We want feedback from you!

[amf]

We welcome and appreciate feedback from our users. Please let us know what you think of this bulletin board, and feel free to offer suggestions or recommendations on ways we can make it more relevant!

Note: This forum is designed to absorb limitless categories -- please feel free to suggest to us any music categories you would like to see included.

Thanks!
Admin

[Lezouloublanc]

in music from west africa you forgot Mbalax from senegal,music from mali,Funana and kizomba from green cape

[amf]

I have added the following to West Africa:

- Mbalax
- Funana

I put Kizomba under Southern Africa because it is native to Angola according to Wikipedia, but is also found in Cape Verde which are islands off the  coast of  West Africa - Any Comments?

Thanks, keep pumping in more ideas

By the way - nice blog!

[DavidN]

Hi
You might want to add champeta criolla under the section with Caribbean music.
This is the GREAT African music being played in Colombia.

[amf]

Thanks DavidN. I have added champeta criolla. Latin American music has had a major influence on African music over the years.

I need avatars badly. So far I have only the South African flag.

I'll keep looking.

[DavidN]

I speak Spanish as well as English so if anyone needs translation for posts, please feel free to ask.

[Douglas]

We welcome and appreciate feedback from our users. Please let us know what you think of this bulletin board, and feel free to offer suggestions or recommendations on ways we can make it more relevant!

Note: This forum is designed to absorb limitless categories -- please feel free to suggest to us any music categories you would like to see included.

Thanks!
Admin

Well I'm happy to see an African music discussion group open up but I think limitless categories is exactly the wrong way to go.  If you want people to use this forum, simplify, simplify, simplify.  Have one category for African music.  Don't make me browse five or ten different areas of the same forum.  This kind of fragmentation will hold back this forum and never let it get to the critcal mass of contributors needed to make it a success. 

[amf]

Thanks for the comments Douglas and welcome to our forum.

We have been grappling with the issue of 'division' ever since we installed the forum. We thought that just one forum, say 'African Music' may not cut it, since African music styles are numerous.

So, we decided to create five main regional-divisions, within which we may have child forums. As to how many child forums, we are still experimenting.

How deep should we go Douglas?

Let's assume that you are familiar with music from one region, say 'Southern Africa,' how should we divide the Souther Africa forum or what have we done so far that we should change?

[Douglas]

How deep should we go Douglas?

Let's assume that you are familiar with music from one region, say 'Southern Africa,' how should we divide the Souther Africa forum or what have we done so far that we should change?

Here is my point... I want to open the forum in the morning and quickly scan the new posts to see if any are relevant to my interests.  Having them all in one place is a lot simpler than having to look through five or more subdivisions.  What you will see is that specialist fans in one style or another will easily find their interests (in a combined forum) and at the same time, they may venture to read a message about another kind of music that they know little about.  My vote is for no divisions (at least in the initial stages of this forum).   

[amf]

You do have a point. Perhaps the link for the 'most recent posts' towards the bottom of the forum is not prominent enough: http://www.africanmusicforum.com/community/index.php?action=recent

I will find a way to display the most recent posts more prominently. Perhaps the most recent posts should be what the user sees first at logon.

Thanks Douglas. You point(s) is much appreciated.

[MUANA MBOKA]

Here is my point... I want to open the forum in the morning and quickly scan the new posts to see if any are relevant to my interests.  Having them all in one place is a lot simpler than having to look through five or more subdivisions.  What you will see is that specialist fans in one style or another will easily find their interests (in a combined forum) and at the same time, they may venture to read a message about another kind of music that they know little about.  My vote is for no divisions (at least in the initial stages of this forum).

This forum is impressive and i haven't found much at the moment to advise but i agree with what Douglas is saying.

[amf]

Point Noted 'Le Grand Sapeur', and welcome to the Forum.

[P.R.A.D.A]

... Perhaps the link for the 'most recent posts' towards the bottom of the forum is not prominent enough: ,

I thought it was enough! Just get to the forum, scroll to the bottom, click on the 'most recent posts' link and VOILA, you get the idea of what happened in the forum at large!

... I will find a way to display the most recent posts more prominently. Perhaps the most recent posts should be what the user sees first at logon.

Sounds like a good idea, but showing ALL-new-posts-links, on that first page, looks a little untidy. But thats just me, dont mind me....

[amf]

Sounds like a good idea, but showing ALL-new-posts-links, on that first page, looks a little untidy. But thats just me, dont mind me....

I am worried about this too. I limited the number to 20, even thought of increasing it to to 30. I am using a big flat screen monitor (22") set at a very high resolution, and everything looks really fine. Others with smaller monitors or lower resolutions will experience the forum differently, definitely.

I wonder what Le Grand Sapeur and the other members feel about this? Should I increase or decrease the number of Recent Posts displayed on the front page?

P/S - I am thinking of installing a more comprehensive portal page, which will display this information plus a lot more, in a more comprehensive manner. Note: You can close the info-center by clicking on the down-arrow located at the top-right hand corner.

[P.R.A.D.A]

I am worried about this too. I limited the number to 20, even thought of increasing it to to 30. I am using a big flat screen monitor (22") set at a very high resolution, and everything looks really fine. Others with smaller monitors or lower resolutions will experience the forum differently, definitely.

I am using a 17" flat screen monitor, and I still find that section of the page way too busy! When a developer/ designer has a big screen, its sometimes a good idea when designing a site to test it on smaller monitors in order to get an idea of how the users with smaller monotors will see the site. What may be one can do is also to create like 2 buttons. One to allow you test the site for the big monitor users and one that can shrink the pages (site) and show  how it will look like on smaller screens. That way he can always get the look & feel of his site from all angles.

..I wonder what Le Grand Sapeur and the other members feel about this? Should I increase or decrease the number of Recent Posts displayed on the front page?

Yeah, they should give thier input too!
I'd vote to remove that this functionality altogethr coz the 'most recent posts' button, is gud enough. Or may be the idea of putting them on another page (with a link at the top of the site) sounds better.

.. You can close the info-center by clicking on the down-arrow located at the top-right hand corner.

This is cool, i had never noticed it.

[P.R.A.D.A]

If I had to change one thing on this site, i'd change its background color, I find it waaaaay to dark! Very dark.

Otherwise I just luv this forum, its got alot of functionalities than most forums do.

Oh, and I'd reduce the subdivisions too, its got way too much subdivisions!! By the time you get where you wonna be you are tired of clickin clicking. oops...does that make it 2 things??

[MUANA MBOKA]

I wonder what Le Grand Sapeur and the other members feel about this? Should I increase or decrease the number of Recent Posts displayed on the front page?

I think it would be better not having that info on there in the first place coz when you go to threads and sub sections,it tells you that there is something 'new',that is enough otherwise the page looks untidy as things are currently.

[amf]

I am listening!

[MUANA MBOKA]

I am listening!

That's great!

[P.R.A.D.A]