couw Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 they still don't have their tables under control. I know this thing is optimised for MSIE, but still, this is plain whack! Depending on where I place the mouse, the table make up changes! Quote
vibes Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 The song search function really blows. It won't even list songs that it lists under albums (try searching for "Esoteric" from "Destination Out" and see what happens). I hope they fix this thing soon - this is one of the most unresponsive sites I've ever used. Quote
Eric Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 Maybe this information is now on the "Credits" page, which is only accessible for registered members. I have registered, but not yet received my password email. ah yes - there it is - thanks Claude Quote
Brad Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 I don't particularly like the new format. It's not that easy to read but we live in an age of "if it's not broke, fix it." If they make us pay for it in the near future, I suppose I'll have to anty up. Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 The new interface requires quite a bit more "clicking" to find what it is you're looking for. Everything is on a different tab. Can't say that it's better, but it sure does have more bells and whistles. I'm all for the audio-clips, which are an exciting new feature. But the new interface, where you have to click "more" to read the full review of any album (not just the bios), is really a drag. Some of this is change just for the sake of change, which isn't all good. Quote
Guy Berger Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 What a pain in the ass. Maybe we can get Oldversion.com on the case. Guy Quote
Jim R Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 Well, I can't say I'm surprised by any of this. Leave it to AMG to put their priorities in the wrong place, and screw things up even more than they already were. I can just access the home page (I ate lunch while it loaded), and I can't even do a basic search with IE 5.1 (I happened to notice that they went from 5 general categories in the basic search on the old site down to 4 on the new one, eliminating the label search option.). There is NO way in hell I would ever pay for their services anyway- I can usually find the info I want one way or another without using AMG. Generally speaking, the idea of looking up to AMG editors as some kind of sage advisors is laughable. We have resources among us here (both in terms of member knowledge as well as various discographies, personal databases and websites), there are some reliable databases online, and we have a discography forum here that could be utilized a lot more than it has been. When it comes to questions related more to opinion and taste (i.e., "recommendataions"), I think a little goes a long way anyway, but the forum is always open, and there ain't many AMG editors who have more experience than some of the people here. Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 Maybe it's all an insidious attempt to drive us back to buying the books. Quote
Claude Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 (edited) I would pay up to $15/year for their service, as I have used it a lot during the last years. But not for a website layout which is worse than the old one. Someone from AMG has reacted to the critcisms, his comments were also posted on Jazzcorner: I'm glad people are checking the site and voicing opinions. I work for Allmusic and the powers that be have been kind enough to address some of the issues that people have with the new design so far. I'd like to add that registration also gets users access to 30 sec. sound samples to most of the albums in the AMG library, which I think is one of the largest largest private music collections on the planet (over 300,000 titles). Here's the official: SLOW RESPONSE TIMES We are experiencing some response time delays as we work to get all of our servers properly balanced. Additionally, we will be adding server capacity over the next week, which will further improve response times. While this site is bigger and more complex than and will be somewhat slower than the old site, the difference once we get everything at peak form won't be very noticeable. SUPPORT OF NON-IE FOR WINDOWS BROWSERS Optimizing a site of allmusic’s complexity and size for all browsers and operating systems is no small feat. This isn’t a simple “brochure-ware” site of static pages. While we would love to optimize the AMG sites for all browsers and all operating systems, we simply don’t have the necessary resources to do so. Despite some users flattering comparison of our site with that of Google, Amazon and Yahoo!, we are a small company with limited resources. So, we had to pick the most widely used browser by our users (over 87%) to optimize the site for and then work on compatibility issues with the other major browsers as we go forward. We are first concentrating on fixing some compatibility issues with the Mozilla browsers, which are mainly visual, not functional. The main Mozilla problem is a glitch in how tables are displayed. We’re hoping to have this fixed in the near future. We will also be working to fix some compatibility problems with Safari (Mac). We ask for your patience as we work on these issues. REGISTRATION The allmusic site remains totally FREE to our users and only requires registration for access to new Premium Content. If you are uncomfortable registering, we understand and invite you to continue to use the portion of the site (roughly equivalent to the former site) that does not require registration. But we would like to take a moment to explain why we have introduced registration for Premium Content. The AMG websites are FREE sites that are marginally supported by only advertising and product sales. To attract advertisers and retailers, we need to provide them with basic demographic information of our users so they can determine if our site is a fit for their products. We provide this