u2songs.com: Running to Stand Still
Site Related => Discography & Releases => Topic started by: Carl on November 17, 2009, 04:35:35 PM
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You can vote for multiple options in this poll, gathering info for a redesign.
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I voted "perfect." Of course perfect assumes the disco is also up to date. I wasn't able to use the discography as a resource when trying to figure out what versions of the latest NLOTH singles I wanted. I think Magnificent was updated later in the game (could be wrong) and Go Crazy still doesn't have info. I had to order some singles semi-blind or go off of information people shared in the forums.
But the rest of it is fanastic. And I remember the disco as staying current for the single releases from the ATYCLB and HTDMAAT albums. I was able to figure out which singles I really wanted.
So aside from the recent non-timeliness and incompleteness, I find the site to be a fantastic resource that I regularly visit.
thank you!
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Correction: I can not vote multiple times on this poll.
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The current amount of info is very, very good (peerless, really, across the web) but sometimes I have found critical information missing from the Other Notes section found in each track/album, so they could stand to be more in-depth and comprehensive.
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@zoo, you can vote for multiple options on the poll - I'll clarify wording. voting multiple times would be poor form. ;)
@gp2 - what would you consider critical info in "other notes"? That's the most "subjective" part of the content and can be hard to keep in sync.
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Well, I can't do that either. It's a typical single-choice radial button poll, and in order to vote for anything else I seem to have to remove the vote I just cast. Unless I'm missing something.
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@gp2 - what would you consider critical info in "other notes"? That's the most "subjective" part of the content and can be hard to keep in sync.
There are surely better examples, and I can't remember much of the specific knowledge I've sought that has been missing, but one example, just to give you an idea, is the two appearances of "Two Hearts Beat as One (Import Mix)" in the discography:
http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing014.html (which features no data on this b-side whatsoever in the Other Notes section)
http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing011.html (which, in reference to this b-side, only vaguely states "This mix is closer to the Kervorkian mix in sound." But what does that mean? It was due to Trevor's insight on this forum that I finally got clarification that this track is merely an edit of the "Long Version", not truly a unique mix)
Hopefully this gives a sense of where I think information could be clarified and embellished. While we're taking redesign notes, I'm also compelled to note that anytime I have attempted to send corrections or additions to the discography, I never receive a reply. Once, I sent a lengthy email detailing a rare Japanese CD that I came across at eil.com which I'd never seen or heard of before (prompting me to purchase it for the ungodly sum of $75) called BAND AID SPECIAL which, to my knowledge, remains the only official digital release of "Do They Know It's Christmas (12" Mix)" and "Feed the World" in existence. My submission, which included full cover scans as proof of its existence, was never acknowledged or added to the site. I would hope that these types of user-submitted updates would get appropriate attention moving forward...
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I know that Aaron has a back catalog at times - or it could have just ended up in a spam filter or something... if something discographyish is sent to a comments@u2w or something I tend to ignore them as I'm not really involved in that part of the site.
re: other notes... it's a tough line of how much to describe each mix/edit, related collaborations, etc. There will be some edits etc that slip through the cracks I'm sure. If you want to start a thread of ambiguous other notes w/ suggested corrections that'd be useful.
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@gp2 - what would you consider critical info in "other notes"? That's the most "subjective" part of the content and can be hard to keep in sync.
There are surely better examples, and I can't remember much of the specific knowledge I've sought that has been missing, but one example, just to give you an idea, is the two appearances of "Two Hearts Beat as One (Import Mix)" in the discography:
http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing014.html (which features no data on this b-side whatsoever in the Other Notes section)
http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing011.html (which, in reference to this b-side, only vaguely states "This mix is closer to the Kervorkian mix in sound." But what does that mean? It was due to Trevor's insight on this forum that I finally got clarification that this track is merely an edit of the "Long Version", not truly a unique mix)
Hopefully this gives a sense of where I think information could be clarified and embellished. While we're taking redesign notes, I'm also compelled to note that anytime I have attempted to send corrections or additions to the discography, I never receive a reply. Once, I sent a lengthy email detailing a rare Japanese CD that I came across at eil.com which I'd never seen or heard of before (prompting me to purchase it for the ungodly sum of $75) called BAND AID SPECIAL which, to my knowledge, remains the only official digital release of "Do They Know It's Christmas (12" Mix)" and "Feed the World" in existence. My submission, which included full cover scans as proof of its existence, was never acknowledged or added to the site. I would hope that these types of user-submitted updates would get appropriate attention moving forward...
Hmm. Since I've never heard of a digital release of DTKIC (12") I certainly don't remember ever getting an email from you about the topic. Now it's entirely possible that I just didn't read something. Can you tell me what email address it would have came from so I can search my archives? I never throw away any email, so if I did receive it I'd still have it. I'd like to check to make sure I'm getting your emails at the very least. PM me if you don't want to list it on here...I've searched for any mention in my inbox for these songs and cannot find any email referencing them.
