The Ichigos front-facing site has long since been a work produced by the generous donations of the composers/transcribers found on Ichigos Forums, and Gand single handedly publishing the works onto the site. While there's nothing wrong with this model, I think it's about time we push a bit further forward with this model and adopt a publication-like system for Ichigos using community contributions to the front-facing site. I find it odd that Ichigos is the only website that I visit the forums before going to the master website. I'm certain other users do the same as well. Below are a few suggestions (by way of phases) to transform Ichigos into a stronger brand name:


Phase 1 - User Publication
Problem: Site has only one purpose - Transcription lookup.
Solution: Establish a publication system and enact it.
Reasoning: The master site could be used for much more that what is presently is being used for, and the forums are polluted due to this.
Abstract:

This can be done in a couple of ways -- the forthright most options being a Blog or Wiki site -- where a trusted set of users can publish out articles directly related to the topic of this site (i.e. Transcription, Composition, Theory, Authoring, et al.) and cross-link them against one another, and categorize the articles. This will provide a much tighter coupling to the forums, and stop non-discussion related topics from occurring in the fourms (such as tutorials, massive sticky threads, and a cleaner way to make announcements).


Phase 2 - Sheet Music Request Sweep
Problem: Transcriptions are not being submitted to the main site.
Solution: (a) Create a team to eliminate backlog, and (b) Create a team of transcription submitters.
Reasoning: This is due to backlog and lack of an automated or regulated process.
Abstract:

Did you know that there are over 6,000 threads in the Sheet Music Request forum with about one transcription in each thread? That means that the forums presently holds at least 6k transcriptions; but the present website only has a sixth of that. Even considering that only half of the requests are fulfilled, that number still pales the master site's transcription count. The way how transcription solutions have been handled has been a problem for a very long time, but the backlog of collecting/creating the necessary content for the front site has always resulted with negative progression.

A team of users could scour the forums for transcriptions and establish a database of information for those transcriptions. Once all of the information has been collected, non-duplicate transcriptions will be added to the main site, and the request forum should be cleared out to the minimal number of threads. The target is that the request forum is for requests and work-in-progress, with the main site being the sole resource for sheet music.

Phase 3 - Cloud Tagging Transcriptions
Problem: Sheet Music on the site is represented only in one dimension.
Solution: Extend content registration to be n-dimensional.
Reasoning: Users ask all the time for "this" kind of music, which is not part of the normal search capabilities.
Abstract:

This one is a bit more complicated to solve, as I don't know what kind of CMS (if any) the master site uses; but there are numerous times where users will ask for a specific type of sheet music to play rather than an exact score. Normally the stance of the forums is either to 1) request for more information and attempt at providing them with music, 2) ignore their request, or 3) re-educate the user on how to make a request; with the second being the most popular. I think that providing this information is part of our duty to provide easy access to this information. Thus, if we can provide an easy to use interface with more information pertaining to the submitted scores, the guests will be far more satisfied with our service we provide here.

Phase 4 - Transcription Extension
Problem: Sheet Music on the site is limited to Finale, MIDI, and PDF/GIF
Solution: Provide additional formats for users to utilize
Reasoning: New and upcoming formats are more accepted than older formats.
Abstract:

This is more of a nice-to-have than a problem, but there's been a recent surge of users in the forum space that has piqued interest in alternative formats to represent music, such as MusicXML, Lilypond, ABC, and OpenMPT. Having users go through and transcribe existing music to these formats may provide additional interest in our communities' byproducts.

Additionally, there has been an interesting thread regarding the production/authoring of music that is represented on this site that I think needs to be discussed a bit more with an ultimate decision regarding formats.


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Note that these are just suggestions that I've come up with without consulting anyone, and a few of them could be short-sighted. Any form of suggestion, progression, extension, or even dismissal towards these is appreciated.

Quick post before I pass out for the night. Is there any sites in existance that you feel represents the models you've described? I'd help me get a better feel for your suggestions.

