#musicbrainz

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      • zorglu1
        inhouseuk: yep it is why i talk to you guys about that :) i think we share the goal of providing good info about music to the users
      • nikki_ doesn't think tags are good info :P
      • nikki_
        they're arbitrary things people have associated with other things
      • MartinRudat
        UserErr0r: tags on mb, like tags on last.fm, because last.fm is commercial and might die, while musicbrainz is open and will live (I think that's the general thrust of things...)
      • zorglu1
        nikki_: it is a way to sort music in a efficient way. and thus helps users to find music they like. why do you think they are not a good info ?
      • slaad
        I think the biggest problem is the subjectiveness of them.
      • nikki_
        because it's just as random as picking any other way of sorting them!
      • MartinRudat
        zorglu1: because they rely on having a shared meaning for a song being more "orange" or more "punk" than another song...
      • nikki_
        and musicbrainz's is a database of music, not a "find music you might like!" thing
      • MartinRudat
        ..."That's not punk, that's rock" "that's not rock, it's jazz", "it isn't jazz, it's rnb", ...
      • zorglu1
        slaad: nikki_: so ok i think i could sumup this arguement as "are they efficient in providing the music i like ?" do you agree ?
      • nikki_
        I don't understand that sentence
      • slaad
        Nor I.
      • As to the question of efficiency; They're only efficient if the person who tagged them sees music in the same way.
      • zorglu1
        nikki_: slaad: ok the point of a sorting system is to provide the user the relevant info
      • like google.com or yahoo.com ot last.fm
      • MartinRudat
        does not musicbrainz strive to contain hard, factual data about music, not something as soft and changeable as what 'genre' the music is?
      • nikki_
        since when was musicbrainz a way of finding new music?
      • zorglu1
        they try to answer the question "gimme the stuff i want" from the user
      • inhouseuk
        MartinRudat: yes. hard facts, not something that is subjective
      • zorglu1
        ah ok
      • so musicbrain want fact only ?
      • this is a policy of musicbrainz "we store facts only" ?
      • Shepard
        musicbrainz wants nothing. you can ask what the community wants
      • that would split up to a lot of answers though :)
      • MartinRudat
        o/` I want to rock with you o/`
      • Shepard
        that would be one of them.
      • nikki_ thinks mb has enough bugs and rfes without expanding into another 'find music you like' service when there's already a fully functional one
      • zorglu1
        i just try to understand the "accuracy" things
      • nikki_: "not having the time to do it now" is a valid arguement
      • nikki_
        it feels like reinventing the wheel even though you've not finishing building a cart to put the wheel on for want of a better analogy
      • zorglu1
        "tagging are subjectives and doesnt work" is not
      • just trying to understand.
      • MartinRudat
        zorglu1: it's is not possible to be accurate and difinitive on matters of opinion... such as genre, or tags.
      • slaad
        Sure it is, zorglu1. If tags are subjective, as they are, it means they're irrelevant.
      • zorglu1
        if the "tagging are subjectives and doesnt work" is the problem, i can explain why it is not
      • MartinRudat
        ...which is why psychology has such a hard time being accepted as hard science, afaik...
      • inhouseuk
        zorglu1: the problem is, you might classify a certain song as something different to somebody else.
      • zorglu1
        inhouseuk: ok this is the "tagging are subjectives and doesnt work"
      • inhouseuk
        everybody has different opinions
      • nikki_
        yeah, I can just see some people tagging anything from japan as jpop
      • zorglu1
        inhouseuk: i understand that.
      • nikki_
        then I'll go looking for jpop and find metal!
      • nikki_ shudders
      • inhouseuk
        and it is difficult to store subjective data
      • zorglu1
        nikki_: this is the "tagging are subjectives and doesnt work" argument
      • slaad
        You can't just say "it doesn't work"
      • nikki_
        your argument doesn't work either :P
      • slaad
        (The argument, I mean)
      • zorglu1
        :)
      • can i ask questions ?
      • nikki_
        you just did :P
      • slaad
        No! Hah!
      • MartinRudat
        I'm fairly certain it goes more along the lines of "Subjectivity involves opinion, and there's enough heated discussion about hard fact as it is..."
      • zorglu1
        is this 'only accurate data' a strict policy of musicbrainz ?
      • inhouseuk
        no, but the aim is to be accurate where possible
      • zorglu1
        ok
      • nikki_
        and you can't be accurate about subjective data
      • zorglu1
        nikki_: yep
      • slaad
        You can, you just have to have everyone agree that I'm right ;)
      • zorglu1
        inhouseuk: so this accuracy policy wont be applied to a sorting system.
      • as any sorting system is subjective and no accuracy are possible
      • nikki_
        why do we need a "sorting system"?
      • Shepard
        zorglu1: to me it's a matter of the size of the community. a community can only handle a certain amount of features. after that you have organisation problems. so if you want to add tags to MB this opens a whole new region and I don't think we can handle that. therefore I'm for letting last.fm handle this. MB cannot handle everything around music
      • inhouseuk agrees with Shepard
      • zorglu1
        Shepard: ok this is the "we dont have time/resource to do it"
      • this one is valid :)
      • Shepard
        not quite
      • nikki_
        to me, the mb community is already about facts, and we like facts and guidelines and all that
      • and last.fm is all about the subjective stuff, and they seem happy enough with that
      • zorglu1
        nikki_: there are no 'style' in mb ?