Now regularly I receive 4-5 pieces of information every day for the disco on top of numerous pieces of other u2 related junk mail. Unfortunately most of these are scans of bootleg items these days and people asking about them before buying. Does anyone really think "Mercy" was on a promo CD pressed five years ago? With work and other commitments, the page has not been updated for months. In order to do fourteen U2 shows, I took a significant amount of vacation time and traveled the world. That's the time I typically would take to work on the site. In 2004 I took three days off to finish things up before the launch of the website. I am however, storing this material for future use, but unfortunately that's about all I have time for is storing it and not sorting through what is useful and what is not. The storage bin of "to do" stuff dates back to 2000. Some of it's been addressed, but other things still sit in limbo. If someone contributes a significant amount of material i try to respond, and at the very least say 'thank you, it'll take a while' but granted i may not have hit everyone along the way, especially if the mail comes in when I'm not at home and don't have the freedom of an instant reply.
When will I get to updates again? I have the by song listings up to date and on my harddrive. I've attempted to keep those the most current part of the site. I'm currently moving to a new apartment, and catching up on work after the tour activities. I expect around Christmas time I will start to have some free time to work on things again, and Carl and I will be discussing options for making the data much easier to update and maintain. As it sits right now I hand code each page that you see, maintain all the links manually, and at most use an old version of Netscape to help set some of my graphics. It's not very friendly.
Sorry it's been lacking in updates. Things were turning around with the release of the first couple of singles, but the tour has taken all of my attention, and that is unlikely to shift when it kicks into gear again next year. But we will use the downtime to try to get some section of the site back up to par and hopefully introduce some means of helping things update better. I will warn you that means that other sections are being permanently shelved for retirement...
I will thank Brad here for all his help with the news bits on the front page. Without him, there would be very little in the line of discography information period in a timely manner. Unfortunately, his access does not allow for updates of the discography itself, so these are just that 'front page' news bits.
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Aaron, I've PM'd you, as requested. While we're talking, I'd like to make one critical request: with the new site design, can there be a clear indicator made of any and all releases that have been newly added to the catalog so us uber-collectors won't miss anything? So far, the best we've got are the news updates and I'll never forget the frustration I felt with the 6/6/08 update, which mentioned the release of several new tracks, including Larry Mullen with Underworld, but never actually listed any titles!
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I like it the way it is and have been visiting it frequently for several years now. Just update it with the latest releases and I'm happy!
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@morgan / gp2 - part of the reason we're updating it is so that it'll be easier to keep up to date - once all the data is in a content management system we can pull out the latest additions to a "channel/category" and display them. not sure about modified.
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Aaron, I've PM'd you, as requested. While we're talking, I'd like to make one critical request: with the new site design, can there be a clear indicator made of any and all releases that have been newly added to the catalog so us uber-collectors won't miss anything? So far, the best we've got are the news updates and I'll never forget the frustration I felt with the 6/6/08 update, which mentioned the release of several new tracks, including Larry Mullen with Underworld, but never actually listed any titles!
Hey hey. I had a look. I found four email from you regarding the discography, and as you said none were replied to. One was in 2004 regarding a broken link to the Clannad Anam album. One was in 2005 regarding the Vertigo DVD. There were two in 2007 regarding a broken link / mistake in title / and a question regarding the Lean on Me single. So no, I didn't get the email regarding the Christmas promo, and I'd love to hear more. Of the others? Yup, they are all sitting in the 'to do box'. They were low on the list I'm afraid, and the priority has gone to keeping up the discography with new material rather than revisiting the old.
I plan on revisiting the content as we move the site to a new format and revise and go through the information. So i appreciate the discussion going on here. Gives me an idea what people are using and what they are looking for - in the past the discography has been mainly built around what i personally would use it for.
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oh and i listed what i had in case there were other things you've emailed about i might not have recieved. know of any?!
as well the underworld mention points out that we need to fix our site searchability as well. you should have been able to enter underworld and get the pages that reference things. but our site has to be manually updated, and it appears it's been a couple of years since we've even done that...carl? add that to the list. better searching...
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One further question...how interested would people be in a price guide. as you may know, atu2.com used to run one. And I was at one point working on staff there in the collectors area trying to bring their database up to speed (when i had much more time). Anyway that section has folded now, but before it did, I was given the price database, and we could incorporate it. But would anyone use it? I often found the prices to be very dated, and it seemed to be difficult to keep up. Something may be possible. Just throwing it out there for discussion...would people even bother? Or are you more like me - just searching through auctions to see what has happened recently!??
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For me, a price guide would be useless; the price I will pay for a U2 CD revolves solely around how much I want the music, not what the "going rate" is. My emphasis is on building a U2 music library, not a U2 music collection, if that makes sense. Oh, and Aaron, thanks for looking into my situation; I'm upgrading my PC this weekend and then can begin submitting some of the aforementioned updates--just so I don't continue to spin my wheels, to which email address should I forward them?
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search won't be a problem with the new system, in fact it's something I'd like to really flesh out (though probably on the side as an alternate to more traditional navigation).
price guide just seems like a losing battle in terms of time. maybe just have the top x rare items (U2 3, some promo stuff, etc). then again I'm not a collector. ;D
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Regarding the atU2 price guide, I agree the actual pricing is pointless. But much of the background info was extremely informative about the rarer items. I would like to see it somewhere here on the site if it's not a big hassle. I wouldn't include the prices or worry about updating them, however. I'm not a collector and I truly suck at U2 discography but I learned a lot from reading that section. Was sad to see it go. I thought the info was very helpful, especially for someone new to U2 collecting.
