Additional Subforum Proposal (Please Give Your Opinion)

[Freewave]

One thing i was thinking of doing since i have admin powers was creating a Genre subforum in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic subforum. I would create a genre thread for every major genre that's covered by the fandom in this section. Something similar and more in depth to BMD's genre section- but could be expanded to include stuff like threads for liquid d&b, ambient dubstep, pop-rock etc.

We would look for anyone who wants to get involved to post brony tracks / videos / mixtapes/ podcasts/ playlists/ etc of music in the appropriate thread. Biggest thing is I need people to be interested and take part if i do such an action to warrant the addition. It would encourage people to post their own and fellow musician's music in the appropriate theads and allow for people to take a more active role in talking about past and present music in those styles. It wouldn't be a production thread (not necessarily talking about how to make music from a genre) but would definitely show what the output would look and sound like. We could even discuss a little bit about production in those threads as needed. Would you take part if i make this happen?

I think its important to show what we've done in the past so we can make MLR a place to celebrate past music too and not JUST focus on making new music that's quickly forgotten. To encourage its growth to include those who listen as well (fans, dj's, and fellow musicians) and to do so ourselves.

Going to open a poll to see what people think of this proposal and how they'd like that to function.

[simonli2575]

While we're at it, can you remove the stupid character limit as well? It's irritating.

[CitricAcid]

Way too many genres exist for them each to merit having their own thread. 90% of the genre threads would wind up with few or no posts. And what would people talk about in these threads? How much they like/dislike the genre? It sounds to me like you're trying to crowdsource the production of a database of brony music. While I agree that such a database should exist and that crowdsourcing one is a cool idea, a forum isn't the place for it.

[Freewave]

Way too many genres exist for them each to merit having their own thread. 90% of the genre threads would wind up with few or no posts. And what would people talk about in these threads? How much they like/dislike the genre? It sounds to me like you're trying to crowdsource the production of a database of brony music. While I agree that such a database should exist and that crowdsourcing one is a cool idea, a forum isn't the place for it.

House is pretty huge can could hold a lot of subgenres below it and someone could start a french house one if they specifically wanted to see music with that specific style apart from a main house thread. Again such threads help show what's been made, help people to understand what constitutes that style / genre, helps broaden what people attempt, can even help with production hints (but not focusing solely on that perspective). There's nothing wrong with a new and active subforum (i see that as a positive sign) if people like the idea and take part. Sure in reality there are a lot of subgenres that people could eventually create but i would want to get the ball rolling to match what we've done on bmd and then see if people expand it out further. Probably having 20-25 planned genre threads starting out would be a goal. Stuff like House, Trance, Country, Chiptune, etc. If people want more and will actively use them then that's fine, otherwise they'll drop.

I do realize that some sites like pony.fm and eqdmusic are going the genre database route but i do think there's a lot missing from BOTH of those places and i think i'm more concerned about being able to get ongoing conversations started then trying to mimick those actions. There's nothing wrong with expanding mlr's scope and possibly membership especially when there's more activity in non-musical spam threads then in musical discussions. I'd like to see more music discussions and that's why i have this proposal.

I dont think the forum has too much activity to make something like that viable. There's nothing hindering anybody from just making a "dubstep thread" in the music forum either. Would honestly just make more clutter than good,I feel.

Keep in mind we don't have a general "music" subforum. We have music production forums, MLP forum (for brony music and fannon), General Music Feedback and Advice (for track FEEDBACK only), and then the off topic boards. If the compromise is that we'd rather see a music discussion subforum be created for talking about genres and already made music that's in the same general direction I'm indicating. But a Dubstep thread i think would be actively used as people always want to find GOOD examples of music being made. And if people are scared of clutter its nothing compared to the music feedback forum (4,900 threads) where people get a thread for every single track submitted. At least I'm indicating something far more minimal then that and should be of interest to more then just the thread starter.

[CitricAcid]

In my opinion, new subforums should be created to direct traffic not generate traffic. If we were plagued with people creating threads for specific genres and those threads were choking other relevant threads, then yes, having a genre subforum would be a good way to direct that traffic.

If you really think this is a good idea (and I can tell that you do), make a few test threads on the MLP board and see how much traffic they generate. If they get some, then create a subforum and move them there. Then wait and see how much traffic the board itself generates.


