New to all of this and it’s amazing but…
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After many dreams, Google searching and Reddit lurking I found this forum. This community helped me get customs running on my PS3 which was a dream from the day Rock Band came out. I am forever grateful, as a real drum set and time to learn and play is just not an option for me. That said, I had some observations:
The database of songs could be a little easier to use I feel. Right now, there’s no way to get directly to a download from the list (that I can tell). I always at least have to go to another page (at least one depending on where I click) to click download.
The the pages to download from are not consistent. Some appear to be hosted by C3 and others by any number of places. Is there not a standard in place to ensure links aren’t replaced by something malicious, or so that a bulk download can be accomplished?
The first icon represents where it came from, I’m guessing. but it’s addressed better under “Author”. Also this column is really interesting because of how much information it could display. With all the combinations possible, it makes me wonder if this icon is needed, or if it could be inferred by the other icons beside it. I guess that might mean having a semi-transparent out harmonica icon.
Why have the source column? It’s addressed in other ways.
The info column uses the “pointer” with it’s CSS which makes you believe it’s a link when really it’s a “peek” on hover and “expands” when clicked. It’s not very intuitive, and a best practice would be to put the column expand in the column name area.
Also the ? in the info column has a box fade in, but hovering over the column contents is an instant appear. Just an inconsistency with animations.
The legend under the ? for the info column is nice, but some of those would be better put on the actual icon when I hover over it, or the icon could be represented more clearly as to convey the same information without needing a description. Really, it does it already. The only problem is the fact that they are black shapes on a deep color background, the contrast does not make it immediately apparent what is being conveyed. Why not use the existing Rock Band icons (from the latest release) and keep no parts as semi-transparent.
I think difficulties could be represented by four dots. E/M/H/X could just be those exact letters. If they’re black then it’s there if it’s semi-transparent, it’s not.
Also, why is there a small icon on the first icon but the same icon is on the far right?
As for multi-track, well I’m sure that’s important to some people, but why not make it it’s own column that can be turned off? Speaking of, why not have that ability period?
The rating is nice but not being able to vote on it from this screen would be nice.
What does the eyeball represent? If it’s how many views… why? Downloads would be a neat metric, but I’d rather view the rating than how many times people downloaded it. That’s is not an accurate representation of the quality of the song.
Last updated should just have the date. Putting the date it was updated above when it was released is just confusing.
If Xbox songs can be converted to PS3, why isn’t there a PS3 download option for all of these? Is this something that needs to be done by the user who uploaded the song? If so, why? Can I upload the converted file to an existing song so that future users can save a multi-step process in getting songs on their PS3?
Why not do the “Author” column like you’re currently doing with the “Harmonix” tag? Maybe add a RB1,RB2,RB3,RB4,RBR,RBB next to it. Put the users name in that yellow/orange color and make it grey if it’s a user submission.
Does not work well on mobile for song browsing. Would be neat if I could add them to a “setlist” in my account so when I get home I could download all of them at the same time. But that would require a centralized location/management of the existing songs. I would image that would be easier, as files could be backed-up like I’m sure the site is routinely.
This is not a barrage of criticism. These are just ideas I had on ways to improve the database with some pie-in-the-sky ideas. I obviously have no idea how many people run this site or how they pay to run the site. Thank you again to Shroud for our PM’s back and forth and their initial updating of the instructions in a clear and concise manner. I only wish it was easier to find, like a dedicated page on the site rather than another sticky’d thread buried somewhere.
Why not just do it like you’re currently doing with the “Harmonix” tag? Maybe add a RB1,RB2,RB3,RB4,RBR,RBB next to it. Put the users name in that yellow/orange color and make it grey if it’s a user submission.
As far as hosting goes all authors can use C3 to host their customs (that would be the standard place). Some authors simply choose to use other hosts. There’s no hard and fast rule about it that I am aware of.
The “date it was updated before” is the initial release date and is actually useful for us to keep track of what has our current standards and what doesn’t.
Multitracks can’t be turned off like that, the author has to compile a new version with a single audio track.
Rating was removed when a Gary Glitter pack was released and people purposely gave it bad ratings due to the artist.
All entries can only be edited by the author, or removed by a mod/admin. Therefore providing PS3 converts is depending on the author’s will.
Last updated should just have the date. Putting the date it was updated above when it was released is just confusing.
If Xbox songs can be converted to PS3, why isn’t there a PS3 download option for all of these? Is this something that needs to be done by the user who uploaded the song? If so, why?
In general just remember that the amount of work that is put into creating customs and making them available is enormous, not to mention the programming work to create the SW tools! It’s natural that most people involved prefer to spend time on the quality and quantity of “content” (songs) rather than perfecting the website.
As for the dates shown, I found it useful to have the original release date shown. I can immediately tell whether something is an update or a new release.
PS3 conversions are not unique. First of all, NTSC and PAL conversions are different, so we would need at least 2. If we had those for every song, we would need 3 times server space. It’s so easy to convert using C3 Tools that it’s better to do it ourselves.
