- I would like the Follow feature to be expanded to include a 3rd state: "disregard" (or something similar). The effect of "disregard" would be that a disregarded channel would never appear in my directory displays.
- Better troll-control tools for the caster. For example, give the channel owner the option to restrict chat to people whose account is at least x hours or x days old.
- A better directory display so that when you go from page to page, channels aren't "skipped over". [This idea might be somewhat unclear. I can elaborate if anyone is interested.]
- Bring back the User Profile.
- Give the caster the ability to capture and download chat so the caster can have a record of what was said.
- Add chat optionally to archived & highlighted videos.
- Some people seem to like to be called by their real names but their JTV user names are totally different. Give users the option to add a non-unique nickname to their account. For example, if my real name was Fred, I could add "Fred" as a nickname on my account. When I am in chat, my name would show up as "Gil_mensch (Fred)". If I didn't want to use the feature, I would continue to display as "Gil_mensch".
- In chat, there is a character limit which I think is 250 characters per message. If you are the one sending a chat message that is too long, everyone else sees the message being cut off, but you the sender see the full message and don't know that no one else saw your full message. My request is that the Sender also see that the full message wasn't received. OR don't allow more characters to be typed into the chat box than can be sent in a single message.
- Also in chat, the Channel owner shouldn't ever see a message that he/she is sending messages too quickly in his own channel. Sometimes, I've been dinged with that message. It serves no useful purpose to prevent the caster from spamming his own channel.
- That's all I can think of right now, except for things that have already been discussed like not having the Featured Video autoplay.
I received an invitation to respond to the 2013 Justin TV survey that Daniel created. One question asked what could JTV do to improve my user experience. I had a few ideas at the ready and came up with a few more as I gave the matter some thought. I'd like to share those ideas publicly. Here's how I responded:
I've just written a new section for the "Channel Info" section of this website. You are welcome to click on over there to take a look. The new section deals with licensing which is always a hot topic. Besides stating a position I have talked about in several of our casts (that current minimum royalty rates are WAY unreasonable for a a cast like Off the Charts, given our audience size and our 4 hour a week schedule), I am comparing our cast to a lemonade stand. In virtually every community, children can set up a lemonade stand in their front yard or on the sidewalk for a few hours here and there and make some pocket change. They don't have to get a business license. They don't have to have a health inspection. And they don't have to remit sales taxes to the state, the county and the local community. It's a time-honored tradition. It hurts no one, including the restaurant down the street that might actually sell lemonade.
Off the Charts is somewhat like the lemonade stand. No, I'm not a child, but I also don't take any money, unlike the kids. It's a small operation done as a hobby for the enjoyment of a very small number of people. It's a time-honored tradition for friends to gather at another friend's house and listen to some tunes together. It hurts no one, including the musicians and songwriters (in our case, many of whom are dead) that created the content, often long ago. I keep a playlist from every Monday show, and I have a rough idea of what our audience is from week to week. If it wanted to, the music industry could accommodate the really small webcaster (which is what we are). It could either decide that the royalties owed under any reasonable rate schedule are too small to mess with and let casters such as ourselves operate royalty-free. Or it could set up a system similar to the iPass for toll roads. How would this work? The webcaster would deposit $50 or $100 dollars with the Music Industry Bank ("MIB" for short). Then each day/week/month, the caster would upload a report to the MIB, detailing each song that was played and the number of listeners. The MIB would deduct 1/10th of a cent per listener per song, transferring each micropayment into the account of the appropriate royalty recipient(s). The webcaster would add funds to his account when his balance gets too low. Lots of micropayments from lots of webcasters would eventually accumulate into worthwhile money for many of the content owners. Under such a system, everyone could be happy and the content creators would receive fair compensation for their work. A system like this could work. Unfortunately, too many people benefit from the existence of a problem, not from the solving of it. This is probably the case here. As a result, I guess I'll continue to keep on as I have been. See you Monday night! Whadaya know? There IS a limit on how aggressive the ads are supposed to be.