Check out Hongfire. Notice how the entire site is fully integrated with the forum.

It would be worthwhile to do something similar.

The resulting benefits would be enormous - a complete Rebirth of Ichigo's.

Actually, don't check out Hongfire, unless you're fine with the massive amount of NSFW...

Young Composers does an amazing job of integrating compositions and discussions. There is a standardized way to submit a composition, and doing so automatically creates a topic in a forum specifically for this purpose. Discussion/critiquing/rating is effortless, it's easy for composers to update their existing pieces, and you don't have to wait for someone to publish the piece for you. This would more than cover phase 1, and might even help with Phase 2. Check it out—it's a pretty neat system. Of course, I'm betting that it's also a very expensive system to implement/develop.

I don't personally feel that Phase 4 is necessary, except maybe for Sibelius. Lilypond is so hard to use that it's not really practical to modify someone else's code, unless you want to make some really minor edits, and the other two formats are very rarely seen.

Add Music XML.
Also there needs to be more detailed pages for each piece. A rating system can be used as well as a user account system for the main Ichigos site. That way transcriber can better manage their submissions.
This may be very hard to do but a bunch of people with good VSTs can make humanized version of each piece and post to the Ichigos(not IchigosForums) Youtube Channel. The Videos could be then embedded in its respective sheet music page.

Sry for the double post but i think starting this should be our new years resolution.

We need buyin from the Webmaster (Gand) and the Admin (Neko) before anything can be done, mainly because it most likely will change the software stack that this site hosts for users, and it also changes the mode in which administration is performed on this site.

And this is why we can't change.

It's not that important...

Not every possible improvement has to be fulfilled.

It's not that important...

Not every possible improvement has to be fulfilled.

I'm not even concerned about rejection: I'm referring to acknowledgment.

That's what I was referring to.

Ichigo's isn't important enough for Gand or Neko to care about the existence of this thread, let alone wanting to change anything. Making the world a better place doesn't get me hard enough to motivate me to be a peaceful conscientious human.

But you seem to care. Since you're probably more proficient at software engineering than anybody here, I'm sure they wouldn't mind having you on the team again. Why not take things in your own hands?

If you were to lead the changes you're envisioning, I don't think you'd have much problem accomplishing your goal.

I think this would be a great idea and would like to help out.

Phase 2 Team Signups now :D?

The Ichigos front-facing site has long since been a work produced by the generous donations of the composers/transcribers found on Ichigos Forums, and Gand single handedly publishing the works onto the site. While there's nothing wrong with this model, I think it's about time we push a bit further forward with this model and adopt a publication-like system for Ichigos using community contributions to the front-facing site. I find it odd that Ichigos is the only website that I visit the forums before going to the master website. I'm certain other users do the same as well. Below are a few suggestions (by way of phases) to transform Ichigos into a stronger brand name:


Phase 1 - User Publication
Problem: Site has only one purpose - Transcription lookup.
Solution: Establish a publication system and enact it.
Reasoning: The master site could be used for much more that what is presently is being used for, and the forums are polluted due to this.
Abstract:

This can be done in a couple of ways -- the forthright most options being a Blog or Wiki site -- where a trusted set of users can publish out articles directly related to the topic of this site (i.e. Transcription, Composition, Theory, Authoring, et al.) and cross-link them against one another, and categorize the articles. This will provide a much tighter coupling to the forums, and stop non-discussion related topics from occurring in the fourms (such as tutorials, massive sticky threads, and a cleaner way to make announcements).


Phase 2 - Sheet Music Request Sweep
Problem: Transcriptions are not being submitted to the main site.
Solution: (a) Create a team to eliminate backlog, and (b) Create a team of transcription submitters.
Reasoning: This is due to backlog and lack of an automated or regulated process.
Abstract:

Did you know that there are over 6,000 threads in the Sheet Music Request forum with about one transcription in each thread? That means that the forums presently holds at least 6k transcriptions; but the present website only has a sixth of that. Even considering that only half of the requests are fulfilled, that number still pales the master site's transcription count. The way how transcription solutions have been handled has been a problem for a very long time, but the backlog of collecting/creating the necessary content for the front site has always resulted with negative progression.