information only in the aggregate (i.e. 60% of our users are male) and never pass on any individual user information. Please read our privacy policy for more information. Without these advertisers and retailers, the AMG websites would be out of business. Registration is a common practice among free publishing sites such as the AMG sites (i.e. NY Times, LA Times, etc.) that fund their enterprise through advertising and product sales. AMG is in line with common Internet practices and, as a good Internet citizen, zealously protects the privacy of our users. TAB FORMAT We realized when we designed the tab system that we would make some folks unhappy, but we felt the trade off was worth it. If we stuck to the one page approach it would limit our ability to add additional information. That design approach (one page) just doesn't scale as we expand content. And it's a real problem with artists with extensive discographies. We think that once folks take some more time on the site, they'll see that there is much more information available now than there was on the old site. The addition of the Songs and Credits tabs are both good examples of information that just wouldn’t be possible in a one page format. http://jazzcornertalk.com/speakeasy/showthread.php?t=6526 Edited July 13, 2004 by Claude Quote
J Larsen Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 So instead of investing time correcting inaccuracies and filling holes on the site, they invest time in making the layout even worse than the content? Quote
couw Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 "balancing the servers," good one, never heard it before... as for the compatibility issue: that's a choice you make up front, there is no excuse. they have a database, so they need to go find the software company that makes a webpage out of that that is compatible with all browsers. Of course you can choose a company that will only guarantee MSIE compatability, but that's YOUR choice and not the fault of the company. I doubt the others were that much more expensive. Quote
mikeweil Posted July 13, 2004 Report Posted July 13, 2004 I hate those lazy programmers who don't care to write scripts for other software - this is what really supports the Microsoft Monopole. When I try to access the new site with my slow connection and Opera, my computer nearly crashes. Too much fancy stuff. The Bill Gates curse works pretty well. Imperfect programming, wherever you look. Quote
Man with the Golden Arm Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 banner tells me that it does not support Safari via Mac. switched to Netscape 7 and it does run a bit faster there. they now ask for registration if you care to look beyond one or two tabs. truly a major foul up that will hopefully be fixed soon for all. listed some stuff on ebay and could not access it for ripping them off for all their beautifully penned Jurekxaggerated prose. Quote
marcoliv Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 which is the alternative for AMG? i agree, the new site sucks.... MCO Quote
Quincy Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 A web design site is calling this a case study of how not to redesign a site. Duh! Quote
jazzman4133 Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 Just in case AMG is looking here (I hope), add my two cents to the new AMG sucks. Quote
catesta Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 I would pay up to $15/year for their service, as I have used it a lot during the last years. But not for a website layout which is worse than the old one. Agree. It would have been worth the money to leave it as it was. Quote
J Larsen Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 I too would be willing to subscribe to the old site. Quote
RDK Posted July 14, 2004 Report Posted July 14, 2004 As an alternate, try using www.mp3.com. They appear to licence the AMG database and their site - at least at the moment - is easier to navigate (though it doesn't appear to have all the data). Quote
Jim R Posted July 15, 2004 Report Posted July 15, 2004 which is the alternative for AMG? A good question. Most people seem to like the convenience of AMG, with everything "under one roof", but for those who haven't explored the variety of resources on the internet, be aware that AMG is not the only source of info. I frequently use Google when I'm searching for specific information (for example, the complete track listings for an LP or CD). Most of the time I can find more complete (and more reliable info) someplace online, rather than going to AMG. There are many artist discographies (and collections of artist discographies, such as Mike Fitzgerald's site), labelographies (CD label sites are often a good choice for basic data like personnel and track listings), and also CD review pages at various sites. Sometimes if I'm having trouble locating data for a given recording, I type in a few of the more uncommon track titles (if I have them)... tunes that wouldn't show up on many other recordings- if any. I discovered a Count Basie discography that way once, when I couldn't find any complete data for one of his Mosaics sets. There is a long list of discographical websites that I've saved/bookmarked, which sometimes makes searching for info very simple. I've learned to recognize the url's of sites that use AMG's data or link to AMG. That's the only annoying thing to me about using Google. I also used to use CDDB for some purposes, but that was never a very reliable source. Quote
kenny weir Posted July 15, 2004 Report Posted July 15, 2004 I, too, have found I can find what I want with Google. It all seems to be out there. I can access AMG but not do any kind of search. What a cock-up! Quote
Noj Posted July 15, 2004 Report Posted July 15, 2004 Like Kenny Weir, I can't search from my Mac. However, I can search from my PC at work... Quote
kenny weir Posted July 15, 2004 Report Posted July 15, 2004 Hmmm ... I can search from my PC at home (or I could last night), but I CAN'T here at work.. Quote
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