Website/Myspace......

[Ron]

I'd love to start a service reviewing and suggesting fixes for web sites and myspace pages. A large percentage of the sites and myspace pages I see would probably rate a 5 or less on a scale of 1 to 10.

The main reasons why:

1. Large background images that take forever to load.
2. Music that starts automatically and can't be turned off (not work friendly, and if you embed a video on your site also, you have to wait for the music to be over before you can watch it or you have two audio tracks playing at once, ughhh).
3. Large unnecessary pictures that slow down load time.
4. Outdated material.
5. Dark red or blue fonts on black backgrounds. (I can't read them and just leave).
6. Photographic backgrounds without solid tables that obscure most of the text.
7. Sites with a big opening flash productions or an image that you have to click to enter the site. People want sites that load fast and get info to them ASAP. (This doesn't apply for sites selling big flash productions or graphics).
8. Hit counters. (Unless it's in the tens of millions, you are just hurting yourself. Your web space provider should give you access to a real, hidden statistics program for free or they should be ditched).
9. Sites on hosts that are slow and or inconsistent.
10. "Under construction" pages or images.

Most of these pet peeves were on this site at one time and over the years I realized what the #1 reason for a web site or page is to get info to the surfer as quickly and accurately as possible. That's why this version of Rockpage is the fastest and simplest version of all. I've been doing web design for well over a decade now, and I used to love flashy web design, but now I just want quick access to the info I'm looking for.

[metalchurch]

Andrea, I also apologize, it just caught me in the wrong way when I read your reply/quote of me. But I deserve it cause I'm an asshole sometimes, or wait is that a fuckwad?
My inital remarks were not directed @ anyone on here, just a generalization. It's all good hon we're still friends.

[bfoust]

www.pxprocks.com

If you want a real website, give us a call.

I highly recommend these guys.. They've done great work with the bands I've followed, and have quick updates!

[bfoust]

Agreed, Ron.

I'm happy to say I don't think I violated any of those I have just a vanilla myspace, no extra themes, no music, no pictures (except ones I took, and I tried to make them small as possible).

[songsmith]

But I deserve it cause I'm an asshole sometimes, or wait is that a fuckwad?

Aw, metalchurch, you're being awfully hard on yourself. I think you can be both an as*hole AND a f*ckwad.

Re: Myspace friends... my Myspace buddies are all either people I know, or music I really do like. Everybody else gets eighty-sixed. And I'm in the process of dumping anyone who sends me a Mafia app, sermon, or what-color-shirt-do-you-have-on-right-now survey. I actually converse on there, and I can keep up with friends that don't live nearby. I've also found some great music... that's how my band heard of the Hillbilly Gypsies, who became our mentors on the bluegrass scene, The Fox Hunt, a world-class BG band who's going to be playing around here a lot more, and Special Ed and The Short Bus, who defy explanation, but you like them anyway. I'm not sure if bluegrass does especially well on Myspace (I prefer the Italian pronunciation, "mis-PACH-ee"), or if all genres do as well, but it's one of the few sites you can type "bluegrass" into the search engine, and hear BG from all over the planet, folks who haven't hit the bigs... good local music. Rock has lots of sites you can peruse, but there are a lot fewer for roots music.--->JMS

[AnimalInstinct625]

Whatever. There's another way of contacting these rarely seen people.
It's called a telephone.

Sorry if I touched a nerve with my first post.

No offense taken, but you say people on myspace have no lives...when I feel kind of the same about people who have time to earn 1756 posts on a message board.



All in fun my friend. All in fun.

[floodcitybrass]

http://www.floodcitybrass.com

I'm not a fan of myspace for bands. Its too unprofessional looking and has too much other garbage on it. That's my opinion.

[AnimalInstinct625]

I think it's important to have a real website, on top of myspace for sure. I also thing that all these application downloads have taken a cluttered social network and turned it into even more chaos.

It's to the degree now, that it's like spam. "Join my mafia", etc...grrrr! So irritating.

[DickShackBass]

If you go into your settings on myspace you can block applications. You will still get the Bulletins, but you wont get them on your comments anymore. I agree, the applications are stupid and nothing more than spam.

[DirtySanchez]

I will tell you that record labels look at myspace more than "real" websites. I've read many interviews and articles where the execs. said how they look at them to hear the tunes, read comments, see how many friends/hits they have all before they ever take the next step. Which is actually going to see speak with the bands.
I know Songsmith already said this but, it is the best tool for hooking up/booking shows with bands from out of the area. That's how we got to play with so many awesome ass bands and get some killer bands into our area. We're playing Pittsburgh with two kickass bands at The 31st st. pub thanks to myspace. We are working on a new "real" domain so we can sell our merch and everything though.

[metalchurch]

Whatever. There's another way of contacting these rarely seen people.
It's called a telephone.

