Ok, everybody, you've seen the draft of the new DMusic design, you've been a part of this site - you know what you like and don't like - now tell us!

We're looking for comments on what you love and hate about this place - everything! Stuff from the past that isn't around anymore, stuff that hasn't been fixed, stuff that never worked, stuff that works great and you'd jump off of something high if it went away.

At the same time, keep the dialogue moving regarding that new design. This new slick site will only work if it works for you guys. Please be honest, just don't make fun of mux's ficus - he's very touchy.

Make sure the paypal donate buttons work for the artist pages AND the general purpose Dmusic/Boycott-Riaa donate buttons too. We certainly love (and USE) the "Recently Uploaded Tracks" feature. Please make sure to keep it!

And, don't forget those of us who have the "spooky admin powers"! Please don't break our tools when doing the redesign! We kinda need 'em to do our job.

well put it up and we will see all the ins and outs of it ...
like what the community/forum page looks like ...
are we comfortable with this new look
can we find our way around
what does our user pages look like
are the artist pages improved
do you need a 30 inch monitor to see it
what have they done with the rating structure
where is everything at
what is the sense of putting the community and the forum together
should the community tab be changes to reflect the forum inclusion
what colours are avaiable
can we have it altered
is it user friendly or just another soundclick lookalike

I send a lot of people to my DMusic page and a lot of them seem to get confused as to how to stream the music. So maybe the icons for lofi, hifi, and d/l, and even info, could be changed to icons that say exactly what they are? Just to make it even that much more simpler for first time visitors.

Also, I'd like on our Artist Page, to have a link that says "more" or something underneath our short Bio. That way the visitor doesn't have to go looking around to find where to read the rest.

And maybe adding a little color to the "Featured Track" would be cool too.

Great job so far tho guys.

I think it's ok the way it is, the new design is good. Maybe if added a chatroom or something, or more contests.

I've noticed lately, the activity has slown down some. Maybe it's cuz of the holidays, but I believe if more events are planned it would give users an incentive to stay active.

We need to bring back the "recently uploaded" feature. Especially for all those non-subscribers, so they can see the newest uploaded music on artists' pages.

Also, even if we don't switch up the whole look... I think we DEFINITELY need those "new music, top downloads, DM Charts, Featured Artists" links/tabs... DEFINITELY

Get some text antialiasing, man. That's nasty.

Allright, here we go.

I posted this in the other thread, but I would totally change the look of those tabs to be something much cleaner. They currently look a bit out of place. Perhaps it's the shadowing on them, but I'm not too sure.

There's dead space around the shout button under the shoutbox, and it looks ugly.

The forums link should be up top. Clean design dictates that a forum button should be right there, right on top, especially considering how important the forum is (in my opinion). I don't want to have to go searching whenever I want to find it.

Also, I'd use something like Invision of phpBB instead of... whatever we have now. The argument could be made that it 'blends in with the rest of the site', but it doesn't feel like a forum.

Less space between the New Music and News boxes. Not much less, but a little less would be great.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find that there's a strange blend in the differences from user pictures and artist pictures. I don't know if something sould be done about that.

On artist pages, it's very unclear that clicking on someone's name will bring a bio, while clicking on their user name will bring you to their user page. This should be fixed.

Ok, well, I think I've complained enough. Sorry about all the negative. The new site design really does look very nice.

Ooh, also, can some of us subscribers become official beta testers?

Please?

*Bambi eyes*

PLEASE!!!! THE ABILITY TO EDIT SONG and FORUM COMMENTS... If I make a typo error in the shoutboxes I can delete that shout and replace it with a proper one. Why can't I do this with song comments? I think the featured artist should be offered an "official" front page interview....nothing fancy, just maybe the 20 "standard questions". Also, video. How could the site tap into the home-music video craze? DVideo?..... How about "user of the month"? This would be nice for the non-posters. I agree with an above comment, more contest where posters and non-poster could participate.. you ADMINS are sitting on a warehouse full of DMusic hats, t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, etc....time to bust open a few cases. BTW, LOVE the latest new features!!! excellent addition to en excellent site...great job, guys......

"On artist pages, it's very unclear that clicking on someone's name will bring a bio, while clicking on their user name will bring you to their user page. This should be fixed."
I totaly agree I feel I'm a vetren here and still do that
"Ooh, also, can some of us subscribers become official beta testers?

Please?

*Bambi eyes*"
YES PLEASE
I'll run it on all browsers besides AOHell

O K heres my
the new look again hows the load time

Forum in comunity is fine(but I think it should be a sepreate link and there should be a FAQ and site map on the top of the forum locked so that new users can get right to it quick.

Will we still have a comunity page as it is now Distilled1 just left a shout on koiulpoi's shout box (its nice to see who is on line and active if they aren't on your buddy list.

buddy list still

I think the search needs some repair, I finaly have got it down but can be an issue if you search for some band and you miss spell or typo.

the charts should be re-done(not that they EVER say much any way.

