Call it TORT, if you will

To check out the actual site as it literally is in development, please download Hamachi .
Connect to network: PyndAMP
Password: happiness
My computer's name is "August", on the Hamachi list.
http://5.239.158.174/ is then my home computer's web server.  Because it is my home computer, and I'm in the -7 timezone, please be aware that the computer will not have 100% uptime.  It''s normally up pretty frequently, but it gets turned off at night, unless the torrents are buzzing.

SVN is also in place at http://5.239.158.174/svn/PyndAMP .  You'll of course need a username/password to access it, so PM or email me and we'll talk

Techy details:
---site is being coded in Python 2.5.4 .  Don't whine at me about not having used PHP.  I've made the site easy to work with via Python classes of my own.  Everything from database backends to Ajax sections of pages is really simple.  That, and Python is easy and fast to code with, so it's not that hard to add things to the site.
---web server is Apache 2.2.9 , using the mod_python module
---SVN is served via the actual SVN modules for Apache 2.2.x
---SVN repositories were made by Tortoise SVN, since my home machine's primary booting partition is Windows Vista.

Keep those suggestions coming, my dear friends.

Please note that the features here may not be currently reflected on my home computer's web server.  I am rewriting my own code so that future edits are amazingly easy.

Last updated: 2008-12-07
General Features
---Multi-lingual database.  Users can choose their preferred viewing language from any page, or set their permanent preference in their profile.
---Users can co-own any project with as many people as they'd like.  All authors marked as "contributing" to the project will show up as the author of the thread in the Audio Review forum.
---The forums are getting a new look; projects are (by default) separated out into 3 tables, one for each classification of "In progress", "complete", and "dropped".  If there are no projects in a given classification, then the table won't show up. [screenshot] [semi-early screenshot] [early screenshot].
---All forums (media-oriented or others, like the Pit) have headers that you may click on for any given table to sort the entries in that table by a given criteria, like whether or not it's read, or who it was started by, or who updated it last, or when it was posted, by the number of views or replies, etc, etc.
---Media can be uploaded from any media forum.  You'll have access to a media uploader with an easy-to-use, straightforward uploader.  You can upload music, lyrics, tabs, and/or a video under the same project, so that they'll all be tied together in the various forums.  [early screenshot]
---A full suite of BBcode.  BandAMP's BBcode was limited before, but I'm almost done writing the engine that will drive it.  Certain BBcode shows up in comment previews on the forums, too.  BBcode that won't show up in the comment previews includes font colors, images, lists, font size adjustments, or anything else that would break the pretty one-line layout of the comment preview. [early screenshot with font, img, and underlining disabled, for demo purposes]
---Clicking on any date on the website allows you to view any threads that were started on that were started on that date, or any posts or threads last updated on that date.
---NEW - Sticky posts!!!  Hooray-hah everybody.  I'm surprised how easy it was to implement, and that we didn't do this sooner! [screenshot]




Skins/Themes for the site
---2 skins in production: "Traditional", resembling the current theme, and "Clean", a new look.
---Themes for the site are done completely in CSS.  I'm making the HTML as dynamic as possible.  All images are also controlled via CSS.
---Planned skins: Traditional, Clean, MusicBox, Beryl
---Skins can be temporarily chosen from any page, to allow for on-the-fly viewing in a skin other than your general setting.  A little notice is shown to you at the top of the page to remind you that you haven't permanently changed the setting, but instead are just viewing it differently than normal.
---Themes are automatically detected by the site.  This just means that in order to add a new skin to the site, all you have to do is add a folder named after the skin into the site's "Theme" folder.  And then users have access to it.
---If you'd like to help do a theme for the site, I have static versions of the HTML that you can work off of.  Email me at T.onightsLastSong at Gmail dot com (yes, there's a period after the first 'T'.)




"Media" types
---Music, Lyrics and Tabs can be uploaded to the site.  There are separate forums for each, of course.
---Users uploaded their media as "projects".  Users have control to mark their projects as "In progress", "complete" or "dropped".  Media is divided up into those categories. [early screenshot of self profile with 1 hidden project]
---Users can mark their projects as "hidden", preventing them from being viewed in the forums or on their profile.  The user him/herself can still see the media on his/her profile.
---Projects are update-able.  In other words, say goodbye to uploading 5 different versions of the same thing as you work on your project.  You can update your project by uploading a new version, and you can keep the old comments and stay in a single thread on the forum.  Keeping old copies is optional.
---NEW - Media can be uploaded from any media forum.  You'll have access to a media uploader with an easy-to-use, straightforward uploader.  You can upload music, lyrics, tabs, and/or a video under the same project, so that they'll all be tied together in the various forums.  screenshot
---Videos are now a media type.  We're not going to allow you to actually upload them, since that's what places like YouTube are for.  Paste in the YouTube page URL and we'll figure it out.  Videos will show up in the video forum similar to the way that music currently does; embedded video at the top, comments, ratings and replies just below.




New pages for the site
---A "Summary" page for the site's media.  A list of all stats on all media types. [early screenshot]
---Video media type sort of qualifies as a new page.




