@GP: Meta box with login link is now at the bottom of the sidebar. I also put the links back in the sidebar.
Re: Embedding YouTube: I added the highly rated Youtube shortcode plugin. Take a look at the article YouTube Embed Cheat Sheet - DO NOT PUBLISH for an example of usage.
I'll look into a BBCode plugin. I've used Viper007Bond's BBCode plugin on other sites, but there may be something more suitable. Supporting the same tags & behavior as eMusers is highly desirable. In the meantime, the visual editor in WP handles most of the things you want to do. For example, to add a link, highlight the text you want linked and click the button in the toolbar that looks like a link of chain. Similarly for bold and italic.
Wow - I've been away a while and now I come back to see so much progress already done! I think this is just a great idea. Although I do feel a little bit intimidated by superior writers with better musical knowledge than I have, my interest has really been picqued by the creation of musicisgood and I would like to contribute something now and then. May take me a month or two before I would have a draft to send, but I do think it would be great fun.
The writeups I have read so far on the site are just overall superb! Great job.
kez - Do not feel intimidated! Well love to read what you come up with whenever you have the time. We have musical knowledge in our areas, but believe me I'm positive whenever you put in a draft you'll put me to shame in your genres.
Not that it matters, because it's all about fun after all.
A conversation had with BigD over on the emu forum got me to thinking about something...
MusicisGood could use a Known-For.
I mean, it would be the penultimate gesture would musicisgood/emusers achieved a reputation as simply being known for a great place to read about music. But that's a bit too general, and we would still need a tool to achieve that.
Hm, eh, I'm gonna post this, but it occurs to me that maybe I should do a little online research before suggesting it...
But that conversation with BigD got me to thinking is that it might be kinda cool for MusicisGood to build a reference guide to labels, especially focusing on one that are predominately online retailers... much like that Goldenlane blues label or, say, any number of the labels releasing old jazz recordings on emu.
We could list information from the label's websites (or note that none exists), talk about the quality of specific releases we've purchased from those labels, and add any type of informative material that would further illuminate just what that label is, and finally, give our ranking as to the label's legitimacy as per a Music Buyer's Code of Giving A Shit About Musicians.
Someone may already be out there doing this, thus my thought about maybe doing some research on it. But it's a good idea, IMO, either way. It could be a way for all of us to contribute to MiG, since it would involve more legwork and sweat than confidence in our writing abilities.
It could also be something that MiG becomes Known For.
Making references would increase traffic to the blog. If anyone intends to do so, I think it would be better to post them as "Pages" rather than "Posts" so that they might always appear on the sidebar. Indeed, there could be an item "Guide to Labels" that would link itself to other Pages where the focus of the label was described and important recordings are identified. (BTW, I dislike Goldenlane because they seem to play both sides of the Atlantic, being an American company that exploits European copyright law.)
This brings up a second issue: I am not myself comfortable with music retailers being placed on the sidebar. We aren't advertising music; we're offering ourselves as guides. With eMusic, etc., listed prominently at the top of the blogroll, I think it looks like we're conduits for retailers.
Finally, if someone hasn't already, it would be nice to put up notice at eMusic message board.
That's a good idea jonah, but like BT alludes it seems to go well beyond the blog setup. It could certainly be part of our empire, though.
BT - I see what you are saying, but put them there to highlight alternatives to iTunes and Amazon (primarily to get more people to Bandcamp, really). Anyone else have an opinion? I will certainly delete them if folks don't want them there.
@Dr. Mutex
I tried copying code strings from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/youtube-shortcode/ into my post and substituting the address. I also tried pasting the youtube embed code directly into the html editor. Neither strategy caused anything to appear when I hit "preview". Am I doing something wrong? Since my piece is partly about a video it would be nice to have it embedded rather than linked.
Yes I agree with Jonah on the last point about reciprication. I know it might be a difficult line at times, but I think it is good to give support to sites like Bandcamp, that operate on a different model than say Amazon and itunes. But I do appreciate that it is often a fine line....
Unless someone has already done it in the last half an hour, should one of us put something on the emusic thread? Twitter, itunes ping???
Bandcamp is more of a platform. The artists themselves, for the most part, operate separate stores and pay Bandcamp for the infrastructure it provides.
@jonahpwll
A label guide could be good. Some practical questions/thoughts:
1. Is it too much work? That kind of thing only starts being useful when there is a critical mass of entries. If I happen upon a label guide and it includes 7 labels I will more likely move on in derision than hang around and wait for the ones I'm interested in to be added. How many of these could we realistically get done before posting them?
2. How would we select labels? discogs.com lists approximately 11,000 labels beginning with the letter "a" in the alphabetical search. Granting that not all letters of the alphabet will be so prolific ("x" only has about 700) and that not all of those labels are worth mentioning, it's still closer to an ocean than a puddle.
