Putting files into group/forum posts
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Is there some way for us to post a file for downloading or reading in a group forum? When I tried to put out tunelist up in that forum, the spacing for the key beside the tune name wouldn't line up and I didn't have time to put spaces in each line. I would like to be able to put a pdf file there that could be at least downloaded by anybody interested. I guess I could put the file on my site and link to it, but it would be nice to be able to upload it for direct access on the Group. Brad Submitted by Banjo_Brad on Wed, 2007/03/28 - 9:54pm
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United States
March 23, 2006
Brad,
Send me the files you want uploaded and I'll attach them to your jam tunes post. We have not decided how to formally handle uploads yet, but we certainly want to support it.
Scott
United States
January 3, 2007
Scott-
Since I'm so scatterbrained, I'll pass on sending the files, sometimes I update them 3 times in an hour, or not for a month, so you could go crazy trying to keep up with me. I'll keep trying to figure a way to post formatted input (that won't drop spaces, etc. Maybe I'll get it figured out before you do!
Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net
United States
March 23, 2006
Brad,
Ok. I appreciate your patience and early use of the groups as we refine them. Whether you recognize it or not, you are being quite helpful.
Because this is a weekends and evenings effort, we move at a glacial pace.
If we allowed uploads of a limited set of file types (with the a goal of avoiding larger and copyright risky mp3 files), what formats would you deem appropriate? I'm thinking .pdf, midi files (.mid), text files (.txt) and TablEdit (.tef) files. Anything important missing?
United States
January 3, 2007
I think I would pretty much stick with pdf, txt, and tef files. Midi's I'm not too sure about, as with the mp3 thing. I might even have second thoughts about tef files.
I am just thinking maybe lists, handouts, flyers, etc. could be posted as pdf files and interested parties could download or print them out for their use.
I'm not sure that I would like to see this site expand too much into another BHO or ezFolk space. I would like to see it kept more towards the jam/music circle coordination site that you have achieved. Adding sound files just might get you in deeper than you want (until you can turn this into you breadwinner).
The ezFolk site started out as a nice little folkmusic site, but as it grew with the artists' pages, it has now become more of an open music forum.
Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net
United States
March 23, 2006
Brad,
Neither Shawn nor I want this to be another BHO, mandolincafe, fiddle forum, fiddlefork or ezFolk either. That's not because we have any problem with those sites - on the contrary, they are great and we enjoy participating in them. We don't need another one of those in the larger community. Our focus is on something none of those sites can do well when structured as forums - bring musicians together and get them playing music. That's our focus and we are pretty serious about it.
Thanks for validating the general approach for file types. Another question - if you add up all the files you would want to upload, how much space to they take up? We figured a 10Mb limit per group would probably be reasonable, and only allowing group admins (you can anoint additional admins) to upload files. What do you think?
United States
January 3, 2007
Scott & Shawn-
My file sizes would be very minimal. What I would upload would be pdf files of tune lists and possibly flyers (mainly the former). I see no need to get into posting sound clips of any kind here as I have other venues available for that.
In order to prevent confusion and save space, I would probably set up a post and update the tune list in that post, replacing the previous one each time, so figure what a 1 to 3 page pdf file would consume and you have the approximate size of the files I would have up at any one time.
I appreciate your focus and agree with your remarks. Thanks for providing a badly needed service.
Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net
United States
September 20, 2006
Your selection of files using .txt .mid and .pdf should suffice. Some may want .mp3 for style but then you'd either have to have a complicated filter for filtering commercial mp3's or review everything coming in. Band in a box does a pretty good job of putting files on that have more style than standard mp3 so I'd say stick with those formats. That would make the limit of 10 megs a huge space to fill. Is there anyway of making this upload process automatic? You two have to review all jam sessions but do you have to review then manually download sent files? How would you handle copywritten music?
United States
March 23, 2006
Ah yes, band in a box files. I'll likely add them too.
While we review every public jam/festival/workshop post, we are not able to spend the time requried to do that for content in the groups. That is something we are leaving up to the group administrator. When it comes to uploading files, we are going to limit it to group administrators for their groups only and have far too much legal text as part of the upload screen. We will put DMCA safe harbor workflow in place to make sure we can respond to copyright holders. It is simply not possible to keep on top of that and still run this at the level we do (no staff but us, no facility beyond the rack space we lease). We are still at a phase where even a $10 purchase from our store makes a helpful difference to us every month, we cannot add more costs for a while.
Thanks for also chiming in here. I have a much better sense of how to make the right set of tradeoffs to allow for uploads. Now all I need is less sleep so that it can be done. :)
To recap, text files, midi files, Adobe PDF files, Band In a Box song and style files. No recordings, no zip archives, no executables, no image files.
Scott
United States
March 23, 2006
Brad,
The fact that it took me seven weeks to get this feature done is a testament to what happen when you have a newborn, a two year old, change jobs and try to run a web site. :)
This feature is done and was released to our production site this evening. You probably know that because I made one error in the rollout and forgot to suppress notification of new content in groups (and the file upload area was seen as new content). Oops. :)
Give it a spin and let me know what you think.
Scott
United States
January 3, 2007
Scott,
Thanks for all the work. Now, how do I upload a file?
Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net
United States
March 23, 2006
In your group there is now a "files" menu option in the block that appears within the group overview page. Follow it. As the group creator you should see an option on that screen to Upload files (nobody else in the group will be able to upload but you and anybody you dub as an administrator). it is a collapsed area that needs to be expanded.
Sorry if this is terse, I've got to run, and tonight we have a very odd mapping problem to work out - something significant broke (and we didn't do it, which makes it harder to find) and all our maps went away. :(
Scott
United States
January 3, 2007
Thanks, Scott-
I got it now! I understand, I noticed you guys were working on the maps problem, and really didn't expect that quick an answer!
Banjo Brad
www.PricklyPearMusic.net
United States
March 23, 2006
Working on the maps problem is a bit of a misnomer. Scratching our heads was more like it. :) We've realized the problem is deep withing Google, which is the cost we pay for using such a fantastic free service. We just need to wait them out while they fix their problem.
I'm glad you found the file upload area. If you find problems with it, let me know. If you have suggestions I'd like to hear them, and if you really like something about it that would be nice to hear too.
Scott