For a little while now I'm been toying with this idea in my head. I've been a little against implementing it for a little while, but certain recent events have brought this idea to the front of my mind again.
Now, bands keep forming, getting in fashion and falling out of vogue. This means that threads get made for bands, a couple of posts are made, then they fall away. They may get resurfaced, but usually someone just makes a new thread and shits all over the system, meaning I have to deal with locking it, telling them it's an old thread and then they send me about 5 private messages complaining that their thread is legit or how I'm abusing my power. I'm not extrapolating, I've had this happen to me a couple of times now.
Now, what I'm proposing is a complete revision of the music forum. Basically, no more band threads, none, zip, zero. No exceptions. Instead, we have a thread for each genre or if it warrants it, subgenre (Harcore Punk and Hardcore, for example, are completely different things and would need seperate threads). However, my big deal with implementing this is whether you, the users of the music forum would like this or not. I think it'd streamline the forum and it'd encourage users to mingle with each other, it'd also help people find other bands they may be interested in. It's not without it's negatives, like the rampant elitism that is prevalent through all the forums of this site, but I'd encourage everyone to be altruistic in regards to this forum.
Shit i meant to click yes - although i foresee a shitton of NO THIS IS THIS GENRE NO THIS IS THIS GENRE; which i will gladly tell you all that you're wrong.
I can definitely see the clutter clearing up, I just wonder how specific we're going to get. Broad shit like metal, grunge, jazz, post rock, etc? Or are we going to get more specific. Like Jon pointed out I think we run into issues of what thread a band should be discussed in.
I can also see some positives from this - i.e. clearing up all you faggots who think Bring Me The Horizon is br000000tal death metal and that underoath is screamo.
That's the thing. I'd much like to just have Generic Genre thread and have subgenres branch out within the thread, but there are admittedly subgenres that sound nothing like their 'parent', like I pointed out with Hardcore Punk and Hardcore.
There's also a bit of issue with crossover, like Grindcore being within it's own genre, but many metalheads liking it, and Art Rock being liked by many fans of rock.
Give me some time, I might be able to do a list of what I'd include tomorrow, though I wouldn't like to be the one making all the threads, maybe just a list of 'this is what I'd like to see'.
Maybe in the OP there could also be a list of what bands fall under the genre so posters get a grasp of what bands may also fall under that umbrella? I'm still thinking about this idea right now, any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
A short list of bands should be in the first post as an example. Especially for shitty rock bands that have fans that think they are metal and whatnot.
maybe you can have one of the staff create subforums within the Music Forum - one for each the main genres of music like Metal, Rock, etc; and have the threads in their respective subforum. it would be a lot of work and as you said, though, it'd be difficult once it got to issues like grindcore, post-rock, etc; as well as classifying certain genres like punk. oh god the shitstorm for a punk subforum would be so ridiculous i'm already getting hard over it.
I think I'm going to have enough trouble convincing an admin to wipe the forum and lock it down while I set up FAQs and guidelines, much less getting a staff to devote database resources to sub-forums about music on a machinima website. That and I'm really trying to cutdown on bloat. Though I appreciate your suggestion jonface, there's just the difficulty of not being able to create a sub-forum when the situation calls for it.
I am all for this change. I think it would definitely consolidate the amount of useless threads.
The only problem that I see with this... is that people my butt heads (lol buttheads) with each other when someone posts a Band A in the genre thread and someone posts Band B in same thread and they don't like each others bands even if they're in the same genre (or seem to be).
But I don't see that being too much of a problem. Little whiners get punched in the throat if they try to make a scene (imo, anyway).
I guess it just depends on which kind of "problems" you want to deal with man. I think the only genre thread thing would be at least interesting a thing to try.
Can you offload subgenres to individual groups on the site? If a genre's thread gets too big and cluttered, that would be one way to keep your "one thread = one genre" idea, while still having a bit more of a hierarchy.
I'd really like to keep it all consolidated within the music forum, that way it's a lot less daunting for newbies. Though for relatively obscure subgenres this could be a good idea, so long as the group is easy to locate and join.
Honestly, I don't know where I stand on all of this. The genre system would be good for clearing up clutter, but the final say on where hard-to-classify bands fit in would go to who? Especially bands with a diverse, multi-faceted sound or whose sound/genre has changed over the years.
you make a genre discussion thread for discussing what musicians fall where, and/or a thread specifically dedicated to wtf bands. There will be a lot of "well i think X band doesn't fall into Y genre," even though it obviously does, but people who post shit like that can just be directed to the appropriate thread.
the genre discussion thread could also be for talking about what makes a genre what it is.
see, here's where i take issue with that. so many eclectic, unique bands really, most definitely do not fit in a single specific genre, and are nothing like other unique bands, and IMO don't deserve to be lumped together in some vague "wtf" or "other" kind of grouping. and what happens when somebody comes into the music forum and wants to discuss one of those bands and doesn't know what to look for, other than the band's name?
see, here's where i take issue with that. so many eclectic, unique bands really, most definitely do not fit in a single specific genre,
Like I said, there's a few negatives to this plan, this being one of them. The best 'solution' I can think of to this is have their work from different periods discussed in different threads, although that is a bit overwhelming to think of. That or they bring them up in the Genre Discussion thread, though that is a bit of effort to just post about a band you like.
and what happens when somebody comes into the music forum and wants to discuss one of those bands and doesn't know what to look for, other than the band's name?
I really like your point about encouraging users to mingle with each other. Sometimes, people on here are too focused on the people they talk to regularly in their threads, or on the bands that they like. It could also help open peoples' minds to a wider variety of music.
The problem I have, and the reason why I'm voting No, is that (especially these days) there are so many bands whose genre is simply a matter of interpretation. I'm going to bust out the Linkin Park example as something that might be difficult to classify. Hip hop? Rock? Pop? What about Sum 41? They've gone from punk to metal and rock to pop and back again in their history. Another one is Brian Setzer; plenty of people consider his stuff rock music, but to me, it's jazz all the way. And those are just a couple of examples. How can you accurately classify bands which straddle the line?
Maybe there's a standard that we can use; something like AMG or Wikipedia. We could use the classifications provided on one of those sites as the standard for determining how discussions on any given band are sorted. In the meantime, however, my vote is no.
Sorry if this argument has been presented already in the thread; just my two cents.