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Re: info on the page. I think that releases that have identical track lists but come from different countries or slightly vary in artwork should be merged into the same entry. There can be a subsection stating the countries of release and different art works.
Like GP2, I also contributed something a while ago but never saw it. I don't really mind, as I have it and know it exists, but it should be up (it's the one-track US Discotheque David Morales Radio Edit [4:07]).
I'd be happy to contribute to the database building or whatever. I've been building my own at home for years.
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IRegarding price guiding I agree with the above. Ã wouldn't be interested in such a thing as there are already other websites on the net doing that.
Stick to your core, which is building the best U2 discography section ever!!
People should use this site to see what U2 items are out there. How to get them, and at what cost, well that's up to them, is not the task of U2sanderer. At least that's the way I see it.
Keep up the good work, it's much appreciated.
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Re: info on the page. I think that releases that have identical track lists but come from different countries or slightly vary in artwork should be merged into the same entry. There can be a subsection stating the countries of release and different art works.
This is something we're pondering - it'd make things a bit more streamlined and only people that collect to have every item would be a little left out (I don't see how we'd put in matrix/upc for every similar release in a reasonable manner).
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I’d personally like to see the following:
- Add a form (linked to the main page) where we can submit new or previous releases for review by the u2wanderer.org team. Request the following: title, track(s), release date, catalog number, attach images (include scanning guidelines), notes etc...
- Consider writing an article every few months going into deep analysis of a recording...
http://www.u2wanderer.org/isthatall/004.html is an excellent reference for anyone who purchased 'The Complete U2' it could be updated to include the iTunes Plus upgrade.
http://www.atu2.com/news/the-three-sunrises-a-listeners-guide-to-the-unforgettable-fire-remaster.html by Mark Stevens is an outstanding article on the recent The Unforgettable Fire Remastered release. Recruit him to write a similar article on War and The Joshua Tree!
How about an article(s) exploring the lesser known officially released recordings e.g. BáidÃn Fheidhlimà by Bono from the Gangs of New York Film
Cheers,
u2expert
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As has been stated a few times, we're going to allow people to submit content, what form that takes will pretty much be dictated by the easiest way to manage the information.
re: more articles, I doubt it. "Recruiting" people from other fan websites is probably not going to happen, it's not like we get paid to do this.
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Sometimes it would be helpful if there were more details on differentiating between versions of a particular track...other than that, really...the information contained on this site is amazing. Also...and this may be something you're already considering or working on...it would be nice to include a section on or listings of "semi-official' tracks. I'm thinking of things like the Daniel Lanois version of "Thank You" that was available as part of a podcast downloadable from I-Tunes, the Alex Metric remix of "...Crazy Tonight", which was officially sanctioned by the band and played by him during a radio set, but never released, or the song "Don't Come Knocking" which never had a true commercial release but was in the movie of the same name. Thanks for listening, and, if no one else says it, truly, thanks for this site. i can't explain to you what a helpful resource it's been over the years. This and one other U2 site are the only ones i make sure to check every single day.
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What is "Thank You"? A U2 track? I've never heard of it, Daniel Lanois remix or otherwise...
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What is "Thank You"? A U2 track? I've never heard of it, Daniel Lanois remix or otherwise...
All explained here: http://www.u2wanderer.org/rtss/index.php?topic=273.0
Cheers,
u2expert
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Ah, thank you (he he...see what I did there?)...my collecting angle has been pretty laser-focused on tracks where one or more members of the band actually perform, not just "written by" stuff (with only rare exceptions, like "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" and "Goldeneye").
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Ah, thank you (he he...see what I did there?)...my collecting angle has been pretty laser-focused on tracks where one or more members of the band actually perform, not just "written by" stuff (with only rare exceptions, like "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" and "Goldeneye").
For GP2---
**Groan*** **Thud** **Crickets chirping**
Watch out you don't hurt anyone with that laser-focused collecting angle. >:(
For U2expert--
I'm impressed somebody read that old thread. Seems like ancient history now. My how TIME FLIES......... ::)
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Ok--both my jokes went thud...tough crowd here... :D
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Ok--both my jokes went thud...tough crowd here... :D
Gotta be honest, the angry face ( >:() made me fear you weren't joking and I'd really rubbed you the wrong way with my cheezy attempt at humor. (*shrug*)
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No way, dude. I love cheesy humor. We're all bozos on this bus. My sarcasm sometimes gets the better of me. Sorry you took that the wrong way. :-[
;)
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Trust me, I'm much happier that you aren't irritated at me than you are sorry that I thought you were irritated with me. Important lessons we should all learn in life:
a) don't piss into the wind
b) don't write checks with your mouth that your ass isn't prepared to cash
c) in regards to chicks, "no" means "no"...unless it means "yes"
d) when someone says "hey, pull my finger", dont
e) never underestimate the power of the angry faced smiley icon...perhaps the human race isn't yet ready