Welcome to the Tucson Old Time Music Circle (TOTMC) group forum.

Hmm. I thought I just posted something, but now I can't seem to find it. I guess it's going to take me a little getting used to to find my way around here. Anyway, thanks Brad, for yet another great idea for bringing us Tucson old-timers together. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to make it to Friday's gathering, because my daughter has a concert that night--ironically, at the high school about a mile down the road 8(

Anyway, since we're going around the circle, and I seem to be the only other member of the forum thus far, I guess it's my turn to do an introduction... My start with old-time music began only about 7 months ago. I had been trying to play bluegrass banjo for about 3 1/2 year and just couldn't get those rolls rolling. On top of that, my 14 lb. Goldtone OB-250 was destroying my back. So I got an openback Bart Reiter banjo (ahhhhh!), and switched to learning clawhammer. It's been going great. I'm making some progress and having a blast. In fact, I've been enjoying the music so much that a couple months ago I finally chased a dream I've secretly held for much of my life--learning how to play the fiddle. At the first Circle gathering, back in January, I found myself a terrific fiddler who offered to give me lessons. We've only been able to fit in one lesson so far, but it was a good one! I have high hopes for the future. But I promise I won't bring my fiddle to the Music Circle till the sounds I get out of it aren't quite so offensive...

Brad, my daughter's parts in the concert are at the beginning and end. Maybe I can sneak out some time in the middle to get in some banjo bangin'.

Paul

Wormpicker and Brad,

Shawn and I noticed a few posts in the public forum (for jam tunes [1]) that looked like they were intended to go here in your private forum for the Tucson OT Circle.

That's quite fine by us (but we can remove them or drop them in here if you wish). I dropped in to see if it was a simple mistake or possibly a bug on our end. I've never seen a forum in a group appear in the public forums in any of my testing, and below the surface of this site the implementation should not even allow it, but I wanted to ask.

I'll lurk in your group for a little bit to engage in this conversation, then I'll bow out again. Sorry for the intrusion.

Scott

[1] http://www.folkjam.org/node/3495

Hi Scott,

Yes, that post of mine in the jam tunes forum was a mistake on my part. I'm still not sure how that happened. I guess I found Brad's tunes list over there and replied to it, thinking I was in the forum for the Tucson Music Circle. Sorry for the mistake. Feel free to delete my post in the other forum. Thanks.

Paul

I hate to make waves on my second day here, and I really do appreciate this great resource you guys have provided, but since the banner up top does say "beta", I hope you won't mind some criticism. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how constructive I can be with it at this point, but maybe after a little more time I'll have some concrete suggestions. Here goes: I'm finding this site/forum incredibly difficult to navigate. I find myself wandering all over the place just to see the message I just posted. For example, on the page I'm on right now, Brad's opening post is at the top. Under that is a set of pull-down menus to set comment viewing options (currently set to the defaults). Next comes my latest post replying to your "Admin lurking with a question" post, next comes my "Great Idea" comment that I posted yesterday in response to Brad's opening post, next comes your "Admin lurking with a question" post. Maybe I just have to get a feel for the lay of the land here, but so far it seems very confusing. Thanks.

Paul

Paul,

First off, whether beta is up there or not on a given chunk of the site we want to hear what works and does not work for you. Shawn and I are, like you, musicians. Perhaps also like you we've had a hard time finding other musicians to play with over the years, and because we are both software guys by profession, we figured we could do something about it. This is what we've done, and it is helpful and perhaps even unique, but far from perfect.

I've long forgotten what the comment viewing options are by default, but from what you've written I suspect that the viewing options are set in a way that makes the display unfamiliar to you. I think you will find that setting it to "Flat list - expanded" and "Date - Oldest First" will give you more of the traditional forum look. One thing we do that is distinct from many of the forum packages we've explored is allow you to reply to a specific post and to then view replies 'threaded' together rather than simply in oldest to newest order. If you look at a threaded view, you will see that this reply from me is under your question and indented a little to the right.

