TrNSZ,

That's a sensible point. But surely the issue of newbies who don't search or read the FAQs is separate from this one - as an off topic, and probably quite limited forum section, it's hardly going to attract people.

Whats more, we already have these discussions - they're in "Off Topic". As they're slightly less off topic than some of the other stuff in off topic, it makes sense that they should form a sub group in Off Topic - well kind of!

Anyway, I thought one of the points of having an off topic section is to draw the irrelevant stuff away from the "real" part of the board. What might be useful in having a music section is that I can see it having some feedback into the main board. Coding issues vs music genre/type might be interesting.

Cheers,
David.

IMO, you shouldn't raise concerns about how the users will behave (netiquette, etc.) before you try.

If people mess up, the forum is closed. If not, then all is OK.

Considering normal forum behavior, it's sort of irresponsible to assume that things will go smoothly. Remember Murphy's Law. =)

So instead additional Off-Topic discussions are encouraged on HA? Maybe discussions should be encouraged, but please not on HA!

I see this as a potentially major problem. It's not possible with this software to have a music forum operate independently from the main forums. Everyone who is registered for discussions there can post on the other HA forums. It's almost encouraging people to jump into a community that they may or may not understand.

If the members of HA want a place to discuss music, then I'd volunteer to help host something with the respect and caliber of HA, but as independant but related forum and community. Nothing wrong with this type of cross-over, and it opens such a forum to a wider audience and wouldn't alieniate anyone. In a music forum, we just might want all those Stereophile and Audiofile magazine readers contributing without feeling like third-class citizens.

LOL! The forum engine is completely fucking up quotes and tags.

Weird.. split here due to some forum formatting bugs, ack. To expand on my above post:

The kind of users we would attempt to restrict using such a TOS would be the same type of users who aren't going to read it anyway!

This and my above posts... just my $0.02.

A logical concern, but that's what warnings followed by bans are for. It's just a matter of how "busy" this will make moderators if the forum gets too many *nasties*. If it's too much to manage, then maybe an off-site HA music forum would make more sense, as you suggest.

I just think it's worth a try here, that's all. Then again, I've never administrated or moderated a web forum before, so I'm just being a blind optimist to some extent.

One more thing to consider (and HA is the *only* forum I've ever been on that this is the case), many HA members occasionally act as moderators, reminding people who may get out of hand about HA rules. (I've even done it once or twice, and I've only been a member a few weeks.) The sense of "order" here tends to make the members who try to provide value to the community protect that sense of order. So, maybe HA regulars in the music forum will serve to keep a balance against any potential troublemakers from elsewhere, and perhaps ease the burden on the real moderators. Just a thought...


...and the forum engine even misspelled my screen name in a quote. How rude! (Just kidding!)

Edit: Unless my screen name was hand typed in the quote...either way, I don't mind really.

Hm, I don't see how such a subforum can attract many new folks who are looking for a music discussion forum and stumble upon HA and start discussing music without even looking at the main content of the forum.

I'd see a music subforum more as a service to the folks here at HA who now also have a place with people they know to share their other passion that is automatically linked to audio compression: music.

Ditto.

There could also be the added awareness to people that there are more, and better codecs than Xing, WMP, (used as examples). This might also have the benefit of getting larger fish to sit up and take notice - READ: Manufacturers. Would that be so bad? One could certainly hope for this to happen.

Gets my vote.

Music is best left to the off-topic section for a forum that is primarily geared towards audio-coding and technical aspects of audio. A forum on audio-mastering will be nice if there are enough takers.

I voted NO

--mank

I think it would be sweet to have a music category in the forums... and since you say it would be just for discussion...

may i suggest some subforums

Classical, New Age, Jazz, Rock, Electronica, Experimental, Film Scores, Anime, Game...

Bad Idea ™.

Just say no.

There's already been some discussion about why this approach wouldn't work very well:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=0&#entry116338

To be honest, I don't know if we'll ever have a music section to this site. As it stands right now, I simply don't have time (or really the inclination) to deal with it. I realize that some people would really like something like this, but it's worth noting that it'd mean quite a bit more work for the admins around here (whether we got additional moderators or not). Given this and the almost complete lack of interest that has been shown in other offshoots of HA (the HA knowledgebase project for example), I'm hesitant to spend a lot more time even working towards something like this...

Given my current attitude towards the situation, it'd take something significant to move me in the direction of adding something like this, and I honestly don't see that happening right now. Anything is possible though I suppose...

I say go for it. I also like one of the posters mentioned, just read as I do not have a technical background. But what is all this about if its not for ultimately hearing a few tunes huh?

I had a music forum and it was so difficult to make it go. I had to give it up as people joined and just chit chatted and I wanted music discussion. But I think you have a huge user base and could make a go of it.

My old forum was musicmagnet.us and it's dead now. I am also a Mod at Zeropaid.com and would be happy to be a Mod on your music forum if you need one.

peace

Yep,
most likely reviews of latest artists.Thanks

Although i voted Yes i still agree with you now when thinking a bit more far. So i
have to vote here Yes-No; The world (mostly U.S.) is full of forums for general music discussion, different tastes, filesharing and so on...

Many of us (i suppose) belongs to one of those (or can belong if wants to) and here i think the off-topics section will be enough. I'm quite a sure that people will find the right topics there between all computer related problems and who's got the biggest car -cases.

Just an opinion. I do not hate anyway if such a section would become, because i like to speak about music generally in between all the tech talking about MPEG4-containers and new lossless formats

Until this day i have been a quest digest reader and link-follower and got many many good ideas here (since late 2002) AND can navigate quite well between forums and topics. Something got me to join, because i think that it will become a day, when i do have something serious to ask (that i haven't found by just reading and following links to read more outside.)

Just do how you like with this suggestion - i won't get angry if we loose a bit of the pure technology and development and give some space to just talking (about music). Maybe we could get even some women to join to this group by that way to bring some colour between all these menly masculine forums.

Dude, the music forum has been created some time ago already.

General Music discussion forum <--