In addition, in the past people had varying luck converting to PS3 depending on the midi encryption type, sometimes a song would not work and a different encryption had to be tried. This stuff is better left to the individual or there would be even more variations needed, although nowadays it seems Type 3 may always work, fortunately.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />Hey, and welcome to our community! Glad you like the customs. Are you by any chance working in QA…? Think you’ll make a good QA guy
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />I could answer your points one by one (some I agree with, some not) but it would be pointless. I’ll just address it generally:
This is the main one – C3 is an online free, not-for profit community. All that stuff would have been valid criticism if we were selling a product, but we aren’t, and nobody makes any money of it. All of us has other jobs, studies, families or other stuff to do.
Let’s get things in proportion here: this is a community that makes custom contents for a game that was released in 2010 (and official DLC discounted in 2013). It’s an ultra niche thing. It’s not a huge community – most songs get roughly about 200-300 downloads and maybe 10 replies at best. For the huge amount of time and dedication it takes to make a single custom – this isn’t a huge reward.
Yet this community keeps releasing dozens of new songs per week, and they are mostly in very high quality (especially from established authors who all make top notch work). I think this community is a bit of a miracle, actually.
So yeah, the DB isn’t perfect but trust me, it works. Yeah it takes an extra click to download, boo-hoo, and you can’t download batch at a time. Over time it’s really nothing, I’m mostly really happy using the DB, it’s convenient. Yes, if you play PS you have to convert it manually. It takes about 10 seconds. The alternative would be hosting 4x as much files – which is paid from people’s private money (once again, nobody is making any profit from this). There are ultra convenient and quick tools for all the conversions you’ll ever want, so we’re kindly asking you to use those rather then expecting poor farottone to pay for 4 times as much hosting space. Personally I’ve been converting hundreds of customs to Phase Shift and never had any problems.
My point is, C3 isn’t perfect but I think for such a small niche community that isn’t making any profit, the amount of content available and generally released is astounding. The forum and the DB aren’t perfect but they’re very good. There’s a huge amount of tools available for authors and players alike. So I think this should be appreciated, and small inconvenient things like those should be forgiven and understood. For the size of this community, the content, tools and DB are much better than they have any right to be, IMO.
As a side note – there was actually a project of making a whole new DB, you can read about it here. Right now it’s frozen for whatever reason – likely, not enough time to work on it – but those things were all noted before, and there’s already advanced work on a solution that’s much more ambitious than your suggestions. Patience. In the meantime, you can enjoy the dozens of new songs released here every week.
Hey, and welcome to our community! Glad you like the customs. Are you by any chance working in QA…? Think you’ll make a good QA guy
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />I could answer your points one by one (some I agree with, some not) but it would be pointless. I’ll just address it generally:
This is the main one – C3 is an online free, not-for profit community. All that stuff would have been valid criticism if we were selling a product, but we aren’t, and nobody makes any money of it. All of us has other jobs, studies, families or other stuff to do.
Let’s get things in proportion here: this is a community that makes custom contents for a game that was released in 2010 (and official DLC discounted in 2013). It’s an ultra niche thing. It’s not a huge community – most songs get roughly about 200-300 downloads and maybe 10 replies at best. For the huge amount of time and dedication it takes to make a single custom – this isn’t a huge reward.
Yet this community keeps releasing dozens of new songs per week, and they are mostly in very high quality (especially from established authors who all make top notch work). I think this community is a bit of a miracle, actually.
So yeah, the DB isn’t perfect but trust me, it works. Yeah it takes an extra click to download, boo-hoo, and you can’t download batch at a time. Over time it’s really nothing, I’m mostly really happy using the DB, it’s convenient. Yes, if you play PS you have to convert it manually. It takes about 10 seconds. The alternative would be hosting 4x as much files – which is paid from people’s private money (once again, nobody is making any profit from this). There are ultra convenient and quick tools for all the conversions you’ll ever want, so we’re kindly asking you to use those rather then expecting poor farottone to pay for 4 times as much hosting space. Personally I’ve been converting hundreds of customs to Phase Shift and never had any problems.
My point is, C3 isn’t perfect but I think for such a small niche community that isn’t making any profit, the amount of content available and generally released is astounding. The forum and the DB aren’t perfect but they’re very good. There’s a huge amount of tools available for authors and players alike. So I think this should be appreciated, and small inconvenient things like those should be forgiven and understood. For the size of this community, the content, tools and DB are much better than they have any right to be, IMO.
As a side note – there was actually a project of making a whole new DB, you can read about it here. Right now it’s frozen for whatever reason – likely, not enough time to work on it – but those things were all noted before, and there’s already advanced work on a solution that’s much more ambitious than your suggestions. Patience. In the meantime, you can enjoy the dozens of new songs released here every week.
I had a lot of thoughts go through my head when I read this but ultimately what yaniv said is 100% on the nose. The new database will resolve many of those issues in terms of readability and usage. Unfortunately it’ll be a bit of a wait yet but it will happen.
Regardless we do appreciate the feedback, constructive criticism is always welcome!
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />Moved this to C3 Site Troubleshooting, Feedback, and Support.
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