U2start.com | 5-song, 5-date limits on

I completely understand the 5-song, 5-date limits on "great versions". it keeps the list honest, and prevents any one person from going crazy and voting for every version of "bad" or every song on zoo dublin. each person has to be careful with their choices.

I also believe it is poses some serious risks.

Although U2Start is growing (6043 at the time of this post!), just like anything else, there is a small percentage of people who are "giving U2Start a great life," if you know what i mean. most people download a few boots and don't come back, no posts, no profile, no votes. 90% of the forum content is posted by about 20-25 of us. it's a case of the 80/20 law to an extreme (more like 90/10).

As a result, the most active of us users will eventually and quickly spend up our 5 votes for "bad," "streets," "one," etc. and those lists of great versions will stagnate.

As a secondary result, if one of us finds a "diamond in the rough" version of a song, we can't vote for it. (though we could post a thread about it). this happened to me when i tried to vote for streets 2001-06-17.

I propose some alternative compromises:
1) have a 5-song, 5-date limit per 24 hours or per 7 days (like a free rapidshare.com limit). this way, people can't be trigger happy, but if the song is REALLY that good that it deserves to be there, the person can still post it after letting their initial over-excitement cool down.

2) remove the 5-song, 5-date limit on "experienced" users. if a user has, say, 50 or 100 posts, it's pretty obvious that they take this site seriously and are very unlikely to abuse the "great versions" section.

another idea altogether:

***this one is my dream. for example, when you click on "bad," you don't just see 10 versions, you see every version that was voted for. then you click on any of those specific shows, and you see forum-like posts telling you why it was so good / what made that version so unique. was it a hi-quality recording? did bono say something he'd never repeat? a once-in-a-lifetime bono ad-lib? did edge pull a solo out of left field?

OR, under a given concert, people can post text "highlights" or "unique moments". if there is a risk of abusing this format, you could always restrict it to people w/ minimum or 50 posts (or 100 or whatever)

Remy

18 years

Yeah I'm not really satisfied either of the way that goes, though I'm really satisfied about the fact almost nobody makes advantage of it by typing a wrong date or something.

I'll take some of your suggestions with me to the new U2start, thanks.

sadb7788

18 years

Well, what can I say... A very good analysis! And really great suggestions! Thanks!

Let's wait for the answer of Remy...

sadb7788

18 years

Originally posted by sadb7788Let's wait for the answer of Remy...

He answered just a few seconds before my post...

LikeASong

18 years

Originally posted by u2met86(...)prevents any one person from going crazy and voting for every version of "bad" or every song on zoo dublin.

(...)you could always restrict it to people w/ minimum or 50 posts (or 100 or whatever)

1) The most known shows (Zoo Dublin, Slane, etc.) have more votes because the most of the users have this few shows and think that they are THE BEST and deserve every song to be rated as excellent...

2) That would be discriminateing, there are people who can't enter the Forum regullary (because of that, they've got less of 100 posts) but they take this very seriously...

That's not the right way...

u2met86

18 years

Originally posted by LikeASong[..]2) That would be discriminateing, there are people who can't enter the Forum regullary (because of that, they've got less of 100 posts) but they take this very seriously... That's not the right way...

You bring up an important point. One of the reasons I like U2Start the most is the friendly atmosphere, especially to newcomers. The lack of elitism that I cower away from currently when I see hardcore traders, even U2torrents (though maybe I just need to give that one more of a chance). Elsewhere I feel out of the loop, like it's very hard to earn my way in.

The tiered membership would probably cause more headaches than it would solve.

---

After much thought, it seems that the numbers will stagnate over the long term, no matter what.

Okay, it's fair to say that the current song rating system is MUCH better than no system at all, because how many people like the version is one very helpful measure of how good / unique that version is, especially for newcomers who don't know where to start.

Now, to refine those earlier ideas, to make them more realistic but still spice things up a bit:

More quantitative data (numbers) will probably not make the system any more effective, so the goal (besides soul, of course

) could perhaps be to ADD to the system a QUALITATIVE element to the system. Ideally, we would not only know the number of people that like a given version, but also HOW it is unique. Perhaps we could allow users to submit one-liners about specific shows (or even specific songs within the show), and those lines could have character limits on them.

For example,
under 1989-12-26 streets you might find:
-resolution and independence snippet
-emphatic "trampled in dust!" line
-remarkably clear recording, esp. synthesizers

1992-08-16 WOWY:
-beginning, bono shouts "let's get married! let's go to vegas!"
-unique edge guitar solo
-shine like stars snippet

ALSO, for me Youtube introduces me to a lot of new music and gets me hooked so that I either want to buy or download it. So, it might be cool if we could place links on the bootleg detail page to any youtube videos of that night.

For instance, under 1998-03-21 Johannesburg, there could be several links so that people can stream one (or a couple) individual songs if they're available. makes it less of a commitment before downloading the whole show. they may either not like the vid(s) (and save themselves time and energy) or they may get hooked onto certain songs right away.and get more excited about downloading the show

Okay I'm talking waaaay too much here, just wanted to toss some ideas out there!

LikeASong

18 years

You bring up another important point: I'm realistic...

All the things you say are fantastic (specially the individual comments in each show!), but hard to make real...

Anyway,let's wait for the new u2start...

u2met86

18 years

Originally posted by LikeASongYou bring up another important point: I'm realistic...

I, on the other hand, prefer "a dangerous idea that almost makes sense." What can I say? "I've got big ideas, I'm out of control..."

LikeASong

18 years

Originally posted by u2met86I, on the other hand, prefer "a dangerous idea that almost makes sense." What can I say? "I've got big ideas, I'm out of control..."

BelgianBono

18 years

Originally posted by u2met86[..]

I, on the other hand, prefer "a dangerous idea that almost makes sense." What can I say? "I've got big ideas, I'm out of control..."

Always talking with music... like that

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