I am looking for some ways to make this site useful. I want this to be a place you can come on several times through out the day and do stuff on it. Does anyone have any ideas?

Nick,
I think this is a pretty high goal (though worth pursuing). I'm trying to think about sites that I visit multiple times a day and they are either news sites or forums. They share in common frequently updated content where time is important. Actually I already visit this site several times a day to see what songs are added or what forum posts are recent. A ticker tape with recent forum post subject headings could be kind of cool, but I don't know how hard that would be. Right now all the lists on the front page are given equal weight with the only distinguishing characteristic being where they are placed on the page (i.e., you see top 10 for the day first since it's in the upper left position). You could make one of the list titles blink (whichever one you'd most like to draw attention to--my personal vote would be the most recent tabs added list). Also, I was wondering whether it would be less (or more) confusing if you only linked part of the titles (caps represent linked portion; e.g., "Top 10 MOST RECENT TABS" or "Top 15 CONTRIBUTORS)" because the link itself is usually to recent tabs or contributors while the list is actually the top 10 or 15 in the examples above. Am I making any sense? I found it a little misleading when I first discovered the site because I thought here are the top 10 songs for the day right here in front of me, so where does this link lead?

My only other ideas would be: 1) to beef up the links/resources section (links to harmonica players websites--I can send examples of other pages that do this if you want; links to harmonica videos--currently quite a bit--I'll actually be posting the links I've collected to the forum at some point; lessons; samples; sheet music & midi resources, etc.); and, 2) create a portal type atmosphere where interesting links/notes are posted frequently (see the graphic design website www.k10k.net and look on the right hand side where they have a number of authors posting interesting links; this could mean just making the forum that exists somehow more prominent on the homepage; a lot of these suggestions would entail cutting or minimizing one or several of the lists on the homepage which would involve some tough decisions); I'm not sure harmonica websites are popular enough and that there are enough of them to sustain something like the portal idea although I have a pretty big set of bookmarks to either harmonica websites or sheet music resources.

Looking forward to seeing what others have to say,
Marc

I was thinking about some sort of portal type of setup, the only thing is it would entail a lot of work on my behalf and I wonder if it would be used enough to be worth the work. The link and resource pages, I always put up any links or resources people provide me, but I think the page needs some organization help because it has just become a mess over the years. I setup the file posting section so that people could post videos and stuff thinking that would get a lot of use but I have been disappointed with the usage so far. I am going to be giving out points for videos in the near future to try and help boost that section. I was also thinking about a chatroom, but that could be a headache to maintain and may not get that much usage.

Nick,

I think that these days when there are so many popular sites hosting videos
there is no need to post videos here (and save you space on your servers)
but a place to post links to videos on youtube and such.
also about the chat I agree with you that it is a nice gimmick but not very useful.

Just as came up yesterday, perhaps make a search for "ALL" on the level so you can get all versions of the song you are looking for regardless of level. Though it seems small, and I don't believe it would require extrenous work, I think it would be a big improvement especially in the percentage of time people find what they are lookign for.

Mitch
The New Kid on the Block

That field is going to be removed all together when I get some free time.

While I like the portal idea, I don't think the work you'd have to put into it would be worthwhile, nor do I think harmonica is a popular enough topic for lots of frequent updates (unless you had a number of really dedicated contributors). It's a tough call--think about the Forum itself--at any one time, it seems like there's only 4-6 individuals actually participating unless you hit on something very general like inviting people to submit their favorite quotes. Do you think that is because people can't find or don't know about the forum, or because they are simply not interested? Essentially, I think of the site as currently having 3 broad categories: Tabs, Interactive Features (forum, file postings, etc.), and Resources (links, guides, tab rulers, etc.). I'm sure most people come here (and come back) for the tabs. There's so many other choices sometimes that it's a bit overwhelming--I haven't even checked out everything there is to offer and I check this site out a couple of times a day. When you make a change or add a feature, no one can tell unless they read the forum--if you had some type of message box or a few lines about the latest changes it could help or if greater weight/emphasis was given to the Interactive and Resource sections of the site, people might use them more--I'm assuming a lot here, but you probably have page visit stats and the like--might be worth doing some quick bar/line graphs and seeing which pages get visits and which don't and whether the ones that don't are ones you'd like to see people visiting more often. I guess what I'm getting at (in my usual long-winded-I-don't-want-to-leave-for-work-yet way), is that a lot of the great features other than tabs almost feel hidden because they're in a long list of text choices and kind of blend together. Personally, I think this site is great, so I don't think it needs much work. I think simplifying it would benefit the user (e.g., what is the difference between "list tabs" and "list tabs alphabetically"? why not just have all tabs list when you click on "list tabs" and then have the alphabetical links at the top of that page? viewers get the same service with only one click essentially and they don't have to make any decisions or do any thinking.).

I'm willing to help update the link section (I think spartan but robust is the way to go--i.e., no icons or logos and no spelled out URLs; just a hyperlink made out of the name of the site and either a brief description or a nice breakdown of categories such as Suppliers/Vendors, Musical Theory/Lessons, Sheet Music, Midi Resources, Software, Players, Blogs, etc.).

Time to bike to work!

