Sputnik Ideas & Suggestion thread

[Damrod]

The old thread has been closed, in an attempt to clean up a bit
Just like in the old thread, post your ideas and suggestions on how to improve Sputnik here.

The list of suggestions so far:

Pending, not yet judged

• Style buttons (italic, bold etc)
• Band discography sorted by release date
• Display of "Useful Review" voters for Mods
• Release date change (only year necessary)
• Force to use 'review helpful' link before postinf of comments

Undergoing changes/Under construction

• Change to the genre system -> more/less genres

Implemented requested changes

• copyright situation
• edit comments
• last comments of submitted reviews in User CP
• increased review title length
• new chart system
• special indication of hyperlinks in reviews
• parsing of style tags (italic, bold etc) in preview of review
• Average user rating on main page (in addition to reviewers rating)
• Release date on main page
• Change to display of 'number bands'. Change from '1' to '1-9' or '#'
• Mod: Approval of first reviews by mods
• Mod: Delete all posts by user
• 'Last page' link also at the top of comments pages
• Prohibit voting on your own reviews
• Rename 'Alt Pop' to 'Soul'
• Maybe a change to the "Useful Review" thing (different name?)
• Include Sub-Genres in all time charts

Dismissed requested changes

• Different coloring for 5 star reviews
• 'Approval sign' for mods to underline good reviewers
• Alternate views for Top15 list (sorted by review count/weighted rating)
• Name of reviewer below album on main page (Too crowded)
• Different solution for chosing "Similar Artists" and "Recommended Albums" (Obsolete with new system)
• Genre for albums instead of artists (Too subjective)

Status Explanation
pending - no decision yet
under const. - it's being worked on
implemented - suggestion that has been integrated into the Sputnik site
dismissed - like it say, the idea has been dismissed

[Jom]

Damrod, nice job organizing this new thread.

There are a couple things that I've brought up in the past that can be removed if you deem it necessary:

[*]special indication of hyperlinks in reviews

If you take a look at a review I wrote earlier [url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=2709]here[/url], I put in some hypertext, and it's pretty clear where it's located. Now grant it, it's aided by the fact that I "set up" the hypertext with a short preamble, but the text is still noticeably different than I thought.

Originally, I thought that the text remained the same shade of grey as the reviewed text, and that it wasn't underlined. Additionally, I didn't recognize that when you hovered over the hypertext, that the link would darken.

This was my fault for not noticing this earlier.

[*] Increase comment character limit

This is another mistake I made, mostly because I talk too much.

No, but honestly, I can understand why comments are so short. If people like me feel the need to ramble on and on about something, they can always just make another comment in addition to what was already said.

///

Also, I like Nick's idea (discussed earlier in old thread, I wasn't able to respond because I was out of town for a few days) about Damrod and Med being able to read reviews and deciding whether or not to submit them.

While I do agree that this would limit "fanboy"-esque reviews and such, this would be a lot of additional work that you guys already have to do.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I interpreted it as you two having to review every single review that comes into Sputnikmusic, not just a first-time reviewer's.

But again, I would be all for that type of moderation of all incoming reviews.

///

I would also like to propose a "delete comment" function to go along with the "edit post" function. Since the comments from the old forum on MX carried over to Sputnikmusic, a lot of these comments (read: opinions of the music) might be a bit outdated/off-base/not in character.

///

Either way, you and Med are doing a great job at running things as smoothly as you guys are. Good job, you two.

///

A quick question: why are a vast majority of the featured albums (save for the last two, which are br3ad_man's RATM review and Nick's album review) either the two moderators' or Jeremy's? If you click on the "More >>" tab, you're taken to about twenty-ish (or so) albums, but 95% of them are from "the big three."

Talk about a drop-kick to a reviewer's ego

Note: this last paragraph was said in jest, just so you know

[Damrod]

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

If you take a look at a review I wrote earlier [url=http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=2709]here[/url], I put in some hypertext, and it's pretty clear where it's located. Now grant it, it's aided by the fact that I "set up" the hypertext with a short preamble, but the text is still noticeably different than I thought.

