One thing I was curious about was if there was a way to mass delete inactive accounts? When you look through the members page there are so many that either have never posted, posted once or twice years ago, or have not logged in for years. Would it be beneficial to get an accurate idea of how many people are legitimate members, logging in and posting?

WaimeaBay wrote:

One thing I was curious about was if there was a way to mass delete inactive accounts? When you look through the members page there are so many that either have never posted, posted once or twice years ago, or have not logged in for years. Would it be beneficial to get an accurate idea of how many people are legitimate members, logging in and posting?

Do not make the mistake of equating a lack of posts to being 'inactive' or not being "legitimate". I agree that a member who has not logged on in a long time (12 mos?) is 'inactive'.
Many people lurk, learn, but do not post. That is not a bad thing. How can it be? Maybe some folks just do not wish to add anything because they feel that they cannot contribute anything at the moment.

Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada

Last edited: Aug 30, 2015 15:37:09

JakeDobner wrote:

Something that I think NEEDS to happen is for users to be able to integrate Bandcamp into their user profiles. And for those who have a bandcamp integration, they would have flair or a link (like the PM link) to visit their profile/bandcamp.

Just MORE and MORE music. There isn't enough music directly available on this site and I feel bandcamp is the best way to listen share, sample, and buy music for artists like ourselves.

I'm not very interested in checking out youtube samples/videos, I don't know why, but I am very likely to visit any band's bandcamp to see if it is something I want to buy.

...Agreed! I think this site needs more music; by that, I mean actual music samples or Bandcamp links that people can visit to hear music. A 30 second live YouTube vid (although it might be interesting) doesn't count.

• I think the site should stay!!
• Yeah, sometimes people on the forums are a-holes. I've personally felt censored at times (perhaps due to me, myself, being an a-hole or just an overly opinionated jerk) by the site. My personal thought, is that a reasonable amount of conflict and differing opinions is what makes a site interesting. Sure, nobody should be bullied or meant to feel unwelcome...but opinions should be welcome and uncensored as well, even if unpopular or controversial.
• I don't always log in. That doesn't mean I'm not viewing the site. I DON'T think user accounts should be deleted for inactivity.
• If this site became more of a "Magazine" that has a forum attached to it, it would be WAY better, IMO. What I mean by that, is that if there was content that was written by one or more individuals on a regularly scheduled basis, it would provide more incentive for me to check out the site. Right now the site is very hit and miss...maybe I'll read a post that interests me, or I'll answer a question. It's sometimes difficult to sort through everything to find content that is personally meaningful to me. Now, if there was a "New Music" blog that was updated every month or two weeks (on a set date), that included reviews along with sound clips of tunes...I'd visit more often. Other ideas would be "Surf Gear" (review of guitars and equipment new or old), "Classic Surf" (reviews of old records including rare or obscure surf), "Interviews" (Q and A with surf bands and musicians).

-Just my 2 cents.

www.apollo4.com

Pappa_Surf wrote:

The home page should have links to everything a student would need to write a really comprehensive school project on Surf music.

That would be a cool goal... It would take not a small amount of effort by members, even to collate from existing history in many posts here and put it in some format like that. (more effort than currently shown in the site's wiki...)

OT: such a hypothetical report would get a 'D' from me if all it sourced was one website.

But it's an interesting direction.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

EDIT: I rewrote my post on this existential topic. It seemed too negative.

+++

I derive benefit from the site. I happen to think that it's quite cool. There is nothing else quite like it, so it has a unique value proposition. Most others seem to like it also, except for a few outliers. SG101 has been very, very good to me. I can't even begin to complain. It certainly has given more to me than I have given it.

Regarding leaving SG101 to shrivel up in the sun while moving to other social platforms: why not? That is the question you need to answer. And you should have a good one.

Of course, SG101 is a thing unto itself, so maybe let it be? To incorporate more modern ways of communicating would be very nice, however. (The very medium of a bulletin board is looking pretty old fashioned these days, for instance.) But you could make improvements here and at the same time preserve whatever content you have accumulated, at least for posterity.

That said, you are looking at a whole lot of work with a minimal personal ROI. Reading between the lines, it appears that you are fed up with certain types of chatter on the site. So, for purely personal reasons you ought to weigh the potential ratio of effort to reward. (And if you think for a second moving to FB or some other FB-like format is going to improve the signal to noise, think again. This is about as good as it gets.) Unfortunately, no one can help you make this decision; it is up to you and your family.

Another option, if you have had enough of all this, may be to create a cooperative team that handles at least some aspects of site administration for you so you might quit tightening every loose screw while you still have a modicum of sanity left.

Though, as I am fond of saying at the workplace, "It is rarely a good idea to create one problem to solve another." Pondering this simple idea has saved my ass more than once. YMMV.

SSIV

Last edited: Aug 30, 2015 19:00:23

I agree with the sentiments that there should be more special content AND that it should be user-sourced. Like Brian said, it's already happening in a way, and I think this thread shows that people care enough to do it.

HOWEVER! A post in the middle of a thread on the internet feels kind of insignificant. I always felt bad for Noel when he would post these extremely well-thought-out reviews in the review forum because I felt like they weren't getting the attention they deserve.

I think things like this could use some curation. A reviews section on the sidebar with reviews or other spotlight articles in their own html layout like the news section, comments underneath. I think that would make a difference between "SG101 reviewed my album" and "some guy on the internet reviewed my album". And stuff like that should be posted on an official sg101 facebook page. Does that exist? Again, I don't think facebook should be seen as competition before it's even been leveraged for bringing people in here.

Based on your last post, Brian, it sounds like you were already thinking something similar, but I don't know if others realized they could volunteer their time like that. I didn't at least. You might need to ask before you get people volunteering.

Storm Surge of Reverb: Surf & Instro Radio

ElMonstroPorFavor wrote:

HOWEVER! A post in the middle of a thread on the internet feels kind of insignificant. I always felt bad for Noel when he would post these extremely well-thought-out reviews in the review forum because I felt like they weren't getting the attention they deserve.

I think it's totally fine to cross post reviews... here, Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes. I see a lot of work going into the reviews, better get some mileage out of them.

Buy Speed of Dark @ Bandcamp
Buy Spin the Bottle @ Bandcamp
My Blog- Euro Tour Blog
Pool Boys on Spotify
INSTAGRAM
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Pollo Del Mar on FB
DJ Frankie Pool Boy on North Sea Surf Radio

being someone who spends a good amount of time on SG101 and various facebook groups i say...

1. keep sg101.com running if you update it or not, it is a fantastic resource.

2. if you want to flirt with facebook start a facebook group, i run one for my podcast and its a great way to manage a likeminded community on FB

2b. the surf music/guitar groups on FB are all really weak right now, it would be great to have sg101 come in an be the main unified place instead of 15 groups with 300 members each. many with all the same members posting the same stuff. if you want help setting up a group i dont mind lending a hand.

http://dinosaurghost.bandcamp.com/
http://sixtycyclehum.podbean.com

I really like coming here. I don't post a lot, but there's always great reading, and links to music and videos I might not have found any other way.

Would it be possible to embrace other instro sub genres with surf to broaden the appeal of the board? is it possible that having guitar as part of the name keeps us from seeing input from bassists, drummers, keys players and horn players?

Also, it seems like there is plenty of traffic, and recently too.

See attached totals for posts and last update dates. This excludes the section of posts where we talk about the site itself.

Last edited: Aug 31, 2015 13:43:34