Nick,
What do you think about collapsing the forum categories so there's just one big forum? I'd personally like to just go to one place and click on the threads of interest. I think participation and conversations get watered down because it's like they're happening in different rooms and few people have time to visit all the rooms. Anyhow, just a thought...
-Marc

I agree that there are too many links on the side, but other then the one you discussed I don't think too many of them could be combined. The link page is a total mess and I keep saying I am going to do something about it but I just keep adding more links and saying I need to fix it. What I was envisioning for that page as that all members could post on that page and it would be a running list of links. It also definitely needs categories. As for the forum I think it is good to have it separated that way people can find old messages (which I have to do often) and people can look at only the materials they are interested in. The main screen of the forum shows when the last posts was made to each of them so I only check that date and time and enter them if I know there is something new there.

Is it possible to put a section with harp reviews by the members of this site since we get so many questions in the forum about different harps. It could include a user rating out of 5 and a short review by the person rating the harp. I have seen similar things at some of the harp stores online and think it may be helpful on here since the site gets so many questions about specific models.

Tom,

Look at the Reviews seection of Forum

yeah, i noticed it about 2 minutes after i added it.

Nick,
how about a print version of tabs. like when you see a tab and you want to keep it you will be able to get a version for print, i.e. without the banner and menus. just the name of the song/artist and the tabs.
what I do today is copy paste it to word. it is not a big deal but an improvement.

We have that feature at the top of the tab just click on Print and a printable version of it will pop-up.



Post Edited (12-03-06 14:36)

oops :-o

Can it be made that when somebody posts a link in a forum you can click on the link to take you to that site. I noticed people list things on youtube and the like but you can click on it.

I can look into that, but off the top of my head I believe that would be difficult for me to setup.

Need more fields.

Something I've noticed. Although the majority of the tabs are posted for a diatonic harp, there's no field saying what the tab is posted as in the newest tabs or top ten. I'm considering buying a chromatic harp to play songs that are very difficult or impossible to play on a diatonic harp. If I tab a song for chromatic, anyone seeing the main page listings won't know that.

That is a good point, the only problem is the main page is already too cramped. To add that field we would pretty much need to remove another field, unless we did the top ten for each type of harp.

Nick,
I might have already sen this to you, but here are the updates I was proposing for the links page (originally, I was going to give the name of the site and maybe a very brief explanation, but I think just ordering them by category is good enough IMHO). These include everything from the current link page except mary4music.com because it didn't really fit into any category per se.

TABS
[www.harptabs.com]
[www.volcano.net]
[www.celticguitarmusic.com]
[www.pgonline.com]
[www.freebluesharptabs.com]
[www.harpinanawhinin.com]
[www.harptab.com]
[www.harmonicacountry.com]
[www.jt30.com]

DISCUSSION GROUPS
[harp-l.com]
[launch.groups.yahoo.com]
[www.harmonicajukebox.com]

SOFTWARE
[www.harpingmidi.com]
[www.harpsoft.com]
[www.grotch.tk]

GENERAL INFO
[www.angelfire.com]
[www.patmissin.com]
[harp.muse.pl]
[harmonijka.mud.pl]
[www.harmonicaclub.com]
[todoarmonica.org]
[www.planetharmonica.com]
[www.celticguitarmusic.com]
[www.crossharpchronicles.com]
[www.harplinks.com]
[www.harmonica-usa.com]
[www.harmonicatunes.com]
[www.harmonicaspain.com]
[www.harmonicasessions.com]
[www.slidemeister.com]
[www.harmonica-workshop.com]
[www.harmonicaclub.com]
[www.bluesharp.org]
[www.cbel.com]
[www.harplinks.com]
[www.harmonika-museum.de]

LESSONS/TECHNIQUE
[www.Gindick.com]
[www.harmonicalessons.com]
[www.davegage.com]
[www.freeharmonicalessons.com]
[www.overblow.com]
[www.wimdijkgraaf.com]
[www.thewaynereedconnection.com]
[host90.ipowerweb.com]
[www.harmonicacountry.com]
[coast2coastmusic.com]
[www.iwasdoingallright.com]
[www.harmonicamasterclass.com]
[www.harmopoint.com]

ONLINE SHOPS
[www.goldharmonicas.com]
[www.harmonicastore.com]
[www.harmonicasandstuff.com]
[www.harphouse.com]
[www.harpdepot.com]
[www.coast2coastmusic.com]
[www.musiciansfriend.com]
[www.harmonica.com]
[www.turboharp.com]
[www.harpshop.com]
[www.harmonicas-direct.com]

HARMONICA MAKERS
[bushmanharmonicas.com]
[www.customharmonicas.com]
[www.heringusa.com]
[www.hohnerusa.com]
[www.frankhuang.com]
[www.kayguitar.com]
[www.leeoskar.com]
[www.seydel1847.de]
[www.suzukimusic.com]
[weltmeisteronline.com]

HARMONICA BLOGS
[harmonica.typepad.com]
[icgs.typepad.com]
[www.blogharmonica.com]
[hcharmonica.blogspot.com]
[harmoniciste.blogspot.com]
[chromatonic.blogspot.com]
[www.eugeneryan.com]

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
[franceharmonica.online.fr]
[www.spah.org]
[www.harmonica.co.uk]

SHEET MUSIC
[www.free-scores.com]
[www.sheetmusicarchive.net]
[www.8notes.com]
[www.mutopiaproject.org]
[www.mfiles.co.uk]
[www.sheetmusicdirect.us]
[www.musicnotes.com]
[www.cpdl.org]

MIDIs
[www.midisite.co.uk]
[www.mididb.com]
[laurasmidiheaven.com]
[www.socc.ie]