Has The Archives lost it's way?

progaardvark wrote: Wasn't I in a band called the Head Jambs? Or was it the Escutcheons?

siLLy puPPy wrote: Maybe not lost its way but certainly lost its edge and modern sheen. My woes about this site is more in the line that it is outdated in terms of technical issues. Every passing day this site becomes more antiquated whereas RYM is usurping much of the relevance that this site has. I have lists of artists that are clearly prog discovered on RYM that are missing from the databases here. The clunkiness of adding artists here is a major dampener of suggestions.

Cristi wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Maybe not lost its way but certainly lost its edge and modern sheen. My woes about this site is more in the line that it is outdated in terms of technical issues. Every passing day this site becomes more antiquated whereas RYM is usurping much of the relevance that this site has. I have lists of artists that are clearly prog discovered on RYM that are missing from the databases here. The clunkiness of adding artists here is a major dampener of suggestions. I don't know if it's a "major dampener of suggestions", but yes, the site is clunky sometimes, but I don't mind, I must be getting old or something...  I don't see the attraction of RYM.

siLLy puPPy wrote: Cristi wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Maybe not lost its way but certainly lost its edge and modern sheen. My woes about this site is more in the line that it is outdated in terms of technical issues. Every passing day this site becomes more antiquated whereas RYM is usurping much of the relevance that this site has. I have lists of artists that are clearly prog discovered on RYM that are missing from the databases here. The clunkiness of adding artists here is a major dampener of suggestions. I don't know if it's a "major dampener of suggestions", but yes, the site is clunky sometimes, but I don't mind, I must be getting old or something...  I don't see the attraction of RYM.  The requirement to write a bio and convince a team to add a band is too much for many non-English speakers. In my case i have hundreds of suggestions and just don't have time to go through the official process. As far as the clunkiness goes, how much longer will this site last without major updates? Is there any indication by the owner that these updates are in the process to give us faith that the site will be here in 5 years? I personally have zero faith it will be. The attraction of RYM is manyfold: 1) it's updated regularly! The easy of navigation is a charm. 2) multitagging for albums, not artists! If i'm looking for an album that is both symphonic prog and Arabic folk music for example, i can easily find it in the search engine! 3) higher number of users. Our top albums i YES' Close To The Edge. On PA there are only 4976 ratings. On RYM 28,719. Obviously for many progheads prefer that site 4) Users can vote on album genres! 5) Just more innovative in about every way.

Edited by Cristi - September 11 2023 at 08:27

Cristi wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Cristi wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Maybe not lost its way but certainly lost its edge and modern sheen. My woes about this site is more in the line that it is outdated in terms of technical issues. Every passing day this site becomes more antiquated whereas RYM is usurping much of the relevance that this site has. I have lists of artists that are clearly prog discovered on RYM that are missing from the databases here. The clunkiness of adding artists here is a major dampener of suggestions. I don't know if it's a "major dampener of suggestions", but yes, the site is clunky sometimes, but I don't mind, I must be getting old or something...  I don't see the attraction of RYM.  The requirement to write a bio and convince a team to add a band is too much for many non-English speakers. In my case i have hundreds of suggestions and just don't have time to go through the official process. As far as the clunkiness goes, how much longer will this site last without major updates? Is there any indication by the owner that these updates are in the process to give us faith that the site will be here in 5 years? I personally have zero faith it will be. The attraction of RYM is manyfold: 1) it's updated regularly! The easy of navigation is a charm. 2) multitagging for albums, not artists! If i'm looking for an album that is both symphonic prog and Arabic folk music for example, i can easily find it in the search engine! 3) higher number of users. Our top albums i YES' Close To The Edge. On PA there are only 4976 ratings. On RYM 28,719. Obviously for many progheads prefer that site 4) Users can vote on album genres! 5) Just more innovative in about every way. Again, I have no desire to visit that site, spend time there. I  looked for album info a few times and that was it.

I was thinking of giving it a go on RYM, because, tbh., it is not restricted to one type of music. So basically I could be talking about any music there, and maybe there is a greater diversity among users? In theory, there should also be someone to take any genre seriously. However, when I looked at the site, it seemed a bit hard to manoeuvre around in.

The advantage PA has over RYM is that all reviews have to be in English.

Hrychu wrote: The advantage PA has over RYM is that all reviews have to be in English.

Edited by Sean Trane - September 11 2023 at 13:50

I have no problem with RYM reviews not being in English. Translators are very good these days, and one can have translator add-ons. And I like to read in certain other languages sometimes.

I use RYM for the charts largely, and in looking at discographies. Those ratings have been a good guide to me, and I read the reviews there far more than here (speaking as someone who is far too long-winded, I prefer the brevity that is common there). I love that you can search for albums using multiple tags (not just genre tags too) and that it does get as many ratings as it does. I have discovered lots of albums that I love thanks to searching RYM's charts. I also find that the ratings there for the kinds of music I like tend to be more reflective of my tastes than at PA. I also find their definitions useful. I have been using it as a resource site for many years. Depending on what you want to use it for, I guess, I have not found it hard to navigate or figure out. It took some effort, pretty minimal, but I don't think ones needs a steep learning curve, or that much effort or intelligence to figure it out. A little patience to try things and figure it out perhaps, but not much required I think. I think some do have this sort of fast-food mentality where they are not investing in exploring and learning and judge way too quickly. The rewards were well worth the effort I put in.

It is the best place for me to discover albums of interest to me now. With PA, it's about the forums for me, and I don't visit the rest of the site much of my own volition. Often it is only when I am called on it to make corrections or because it relates to something I am doing on the forum. That said, I have found RYM horrible without ad-block. I think RYM is an awesome site, but the forum, which I have looked at more than once, has not attracted me yet. As resource, I prefer searching Reddit as a forum (I often would read Reddit without ever posting there). With PA, neither the database nor the the forums are used as much of a resource. I use the forums here because I enjoy interacting with the PA community and also out of habit. And another issue I have with PA is that I like far more music than what is included here, and if, say, using charts, I don't want to limit to so-called Prog


Edited by Logan - September 11 2023 at 09:59

I love Prog Archives. I don't use any other Prog sites or forums.