I've wondered why there are 1600+ members but basically only 16 or so members who participate. Could it be that it feels crowded here? Everyone is trying to find space on the front page but people are posting so often that your track quickly gets pushed off the front page and forgotten. How can we create more space for people to fit, to be visible, to feel part of the community?
How about this: Create Jam Rooms
A Jam Room is a place where musicians who enjoy a particular style of music go to jam together. On a given Jam Room page (The Rock Jam Room for example) would be listed the latest rock track which could be played, thumb up'd, commented on, downloaded, etc. as well as a list of the last 5 Jams for that style of music (and a link to all the Jams of that style). The same could be done for Funk, Blues, Punk, etc.
By Creating Jam Rooms you enable people to post a new jam and have it stay visible for a while instead of getting pushed off the page because of all the new posts from all the different styles available here.
In addition, the Wikiloops Front Page could be changed so that you could scroll down the page and see a list all of the Jam rooms and the latest track for the style of music in that room. That way all the latest tracks from each style are visible on the front page. You'll be able to see what is going on across all of Wikiloops just by scrolling down the page to get an overview of what is going on in each Jam room.
Right now there is a nice little community of musicians on Wikiloops who all seem to enjoy each other's company. Maybe you don't want to mess with that. By creating Jam Rooms you risk dividing everyone up into different styles. But, if you want to grow the website and get more people involved then I think you may need to create more space for people to fit in.
Personally I'd love to see more space. It would make me feel like I have more of an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the community. Right now there are enough good drummers on the site that I'm not needed. If there were 19 jam rooms (one for each style currently available on the site) then I'd probably be able to find a place where I could help out.
Just a thought. Hope it helps.
Tinkeround
How about this: Create Jam Rooms
A Jam Room is a place where musicians who enjoy a particular style of music go to jam together. On a given Jam Room page (The Rock Jam Room for example) would be listed the latest rock track which could be played, thumb up'd, commented on, downloaded, etc. as well as a list of the last 5 Jams for that style of music (and a link to all the Jams of that style). The same could be done for Funk, Blues, Punk, etc.
By Creating Jam Rooms you enable people to post a new jam and have it stay visible for a while instead of getting pushed off the page because of all the new posts from all the different styles available here.
In addition, the Wikiloops Front Page could be changed so that you could scroll down the page and see a list all of the Jam rooms and the latest track for the style of music in that room. That way all the latest tracks from each style are visible on the front page. You'll be able to see what is going on across all of Wikiloops just by scrolling down the page to get an overview of what is going on in each Jam room.
Right now there is a nice little community of musicians on Wikiloops who all seem to enjoy each other's company. Maybe you don't want to mess with that. By creating Jam Rooms you risk dividing everyone up into different styles. But, if you want to grow the website and get more people involved then I think you may need to create more space for people to fit in.
Personally I'd love to see more space. It would make me feel like I have more of an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the community. Right now there are enough good drummers on the site that I'm not needed. If there were 19 jam rooms (one for each style currently available on the site) then I'd probably be able to find a place where I could help out.
Just a thought. Hope it helps.
Tinkeround
Layin' down the beats like a novice