Reviews order

[Glyn R Brown]

Hey Neil , Thanks for the kind words Buddy

Very true though , Firelord has many , Many floors , and Gordian Tomb has even more than i can count , Ha !!!!

But i do see what you mean , like when Gayle listens to a piece of music , she only hears the tune itself , things like the melody & drums only seem to stand out to her . But she actually thought that Firelord sounded great because she likes the tune itself & fails to hear the mistakes & Floors within .. Well , could be that she was just being kind , Ha Ha !!

[tas]

funny how you picked up on my spelling mistake there glyn

it should be flaws and not floors ))

LOL!

[Glyn R Brown]

Oh Yeah ! Ha Ha !!!!!

[CraigG]

For example does a musician look at the feel of a piece of music, or does he try to check out it's technical imperfections?

now, would a good musician down-rate this piece cos it has a floors? would a listener even know that it has floors?

Sometimes things just 'feel' wrong and a non-musician can see/hear that. Likewise, I think it's dangerous to tar everyone with the same brush. While I don't do C64 remixes, I've been a musician for a long time, releasing my own CDs via http://www.vmuonline.com. However, when reviewing music (here and elsewhere) I usually first look for the atmosphere and feel of a piece, and not technical imperfections. In fact, the latter is only discussed if it interferes with the piece. (Of course, artistic imperfections, such as the wrong choice of voice, are ususally more apparent.)

I'm also quite harsh when notes are innacuate--witness the Sanxion lead that almost no-one gets right--but in some cases, even that doesn't matter.

Maybe your point is essentially that non-musicians are likely to have more of an open mind when it comes to reviewing, due to not being 'in the biz'. However, I would say that too is debatable, as many are governed by their own listening habits, whereas musics tend to be directed also by their craft and feelings.

[Glyn R Brown]

Hi Craig
Just checked out the web-site .
Those mp3's are !!! Very Impressive !!!
I Loved " The Crossing " ... Great Work !!

[CraigG]

Hey Glyn--thanks for the kind words! "The Crossing" has proved popular, and I guess its Vangelis leanings would be welcomed by quite a few people at R64. It's certainly one of my favourites from my work collection, although it's scary to think about the kit that was used to make the piece (one very old synth from the '80s and a pretty decent reverb unit, along with a metal guitar pedal!)

[Glyn R Brown]

It reminds me of the music from " CHERRY 2000 " - Poledouris .
I love this film score & a proud owner of 1 of the Very Limited 1500 only , pressed copies

[Bruno Falardeau]

Hehehe!

With my limited musical knowledge (at least on the technical side), I was starting to wonder what in the blazes a floor was.

At first, reading Neil, I had figured that he indeed meant "flaw" and that he simply subconciously typed the similar sounding word that is floor. Heck, it happens to me all the time. But now that Glyn started talking about his floors, I was just about to start a research on what the heck a floor was!... Glad I didn't need to waste any google time after all.

Bruno

[Debith]

Umm, to that sorting thing, could it be that the reviews were sorted by the length of the reviews. (by letters, by lines and so on). It could be also good to reader, so that they first get those reviews, which could have something useful information for reader. Also, it leaves those rocks/sucks review to the bottom of list, which really aren't THAT helpful. It would also be hard to do any good discussing in the review area.

ok, wait with those rocks, I first go behind that large boulder.

[LMan]

Actually, that's a pretty good idea!

[LMan]

There. Reviews are sorted by textlength.

[CraigG]

Just a quick warning about this--while this is in some ways a good idea, you may end up with people writing stupidly long reviews just because this will get theirs to the top. Usually, succinct stuff is better on-screen...

While I know this would be loads of work, would it be possible at some point in the future to let the visitor sort by criterea a la eBay (etc)? A drop-down menu with something like 'most recent first', 'oldest first', 'longest first', 'shortest first'?... Probably too much hassle, but worth mentioning, I thought.

[LMan]

*made mental note* Okay let's see how this thing works out. If it doesn't, I'll change it again

[Debith]

CraigG, there is always someone, who wants to be on top. But usually they also want to do it with less amount of work. So they actually have to write something to be on top and maybe they even have to think (gasp) something.
Of course, they may try to spam same line over and over again. Answer to that would be script that deletes duplicated lines. To that, spammer must do something to alter the duplicated line, to which the webmaster creates intelligent script, that can delete almost duplicated lines and repeating sections... or just delete away the stupid spammed review.
Always the best opinion is to make user to decide how something should look like.

LMan, nice you liked the idea. I hope this works right.

[CraigG]

For what it's worth, I do think this is a better solution that listing them in date order. At least this way you get the most in-depth comments first, rather than whoever was 'first past the post'. I also agree that people posting stuff for the sake of it will be either less likely to do so now, or their stuff will eventually disappear to the bottom of the pile.

It's a nice idea, and I hope it works; I was just outlining one potential problem. From a personal point of view, I'm happy, as I tend to write fairly lengthy reviews, so many of mine have moved towards the top of the pile.