Yep, I just had two of my songs moved out of a "genre" that they were deemed inappropriate for. One was moved by someone named Martin to the Acoustic "Channel", as they refer to it, and the other was simply bounced out of the competition altogether with a suggestion that I re-enter it into the Folk Channel.

These were both songs with social messages that I thought fit within the subject of songs in World Channel. Near as I could figure, though there were no specific reasons offered, except that others in the channel complained about them, my two songs did not contain "World" or ethnic instrumentation. The definition for the channel expresses plainly that the music 'usually' or 'frequently' contains this but there were no definite requirements for this type of instrumentation.

I supposed (my mistake) that because the messages of each of my two songs contained issues like poverty, war, hunger, etc. they would best be represented in a genre that featured what I supposed were world messages. Each time I've heard "World" music the messages of those songs touched on similar subjects. I'll admit I'm not an active listener in that genre and that's probably where I made my mistake.

My issue with the site is more that it seems they are rather ill-prepared to handle what they hoped to create. I've brought specific nonfunctionality issues to their attention and their response was to not return my notes with any clear answers. Then, without my permission, they acted on their own and assumed what I want done, and just did it.

For instance, with their new calendar function. They offered it within the past couple of days and asked everyone to upload their dates and info. I went to my page and got everything to work but the image function to go along with my post. I sent them a note about the problem but their response was to simply upload an image of 'their' choice to my calendar post and not the image that I wanted to upload. What's that all about???

This is not a good way to deal with real issues regarding someone's webpage functionality. They should have admitted the problem and fixed the issue so that 'users' can use the site effectively. The site administrators shouldn't be the position to assume what the user wants done to their page. They should simply make the site functional for users to edit their own pages. If they can't do that then they should get out of the website business.

I liken this to my first homemade "Nobro" resophonic guitar. It worked as well as it could for me for about five years, but my ability as a maker of instruments was a beginner at best and the darn thing kept breaking down. I'd have to spend time to fix it again and again. Finally, I realized that what I needed was a guitar that was more reliable and since I still could not afford a fancy new one or even a good used one, I decided to make another. It's been around 15 years since then and that second "Nobro" guitar is still going strong.

Dealing with a funky instrument didn't help me to become a better player. It did, however, help me to create a better instrument the second time around. Having to deal with all of the nonfunctional aspects of that first one helped me to understand how to make the next one better and less prone to breakdown.

Having a better tool to play my music with was what was needed. I've found that having the best possible tool will yield me the best possible results. Reliability and dependability are important aspects of every good instrument. It has to be able to do its job and do it well, so that I can use it to do my job and do it well. I now have that more functional and reliable guitar but it took me those first five years to gain the understanding and skill to create that better guitar.

Now, I don't really mind being OurStage's guinea pig or beta tester for their concept site but they should present it as such to their users. They should also actively work to fix whatever issues are brought to their attention by their users. Providing their users with the best possible tool will yield the best possible results for everyone involved. An inadequate tool only serves to frustrate its user and can do more harm than good.

Of course, I have no real idea as to what they are actually dealing with in this undertaking but in all such matters adequate communication between users and administrators is an important key to the successful resolution to all such matters. Acting without adequate communication between each of these two parties is counterproductive and only serves to increase tensions.

So far, in my attempts to notify the site of problems that I've been having, on a couple of occasions, I've received form letters in response. That wasn't what I had hoped to get, but I imagine they've got their hands full dealing the issues of this site. This kind of response and their "fixes" in response to the issues I brought up gave me the impression that perhaps they were understaffed with qualified assistants to respond to the needs of their users. That's just a guess on my part.

I hope they can get their act together to make this idea a better tool for their users to use.

Reg

Last edited by reggie miles; 04/18/08 07:23 PM.