Sorry if I touched a nerve with my first post.

No offense taken, but you say people on myspace have no lives...when I feel kind of the same about people who have time to earn 1756 posts on a message board.



All in fun my friend. All in fun.

I see your point, and it is a good one, so no offense taken.
Having a myspace page takes up time. yes.
Posting on rockpage and jcf takes time. yes.

Aside from the time factor, there's really no other comparison between the two.
I'm a musician,and I build/fix guitars, so this forum provides me with alot on the subject of music, whether that be a post on band's songs, tech, new guitars& gear,musician's wanted, items for sale, or what have you. I love every bit of it. So yeah my post count will surely be higher than some.
But there's also people who hang on here for hours day after day who don't post a damn thing...

Now I'm not sure I would get that same satisfaction from a myspace page, and I'm not so sure it would even offer the same content that rockpage, and JCF-online offers at my fingertips, but to each their own.

I'd rather log onto a website or forum get the info I need and log off.
I just dont think me or my life is that interesting to deem a page constructed entirely around me and my life necessary.
That's just me though.

I see the benefit from networking a band,graphic design,sales,booking,recording, whatever else, but a regular web page will tackle that job just fine.

But my life is mainly music and gear related, so that type of thing suits me. I know alot of people have other things going on in their life besides music, so maybe that's why? I don't know.

[metalchurch]

PS, I'm Sorry guy guys, let me rephrase my first comment...

PEOPLE WHO AREN'T IN MUSIC RELATED FIELDS,OR SOMETHING THAT NEEDS ADVERTISEMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE A MYSPACE!!
(So stay off of my nut sack)

Myspace is beneficial for that type of promotion, hell yeah!
But a regular site would be just the same.
But I'm talking the average person who is not into music, and just has a page about how they like unicorns and are into science fiction novels, shit like that. Those people are the one's I'm saying who need to get a life!

Brian you may be right about executives looking @ bands myspace pages first, but I think I'd just rather have a regular webpage.

[MeYatch]

Myspace is the internet from 1994

Remember Geocities?

[witchhunt]

Andrea, I'm an asshole sometimes, or wait is that a fuckwad?

I'd go with fuckhole or asswad.

[DirtySanchez]

Joe- I hear you about the personal myspace. I made one but I never use it. I use my band one quite a bit though. There's this thing now called second life or something. I heard about it and these people really have no lives or really hate their "real" life so much that they make one up on the internet. Overall, the internet is a pretty creepy but awesome place. haha

[MeYatch]

Joe- I hear you about the personal myspace. I made one but I never use it. I use my band one quite a bit though. There's this thing now called second life or something. I heard about it and these people really have no lives or really hate their "real" life so much that they make one up on the internet. Overall, the internet is a pretty creepy but awesome place. haha

I read on another forum about a band being paid real money to do a gig in second life. Don't know how that works, but its fucking crazy

[DirtySanchez]

Joe- I hear you about the personal myspace. I made one but I never use it. I use my band one quite a bit though. There's this thing now called second life or something. I heard about it and these people really have no lives or really hate their "real" life so much that they make one up on the internet. Overall, the internet is a pretty creepy but awesome place. haha

I read on another forum about a band being paid real money to do a gig in second life. Don't know how that works, but its fucking crazy

WTF???

[JackANSI]

I'd love to start a service reviewing and suggesting fixes for web sites and myspace pages. A large percentage of the sites and myspace pages I see would probably rate a 5 or less on a scale of 1 to 10.

The main reasons why:

1. Large background images that take forever to load.
2. Music that starts automatically and can't be turned off (not work friendly, and if you embed a video on your site also, you have to wait for the music to be over before you can watch it or you have two audio tracks playing at once, ughhh).
3. Large unnecessary pictures that slow down load time.
4. Outdated material.
5. Dark red or blue fonts on black backgrounds. (I can't read them and just leave).
6. Photographic backgrounds without solid tables that obscure most of the text.
7. Sites with a big opening flash productions or an image that you have to click to enter the site. People want sites that load fast and get info to them ASAP. (This doesn't apply for sites selling big flash productions or graphics).
8. Hit counters. (Unless it's in the tens of millions, you are just hurting yourself. Your web space provider should give you access to a real, hidden statistics program for free or they should be ditched).
9. Sites on hosts that are slow and or inconsistent.
10. "Under construction" pages or images.
.

Its like you read my mind.... #6 could drive me to murder under the right conditions.

Only thing I would add is:

11. Use proper image formats (jpg, png, etc) that match the content of the image. I hate looking at a poorly dithered digital picture (a full color image saved as a GIF/PNG) or artifacted text (text with a background color that only uses <256 colors saved as a full color jpg). jpg is for pictures, png/gif is for text in my book. Most of the time you can get away with <64 colors in text and almost halve the size of the image thus reducing load time.