3. A good blog post topic would be the launch of new labels - I might write something about Wist Rec for instance.
I've been trying to make sense of this thread with very little success. There's too many words I don't know the meaning of (widgets, peer review is two of them). I don't blame anyone, I guess it's the language barrier and the fact that I know next to nothing about computer language.
For that reason I'm holding back on signing in as a writer, at least for the time beeing.
- But . . .
I think it would be useful with writers tags so anyone with a particular interest in what comes from e.g, Craig McManus could gather it on one page.
I also think it would be useful with artist tags so it's possible find everything written about for instance Julia Kent in one click.
2. How would we select labels? discogs.com lists approximately 11,000 labels beginning with the letter "a" in the alphabetical search. Granting that not all letters of the alphabet will be so prolific ("x" only has about 700) and that not all of those labels are worth mentioning, it's still closer to an ocean than a puddle.
And that right there is why I grew hesitant to hit the submit button half way through my post without looking around a little bit first.
Let's just move on to the next bright idea, shall we?
BN - Your English is so freakin' good I often forget it's not your first language. FYI - Widgets is a computer term referring to the stuff on the right hand side of the musicisgood.org screen. Peer review is just someone who knows the topic reviewing an article for accuracy/editing.
I'm sure I'm not the only one more than willing to answer any questions you have based on the translation issue.
@Nereffid: You didn't do anything wrong. When you edited your article, you created a new version. The editors review it and publish. In the meantime the last-published version stays up on the site.
@Brighternow: Author list is added to the sidebar. Click the author name to see the posts. There is also a link to subscribe to the author's posts. Also added search box (stupid of me to forget that one--I plead lack of sleep). I think if we try to have tags for artists it will quickly get out of control. By the way,, I also forget you aren't using your native language, your writing is that good. Feel free to whisper to Craig or me if one of our weird English idioms has you scratching your head.
@Germanprof: Can you see the example post in the Posts section of Wordpress? I never used WP except as admin so I have no idea what you can see. I think I'll make a dummy Author account so I can see what's going on.
Steps:
1. Get the shortcode for the YouTube video you want.
2. Type the link like this:
[youtube_sc url=4FbPRHntLho width=560]
where the funky code is replaced by the shortcode you want.
3. There is no step 3.
You need HTML5 or Javascript + Flash to see the video. Check that you have Javascript enabled. Also some of the Wordpress authoring features are enhanced with Javascript on.
I'd like to create a favicon (the little icon most browsers display in the address bar). I've rejected several ideas as being too specific (record, CD, headphones, speaker). The best I've got is music notes but that seems too general/overdone. Anyone have ideas and/or artistic talent? It has to work at icon size which limits the amount of detail it can have.
Sorry to monopolize the thread but I have more good news. I just installed WPtouch to support mobiles including iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch. I tried it with my Crackberry. It's fast and it looks good. There's a link at the bottom to switch between the mobile and regular theme if desired.
BN, can I please encourage you to write. Like most people here I forget that you are actually writing in a second language, because your English is so good. And as someone from this side of the Atlantic, I sometimes get confused by the odd 'American' word or term, and certainly by many computer words. I will never get used to American spellings either - I had to type colour as color last week to get something in colour here and it just seemed weird to me!
A tiny typo: In "who helps to make cannons jug band blues sound vibrant" I 'll bet the c should be capitalized.
Can an outsider make a comment regarding Germanprof's suggestion that "the tone here and there ("dedicated","mission", "massive") might need taking down a notch." I don't think you want to sound like Might, the magazine in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Dr. Mutex - Love the idea of a favicon, but I have no artistic talent. I say we draft amclark2 for that, I'm sure he'd come up with something cool. What say you amclark!?!
@BN please do write. Everyone's language needs fixing to one degree or another, your less than most.
@denver, that's a nice piece that you linked. I hope you will write some for Musicisgood also.
@Dr Mutex That's what I needed! The video is now embedded. Very cool. (I left the link as well in case any readers need it). @Craig, this is ready for another look now. The mobile version of the site looks great on my iPod Touch!
Comments
Re: Embedding YouTube: I added the highly rated Youtube shortcode plugin. Take a look at the article YouTube Embed Cheat Sheet - DO NOT PUBLISH for an example of usage.
I'll look into a BBCode plugin. I've used Viper007Bond's BBCode plugin on other sites, but there may be something more suitable. Supporting the same tags & behavior as eMusers is highly desirable. In the meantime, the visual editor in WP handles most of the things you want to do. For example, to add a link, highlight the text you want linked and click the button in the toolbar that looks like a link of chain. Similarly for bold and italic.
The writeups I have read so far on the site are just overall superb! Great job.
Not that it matters, because it's all about fun after all.
Craig
Craig
MusicisGood could use a Known-For.
I mean, it would be the penultimate gesture would musicisgood/emusers achieved a reputation as simply being known for a great place to read about music. But that's a bit too general, and we would still need a tool to achieve that.
Hm, eh, I'm gonna post this, but it occurs to me that maybe I should do a little online research before suggesting it...
