PA Album of the Year Discussion thread

MikeEnRegalia wrote: FYI: I have improved the search function, it now ignores the filters. So when you search for something you will find it regardless of whether you set the filter to only show PA releases, or to only show releases you interacted with.

Small improvement: Optimized the layout for the combined charts and implemented proper ranking, so that releases with equal number of points can share positions.

I've created a fresh set of instructions in the other thread - maybe we should close this one and concentrate our efforts over there? 

^ Having only one thread makes it simpler to maintain and to make sure that the instructions posted are correct. I don't think that there'll be too many submissions for the past months of 2023, so it should not be too cumbersome for you to follow that thread, even if you only care about the yearly poll. I think that going forward the focus will usually be the past 1-2 months as well as the ongoing year, so it won't be a mess of a lot of different polls going on simultaneously. The thread could become a (slightly more complex) version of the "what are you listening to" thread, just with a more durable outcome.

^ It is definitely easier for me to only collect lists from one thread, but that should not be the main motivation for how to slice this. Maybe it would make more sense to keep a dedicated thread for the "Aoty" poll. Maybe the PA admins should decide. As far as the instructions are concerned, that problem can be solved by linking to the "main" thread. In any case, there should not be more than the two threads that already exist.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ It is definitely easier for me to only collect lists from one thread, but that should not be the main motivation for how to slice this. Maybe it would make more sense to keep a dedicated thread for the "Aoty" poll. Maybe the PA admins should decide. As far as the instructions are concerned, that problem can be solved by linking to the "main" thread. In any case, there should not be more than the two threads that already exist.

First for those who are not, nor ever have been, collabs at this site for some background. Traditionally, this was only open to Collabs, which includes Prog Reviewers, Collaborators, Special Collaborators, Admin, and we included VIP members. In the Collab zone, a place which we hope will attract new members (think Willy Wonka's chocolate factory but with 11.5 percent more Oompa Loompas), we would have an official Nominations thread specifically for each collabs list, and we would have a discussion thread for talking about our lists, conversation, getting ideas etc. Then once the nominations process was over and the data had been tabulated, it was posted for all PA forum visitors to see.

It was helpful to keep the discussion and official nominations thread separate to make it easier to view and collect results. Now it works differently with using Mike's site to input your selections.

An issue I could have with combining the months lists and AOTY list is that it be much less readable, the thread might flow less, and just look sloppy. Especially if we have to list each month in separate posts that makes discussion more difficult and the whole thin more potentially confusing to follow. I do think that there is beauty in streamlining.

Already with the changes it might seem a little more overwhelming to some. I know it's not hard to follow the instructions and your site is not on its own to figure out with some perseverance and observation skills. I had an issue with keeping on losing my lists (I will change my cookie settings) and so having to re-post. And then I was having issues with the applicable entries of my overall 2013 list not automatically being shown and ranked in the months list. I then would re-post my overall coded list to get it to work again., then it stopped. I will change some of my security settings and permissions.

Anyway, I do think having a thread dedicated to the Album of the Year is potentially better for an easier to follow thread. I do like having that list open to the not-in-PA releases for those who want to because PA is missing albums of artists already included in our database (I added some before that I saw thanks to your non-in-PA lists) and because there are artists that still might be included in PA that were missed, and it may help to highlight those.

I wouldn't mind having separate thread for discussion purposes actually where we just talk about some of our favourite albums of the year. Already this thread covers quite a lot, from individual lists, commentary on the albums, and a lot of technical discussion about the AP feature. By adding the individual months to this discussion it would becomes I think too much, especially when one makes separate post for every month and then might be updating that with fresh posts.

Logan wrote: richardh wrote: Logan wrote: Credit where credit is due, while I have not posted there in many years, and don;t remember my account details, I went through the album of the year topic at progressive ears and found it good reading. Some good discussion of albums there and lists. It might also be useful to some to read to get ideas. I tried to register again there yesterday, as I rather feel like this should be one big prog/art/progressive/experimental music community despite the address/url. Also, when one site is slow might be easier to find conversation (I like internet forum discussion but I am not very good at it) with users at the other site. https://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/30661-ALBUMS-OF-THE-YEAR-2023 I did check it out recently and there was an interesting exchange between Steve Babb (Glass Hammer) and various forum users. I discovered that Fred Schendel is not really a big part of the band of the anymore (it was always Babb and Schendel for years) and only guested on the recent album Arise. I have been a follower of the band for 20 years and it was fascinating to read some very candid stuff. I wonder why actual musicians like Babb don't feel they can post here? Are we just way too elitist? That's been my concern for a long time tbh. While we have had musicians who posted here in the past like Phideaux and Steven Wilson, it has been noted that Progreswsive Ears has attracted more serious music artists and there have been more oif the kinds of topics you mention. Reddit is big place for Ask Me Anythings with artists and people of different stripes. I would not think we are more elitist here than at Progressive Ears, and I have read a PE member claiming that the people generally at PE are way more knowledgeable than at PA. One reputation that the PA forum has is that the users are obsessed by lists, and so there is less actual back-and-forth discussion here. Indeed, compared to forums I frequented before joining this site, there is much less back-and-forth conversation here/ discussion. And we have so many forums that it can be confusing. Also looking at the active topics, often it gets flooded with very short responses so having an ongoing conversation with an artist becomes harder as it is more likely to get swept away. This board feels more like one big Just For Fun than others forums I have visited, which could be off-putting to some serious artists. And we have had some problematic/ judgmental members at times whose negativity/ criticisms could be off-putting and might not lead to the best forum rep.

Logan wrote: Credit where credit is due, while I have not posted there in many years, and don;t remember my account details, I went through the album of the year topic at progressive ears and found it good reading. Some good discussion of albums there and lists. It might also be useful to some to read to get ideas. I tried to register again there yesterday, as I rather feel like this should be one big prog/art/progressive/experimental music community despite the address/url. Also, when one site is slow might be easier to find conversation (I like internet forum discussion but I am not very good at it) with users at the other site. https://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/30661-ALBUMS-OF-THE-YEAR-2023

I visit both sites daily and enjoy both.

^ I was not thinking of this thread, but generally with that comment. That was intended in the context of possible reasons why we don't get established artists/ musicians posting here as much and having conversations with them. That is something I have read from others, and in general I too find that the Prog Archives board tends to be more list-focused (often with very short replies) and not so conversation focused as many other places. Partially it's because polls are so popular here. I have made many, many polls, and love making and looking at other people's lists and exploring music due to lists. I often tend to avoid having conversations in RL, partially because I find being around people to be exhausting often. I'm happy with PA, and I, as I think you can gather from my comments, really like and appreciate your tool. Ah, that could be misinterpreted.

^ Yeah, me too. I had hoped it might become more interactive like with the Interactive polls where people comment on each other's choices, compare notes, recommend to others... I do like thread that become very communal. It does feel like at PA the comments generally have become more and more like islands unto themselves. We get some arguing, but there is not as much friendly banter as there was once certainly (like when you joined). I'm doing some polls that I am hoping will complement this topic and maybe generate some buzz. Haha, good luck, the last time I helped to generate some buzz was when my wife bought me an electric hair clipper with razor, and I failed to add an attachment and ended up shaving off all my hair -- I got worried glances after that since I looked rather like a typical skinhead (i.e. white and male, edit, and with a shaved head of course).

Edited by Logan - December 30 2023 at 19:02