Ideas in the works, from all of us:
---A "Market" tab for people looking to Offer or Request services of other members.  Access to post will probably need to be moderated, since that's a nice target for spammers.  People may advertise their skills in music, writing lyrics, equipment they want to sell/buy, shows they want to promote, etc, etc.  Whether you want to sell/buy these services for money or not will have to be up to you all.  If money is involved, it will have to happen off-site and in your private communications.  I see this as an opportunity to also advertise willingness to do collab projects.
---A master "Links" section, where everybody's posted links from their profile are all shown on the same page.  People listing the same link will bump the link's "score" higher, and people who rate the link will help contribute to the link's "popularity".  The list may be sorted by either criteria, or by the one who posted it, or by the date it was posted.

OK so have you sold your soul to the devil in exchange for the plans to do a perfect bandAmp upgrade ?
It's like being let in on the making of a classic song.
I really really like what I'm reading, if you pull this off we should have a festivity in your honour TLS.

So when you 'upgrade' a song would the new version become a 'parent thread' and the old (with comments) the 'child'?
Or will it be a 'project page' with all the different versions on the page?
Or does the new version overwrite the older ? If it does wont it be odd having comments from other versions on the same page?
I personally really like the Market idea and the Links idea.
And I also really like the function to list songs/posts by different criteria, these little things will make the site so much more accessible. 

An idea : the site needs a way of displaying the most popular artists and songs together on one page yet 'in their own right' so to say, as in an album cover or the picture of the band with a description for the top ten songs.
So that they are not just lines in a forum but the pride of bandAmp the site.
I'm not on about the battles but about the best songs and most talented artists who use this site, they deserve 'to be seen' and more so 'to be shown'.
But I'm not to sure at the moment how exactly the 'best of bandAmp' would find themselves on to that list.
What I do know is that the really good songs, and artist, need to be 'up front' and accessible to the "visitor" and not something to be fished out of the 'Audio Review Pit'.
It is about bettering our art and growing so those who have succeeded have a right to stand up and be counted within the bandAmp community : JBP, Taka, Toasty, Spoons, Marino and Lisa, Devo etc and there are more we all agree produce and upload excellent pro work.

O! Put me up for a 'Skin-job', definitely !!!   

I agree 100%.  I envision a stats thing on the main page of BandAMP.  As the site is right now, the home page is never ever used.  Frankly, I'm not even sure how many people ever see the home page.

I'm with you, kings: front-page highlights with our most respected members on there.

How do you think the website could best determine who the "best" are?  Maybe each user can have a general "ranking score" which is basically a total of their songs' average ratings.  That way, people with more songs that each have higher ratings will still rank higher than someone with just a single song rated at 100%.

what do you think?

updated some skin settings.

,,,,,,

I dont quite follow
"each user can have a general "ranking score" which is basically a total of their songs' average ratings.  That way, people with more songs that each have higher ratings will still rank higher than someone with just a single song rated at 100%"
Because someone with one song at 100% will always be higher than someone with 5 songs at 99%

The "Ranking / Voting" system simply has to work for this to work. If you like a song you vote / rank high, it goes up if you dont like it , you vote / rank low, it goes down. 

but what I'm asking is... do we WANT that user with only 1 song to appear higher on the list?  Seems to me that credibility for this sort of thing comes with the more songs that you have.

maybe we could allow for displaying both ways:  one way where the user with the flat-out highest average is on top, and then another way where the user with the highest number of cumulative averages from his/her songs.

to me, it's like the difference between "short-sighted best" and "far-sighted best".

Sorry just realised you're on about getting the most popular / talented members on to the front page.
I was thinking more of the best songs. Because the artist is secondary to the song, a guest will come to the artist through the song and anyway a member could have one excellent song among loads of noodles and experiments, not the place you want your first time guest to end up, sooner give them a page of excellent music to come back to and follow the artists as they choose.

yes, now i see the difference in what we were saying

I agree with you, that we want to be able to have people find the artist through the songs, too, not just the other way around.

I'll have to toy with it and see what seem intuitive...

"maybe we could allow for displaying both ways:  one way where the user with the flat-out highest average is on top, and then another way where the user with the highest number of cumulative averages from his/her songs."

The Audio Review should become an exciting forum to follow if it's split into "In progress", "complete", and "dropped", to be able to list songs via several different criteria can only open more avenues for people to find the music they are looking for and should make it a very busy place.
There must be a good search function too**
But this is easy for me to say , you're the one doing it.

reasons why best songs should be displayed :
People/Guests come here looking for music
A good song will outlive it's creator
A good song will be played by others
I dont think members join to be egotistical they join to upload their songs and be judged upon their music.

i'm planning on the search function being amazing   the one we've got is embarrassing.

The search we have got right now unbearably does nothing. lol.

Hey TLS I'm working away at the "Clean" skin, I'll let you know how its coming along.

I think this is actually going to be amazing.
If you need help with anything else just let me know!

BandAMP is going to be so new and fresh, people won't ever want to leave.

now there's the spirit we're looking for

Ill be happy to supply THEME music! :P