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Welcome to the Just Plain Folks forums! You are currently viewing our forums as a Guest which gives you limited access to most of our discussions and to other features.
By joining our free community you will have access to post and respond to topics, communicate privately with our users (PM), respond to polls, upload content, and access many other features. Registration is fast, simple, and absolutely free; so please join our community today!
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Joined: Apr 2001
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Hi Folks,
Go and click the "JPF Home Page" link top left of this message (or just go to jpfolks.com and you'll see the new website. It's still very basic and in progress, but you can at least see the new framework for it all.
We plan to add tons of content and photos and info as we can. We'll make the official big splash when we announce the awards nominees this year in about a week or two.
So tell us what you think about it so far. Adrian has really rocked the house I think! Thanks to him and his volunteers!
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Hi Brian It's AWESOME so far It shows and gives a much better and bigger sense of what it's ALL about. More professional and still very friendly Great work to all involved & THANKS!
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Thanks Mike.. we're VERY excited about it. It will finally give us the impression we've needed to put out there for the world. It's going to offer way more than it does now, but we needed to start somewhere. Adrian did a great job of updating it to a more professional level without losing the vibe we wanted.
Thanks for the feedback.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Joined: Apr 2006
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Who's the girl with the fiddle? She must be very proud to be on the homepage.
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There's all kinds of members all over the website. We plan to rotate different people through.. I gave Adrian a bunch of photos and work with. We actually thought about putting photos up of people who have donated to JPF but we haven't gotten around to that yet and would obviously need quality photos to do it. But that is absolutely something we plan to do.
You may even recognize a few folks if you click around through the different sections.
Thanks for checking it out Ben.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Joined: Nov 2002
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Most excellent looking site Brian. Kudos to all those involved in the design and implementation of the site.
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Joined: Jul 2005
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It looks great! Very current and professional looking.
Congrats Brian!
Scott
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Hi Brian!
It looks absolutely fabulous! Very professional and "polished" looking.
Congratulations... and thanks to all of those involved in bringing it to fruition.
Gail
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Glad you folks are liking it. We tried to cover all the relevent areas and Adrian did a great job of bringing focus to things like Joining the newsletter list as well as signing up for these forums, something that was always hard to find on the old site. It's still more of a frame than a finished site, we haven't updated the text or added current content. We need to figure out how to transition 10's of thousands of photos and other content over to this version of the site.
I am definitely relieved to have the new one up. The old one served us well for 10 years, but it was time for a change. Hopefully after the weekend I can work with Adrian to keep adding stuff to it. We're also trying to close out the awards and we have another giant project beind the scenes so it's been a triply busy time around here.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Looks nice and tidy...everything you need on a Homepage without a bunch of clutter. Very professionally done. Nice job, Adrian! And thanks for all your work.
Good show, Brian! You and Adrian have hit a home run with this. Congrats!
Alan
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Hi Brian, It looks great!I thought I was at the wrong place for a second or two.It seems much easier to navigate.And there is so much more information here than I ever knew existed.Kinda feel like moving into a brand new home.It's very exciting,and I just want to run all over the place and check it out! Michelle
*****You know I'm a dreamer,but my heart's of gold*****Motley Crue
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Hopefully we'll get the content up soon Michelle so you have something specific to run to. Right now it's just the main pages, but you can click both the main buttons and the secondary buttons to see different set ups for each page (i.e. click both rows of stuff, the top one in large text and the line of smaller text below it on the home page or on the left from inside pages).
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Yep, looking good from here. Functional and easy to navigate. Sorry Brian, if you wanted a critique, it's no nits from me.......
cheers, niteshift
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I just want folks to see it... Adrian put in a lot of work and got a bunch of volunteers to help out. I am really excited about the possibilities. I want to give folks a reason to visit something other than just the message boards.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Brian
What can I say? Im speechless. Home of the grass roots grammy is cool one. You hit everybody with that. Who is the hot violinist frolicking in the grass? She ROCK!!!
Lynman
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Lookin' good, Brian. Great work.
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Adrian and Brian, the site looks great! Nice job!
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fantastic design, very high energy while also warm and inviting. the only thing i miss on this site is a chat room is JPF on facebook?
Last edited by babette; 05/24/09 01:21 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Awesome... this is how JPF should look. I love it, great work from Adrian and everyone who pitched in!
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We have the shout box on the message boards. Most sites learn that Chat rooms don't get used much so we haven't invested in them. But if we notice a lot of need, we'll do it.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Brian, I've seen this site evolve in the last three years or so that I've been here. One thing that I like is your request for real names on the boards. We know who we are talking to now. There are a few exceptions including famous people and stage names. I'm OK with that.
I wouldn't be surprised to see you invited on a morning network TV talk show in the future because of the number of hits to this web site along with the awards program.
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Ben,
I find that they aren't always interested in the "real thing." They seem perfectly happy talking to same few names that are fed to them by their parent owners who also own labels, or the parent companies that advertise on their networks who also own labels. Once we get away from 4 giant multinational corporations owning our industry (and let's be honest, it is the artists and writers industry, not theirs, they have nothing to do with making music anymore) then I'd expect that people will return to being curious about the real thing.