A team of users could scour the forums for transcriptions and establish a database of information for those transcriptions. Once all of the information has been collected, non-duplicate transcriptions will be added to the main site, and the request forum should be cleared out to the minimal number of threads. The target is that the request forum is for requests and work-in-progress, with the main site being the sole resource for sheet music.

Phase 3 - Cloud Tagging Transcriptions
Problem: Sheet Music on the site is represented only in one dimension.
Solution: Extend content registration to be n-dimensional.
Reasoning: Users ask all the time for "this" kind of music, which is not part of the normal search capabilities.
Abstract:

This one is a bit more complicated to solve, as I don't know what kind of CMS (if any) the master site uses; but there are numerous times where users will ask for a specific type of sheet music to play rather than an exact score. Normally the stance of the forums is either to 1) request for more information and attempt at providing them with music, 2) ignore their request, or 3) re-educate the user on how to make a request; with the second being the most popular. I think that providing this information is part of our duty to provide easy access to this information. Thus, if we can provide an easy to use interface with more information pertaining to the submitted scores, the guests will be far more satisfied with our service we provide here.

Phase 4 - Transcription Extension
Problem: Sheet Music on the site is limited to Finale, MIDI, and PDF/GIF
Solution: Provide additional formats for users to utilize
Reasoning: New and upcoming formats are more accepted than older formats.
Abstract:

This is more of a nice-to-have than a problem, but there's been a recent surge of users in the forum space that has piqued interest in alternative formats to represent music, such as MusicXML, Lilypond, ABC, and OpenMPT. Having users go through and transcribe existing music to these formats may provide additional interest in our communities' byproducts.

Additionally, there has been an interesting thread regarding the production/authoring of music that is represented on this site that I think needs to be discussed a bit more with an ultimate decision regarding formats.


----


Note that these are just suggestions that I've come up with without consulting anyone, and a few of them could be short-sighted. Any form of suggestion, progression, extension, or even dismissal towards these is appreciated.


What you are mainly looking for is some sort of CMS essentially allowing youtube site like functions (but with sheets). Depending on the teams language knowledge there is a whole list of cms's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

that would work.

The most popular ones are probably simple blogger like sites to more advanced systems like joomla and drupal.

That's what I was referring to.

Ichigo's isn't important enough for Gand or Neko to care about the existence of this thread, let alone wanting to change anything. Making the world a better place doesn't get me hard enough to motivate me to be a peaceful conscientious human.

Seriously? Don't confuse lack of posting for lack of caring. I care deeply about the site and the forums. However, since ichigos.com gets about 20-50 times more visitors (depends on which stat you look at) my main priority is and always has been the main site. I visit the main site at least a few times a week to check on subscription submissions that need to be posted as well as make sure everything is functional. I also continually monitor both sites for issues.

I wasn't aware of this thread but there are a few good ideas in here. Some will work, some won't. Technically, the site will definitely need an overhaul to do any of this, so it's not going to happen overnight, but there's a few things we can all do right away.

Encourage people to post transcriptions that they do to the site. We get on average 2 per day, but usually only one or less of these meets Ichigo's standards (not copyrighted, good quality, actually your own work, etc). There's also nothing preventing people from doing "Phase 2" right now. Don't take credit for anyone else's work, but feel free to submit away as long as it meets the quality standards as described in http://ichigos.com/submit/

I meant compared to M. He's still in his early twenties and brimming with energy. You're married and... slightly less ambitious.
He's got big plans, but he needs big power. It's tough for him to realize his visions as a "member."

I know you wouldn't be hosting the site and forums for everyone for no reason.
I'm grateful that you continue to even though I don't think you receive much in return.