A place for suggestions about the direction of this conf. Doesn't seem to be an unfrozen item at the start, so this is so I can enter such a suggestion.50 responses total.
Bonus point to whoever "gets" the title of this (in a music quote sense, that is).
One thing that I suggested in another conf. which turned out to be a Very Cool Thing was putting some useful item numbers in the conference header. So if recent/important items were listed, by item number, I could just waltz in, do a "r xxx nor" using the "xxx" item number from the header list to enter my response. I'd put in the current "Music to Conference By" item, plus some other recent movers or other items where somebody might come up with a new CD/concert review. Otherwise I have to either depend on somebody else having entered a response or doing a browse to find the item number.
Let's make Scott a fairwitness. Only one of the current four is terribly active.
The "useful items" thing is a good suggestion, provided someone is updating it. Mentions of upcoming shows in the header could be interesting too (along the lines of the MOOTD), but that could be a bit excessive for some people's taste.
...buy you some Art, a Picaso or a Garfunkel.
That was my guess too, but it doesn't quite fit....:)
Nor does the Cowardly Lion song, quite, which was going to be my guess.
Sounds like that Zappa song... "If I was her father, I'd..." Something like that.
It appears several times on a certain CD, each time with a different thing to imagine being...
I'd be willing to be a FW of this conference. "If I were a society....I'd Take it all apart, look at history Majority society just ain't right 4 me This minority so they label me Well you can kill my black ass Cuzz u ain't givin' me Peace of Mind and will, so I want to kill...politcians and police Hey! 'Let's make a deal'"
Without objection, it is so ordered.
re: the title of #0, my guesses were If I had a hammer, or whatever the name of the Peter Paul and Mary song is, or El Condor Pasa (Id rather be a hammer than a nail, yada yada yada).
(Sigh) It's from a Fishbone album.
I think the problem is that there're are just too many "If I was" songs..
<nods>
Okay, scott's a fairwitness of this conference now.
Welcome aboard and good luck, fw scott.
(maniacal laughter)
<cowers in abject terror> <forgets what he was doing> <wanders off to get some breakfast>
I take it the "useful and active items" list is intended less to serve as a guide for new users and more to guilt us regulars into using more than one item?
resp:2 resp:20 Good God. *frown* I don't think I quite like this. Labeling an item 'useful and active' seems so.. clinical and detatched. I will concede the "Music To Conference By" item is quite active, but it's not necessarily useful to us poor non-local folks who don't have home desktop PCs so we can Grex while listening to music, or are at school and don't have access to something going via RealAudio. I also feel like the hard work I put in with various items is just faded and gone now. Perhaps it's true what was said earlier: more Grexers are interested in computers than they are music as a hobby and a profession. =(
Perhaps others could suggest active items? I'm not planning on just limiting the list; although I did want it to make quick additions easy (by not having to browse for item number first).
I decided that putting my own favorite items to respond to in the header was not really appropriate (especially since a Post It on my monitor will work just as well). What are some items to put in a "good and active" items list, though? There's also a "selections" command, I think.
There's a whole bunch of music-genre items; most of them were pretty active at one point in time, and they'd be a good place to steer people who like that sort of music. The ones I found in a quick search through were... 11 world music 19 experimental music 21 opera 23 funk 27 folk 44 jazz 46 electronic music 67 celtic music 94 prog rock Also, it'd be good to point out the current Grexers On Stage and the current concert and album reviews items. Couldn't hurt to point out thsi item either. How long a list are you going for?
Dunno.
I'd recommend keeping it to 10 items or less. (think of it as the music conference express checkout.. :-)
Perhaps the list should rotate every couple of weeks.
If you keep it that small, what is the point? What happens when new people come in and want to read some of the old stuff, and respond? Or they come in and don't find what they want, and leave? Or start up a new item....of something you just killed?
I think we're talking about a list of items that we keep rearranging. We're not talking about messing with the items themselves.
Right, we're talking about a little introductory directory. All the items remain here for anyone knowledgable and motivated enough to use the 'browse' command.
That sounds better and I think we might have more people that way (who want to lightly browse rather than puruse). This conference is pretty big and having a quick guide of sorts would be helpful for new users.
So, is there a consenses that Scott should move ahead with this? We can fine-tune it.
I'll make a motion, at least..
I went ahead and changed the login screen to put in a first cut of the front-door directory. This is certainly not intended to be permanent; probably we'll rotate the items being pointed to every couple of weeks. Rereading this item after setting the login screen, I see I overlooked most of your suggestions. :( This is the first overhaul to the music conference login screen since Mike McNally first created it in 1991.
Very cool. The index is a nice touch. Is there some way to make those clickable links in backtalk? (or have you done this already? - I'm on via telnet right now)
Should be possible. You can create a separate HTML entry page for Backtalk users.
I defer to one of the other FW's the issue of the Backtalk login screen. I don't have time to futz with it right now.
Very good idea, all. The last couple of times i joined music, i couldn't remember the number of an item (somewhere in the 200's) I've been following. It happened to be one of the ones listed on the login screen. Cool.
I don't believe I created it back in 1991 but perhaps my memory just doesn't go that far back.
To refresh that aging memory, look at item #1 in the "oldmusic" conference. I'm pretty sure I never set up that login screen, and I'm also pretty sure that it was never changed before this week, except to add fairwitnesses.
(suggestion for the intro screen: trim it to somewhere under 24[?] lines. it's been catching my pager and throwing off my "join-and-read" routine.)
Yeah, I'd like that too...
Yes, please trim.
(no, really.)
I have to do everything around here, grumble grumble
Not true, Ken...you don't have to be the grexer from Florida with a silly sense of humor.
(I've decided to stop reading/participating in the conference until it's adjusted or stuck somewhere more meaningful [like the file that only shows up when it's been changed; I forget the name]. I figure if something like this in coop pissed me off, a lesser conference can do the same.)
So much for the idea for boosting participation.
<Dave adjusts the dial>
<pokes diznave> hey you, no hogging the Floridian Grexer limelight. d=
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