Grateful Dead

I am not really technically sophisticated, but I manage to navigate around the site fairly well. On the other hand, there can always be improvements and Badger's suggestions make sense to me. I also think the people who contribute to the site (Mary, DL, Gans, all the authors of articles, etc.) are doing a great job, and their efforts are definitely appreciated. Certainly, the Vineyard is great for those of us either filling in their collection or getting started with one. My major gripe concerns the lack of the surviving member's participation on the site. Do they even know or care about this site? How about a chat once in a while or a message from the guys? I don't mean self-serving announcements about releases or tours. I just feel as though there is a total disconnect with the band itself. Thanks for listening. "Let there be songs to fill the air."

there are quite a few different threads in Badger's excellent post, so I'm kinda trying to sort them out into the technical, the social, the navigational, the content, etc. Not that they're entirely separable of course. But as long as we're talking about what could work better, might as well be here as anywhere else, and have at it (with the understanding that I'm making no promises other than to pass this along when we're at a reasonable place in the discussion to do so!).

one thing to keep in mind is that for various reasons (Egypt and/or the election at the top of the list, I'd guess) we have seen a lot of new folks arriving over the last couple of months, and sticking around and talking and starting vines etc. This is of course a good thing, but it does have the side effect that if you're a longtime resident and go away for a couple weeks, the neighborhood's going to look different when you get back. This is not news of course, just sayin'. Please resume discussion...

i agree with Mike , since my enforced absence i haven't been a regular back here various reasons but i when have come back seems different but i put it down to unfamiliarity sorry listening to cheerful music wareen zevon - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

as far as last post first, I'm kind of against it for various reasons, not least of which is that if the blasted feature to take you to new posts actually worked it would be a nonissue and discussions could remain linear. That feature has been on the to-do list forever, though I am not sure what the technical feasibility is. Believe me, I know this is a drag. I would also note, WRT the vines, that I'll look into how feasible this would be--I don't think it's out of the question, but anything that involves manually retrofitting hundreds of existing vines is, uh, not happening, most likely. My overall concern, however, is that is it somewhat noteworthy and by no means a foregone conclusion that there is tape trading here at all, let alone a thriving vineyard (this is not the case on all Dead-related sites, spinoff, official or otherwise), and I am not looking for opportunities to rock the boat on the subject. All that said, I tend to agree we've lost some momentum lately, and while I think some of this is inevitable post-election exhaustion, to say nothing of pre-holiday exhaustion, I appreciate badger speaking up. Thoughts, folks?

oops!! sorry....when my computer actually works i just can't help my self....heeheehee!!

As usual, you observations appear to be spot on, at least as I see it. Especially treating the vines as a separate type other than "Forum Post." This would make the Filter By Type combo on All Recent Posts even more useful. Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

I have found myself becoming a little detached from the site lately and have been thinking about why this might be. Lots of good people are here for sure, but the site is becoming hard to navigate around and I am getting a bit frustrated with some of the content. Here are some well meant ideas and suggestions that may just apply to me or that others may also agree with. NAVIGATION As the site and the number of users grow, easy navigation becomes more and more important. 1. Please sort out the forums to show the most recent post first. Many have asked for this many times and I cannot think of any reason why it has not been changed. At the moment it takes way too long to find ones way to the latest post on a forum and I think that this affects whether and how people contribute. It puts people off reading and posting, it prevents spontaneous snappy dialogue and encourages long rambling essays like this one (once you have found your way to the right page, there is a tendency to get the maximum reward for your effort!). 2. Please consider changing the display to show more posts per page so that scrolling and searching is faster. The displays waste a lot of space. 3. Please fix the search function so that it takes you to the actual post that the search finds, not just the first page of the forum where the post is located. At present the function is useless. 4. Please consider making the Vines a separate ‘type’, rather than forum topics. The ‘Most Recent Posts’ page tends to get swamped very quickly by vine communications, because each vine is a separate forum topic. So new posts on forums and new stories tend to get lost quickly from the headline page, causing promising threads to die. I worry that a lot of newer folks do not find out about all the forums that exist, many of which are becoming rather moribund. I am in no way trying to hamper the vining (no way!), but if the vines were a separate ‘type’ or even a whole separate section of the site then viners could readily go there to check out what was happening without the recent post list getting swamped. Does that make sense? CONTENT Please (as I have mentioned elsewhere) commission and headline some more mainstream Grateful Dead stories. Great shows, great tours, notorious events etc. The only regular (and very welcome) features of that kind are the David Lemieux’s stories in the Tapers section and the adding of interesting archive materials to support music releases BAND MEMBERS And why oh why no interviews with or direct contributions from Bob, Phil, Mickey and Bill (there has been an interview with Donna Jean)? Are they not wanting to cooperate or are they not being asked? Bob Weir at least has given interviews to various magazines this year, so why not dead.net? I am getting rather frustrated with the long succession of headline features about members of Ratdog and Phil and Friends. Interesting for sure and nothing against those guys, but can we not mix the new stuff with more real Grateful Dead news and features? Both bands have fine websites of their own and Blair Jackson and others must have a wealth of untold stories about the Good Old Grateful Dead. EDITORIAL CONTENT In fact it is not very clear who is controlling editorial content or how it is decided. Indeed who are TPTB? It would be nice to know and for these people to engage a bit more with the folks who support this site and actually respond to suggestions and requests. These ideas are intended to enable the site to become rather more dynamic and relevant, to encourage quicker, easier posting and wider use of the forums. But based on past experience this message will be kindly passed on up the line by Marye to TPTB and ‘vanish in the air’ or maybe its just me :-(

is here: http://www.dead.net/forum/chatroom-your-thoughts-please

Folks, if things are working as they should, you will see, in the left-hand menu under "Dead Community"-- Chatroom. Yes, by popular demand, we have a chatroom. It is very simple and bare-bones for the moment, but it seems to work. And, to forestall one obvious question, for the moment we just have the one chat room (let's work out one set of bugs at a time...) but that will probably change over time. For one thing, the feature's usefulness for special events is obvious. Etc. So have fun! And if you're not seeing that link, report issues in the topic I will be opening momentarily. Thanks!