Play with the comment viewing options, then post back whether or not that made it easier to find your way around a forum topic.

I'll stay subscribed here to the Tucson Circle group for as long as you have questions. It is helpful for me to see the groups feature in active use, but I also want to respect that Brad has built a group for a community that I'm not physically a part of and will bow out when appropriate. If you don't hear from me in this group hit our feedback page and I'll see that. I am listening, as is Shawn.

Scott

I'll see if I can move your comments into this forum.

Totally off topic, but when you registered in Janauary Shawn and I both thought you had a really cool avatar. Even if it does have a banjo in it. :)

...and Shawn. The thread does flow more logically when I set it to display the oldest comments first. I'll refrain from sending any more complaints until I've been around a while and have a better feel for the place. Glad you like my avatar. It's a real worm, and I was a real worm-picker in my past life (working in a genetics research lab). And I hope that my recent attempt to start learning how to fiddle makes up for the banjo picture. ;^)

Paul

Paul - don't hold back on complaints. Vent them when the thoughts are fresh. I'm really quite serious in that we value and want the feedback. We've apparently made a pretty good first stab at a site, but not all of it is smooth to use. We've been around it too long to see all of the rough edges. Fresh eyes see them right away.

As a fiddle (and violin) player, welcome to the sphere of the world's most unforgiving and possibly most rewarding family of instruments. I've played violin since I was six and fiddle for about four years now. Those fretted instruments really throw me off. I tried the Tenor banjo for a few months and loved the sound (in my hands, racket) it made, but there were numerous reasons to give it back. I decided that if I am going to learn the banjo, it must be on a five string with proper tuning rather than having the same tuning as a violin.

Scott/Shawn - That is a confusing section of the board. I had posted a list of tunes in the forum for tunelists (I think?), and I guess it got a little hi-jacked by mistake. I am providing a link to anyone who asks that takes them directly to the TOTMC Group, in an effort to make navigation easier.

Several people have been confused by the differences between the Forums and the Groups (they really aren't differentiated very well, and can be confusing).

We'll keep at it until we all get it right!

Hey, no intrusion - ALL musicians are welcome, even if they don't care for the banjo!

Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net

Brad,

The accidental post to the public forum when aiming for the group forum did start us thinking that we needed to better differentiate.

By now you've probably worked out that the functional difference is that group forums require group membership to participate in and the site forums are for any registered user.

The only visual difference we've created is the change in the page header. One says 'forums', one says 'groups' and the colors are different. That was a stab at being enough, but I guess it is not. Calling both 'forum' might have been a poor choice.

What would you do?

Scott

HI Brad and Paul (and guy #3 who I don't know who seems to have something to do with building the whole website)!

It's SaMaNtHa here, signing in! :-)

See youz guyz tommorrow night in Oro Valley!

-S.

Welcome SaMaNtHa and thanks for joining folkjam.org. Guy #3 is the co-founder of the site lurking here and soliciting feedback from what is our first use of the groups feature.

Enjoy, and let me know if you have ideas on improvements or if you see something you particularly like.

Guy #3

Hi, Sam -
Glad you joined us. See ya tonight, hopefully we will have a good group again! I don't think your Carter family cohort will be with us this evening, but we'll have fun anyway!

Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net

I've spent the last few nights working the main forum page to include group forums too. I think this integration will help people see the differences by showing all of their subscribed group forums right along with the public forums.

Take a look at the redone forum page and tell me what you think. You may need to press F5 in your browser to re-load the page for it to lay out correctly.

Scott

Yeah, that looks better! I think it will be less confusing, and once people join groups things will begin to settle out more.

Thanks.

Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net

I am glad that you think it works better. I like it too.

There is a growing club of users who can look at aspects of the site and know that they are the reason why it is that way. You and wormpicker should think that each time you view the main forum page since you inspired the change.

Scott