Originally, I thought that the text remained the same shade of grey as the reviewed text, and that it wasn't underlined. Additionally, I didn't recognize that when you hovered over the hypertext, that the link would darken.

This was my fault for not noticing this earlier.

This is another mistake I made, mostly because I talk too much.

No, but honestly, I can understand why comments are so short. If people like me feel the need to ramble on and on about something, they can always just make another comment in addition to what was already said.

I moved/deleted those points. Thanks for letting me know

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

Also, I like Nick's idea (discussed earlier in old thread, I wasn't able to respond because I was out of town for a few days) about Damrod and Med being able to read reviews and deciding whether or not to submit them.

While I do agree that this would limit "fanboy"-esque reviews and such, this would be a lot of additional work that you guys already have to do.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I interpreted it as you two having to review every single review that comes into Sputnikmusic, not just a first-time reviewer's.

But again, I would be all for that type of moderation of all incoming reviews.

It would mean more work, but at the moment it would be quite possible to manage, as only about... 6 or 7 reviews are coming in a day.

But pondering the thing, it gave me quite an idea. I have to think about it a bit more, if it really makes sense or not. I think the reviews that are probably (compared to the given rating) making the most trouble, are 5-star ones. Usually the users do not give enough info to back the score up, or it's just 'fanboy-ism' in a short paragraph like "review". If those would be filtered out, and only those would go to approval... Or maybe real low star (1-2 star) ratings as well...

Thoughts on this?

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

I would also like to propose a "delete comment" function to go along with the "edit post" function. Since the comments from the old forum on MX carried over to Sputnikmusic, a lot of these comments (read: opinions of the music) might be a bit outdated/off-base/not in character.

Do you mean a delete-function for the users, like it is available here in the forums?

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

Either way, you and Med are doing a great job at running things as smoothly as you guys are. Good job, you two.

Thanks

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

A quick question: why are a vast majority of the featured albums (save for the last two, which are br3ad_man's RATM review and Nick's album review) either the two moderators' or Jeremy's? If you click on the "More >>" tab, you're taken to about twenty-ish (or so) albums, but 95% of them are from "the big three."

Talk about a drop-kick to a reviewer's ego

Note: this last paragraph was said in jest, just so you know

You're jealous?

[Jom]

Originally Posted by Damrod

1. I moved/deleted those points. Thanks for letting me know

2. It would mean more work, but at the moment it would be quite possible to manage, as only about... 6 or 7 reviews are coming in a day.

3. But pondering the thing, it gave me quite an idea. I have to think about it a bit more, if it really makes sense or not. I think the reviews that are probably (compared to the given rating) making the most trouble, are 5-star ones. Usually the users do not give enough info to back the score up, or it's just 'fanboy-ism' in a short paragraph like "review". If those would be filtered out, and only those would go to approval... Or maybe real low star (1-2 star) ratings as well...

Thoughts on this?

4. Do you mean a delete-function for the users, like it is available here in the forums?

5. Thanks

6. You're jealous?

1. Sure, I wanted to make sure that you guys didn't waste time deliberating over something pointless. I would have rather caught my error than having you guys go, "What the hell is he talking about?"

2. I've noticed that Sputnikmusic has been getting a bit more traffic as of late, so I thought it was more than six or seven. My fault.

3. Nah, you raise a good point. My favorites are when people give songs 3s and 4s but then turn around and give the album a 5. Or, similarly, when someone thinks a ten-song album with scores of 2+4+3+4+2+3+3+3+5+3 = 50 for 5 stars instead of being equal to 32, or a 3-star album.

I'm not sure how you guys would go about doing this (other than monitoring the reviews, obviously), but it's a good idea.