>>> Justin.tv Support Center 4:54 PM (6 hours ago) to me Images are not displayed. Display images below - Always display images from [email protected] ##- Please type your reply above this line -## Hello, We're pleased to tell you that your request (#309) has been solved. To reopen this request, reply to this email or click the link below: https://help.justin.tv/tickets/309 Dylan Reichstadt (Justin.tv Support Center) Jul 10 14:54 (PDT) Hey Gil, I heard back and indeed, if the player is on mute, the ad should be on mute too. We were able to replicate the issue and will be investigating and get a fix out soon. Thanks for letting us know. Regards, Dylan Reichstadt -- Dylan Reichstadt | Justin.tv | Lead Administrator <<< gil_mensch
Jul 09 00:02 (PDT) Dylan, I have a serious question about the mid-roll ads. I'm hoping you'll give me a straight answer on this. You know I don't like them, but that's not what this question is about. I had a channel on but I was doing other things so I had the channel volume muted. But then the ad came on and it was NOT muted. In fact, it was very loud. Volume turned up to the max. So here's my question: Is that the way it is supposed to be? You're going to hear the ad even though you have the channel volume muted? I'm hoping you're going to tell me, no, that's not the way we want it and it will be fixed. I'm afraid you're going to tell me just the opposite. IF the answer is that the channel volume (and muting) does not and will not affect the ad volume, I hope JTV realizes how user-UNfriendly that would be. On YouTube, for instance, if you have the video player muted, any ad that plays is also muted. That's the way it should be on JTV. Dylan Reichstadt (Justin.tv Support Center) Jul 09 15:26 (PDT) Hey Gil, Thanks for the feedback. I'll check with our Director of Ad Ops and see if the mid rolls recognize the volume of the player. I agree this would be an annoyance and will let you know when I hear back. Regards, Dylan Reichstadt -- Dylan Reichstadt | Justin.tv | Lead Administrator There was some interest last night in the books I keep close at hand for music reference. I thought some of you might like a more permanent record. I showed four books. They are:
The Complete Book of Doo Wop by Anthony Gribin & Matthew Schiff The Encyclopedia of Popular Music edited by Colin Larkin American Singing Groups by Jay Warner Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers by John Broven I have some others I'll show at a future date. I've also read some biographies and other books that might interest the group. I don't own these. I borrowed them from the public library. This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music by Adam Brent Houghtaling Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee by Brenda Lee Doo-Wop the Forgotten Third of Rock 'n Roll by Gribin & Schiff (this is an earlier edition of the Doo Wop book shown above) Doo Wop: The Music, the Times, the Era by Bruce Morrow & others (this book wasn't that great) Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob by Matt Birkbeck (interesting bio of Sammy Davis Jr) Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells by Tommy James with Martin Fitzpatrick Blinded by the Lyrics: Behind the Lines of Rock and Roll's Most Baffling Songs by Brent Mann The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross This week, I've added a new column to the Source and Tonight's Playlists: the rating (if any) I've given each track. The numbers correspond to the stars that Media Monkey displays. I wish I could show you the stars instead of the numbers, but it's not an option. I thought you all might enjoy seeing the ratings, especially in the Source Playlist, as an aid to picking out particular songs you'd like to hear that night.
In my system at the moment, ratings between 0 and 30 (or 0 and 1 1/2 stars) represent varying degrees of dislike. 40 means "eh". 50-60 (2 1/2 to 3 stars) means I like the song but it's nothing special. 70-100 represent varying degrees of really liking the song. "-1" just means I haven't rated the song yet. I rate based on the song, the performance, and the quality of the recording. A good song performed badly but recorded well might well get a 40 or 50 rating. I tend to rate on the bell curve: lots of 50s and 60s, fewer extreme numbers. There aren't a lot of real low rated songs. I'm less likely to add a crummy song to my collection than a good song, so the ratings are skewed to the upper half of the range. I've been tweaking my rating system lately, so some songs' ratings might be off a little based on the description I just gave. My goal is get within 10 points of my "true" rating of the track. In other words, if I rate the same song on separate occasions, I'd like my new rating to be within 10 points (1/2 star) of the old rating. If I can't be consistent, the ratings aren't worth much! If this all sounds more than a little OC, I plead partially guilty. I've had a lot of practice assigning personal ratings to songs when I was involved with LaunchCast (Yahoo's old music service) some years ago. With LaunchCast, the listener was rewarded for rating songs, the reward being more "better" songs being played for you in the future, based on what you like. After a little while, rating songs during a listening session became second nature, so it's easy to do it now for the songs in my own collection. Let me know what you think. Helpful or not? |
AuthorGil is the host of the "Gil's Channel" webcast on Vaughnlive.tv. References
These sites are particularly helpful when it comes to learning about and tagging music. Some are blogs. Others are labors-of-love reference sites. And to be complete, I'm including the well-known sites I use often.
45 RPM Records of the Ohio River Valley 45cat (7" vinyl database) 45worlds (non-7" singles db) The "A" Side (informative blog) Album Liner Notes (reference) Allmusic ASCAP Repertory Search (db) The "B" Side (informative blog) Billboard Hot 100 (historical) Blues & Rhythm (magazine) BMI Repertoire Search (db) Both Sides Now Publications British Dance Band Encycl'p'a Bullfrogs Pond - #1s by Date. Bullfrogs Pond - Artists. Bullfrogs Pond - Yearly Chart. Classic Jazz Online. Classic Urban Harmony. The Cosimo Code. The Database of Popular Music. Dave's Music Database. The Dead Rock Stars Club. Discogs (database). Donald Clarke's Music Box. The Doo Wop Society of So Cal FAU Recorded Sound Archives. Garage Hangover (60s 45's) HeyPally's 78 rpm Page. It's Psychedelic Baby (blog) The Jazz Archive Site. JazzBiographies.com Jazz Discography Jazz Downloads (1917-1955) JazzStandards.com Jeff's 78 Labels Label Discographies Lyrics.net (searchable lyrics) Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook Music VF (US & UK hits db) Noal Cohen's Jazz History The Online (78) Discog. Project Rhythm & Blues 50s Oldies Man Rock & Country Encycl & Discog Second Hand Songs SESAC Repertory Search (db) Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Hvn So Many Records, So Little Time Songbook (Doc's Songbook) Soulful Kinda Music Spectropop Express Spirit of Rock Webzine Tony's Rock & Roll Links Traditional Music Library (ref) Tredwells Music Centre The Vocal Group Harmony Site Wikipedia YouTube Archives
October 2020
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