I found a good site that does wiki hosting for free. http://www.elwiki.com/ They also register a free domain name for you if you reach 10 pages of content (which will be pretty easy for us)

I think for information with can pretty mcuh combine what we have in the Band List, Genre Education and Band Profile threads on there at first and fill out more profiles as we go. We can also freely take stuff from Wikipedia and tweak it to be correct.

[REINER]

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/wikipedia/geek-to-live-set-up-your-personal-wikipedia-163707.php

How to setup your own Wiki. I guess this idea fell apart.

[Brain Toad]

It'd be awesome to get this off the ground. Reiner, that link is for running the wiki off your computer, unless you've got a computer set up for server purposes, something like what I linked may be better off for us. I'm thinking about just doing it, but I don't want to take Pete's idea, and it's just weird how much off mx stuff I control (Last.fm group, myspace group, etc)

[Permanent Solution]

Meh, who cares if you control it all Nick, you do a good job :)

[Brain Toad]

Meh, who cares if you control it all Nick, you do a good job :)

This is true.

I think I'll go through with it sometime this weekend.

[mx]

sputnikmusic.com/Punk

It pretty much has everything people have been asking for. If you want other features, just ask.

[Brain Toad]

sputnikmusic.com/Punk

It pretty much has everything people have been asking for. If you want other features, just ask.
Sputnik is great, I love it.

But it's shortcomings in what the punk-archives would be mainly come in size and the depth we'd (or at least I'd) like to take some of the descriptions and historys. Genre histroy and description wouldn't really have a place on Sputnik if there wasn't going to be numerous reviews on it (i.e oi, street punk, etc). And the band profiles (aka featured artists in other forums) are really huge and tell entire history's of the bands that would just be too massive for the little box you have over reviews, etc.

[mx]

The 'little box' can fit a lot of information:
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands.php?bandid=216

It's been discussed having genre history before on sputnik as well.

I just don't see why you guys wouldn't view this as suggestions to the existing site rather than creating a completely separate site with parallel features.

[Brain Toad]

The 'little box' can fit a lot of information:
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands.php?bandid=216

It's been discussed having genre history before on sputnik as well.

I just don't see why you guys wouldn't view this as suggestions to the existing site rather than creating a completely separate site with parallel features.

It's because we're punx and we rebel :smash:

And I think the orginial idea came up before Sputnik was really on it's way to being more than a album reviews site. I see your point though. Maybe I'll expand some band profiles with more depth.

[mx]

Yeah...

I have a whole thread for suggestions and changes over at Sputnik. If there is something that you don't like or want changed, you should let me know, as I am more than happy to code it, already have a website, and already have traffic to send to it. Seems easier than starting a new site.

[Brain Toad]

I'll take you up on that sir. Already posted a few.

[Permanent Solution]

The 'little box' can fit a lot of information:
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands.php?bandid=216

It's been discussed having genre history before on sputnik as well.

I just don't see why you guys wouldn't view this as suggestions to the existing site rather than creating a completely separate site with parallel features.
That is big, but, by comparison, my FA's are usually a bit bigger:
http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=440945
http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=370141

But if it were integrated that would be cool. I just would like to make sure we aren't sacrificing features for that convenience.

[mx]

I'd love it if people submitted band histories that big to Sputnik. There is no limit on band history size, it's just how much people want to write. Any member can edit the band descriptions, they just have to pass through moderation.

New band profile features link links, shoutboxes (comments), etc are coming over the next few weeks as well

[mx]

Tell you what Brain Toad et al.

After adding blurb comments, expanding the band profiles and adding genre descriptions will be the next two changes.

[Permanent Solution]

I'd love it if people submitted band histories that big to Sputnik. There is no limit on band history size, it's just how much people want to write. Any member can edit the band descriptions, they just have to pass through moderation.

New band profile features link links, shoutboxes (comments), etc are coming over the next few weeks as well
Oh. I had always got the impression bad histories were supposed to be short paragraph blurbs. If not though I'll definitley put my FA on Sputnik and encourage others to do the same.

[mx]

Hmm, maybe theres an error in the edit form from a while back that says it should be small. I'll check

EDIT: Yes, it says 'short' but that is from awhile back. My bad

[Brain Toad]

I'll put some of my band profiles up as well.

[mx]

I could put a search box for bands here on the forums, if that would help more people notice the band profiles, etc

[Permanent Solution]

I could put a search box for bands here on the forums, if that would help more people notice the band profiles, etc
That sounds like it could be interesting, but could you elaborate on what you mean exactly?

[mx]

At the top of the Punk forum per say, below the main navigation, there could be a search form in which you could type in the name of a Punk band and it would then take you to their profile.

Another thing that might help this is making it so that if you typed something like:

sputnikmusic.com/band/Rise Against

it would take you directly to the profile

[Permanent Solution]

I like that. So long as it wouldn't replace the search function or anything.

[mx]

No, the regular forum search thing would remain

[Matt?]

this is pulling together nicely

sputnik is actually becoming pretty awesome, i love how there's the album reviews at the header now

and genre history is just gonna be really cool

[mx]

If you guys have any other suggestions in the future just head over to the sputnik forum and let me know in the suggestions thread. Until then, I'll try to implement some of these changes over the next few weeks

[Brain Toad]

You heard the man, head to the forum and offer some suggestions. I think it's safe to put a close to this thread and idea.