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Poster: Brad Leblanc Date: Oct 14, 2006 9:10am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

I detect a small amount of sarcasm in your post, so I'll respond assuming it was there.

have the shows listed in chronological order by default

This is what the new system does when you browse artists by year.

and to have them grouped by year.

Yup, like I said - this is what it does when you "browse by year".

It was too cumbersome to have the essential recording info encapsulated in each show listing within those yearly sections, too.

The new system shows source info when you are browsing if you turn it on. Some people don't care, so they turn it off.

Plus, the new interface includes such useful info as whether each entry is a live recording (an important clarification in the Live Music Archive).

When I browse the Live Music collection, I expect all of them are "Live" performances and this is what it delivers. Are you seeing other stuff in there? Maybe you are searching instead of browsing?

A specific example of the site's improvement is how it's much easier to seek out a Steve Kimock solo project recording when the default query adds all the Steve Kimock Band performances to the results.

I don't see this, and would rather not.

As has been said dozens of times - the old interface was a customization that became buggy and inconvenient to maintain. It was broken and fixing it would have taken more resources than the organization has at hand. The contribution process broke every weekend for the last 3 months it was in use. Therefore, a universal interface for *all* of archive.org's collection has been built. Open Source Audio, Moving Images, LMA - all now use the same general interface. This is better for scalability, reliability, performance and maintenance of the system. It was not possible to continue fixing the old one.

I'm sorry you like the old one better, we've tried to add all the old features - if you poke through the links we've posted to the new LMA homepage, you will see most of them are now there.

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Poster: dscott Date: Oct 14, 2006 8:40pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

I was indeed being sarcastic, but I do appreciate your helpful hints about how to navigate the new system. I know that there are lots of factors that need to be balanced in keeping this site running, and there's no way you can please everybody. The new interface simply isn't as good as the old one, however. That's just how it is. Of course, a cumbersome interface is better than none at all!
This post was modified by dscott on 2006-10-15 03:40:12

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Oct 15, 2006 7:44am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

just give it some time - the new interface is really just as good as the old - like Brad said, just about all the old utilities are now in the new one. May be one extra mouse click now - but i kinda like it now that i am used to it. Although I must admit, I did my fair share of complaining the first day or two when the one was put in place.

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Poster: dscott Date: Oct 15, 2006 4:42pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

I disagree. More clicks = more cumbersome = not as good. That isn't an opinion, but a logical conclusion based on the facts. The features all are there, but it takes more work and practice to access them. That's less user-friendly, by definition. As I said before, though, the new interface is far better than none at all!

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Poster: xtifr Date: Oct 16, 2006 1:24pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

More clicks for some things (actually, for one thing), while many other things are greatly improved. Frankly, I think the browse-by-year function is overrated. It works well for some bands, but poorly for bands with either very many or very few shows. It works particularly poorly for bands with a small number of shows spread over many years.

If you want to argue that browse-by-year has been disimproved, I would be forced to agree with you. But when you go on to extrapolate from that that the entire interface has been disimproved, I disagree strongly!

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Poster: crescentfresh Date: Oct 16, 2006 5:42pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

I haven't warmed up to the new system either personally. My problem is that I don't like how everything is a query for results. When I choose to search by artist's collection page, find the artist I'm looking for and click on it, it's very redundant to take me to a search results page asking me if this is the band I was looking for. I'll use Steve Kimock as an example since he has been mentioned already in this thread. Let's say I want to look at Steve Kimock shows. I choose to Browse All Artists' Collection Pages in the Live Music Archive, find Steve Kimock in the list, and click on his link. Now, I would say that about 7 out of 10 times I click on that, I generally get some sort of error or time out (and no, it's not just tonight, this has been going on for months). When I finally click on it and don't receive an error message, I'm taken to a search results screen listing any artist that has Steve Kimock in the name. Rather than taking me to a query result of names, it should take me to the artist page of the artist I clicked on. So I click on Steve Kimock a second time, and likely have to fight through numerous error messages again before I can finally get to his artist page. It's 100% more frustrating when there's only one result from the query, meaning there was no possible other option for me to choose from, yet I still have to click on it twice just to get to an artist's page. If there is a way to do this, someone please enlighten me, because I have found the archives quite unbearable lately, and rarely even attempt to come here anymore as a result.

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Oct 15, 2006 5:28pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

not going to argue with you any further. i understand what you are saying, but do not think a single extra mouse click should be termed "more cumbersome." works for me - sorry it doesn't for you. peace man :)

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Poster: dscott Date: Oct 16, 2006 5:04am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

Fair enough. I just couldn't let go of the semantics. There's still an archive, and there's still an interface. It's all good!

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Poster: direwolf0701 Date: Oct 16, 2006 7:08am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

couldn't let go of the semantics? - lol i think i do that alot too :) i must agree your conclusion is logical though peace

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Poster: JodyC Date: Oct 19, 2006 2:37pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

Man, if you know a better organized site with better music and info use that one. Otherwise, cut LMA a big fat check to cover what we get for FREE. Sorry to flame dscott, but this site may not actually be all about you.

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Poster: dscott Date: Oct 20, 2006 4:55am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

JodyC, your points reveal more about you than they do about me. To suggest that I owe anybody anything for voicing my opinion is downright inappropriate. Your personal attack about the site not being about just me is totally uncalled for. Period. If you follow the thread past my initial sarcasm, you'd see that I'm glad the archive is here, and I think it's a wonderful resource. I just see the new interface as less user-friendly for casual browsing than the old one, and it perplexes me when others say the new one is better. It still works, and it has some nice new features, but it takes a few extra steps for the user who wants to casually browse an artist or two and pick a few shows to download. Those extra clicks are not trivial when the site is busy and pages load slowly. There was a smooth serendipity to the old interface that is diminished, and I suppose I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school. I know the move to a new server had to happen, but it's too bad it couldn't be done without so many changes to the interface. Even with these flaws, there's still not a better music download site on the internet, at least not that I know of!
This post was modified by dscott on 2006-10-20 11:55:19

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Poster: JodyC Date: Oct 20, 2006 6:31am
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

Sorry, my bad.

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Poster: dscott Date: Oct 21, 2006 5:17pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

No problem. Peace.

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Poster: JodyC Date: Oct 21, 2006 9:04pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

Go Cards!

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Poster: xtifr Date: Oct 14, 2006 11:29pm
Forum: etree Subject: Re: where is the old interface?

> "The new interface simply isn't as good as the old one, however." You're welcome to your opinion, but it's just an opinion, and not one that I, for one, share. There were a couple of minor things I preferred with the old system, but there's many more I prefer about the new.
This post was modified by xtifr on 2006-10-15 06:29:55