      • nikki_
        ?
      • zorglu1
        Shepard: did i misrepresent your idea ?
      • nikki_: did i misundertood what was a 'style moderator' ?
      • is a 'style moderator' somebody who say 'this is rock' or 'this is funk' etcc. ?
      • Shepard
        it's not a matter of resources. neither of time. we can add more servers, the community will grow anyways if we add tags so we would have the human resources. but the community would brake up into lots of different groups handling the different aspects and it would be impossible to keep an overview of all that
      • MartinRudat blinks 'style moderator'... is there some document somewhere I should read to know what terminology we're using... or do I just need to pay more attention?
      • nikki_ doesn't know what a style moderator is
      • nikki_
        and style in musicbrainz usually refers to how to enter data
      • zorglu1
        Chris is a style moderator specializing in Electronic style issues. <- http://musicbrainz.org/wd/MusicBrainzBio
      • nikki_
        not genres
      • Shepard
      • slaad
        Does MB have any fulltime staff?
      • zorglu1
        Shepard: hmm so it is more to remain focus on a single aspect of it and not to dillute the effort. 'do one thing but do it well' kind of thing ?
      • Shepard
        yes
      • slaad: no paid workers but ruaok
      • slaad
        Yeah, I meant other than ruaok
      • Shepard
        nope
      • inhouseuk
        zorglu1: the 'style' work the musicbrainz community does is to apply certain guidelines to the data, otherwise you get the mess that is freedb
      • zorglu1
        inhouseuk: yep i read a bit about the style concil
      • ok thanks the info guys
      • slaad reads the MusicBrainzBio page
      • i just wanted to know how musicbrainz felts about a tagging system
      • the argument 'do one thing but do it well' is very valid
      • in my opinion
      • MartinRudat
        hmm... do we cover a sufficient cross-section of "MusicBrainz" to actually say that we've divined the opinion of the community as a whole?
      • inhouseuk
        probably not. But, I'm certain the majority of the community would agree that tags/genres are subjective :)
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      • MartinRudat ponders... "poll: Are Tags right for MusicBrainz a) yes b) no c) maybe d) dunno e) bork bork bork!"
      • zorglu1
        tags/genre/styles ? :)
      • Shepard
        .oO( all the same... )
      • martin: e)
      • inhouseuk
        MartinRudat: you forgot the answer "What are tags?"
      • MartinRudat thinks that you could sucessfuly substitute, say... Serialization for Style, and keep the intent of the documentation the same.
      • nikki_
        grml.
      • inhouseuk
        ?
      • nikki_
        I managed to do that ctrl-s thing in just one screen window
      • so I could switch windows but not type in this one
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      • but it seems that if you hammer ctrl-a-q enough, it'll give you it back
      • inhouseuk tries not to hit ctrl-s where possible
      • MartinRudat
        inhouseuk: I think "tag! you're it" would be appropriate, too. =)
      • inhouseuk
        :)
      • MartinRudat
        nikki: ircII? screen?
      • juhae
        you could unmap c-s and so eliminate the threat of ever jamming your terminal again ;)
      • nikki_
        irssi
      • well normally I just hit ctrl-q
      • but nooo, it had to be ctrl-a-q
      • inhouseuk
        on solaris you used to be able to message a ctrl-s to another user and it would lock their screen
      • MartinRudat ponders a track that has a profusion of conductors... "The BBC Welsh Chorus, feat. conductor: John Hugh Thomas" and "The BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, feat. conductor: Robin Stapleton" are both credited for this one track...
      • chorus and orchestra could have been recorded at different times/locations and then combined in the mix
      • MartinRudat
        hmm... John Hugh Thomas is listed as chorus master in the prose... I love consistancy...
      • slaad has quit
      • inhouseuk
        "Con stantly using this health torch, it can benefit to your palm, arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation,so as to let your hands relax and brain clever, hand and brain coor dinate and promote your brain memory and health composition"
      • Joan_W has quit
      • that is the wording on the packet of the torch I purchased at the computer fair earlier today!
      • nikki_
        o_O
      • MartinRudat
        ...is the torch heavier than the average torch, or something?
      • inhouseuk
        it's one of these torches you squeeze to recharge it
      • no batteries
      • MartinRudat
        ah, I've got one of those... it could do with a capacitor, and a regulator... not to mention something more efficient than an incandescent globe...
      • inhouseuk
        this one has 3 white LED's
      • MartinRudat ponders... there's a website around of the name 'engrish' I think...
      • MartinRudat
        http://www.engrish.com/ it's quite interesting what inexpert translation ends up with...
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      • Shof
        Shof is now known as shof515
      • shof515
        i haev a question
      • have*
      • MartinRudat
        ja, what is it?
      • shof515 has quit
      • MartinRudat blinks... I spoke too loud...
      • ...Artist page for Ludwin van Beethoven... up to a meg of data already... I shouldn't be surprised, should I?
      • s/in/ig/;
      • inhouseuk
        nope
      • MartinRudat
        ah, it finished loading.
      • inhouseuk
        there are some worse than Beethoven
      • MartinRudat
        ...the Grateful Dead have more releases than any of the classical artists? wow.
      • demonhunter joined the channel
      • I'm mildly surprised that anyone has had more releases than the classical composers, actually...