We're in the final 2 weeks of the nominations process (seems impossible to get it done before the end of this next week as was my original goal) and I think we're going to discover a lot of cool music that deserves more attention simply because I think a wider audience would enjoy hearing some of this. Some categories still aren't quite ready for prime time, but most, including all the mainstream genres, have a lot to offer more people. Hopefully this is a step in the direction to bringing attention to them. And even if it doesn't result in that, I am proud of all our volunteers who have worked so hard to recognize it ourselves. There will be very few occassions that anyone involved will ever get such honest and unbiased recognition. Nobody was in it for the money and in fact we all had to invest a lot of valuable time and effort into making it happen.
We've started to attract some broader interest from folks interested in building a parallel industry to completely go around the powers as they exist today. Hopefully it will lead somewhere interesting. If not, we're still here trying hard to do things the right and fair way.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Brian, the info is all there....but the look is a little bit blah...beige beige and more beige. It's really easy to change that...how about a little more color? Maybe the outside of the pages could at least be different or darker or something to make the content in the middle pop more ! This is strictly taste and I am just giving my humble opinion. Everything is nicely organized though ! ! Nice work !
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The front page looks good. I have the forums bookmarked, so I seem to only end up here when I visit.
Great job.
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So what else would you guys like to see us add to the site?
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Is there a way to integrate the sign-up process for both the newsletter and the forums? This would make things easier for new members to become involved. I was a member for a long time (maybe years) before I ever signed up for the message boards.
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Kevin,
It's kind of tricky because it's two entities that have different needs. The newsletter is maintained by Ezinedirector.com. Our message boards are kept strictly within the software here and it requires folks to set up a user name and password. That said, it was one of my requests of our volunteer programmers to handle both things. However some folks don't want to be members, but want to be on our message boards and vice versa (far more want to be on the mailing list than the message boards). Plus, we sometimes mass add names to the org. list when we do the awards for example. This year we added over 7000 people to the member list and we can't choose user names etc. for all those folks.
So it's a great suggestion and one I'd like to implement. Just not sure when it can/will happen.
I am very open to any ideas that will convert more of the 50K to the message boards. I wish all of them were here. But many folks are not interested in boards or afraid of the complexities of dealing with a message board.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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New site looks awesome! My one nit would be that maybe the content now needs a refresher as well?
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Jim,
The content back end doesn't exist yet. They are building it. We wanted to get the framework up and now we're finishing the interior. It was important to us to change the general appearance before making awards nominations because we get a large amount of new and outside traffic when we do that and we wanted the new first impression to be positive.
Right now I can't change anything and it requires a programmer to do so. Also we don't have our archive of content translated over to the new site. Since we're working with all volunteers (like we do on every project) we can't always get something done on a schedule, but rather have to take bits and pieces as we go. So I agree with you 100%. We just have to take a step at a time.
Thanks for the feedback,
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Getting used to the washed out grey look and layout. My only nit is sometimes it seems to stick and takes a while to change pages. Common prob though on a lot of sites. Is it down to traffic or are there other reasons?
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I am not sure about that Jim.. I do know if someone types in an old URL that it has to load the original page then overcome it with the new one.. that will stop when we remove the old pages completely but right now we don't have time/resources/manpower to convert everything and we don't want to lose it or the links from Google and other search engines that still lead to the old pages and old info. There's no doubt that things will get better when it's a live site.. right now it's only half live.. basically the shell without the guts.
We do plan to feature new members on all the pages as time goes so that any time you click a page different JPF members pop up on the graphics.. that's the plan anyway. It will be fun collecting interesting press photos from members to feature as well as use all these photos from Roadtrips.
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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Sounds neat Brian. I wish you well and hope everything pans out OK. Up to now I think it has gone very well.
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bc
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All I can say is that my jaw dropped onto the floor when I saw the new web site design.
WOWZWERS!!!!
The colors, fonts, layout, everything SCREAMS JPF in terms of identity and it looks so Pro now! It's just excellent!
Way to go everyone who put time and effort into this.
Feels like a fresh page to me!
Peace, Nat
Last edited by Natalie Brown; 06/06/09 12:42 AM.
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Like it! It was a surprise to see the new site. I've been a way for a while but I see it's a new thing so just wanted to add my congrats!
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Thanks Marty... We're still working on it but we hope it will be a great tool for us long term!
Brian
Brian Austin Whitney Founder Just Plain Folks jpfolkspro@gmail.com Skype: Brian Austin Whitney Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney "It's easier to be the bigger man when you actually are..." -Brian Austin Whitney "Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney
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It looks great. I clicked on it earlier and it was blank; then i saw your post and went back to check it out. This is a very helpful site and I appreciate it. Patti
Patti Smith-Lyric writer Wanted CO-WRITERS
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I love it. It's beautiful, highly professional, with lots of function to go with the form. Terrific upgrade!
Linda
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Brian
Some minor spelling error in the home page. The word cooporation in the left side just beneath the forum link.
Lynman
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We would like to keep the membership in Just Plain Folks FREE! Your donation helps support the many programs we offer including Road Trips and the Music Awards.
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Forums117
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Most Online37,523 Jan 25th, 2020
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"If one man can do it, any man can do it. It is true. But the real question is, if one man did it, are you willing to do what it takes to do it as well?" –Brian Austin Whitney
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