Jump to content

Attention All people that help with directory


Recommended Posts

We need to update the UIL Class and UIL Region/Area and TMEA Region/Area from the change in the UIL Class because of the addition of the UIL 6A Conference earlier this year! I will start and update as many as I can however, this is not a task for one puny man :c Since there is bajillion amount of bands in that directory xD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Thanks for the help by the way....do what you can...don't feel obligated to do what you don't want to do.

I've gotta say you sound a lot like me back in 2009 when I had a vision for the directory that was in-depth and included up-to-date details on the nearly 400 bands that comprise it (which still doesn't even come close to covering all the bands in Texas).  But it's a daunting task for one person.....so daunting it was disheartening and I was unable to rally my fellow staffers to the cause.  And what was the point if I would be back to square one the next year after doing all that work.  And that's why the directory fell apart (That and our directory mod moved on to bigger and better things).  With 5 or 6 people the task is completely doable, as you just have to assign a few letters of the alphabet to each person, and just make that your responsibility to keep everything for those bands that start with that letter up to date each year.  The key is finding 5 or 6 people who are up for something that tedious.  You used to be able bribe them as being moderators.....but our forum isn't nearly as happenin' as it used to be.

Do I want to do it now? No.  I was in college back then....don't really have the time or the inclination like I used to.  Nowadays I blog the Conroe regional, approve/edit a few predictions events here and there and moderate, move and merge threads as need be.  It's about all I have time for.  Scores and Directory are in disarray, and it's a flat out miracle we keep the Predictions game running year after year (that one used to be my official job, but it's mostly Daniel/Xenon now).   Aside from that we just have the Forum and the LiveBlog, which is really the only thing we have any real organized logistical collab going on anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In a sense, the directory section of the website is somewhat of a relic of a different era of the website. When I built the website back in 2005, that and the forums were the first thing I created. Sure it was cool to go and see your school in the directory, but are people looking up things besides that? The site has shifted from the forums being super active with a lot user-generated content to a focus on the live blog almost exclusively. 

 

It has admittedly gotten harder to "moderate" the directory as well. Back in the day, I created it wiki-style, where any registered user could go in and add schools, make updates, etc. Eventually though, I got sick of merging duplicates (we would have "Clear Creek", "Clear Creek High School", and "Clear Creek H.S." all with separate entries, for example) so we moved to the current method with the "tell us what needs to change" button and a free text field. While this has definitely helped with invalid entries, it makes it a lot harder for the moderator to update anything because you have to cross reference a bunch of user submissions and also have the database open - a lot of work for someone. If there is value in it, we could definitely look at going back to the original update method.

 

More importantly though, there may be a lot of

gained from really breaking down the directory into just a combination of data from other places on TxBands.com. Already the contest results section of each school's card is just an overlay of data from "Scores" - could the predictions game feed all it's data into scores? Probably! Any suggestions on how we can make these pieces of the site more sustainable and valuable are always welcome.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In a sense, the directory section of the website is somewhat of a relic of a different era of the website. When I built the website back in 2005, that and the forums were the first thing I created. Sure it was cool to go and see your school in the directory, but are people looking up things besides that? The site has shifted from the forums being super active with a lot user-generated content to a focus on the live blog almost exclusively. 

 

It has admittedly gotten harder to "moderate" the directory as well. Back in the day, I created it wiki-style, where any registered user could go in and add schools, make updates, etc. Eventually though, I got sick of merging duplicates (we would have "Clear Creek", "Clear Creek High School", and "Clear Creek H.S." all with separate entries, for example) so we moved to the current method with the "tell us what needs to change" button and a free text field. While this has definitely helped with invalid entries, it makes it a lot harder for the moderator to update anything because you have to cross reference a bunch of user submissions and also have the database open - a lot of work for someone. If there is value in it, we could definitely look at going back to the original update method.

 

More importantly though, there may be a lot of

gained from really breaking down the directory into just a combination of data from other places on TxBands.com. Already the contest results section of each school's card is just an overlay of data from "Scores" - could the predictions game feed all it's data into scores? Probably! Any suggestions on how we can make these pieces of the site more sustainable and valuable are always welcome.

lol, a wiki-based sounds fun xD

Edit:

No but seriously, a TXbands Wiki either based on Wikia or Wikipedia would be easier to manage even if there are duplicate pages because it would be easier to merge and add a redirect pages for the alternate names. While adding a did you mean this band? and the Disambiguation pages would help significantly. :3 We would be able to have both temporarily until everything from the directory is transferred over. You would have to be careful who you assign certain roles but vandalism would be no problem with roll over and yeah xD

Edited by azn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...