A genra for COVERS and Rough starting out stuff (nirvana riff#1 kinda stuff) ONLY! I love that we have everyone from the begining artist to pros but the covers need to get out of the main genras as it seems the first time guitarist playing Teen Spirit gets most plays each day and takes from some great Original tracks (just my opinion, nothing wrong with the riffs and covers but can't we do a seperate genra so they sort out of the originals)

Something more about the avalibility of Creative Comons licensing, I think its great we have a script that we can use to do it, but it seems many dont know about it could this be something written right in the upload area? I think its a bit hidden and vauge, after all we are fighting the majors and the RIAA why hide the options I belive we should make if thats what we want but if we are willing to do the Creative Commons why not bring it right up front.

the Podcast thing is but I can't get any of my software to recognize the link, it should open an rss file in .xml (podcast, howbout news and DMusic newsletter in podcast form also I'm more than willing to help out a bit if needed when I have time)

Well all that said, I have loved this site since George Z turned me on to it, I think some of the best features here are the shoutbox (it beats any I have seen, its just so smooth ) the emotes here rock

the subscription rate is well worth it

Oh another complaint kind of, when I am on another computer and type my user page http://Distilled1.dmusic.net I seem to get the main page untill I cookie the page (as well as our artist page) Now this may be me typing bad, or doing the url wrong but I think there may be a glitch there.

the comunity page the (more) link is great the whos online is great

Damn it this site is great
the best thing is the comunity I would like to volenteer for any help needed I can do in my spare time I would love to se DMusic by pass all the other music communities out in the great wide web

OK thats it for now
~Distilled1 Loves DMusic
(PS is there a support group for DMusic Adicts )

"Also, video. How could the site tap into the home-music video craze? DVideo?...."
I agree

I thought of an idea (thanks to Distilled)

Here's a forinstance, leading up to my idea.

DJ Facemachine's user page is djfacemachine.dmusic.net, while her artist page is facemachine.dmusic.com. (Somebody could easily set up a djfacemachin.dmusic.com squatter account, but that's not my point). However, if I type in djfacemachine.dmusic.com, it brings me straight to the main page - no error message, no nothing.

What I'm suggesting is, if somebody types an artist page wrong, a page should come up saying "That artist doesn't exist. Did you mean one of these?"

Eh? Eh?

Also, I don't know if this is something that should be fixed, but for the longest time I thought the only way to get to the community shoutbox was going to music.dmusic.com. For some reason it never dawned on me that it was on the front page.

Also, new users to the site often reply to shouts in their own shoutbox instead of the shouter's shoutbox (say that 5 times fast). Should there be some kind of... reply button or something?

Ooooooooh a reply button in the shout box script GReat Idea!!!!
Man I felt real when I first came on and did that

This would be or something simaler for the featured artist thing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Posted by HardcoreJohn in Music News on December 22, 2005 at 7:16 PM
Printable Printable Version

Here is a message we recieved from garageSUCKS.com:

Congratulations! As a result of some very enthusiastic reviews from
GarageBand.com members, "Something Real" will be Track of the Day at GarageBand.com. For 24 hours on Saturday, the 24th of December, 2005 (PST) "Something Real" will be featured on GarageBand.com's Hard Rock front page. The address for this page will be: http://www.GarageSUCKS.com/go/IYUROLGVQ0

So make sure you've got a current photo of Jeremiah's Bridge uploaded, and then enjoy your time in the spotlight. We've created a nifty "Track of the Day at GarageSUCKS.com" badge which you're eligible to display on your own website. It's just one more way to get the word out about how good your stuff is. Just click on the
following link to pick up a GarageBand.com Badge for your website. Best wishes from all at GaragSUCKS.com and keep up the great work!"
Sorry just can't promote that site I don't like it and yes we are there

congrats too you Hardcore John, didn't mean to put this down I know its hard going to get even uploads beyond the first

My favorite features of DMusic:

1. Community page! (I couldnt live without it.)
- It has recently uploaded tracks.
- It has recent activity.
- It has a site shoutbox.
- It can be accesed with one click from any page on this site.

2. Personal Shoutboxes. (You can go wrong with a personal little tagboard.)
- It gives you the ability to chat with your friends.
- People can stop by and let you know when they've uploaded something new.
- People can comment on your overall music and compliment you (Not like I get any )

Stuff I'd like to see on DMusic:

1. A live chatroom. (An easier way to communicate with people on DMusic.)
2. Optional sounds/alerts to let you know when you have a new shout, comment, etc.
3. Ability to personalize your own page. (Maybe an HTML/PHP editor for your own page? Or even just a color scheme changer.)

Cant really think of more at the moment. But hopefully this helps.

I love things as they are now We don't want to be, or look like, any other site - that's what gives us an advantage. I think now's the time to stop introducing any more features - things are likely to get too busy and too complicated...changes for changes sake. Chat rooms are nice...but I fear it would lead to much reduced public interaction on site and would make it far harder for newbies to get established and integrate.

The only thing remaining, and currently unaddressed, that would make me subscribe is to see an EVEN rotation of ALL the subscribers within the promotional slots around the site. Similarly, EQUAL promotion of ALL artists who are selling their cds.

With regard to non-subcribers I would like there to be defined criteria for being "featured". The fact that it is currently "random" (or based on personal opinion) is not really satisfactory or fair. An unbiased system for promoting subscribers and non-subscribers will almost certainly attract more subcriptions and investment in the site.

If we can deal with this issue, then we have the perfect site.

artist pages ....
need this at the top of the music not the bottom
Watchlist LoFi HiFi Download Email Add to Playlist Lyrics & Info
with the buttons, or a EZer more new user friendly buttons

Man I'm just full of comments
ficus the one that keeps getting peed on

minor detail(honest) because the site is worldwide, is there a chance that you could have some way of people knowing, compared with their own timescale (Wales,beautiful country, brilliant musicians, come visit ) our compatative time is with the Americas? GMT and all that

^yes someway to tell there has to be a script to do that

Rodrica pointed out the K.I.S.S. principle. I just want to add my agreement.

And yes, don't hurt the shoutboxes! As far as any of the "features" go, the shouts are perhaps one of Dmusic's biggest assets. Keep 'em in the fore!

A different font would be nice...don't really care for the one being used now. Use Tahoma, or Trebuchet MS, or something catchy.

when ??? 2006 ...2007 ...2008!