But that conversation with BigD got me to thinking is that it might be kinda cool for MusicisGood to build a reference guide to labels, especially focusing on one that are predominately online retailers... much like that Goldenlane blues label or, say, any number of the labels releasing old jazz recordings on emu.
We could list information from the label's websites (or note that none exists), talk about the quality of specific releases we've purchased from those labels, and add any type of informative material that would further illuminate just what that label is, and finally, give our ranking as to the label's legitimacy as per a Music Buyer's Code of Giving A Shit About Musicians.
Someone may already be out there doing this, thus my thought about maybe doing some research on it. But it's a good idea, IMO, either way. It could be a way for all of us to contribute to MiG, since it would involve more legwork and sweat than confidence in our writing abilities.
It could also be something that MiG becomes Known For.
This brings up a second issue: I am not myself comfortable with music retailers being placed on the sidebar. We aren't advertising music; we're offering ourselves as guides. With eMusic, etc., listed prominently at the top of the blogroll, I think it looks like we're conduits for retailers.
Finally, if someone hasn't already, it would be nice to put up notice at eMusic message board.
BT - I see what you are saying, but put them there to highlight alternatives to iTunes and Amazon (primarily to get more people to Bandcamp, really). Anyone else have an opinion? I will certainly delete them if folks don't want them there.
Craig
I tried copying code strings from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/youtube-shortcode/ into my post and substituting the address. I also tried pasting the youtube embed code directly into the html editor. Neither strategy caused anything to appear when I hit "preview". Am I doing something wrong? Since my piece is partly about a video it would be nice to have it embedded rather than linked.
On the other hand, if they wanted to reciprocate the support, I wouldn't have any disagreements.
Unless someone has already done it in the last half an hour, should one of us put something on the emusic thread? Twitter, itunes ping???
Craig
A label guide could be good. Some practical questions/thoughts:
1. Is it too much work? That kind of thing only starts being useful when there is a critical mass of entries. If I happen upon a label guide and it includes 7 labels I will more likely move on in derision than hang around and wait for the ones I'm interested in to be added. How many of these could we realistically get done before posting them?
2. How would we select labels? discogs.com lists approximately 11,000 labels beginning with the letter "a" in the alphabetical search. Granting that not all letters of the alphabet will be so prolific ("x" only has about 700) and that not all of those labels are worth mentioning, it's still closer to an ocean than a puddle.
3. A good blog post topic would be the launch of new labels - I might write something about Wist Rec for instance.
I've been trying to make sense of this thread with very little success. There's too many words I don't know the meaning of (widgets, peer review is two of them). I don't blame anyone, I guess it's the language barrier and the fact that I know next to nothing about computer language.
For that reason I'm holding back on signing in as a writer, at least for the time beeing.
- But . . .
I think it would be useful with writers tags so anyone with a particular interest in what comes from e.g, Craig McManus could gather it on one page.
I also think it would be useful with artist tags so it's possible find everything written about for instance Julia Kent in one click.
And that right there is why I grew hesitant to hit the submit button half way through my post without looking around a little bit first.
Let's just move on to the next bright idea, shall we?
I'm sure I'm not the only one more than willing to answer any questions you have based on the translation issue.
Craig
@Brighternow: Author list is added to the sidebar. Click the author name to see the posts. There is also a link to subscribe to the author's posts. Also added search box (stupid of me to forget that one--I plead lack of sleep). I think if we try to have tags for artists it will quickly get out of control. By the way,, I also forget you aren't using your native language, your writing is that good. Feel free to whisper to Craig or me if one of our weird English idioms has you scratching your head.
Steps:
1. Get the shortcode for the YouTube video you want.
2. Type the link like this:
[youtube_sc url=4FbPRHntLho width=560]
where the funky code is replaced by the shortcode you want.
3. There is no step 3.
You need HTML5 or Javascript + Flash to see the video. Check that you have Javascript enabled. Also some of the Wordpress authoring features are enhanced with Javascript on.
edit: It looks like those free magazine themes run ads. Dealbreaker.
Can an outsider make a comment regarding Germanprof's suggestion that "the tone here and there ("dedicated","mission", "massive") might need taking down a notch." I don't think you want to sound like Might, the magazine in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Actually, would you mind if I wrote up something irregularly and submitted it? I have used Typepad, which I gather is sort of like Wordpress' more feeble minded cousin. Here is an example: http://seekingahomeland.typepad.com/seeking_a_homeland/2010/09/true-love-cast-out-all-evil.html
- Thanks for all the kind and encouraging words, it means alot to me :-)
Denver - We'd love to have a contribution!
Craig
@denver, that's a nice piece that you linked. I hope you will write some for Musicisgood also.
@Dr Mutex That's what I needed! The video is now embedded. Very cool. (I left the link as well in case any readers need it). @Craig, this is ready for another look now. The mobile version of the site looks great on my iPod Touch!