4. Yes, exactly. I thought I was being reasonably clear there

5/6. You're welcome/Yes [sarcastic mad smiley++]

///

Originally Posted by Mr. Goody Two-shoes

Heh...you're a bit confused about the featured albums buddy.

I absolutely forbid you to use such informal diction around me!

/is kidding again

Originally Posted by Med

The featured albums are picked by me, Damrod and Jeremy based solely on how good we think the album is. For example, someone could write the best review ever of eMotive by A Perfect Circle, but it would never be featured as the CD completely sucks. From memory we've had one review by me featured (Endtroducing), and several by other people...Kaden's had more than one, as has Iai as I remember.

Uhh, hang on a second. I was talking about:

If you click on the "More >>" tab [for the featured albums list on the main page], you're taken to about twenty-ish (or so) albums, but 95% of them are from "the big three."

... in a sarcastic way. Yes, I do realize that other reviewers have had featured albums.

What I wanted to clarify was the review/biography thing: those are all featured albums with biographies that only you three have written, or are they reviews from other reviewers that just have your biographies?

Yeah, that question is kind of circular, but I trust you know what I mean.

Besides, you're not supposed to look into it that deeply, heh.

Originally Posted by Med again

With reading new reviews, I read every new review submitted to the site, whenever I log on. It's the first thing that I do. So although we don't have a formal review moderation system, it effectively exists. As I said to DFelon earlier, although I'm more than happy to delete bad reviews, and I have been deleting bad ones from the old forum, I'm trying to be more lenient than I naturally am, as the site's still young, and was in trouble a few months ago, in my opinion. As it grows I'll become harsher on submitted reviews. I think that's all I need to respond to...

Were my questions really that poorly worded?

Maybe it was one of those things where what I was thinking made sense in my head, but when I typed it out, it makes no sense to others except me.

Anyway: I'm not saying that the method of moderating that you guys are doing currently is balls. I honestly didn't want to give that impression; however, if for some odd reason that's how you saw it, then I apologize.

While I understand that your "be[ing] more lenient" is a reasonable argument, I really don't think Sputnik was in as much trouble as you claimed it was.

I am willing to admit that people are making an effort in reviewing, unlike previously, where people wrote a couple sentences and gave an album a 5/5.

And yeah yeah yeah, I understand that opinions are opinions.

But still:

Sputnik is a couple weeks removed from its first half-birthday (I'm saying that January 14th was the "launch" of the site [horrible pun intended]), it hasn't been around as much as MX.

Eventually, I would like to think that it'll gain more traffic, especially from currently active users. But maybe that's me being overly optimistic, yet I'm still confident that Sputnikmusic will get more traffic. It won't have 70,000+ users like MX does, but it'll get there.

[Damrod]

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

3. Nah, you raise a good point. My favorites are when people give songs 3s and 4s but then turn around and give the album a 5. Or, similarly, when someone thinks a ten-song album with scores of 2+4+3+4+2+3+3+3+5+3 = 50 for 5 stars instead of being equal to 32, or a 3-star album.

I'm not sure how you guys would go about doing this (other than monitoring the reviews, obviously), but it's a good idea.

Hm, maybe I should really work it out a bit more, and then propose it to mx.

[DFelon204409]

Originally Posted by AntiHero3314

Also, I like Nick's idea (discussed earlier in old thread, I wasn't able to respond because I was out of town for a few days) about Damrod and Med being able to read reviews and deciding whether or not to submit them.

While I do agree that this would limit "fanboy"-esque reviews and such, this would be a lot of additional work that you guys already have to do.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I interpreted it as you two having to review every single review that comes into Sputnikmusic, not just a first-time reviewer's.

But again, I would be all for that type of moderation of all incoming reviews.

I volunteer to take part in that moderation. I really think it's important.

Originally Posted by AntiHero

I would also like to propose a "delete comment" function to go along with the "edit post" function. Since the comments from the old forum on MX carried over to Sputnikmusic, a lot of these comments (read: opinions of the music) might be a bit outdated/off-base/not in character.