12. If you don't have to make it an image, DON'T. Use text with CSS; again reduces load time as images can't be delievered any smaller using in-line gzip compression, but text can.

But those are technical things... but I do something along these lines as my day job so even tiny errors SHOUT at me and can drive me up the wall...

[Plastered Bastards]

Myspace works pretty well for us.
We get alot of gigs from there, so I ain't biting the hand.

[redawg]

I really don't want to start any trouble or get flamed by anyone, but if it's gotta happen, it's gonna happen. Metalchurch,

PEOPLE WHO AREN'T IN MUSIC RELATED FIELDS,OR SOMETHING THAT NEEDS ADVERTISEMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE A MYSPACE!!

WHY NOT? I agree it sounds kind of dorky to read about someone liking unicorns or science fiction. I've been playing music since I was 4 years old so it's impossible for me to imagine what it would be like to be someone who doesn't play an instrument. What else are they gonna post on their page?

Non musicians (a lot of my friends) make those pages so their friends can get to know a little more about them. It's a great way for those folks to express themselves and. yeah, any of them could just tell me the things they put on their page. I like checking out people's pages. Call it a hobby for someone or whatever, not much different than them putting together model cars or drawing or putting puzzles together or fixing guitars or watching TV (I never, ever turn this damn thing on) when they get home from work. I don't know any of my 270 friends who devote their lives to myspace and heve no other life.

The Queen of myspace, "forbidden (spelling) was her name if I remember right, got on the cover and throughout the pages in the Guitar World buyers guide because they discovered her on myspace. They're not hurting you in any way.

Those folks have no life? Sorry to disagree with you G. It's better than other things they could be doing.

I got way more hits on my myspace than redawgrocks.com so I shut it down. A lot of folks on here made good points as to why you should have your own website. Just didn't work for me. It was a pain in the ass to have to put my schedule, pix and whatever on two sites. How my brother keeps up with it, I don't wanna know. Just a friendly opinion bro. I've been reading a lot of your posts and I dig what you do here.

[redawg]

The apps are interesting, rockstars, mafia, heros.......... I realized a few things while playing these dumb ass ADDICTIVE games. Earn contract points, earn godfather points? Spend money on our offers or just give your info so they can spam the hell out of you.

I quit sending out invites to peeps (just to get to do the next mission or show).

Just think of how many people actually spent money on those offers to advance in those games. My rockstar is stuck because my band isn't big enough to do the next show. Fun to play, ignore the contract points. Is TOM getting a cut of this? Gotta admit someone put a lot of thought into those apps and those people are making a shitload of money because there are lots of people who actually spend money to earn effing godfather points.

[Lisa]

One thing that really annoys me and just happened with some sort of "Production" company for local bands...they spam the bulletins over and over and over. Almost two pages of bulletins. Delete, Delete, Delete. Especially annoying when its the same thing each bulletin.

[Charltor]

Joe- I hear you about the personal myspace. I made one but I never use it. I use my band one quite a bit though. There's this thing now called second life or something. I heard about it and these people really have no lives or really hate their "real" life so much that they make one up on the internet. Overall, the internet is a pretty creepy but awesome place. haha

I read on another forum about a band being paid real money to do a gig in second life. Don't know how that works, but its fucking crazy

WTF???

Yeah they had on the news a while back where a grade school teacher was a top paid Stripper in Second Life, they said prostitution is legal too!
They deposit the money into the credit card you open your account with. She was making 1000 bux a day! Sanchez you should get on that with the BadDaze tank top!

[Trucula]

I read on another forum about a band being paid real money to do a gig in second life. Don't know how that works, but its fucking crazy

WTF???

Yeah they had on the news a while back where a grade school teacher was a top paid Stripper in Second Life, they said prostitution is legal too!
They deposit the money into the credit card you open your account with. She was making 1000 bux a day! Sanchez you should get on that with the BadDaze tank top!

LOL...Top paid stripper???... I have two accounts on SecondLife. 1000L on secondlife is like $4.18 If your a designer and get into it, you can make clothes, homes, choppers, furniture ect and actually make money that can be removed from there back into an account. Anything can be done that you can do in real life and not get hurt. You can ride be anything (male, female, animals, dragons, vampires)And do anything, ride Harleys, theme parks, haunted houses, skydive, fly, race, CRASH and live. Yeah and sex too...LOL
I never put any money into it because you can earn allot free. Can also meet some friends from all ovr the world. There are some cool stages there where you can get up on and rock out. (NO, I'm not a computer geek!!)

[songsmith]

I have an account on something similar to Secondlife. I call it Nolife, and you, too, can spend WAAY too much time on there, instead of earning a real-world living. Here's the link:

www.rockpage.net

--------->JMS