Jim's Picks

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:59 am

For a long time I was saving all my favorite SF! songs in iTunes, and it's now up to several hundred songs. Usually about 2-4 songs per fight. As part of my new website, I have decided to create Jim's Picks, which is like the SF! Archive, but containing only my favorites from the fights.

I just started making it, and so far only have four fights posted. I plan on doing a lot more over the next few weeks. I even hope to maybe make it database-driven. But in the mean time, could one or two of you come check it out and tell me how it looks? I want to get some feedback before I get too deep in and spend too much time on it.

http://www.jimofseattle.com/picks

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:01 am

looks ok. i find myself wondering how many of the original songs you picked as favorites, though.
-bill

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:13 am

OK, not quite sure what you mean, though.

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:33 pm

Nice idea, I can see how the sheer magnitude of the songfight! archive might put someone off.
of course what I mean to say is " it's crap cos there's nothing by my band in there"

one thing that SF doesn't do is listings by genre or style; that might let everyone get a better idea of what's in store before they plunge in (and potentially here a really crap song 1st), of course that makes filing stuff trickier.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:38 pm

Yeah, if I end up getting my database together (hoping to use the project to bone up on SQL Server 2005 and all that), then I was planning on including a genre field. I agree that would make it really useful. I also want to be able to sort by band the way the real archive does.

The magnitude of the Songfight archive is the main reason I'm doing this! Also, it's not quite so daunting since I've already got a pretty hefty list of favorites from past fights.

Eric Y. · Post by **Eric Y.** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:56 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote: Jim's Picks ... is like the SF! Archive, but containing only my favorites from the fights.

cool idea. hey while you've got the spare time, could you do another one, exactly the same, but containing only MY favorites from the fights? thanks.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:15 pm

Actually, if I make an app out of it, theoretically I could distribute it and anyone could host their own Picks site.

(Requires Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0, of course)

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:06 pm

Interesting, Jim. Though the way it's set up requires a knowledge of the "visual-language-of-songfight" interface.

Huh?

Imagine you're never heard of SongFight, and you arrive at your (Jim's) site. You click on the title that sounds cool, expecting to hear music. WTF? Another page with more links. So you click on one of the band names. WTFWTF? Another page? With more links? &c., &c.

Of course, if you *really* wanted to be snarky, you'd post your reviews of the preferred entries, along with a link to the song(s), and a main title link to the entire fight.

/2Â¢

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:30 pm

Yeah, excellent points. The clicking-on-the-band-name-doesn't-play-the-song problem inherits from the archive itself, and it drives me crazy there as well. Right now I'm simply cutting and pasting from the archive pages. I'm going to parse the html from the archive pages when I make my app, so I can fix that.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:38 pm

creating any web page containing random mp3s and not containing a 'stream all' link is immediately punishable by soul-death.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:49 pm

Ah yes. Good one. That is indeed essential. On the list.

Post by **Spud** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:55 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote:Yeah, excellent points. The clicking-on-the-band-name-doesn't-play-the-song problem inherits from the archive itself, and it drives me crazy there as well. Right now I'm simply cutting and pasting from the archive pages. I'm going to parse the html from the archive pages when I make my app, so I can fix that.

I will be very interested to see how you "fix" this problem.

SPUD

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:00 pm

I'm guessing my "fix" will be to not provide a link to the band page at all. I'll probably make it so that clicking either the speaker or the band name will play the song. The slightly different emphasis on my site affords me that freedom.

Post by **Spud** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:06 pm

Well, that's fair. How would you "fix" it on songfight?

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:10 pm

I would probably not make the band name a link at all, and make two links after it, "Play the Song" and "See the Band". Or something like that.

Post by **Spud** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:16 pm

I just hate to see the words "Play the Song" and "See the Band" repeated over and over down the page...

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:19 pm

Hmmm, yeah... How about a 3-column table (no grid lines, of course) with the heading Play Song and See Band at the top, and a speaker in every row of the Play Song column and a smiley rocker or something in every row of the See Band column.....?

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:21 pm

How about a little note sign (or speaker icon, as it is now) and a little 'i' in a circle icon ('i' for 'information'... or something similar)

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:23 pm

The main issue I think is that clicking the band name is an ambiguous action. I for one often click the band name when I meant to click the speaker. I've seen others do that also when I was standing behind them.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:29 pm

Hey Jim, was meaning to ask you- how come you look so angry in all your pics? :^)

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:33 pm

Haha, people have told me that all my life, actually. Most of those faces are pretty neutral. My beer-and-sunglasses photo on the SF picks is me sort of pretending to be Dieter from Sprockets, whom I thought those glasses made me look like.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:40 pm

Jeez, would it kill you to smile for the camera?

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