I think that's dumb because then fanboy reviewers could delete any posts that undermine their wack opinions. I think comments should only be able to be deleted by approved mods so that all grounded opinions could be allowed and only obvious spam or bigotry and stuff would be deleted.

[Jom]

Originally Posted by DFelon204409

Your suggestion is dumb.

Nick: I meant that a user can delete his/her own posts, not delete other users'. Not everyone is a mod like you and has the power to delete any post he/she wishes, heh. What I meant is something similar to what we have on MX.

[mx]

I'll be unable to sort albums by releasedate until more albums get releasedates to begin with

Perhaps at least the year should be made mandatory?

[DFelon204409]

Well gee okay.

[DFelon204409]

Oooooo Idea Train!!! Woo Woooo! Check it. Forbid track by track reviews. 1) They're less professional and 2) It'll eliminate the people who just describe a few tracks and then call it a review. A review should bring to the table a voice and opinion that validates the reviewer's opinion. I don't see many reviews like that these days.

[Damrod]

Originally Posted by mx

I'll be unable to sort albums by releasedate until more albums get releasedates to begin with

Perhaps at least the year should be made mandatory?

Shouldn't be too much work for the reviewer to add the year. After all, the year is noted on the back of the album/CD case or somewhere on the booklet. And if that does not help, theres always services like Amazon to check the release year. I think it's a good idea.

Originally Posted by DFelon204409

Oooooo Idea Train!!! Woo Woooo! Check it. Forbid track by track reviews. 1) They're less professional and 2) It'll eliminate the people who just describe a few tracks and then call it a review. A review should bring to the table a voice and opinion that validates the reviewer's opinion. I don't see many reviews like that these days.

Well, I would not really miss them. I like overall-reviews better anyway. The quite good ones amon track-by-track reviews could be transformed by the reviewer to overall quite easy I think.

[Arrakakaka]

I think that you guys should add grindcore as a sub-genre.

[masada]

I was thinking.. wouldn't it look better if the album cover was placed at the top left section, with the title and band name to the right, and the review under it? The way it is now, the box disrupts the paragraphs, and looks rather clumsy/ugly.

[mx]

Meh, the box is a second generation thing. It was done before with nothing interrupted and looked strange. I can fiddle, but I like the way it is now

[Damrod]

Originally Posted by mx

Meh, the box is a second generation thing. It was done before with nothing interrupted and looked strange. I can fiddle, but I like the way it is now

I do as well. Top right is good IMO

[Iai]

Originally Posted by DFelon204409

Oooooo Idea Train!!! Woo Woooo! Check it. Forbid track by track reviews. 1) They're less professional and 2) It'll eliminate the people who just describe a few tracks and then call it a review. A review should bring to the table a voice and opinion that validates the reviewer's opinion. I don't see many reviews like that these days.

What about compilations? Track by track is the best way to review those.

[Iai]

Originally Posted by Damrod

Pending, not yet judged

• Search for comments like last posts
• Style buttons (italic, bold etc)
• Approval of first reviews by mods
• 'Approval sign' for mods to underline good reviewers
• Band discography sorted by release date

Throwing my weight behind all those ideas. Although not the style buttons so much. They'd be nice, but it's not exactly a priority.

Undergoing changes/Under construction

• Change to the genre system -> more/less genres

Are we getting a soul genre?

I'll go add release dates to all my albums now, I guess.

[mx]

Search for comments like last posts

What exactly does this mean?

[Iai]

I assumed it just meant a function to search posts. *shrug*

Any chance we can have a feature that lets us change the user rating of an album once we've rated it? I mean, tastes do change.

[Damrod]

Originally Posted by mx

What exactly does this mean?

I think it was meant as a similar system like it is here in the forums. Like 'View other posts by this user'. I would really appreciate it for us mods, as it is hard sometimes to find all posts by a malicious spam account.