30,000 Releases on Metal Academy!
We've hit the 30,000 release mark here at Metal Academy. I rarely receive requests these days, which I have to assume is due to the site being far more comprehensive that it previously was.
I announced 25,000 releases on the 20th of December last year, which means it has taken me 8 months to add another 5,000. I don't feel like I've slowed down, but perhaps the difficulty of finding high quality artwork for all the lesser known bands I'm adding these days has an impact on speed.
It's clear to me now that the "work" will never end. I still have tens of thousands of releases to add, and there's functionality I've built into the backend of the site that I haven't even started fleshing out (such as tracklistings and lyrics). My hope is that one day Metal Academy will become the most comprehensive metal site on the internet, with community functionality you won't find anywhere else.
I'm considering giving my developer another stack of work to do, so if anyone has any changes / fixes / additional functionality they'd like to bring to the table, let's discuss.
Congratulations Ben. Amazing work.
Can I request the ability to edit the name of a forum thread?
Can I request the ability to edit the name of a forum thread?
Yes please! A few of the threads I created have outdated titles I feel like changing.
Great work, Ben!
Great work sir. You know my request already but please can we have the navigation from the bottom of the screen as well as the top?
Wow, 30,000 releases. That's a hell of a lot of metal. Total respect for all your hard work Ben. And 5000 releases in 8 months still sounds like a lot to me! My request is similar to Vinny's - on the releases and bands pages could it be possible to have the page tabs at the top as well as the bottom of the page?
Vinny and Sonny, I want to make sure that I fully understand what it is when you're suggesting improvements to the navigation. Are you saying that you want to be able to see the icons / field selectors at the bottom of the page as well as the top on the Releases and Bands pages specifically?
I'm proud of all the cool stuff we have here at Metal Academy, but I do worry that it could be daunting and/or confusing for newcomers. It doesn't help that the FAQ is outdated and hidden in fine print at the bottom of the site. I want to update it and make it more visible, but ideally in a cool way that really showcases what the site is all about. I'm going to think about how to achieve that, but if anyone has any ideas or has seen something great on another site, please let me know. I wish I had the skills to make an awesome animation that guides people through everything the Metal Academy has to offer its attendees, but alas, I don't.
I'd also like to get an idea from people which features we currently have are valuable to you and which ones aren't particularly. Note that I'm not intending to remove features, but maybe they don't all have to be in the main menu bar? Could we "dumb" down the front page to make it more accessible?
Personally, I mostly use the Releases and Forums buttons, but regularly access the Gallery, Lists and Anniversaries pages too. While I think we need it, I don't personally find value in the Bands page, but maybe others do? I also basically never access the Charts now, as the Releases page allows me to achieve the same functionality with way more options (such as year, format and sub-genre). The only thing the Releases page doesn't have is a numbered order for your results. Do people still find value in the Charts page?
As usual, all feedback is welcome.
I'm proud of all the cool stuff we have here at Metal Academy, but I do worry that it could be daunting and/or confusing for newcomers. It doesn't help that the FAQ is outdated and hidden in fine print at the bottom of the site. I want to update it and make it more visible, but ideally in a cool way that really showcases what the site is all about. I'm going to think about how to achieve that, but if anyone has any ideas or has seen something great on another site, please let me know. I wish I had the skills to make an awesome animation that guides people through everything the Metal Academy has to offer its attendees, but alas, I don't.
I'd also like to get an idea from people which features we currently have are valuable to you and which ones aren't particularly. Note that I'm not intending to remove features, but maybe they don't all have to be in the main menu bar? Could we "dumb" down the front page to make it more accessible?
Personally, I mostly use the Releases and Forums buttons, but regularly access the Gallery, Lists and Anniversaries pages too. While I think we need it, I don't personally find value in the Bands page, but maybe others do? I also basically never access the Charts now, as the Releases page allows me to achieve the same functionality with way more options (such as year, format and sub-genre). The only thing the Releases page doesn't have is a numbered order for your results. Do people still find value in the Charts page?
As usual, all feedback is welcome.
I still find value in all these pages, including the Bands and Charts ones. Those two I think are still needed because it would be easier when looking for a specific band or the highest-rated releases on a site, instead of searching for them all in a section of 752 pages of releases!! Perhaps dumbing down the main menu bar might be a good idea since it's getting a little full, otherwise if any more new features come in, you might have to implement a way to fit them all in, and that would be tough. While the Bands and Charts pages can be taken out of the main menu bar, instead of removing them altogether, maybe put them into the release page in a couple new sections? Like replace the "select band" and "minimum # of ratings" with links to the Bands and Charts pages that would otherwise be inaccessible when gone from the main menu bar. I don't know... It's a bit complicated to sort out which features are better off with their own pages, but let's just play it by ear based on everyone else's feedback.
Vinny and Sonny, I want to make sure that I fully understand what it is when you're suggesting improvements to the navigation. Are you saying that you want to be able to see the icons / field selectors at the bottom of the page as well as the top on the Releases and Bands pages specifically?
No Ben, I just want the buttons at the top also available at the bottom please:
Ah, I see. Let me see if that can be done.
As well as the forum pages at the top please, so I don't have to scroll or hit END to go to a different page, especially since a lot of the threads have massive pictures that makes each page incredibly long.
Vinny and Sonny, I want to make sure that I fully understand what it is when you're suggesting improvements to the navigation. Are you saying that you want to be able to see the icons / field selectors at the bottom of the page as well as the top on the Releases and Bands pages specifically?
No Ben, all I am requesting is that the page numbers when selecting bands or releases are selectable from top or bottom of the page, so I don't need to scroll up and down when navigating through pages. Another thought has just come to me, would it be possible to select the page number by typing it in rather than pressing button after button until you reach the page you want, especially when a large number of pages are returned on a result.
Personally, I still tend to get quite a bit of use out of the bands pages. What about if the the main menu included the Clans, Forums, Bands, Releases, Charts and Lists, most of which first-time visitors would recognise. Then a separate tab, menu, dropdown or whatever that is titled "Special Features" or "Exclusive Features" which would hold the Gallery, Hall, Featured Releases and Anniversaries, in other words, the features that set Metal Academy apart.
As for the FAQ's, how about an faq button at the top of each of the features home pages that then takes the user to an faq dedicated to that feature.
Another 1000 releases added in just over a month. This lockdown working from home thing isn't all that bad. 