As I have been typing this and taking a second look at MLR, I do think that we need a forum to just talk about music. But I don't think we should fill that forum with a bunch of pre-generated genre threads.

[Freewave]

Well its one of those things where I could create a few threads in a day (next week likely) and then see if it truly takes off. We could always close such a thing down if it fails miserably (there's nothing wrong with trial and error). But yes there isn't really a music discussion subforum outside of "production" and that's something that's always bothered me. If i start such a thing I'd like to know what scope (pony/non pony united or seperated, in what forum) people want.

At this point there's enough Off-Topic Game Threads to warrant their own subforum and i remember when a lot of those started people weren't sure if they should start them them or if they'd even last. I'd rather focus some of that energy back into music discussion and activities if possible and kicking off threads or subforums is necessary to make that happen.

[Freewave]

i added one more option on the poll and accidentally wiped out the prev results. please feel free to give your opinion a second time. my apology.

[Mijka]

I'm a total newbie right here, and i don't produce any music (this fact being one of the reasons explaining why i am not really vocal in this forum, it's a fun point given the actual conversation because i would certainly be more vocal if that kind of sub-forums existed), but i do love the brony music fandom and the genre classification.
So much that i started a theme/genre-oriented podcast with semi-analysis on the french webradio www.radiobrony.fr 3 months ago with positive feedbacks from the audience of the radio (limited audience, the french brony community isn't that large... you cave give it a try on the webradio website or soundcloud).
It seems we have people that are not that much instructed in the genres, and enjoy to learn about them through the brony productions.
The other fact that led me to do this is that the brony music production is MASSIVE, and the accumulation of good songs is so enormous it's really hard to track them all correctly without some kind of system... a crowd-based one would be fabulous et helpful for many enthousiasts.

From my point of view, i can't disagree with this kind of initiative, and i can at least say that i'll do my best to help if the project is launched, with podcasts or just listing contributions (does it even makes sense ? i'm not a native speaker ^^).

Way too many genres exist for them each to merit having their own thread. 90% of the genre threads would wind up with few or no posts.

Maybe would it be nicer if we follow the line "[...]but could be expanded to include stuff like threads for liquid d&b, ambient dubstep, pop-rock etc[...]", sub-forums for genres, then topics for sub-genres in these forums ?

In my opinion, new subforums should be created to direct traffic not generate traffic. If we were plagued with people creating threads for specific genres and those threads were choking other relevant threads, then yes, having a genre subforum would be a good way to direct that traffic.

If you really think this is a good idea (and I can tell that you do), make a few test threads on the MLP board and see how much traffic they generate. If they get some, then create a subforum and move them there. Then wait and see how much traffic the board itself generates.

I agree with the logic behind your words, by the way it makes me wonder how the MLR forum came to existence in the first place ?
Looks like the "chicken or egg" philosophical question ^^.

[ph00tbag]

The only concern I have with a genre subforum is that you may also encourage people not to branch out and see what's going on with the other genres. As nice as it is to find out what's going on with other house/metal/polka artists, it's also nice to be surprised occasionally with stuff you didn't expect.

[Freewave]

Well it sounds like there's a definite interest in a non-genre specific music discussion subforum that's not production focused. That's not to say that a long-running genre thread or two couldn't work in those.

[JSynth]

Honestly, I feel we need a forum for forum games. Like "The Person Above You Should Be Banned" thread or threads like that. The Off-Topic forum feels cluttered sometimes by thoes threads. Forum games are nice, but sometimes they can get in the way of actuall discussion.

[Evdog]

I can see a potential issue arising:

People will request subgenre subforums. If you allow this, it will continue splitting until they are too numerous to count, and cause bureaucratic issues. Make sure you use wisdom in your categorization. Also, decide your policy on cross-genre tracks before the issue arises.

[Freewave]

I can see a potential issue arising:

People will request subgenre subforums. If you allow this, it will continue splitting until they are too numerous to count, and cause bureaucratic issues. Make sure you use wisdom in your categorization. Also, decide your policy on cross-genre tracks before the issue arises.

Well we've already created a musical discussion subforum already so this thread is pretty much irrelevent. People are free to make threads for whatever genre or discussion they want in there. Locking it now as it's done.