Updated: Minidisc Community Forums And ATRACLife Moving To Sony Insider

[ozpeter]

The forum is the people rather than the place. With google etc the place is fairly unimportant. What's vital is that the forum software in use at the new site should function much as this does and that there's no obstacle to fluid interaction, because that can be a community-killer.

Count me in.

[kino170878]

We will forgive Chris if he can use his influence to make Sony release a Hi-MD deck, new portable line, and new MD car units

Oh and some software that actually works properly.

Any ideas on a timeframe?

Edited August 24, 2009 by kino170878

[Avrin]

Great for us here necrophiliacs that the forums will still be kept alive.

Your lucky my MZ-RH10 will not title tracks...and to fix this...Sony wanted £200....YOU CAN GET A NEW ONE FOR £250!!!

Just set address 0113 to 23, and it will title in both Katakana and English.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Avrin

[Taliesin]

Well, I have always trust in admins in this fantastic forum, so I don'w see why I must to distrust now. If they think this is a good movement, I trust his decission. If anytime i find something wrong, then I'll complain. Meanwhile, I hope this makes minidiscforums better.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Taliesin

[Abby Normal]

My comment, what and how I expressed it was inappropriate indeed. I apologize.

That really didn't resemble me. Disappointment and emotion has mislead me into an impulsive and poorly backed up argument.

Whew. I KNEW that, wiz. No worries. My "good riddance" wasn't directed squarely at you, your comment just happened to be the one that popped my "patience" balloon. Thanks for clearing it up, dude.

[tekdroid]

Way too much drama in this thread

[Christopher]

Instead of responding to the items of interest presented by some of the members here, I would like to reinvite everyone to look at Sony Insider forums. I spent some time today to re-organize and establish the framework for the move. This is going to be a dramatic change to Minidisc Community Forums - it will no longer exist and will simply become a forum of Sony Insider with relevant subforums. Here is what is going to happen to the forums within MDCF:

News goes to forum Minidisc > News (subforum)

Announcements goes to forum Announcements

Classifieds goes to Classifieds

Trading Place (merge Minidisc Trades and Hi-MD trades) becomes a subforum of Classifieds

Hi-MD goes to forum Minidisc > Hi-MD (subforum)

MD, NetMD + MDLP goes to forum Minidisc > MD, NetMD + MDLP (subforum)

Find your Minidisc goes to forum Minidisc

Live Recording goes to forum Minidisc > Live Recording (subforum)

Technical, Tips, and Tricks goes to forum Minidisc > Technical, Tips, and Tricks (subforum)

Product Reviews/Pictorials goes to forum Product Reviews/Pictorials

Software Discussion/FAQ's goes to forum Audio > Software (subforum)

'phones goes to forum Audio > 'phones (subforum)

Hi-/MD Evaluations + Criticisms goes to forum Minidisc

Off Topic [Music, Electronics + etc] goes to forum The Loft

There is obviously need for me to explain myself and the reasoning behind this move. First off, I want to say that I am NOT an agent of Sony, I am not on their payroll (although they do advertise on the site through Google Adsense, and we have run contests with their help). I do communicate often with Sony, we are on good terms, and I have many contacts there now. They have treated me very well in the past at trade shows, and accommodate any question or request I submit to them. That is the extent of our relationship. While one day I would love to work for a company such as Sony, that is not what I am doing right now. Sony Insider is not a pro-Sony site. We are simply covering Sony news. I have written news posts on Sony Insider that heavily criticize Sony, and praise them. I am not trying to merge MDCF with Sony Insider forums and make it pro-Sony. I want the Minidisc forums at Sony Insider to talk about all Minidisc products.

I, like many others, am still disappointed to this day how Sony handled the Minidisc format and I wish that it was still as popular today as it was ten years ago. However, we must face the facts and realize that it is 2009, and that the format is fading into obscurity because Sony (and other companies) are not investing themselves into it anymore. I don't need to explain why, but that is an undeniable fact.

I, like many others, have spent thousands of hours making MDCF what it is today. I wish you could have seen how this place looked when I took over in 2002. I knew nothing about websites, nothing about html, php, SQL, and all the other stuff that makes a forum experience work. I had to teach myself, which I did because of people like you supporting me, and things improved greatly (visually/content wise). It has come so far from then, and has exceeded any expectations I ever had. At one time it was one of the most important things in my life. We were guiding the format, and we accomplished alot of things together. The MZ-RH1 is proof of that. All of the Sonicstage updates are proof of that. However, it has grown old to me because of the format not being supported anymore and the only thing really left here for me to do is discuss things with the rest of you. That is difficult for me to do right now because I am investing a great deal of time into Sony Insider, school, another job, and a girlfriend. MDCF went to the bottom of that list very quickly.

It also doesn't make sense for me to pay for two Invision Power Board licenses, nor have seperate hosting, and continue to be invisible here as I've been for quite a while now. When we move, logins, profiles, post count, posts, topics, and anything else you can think of will remain the same. You won't have to re-register.

I want to reconnect with all of you - I miss talking to some of you and I want you to join me in this new venture I'm a part of. It's the most exciting thing I've ever created, and it is taking off far faster than you would believe. Sony Insider is a visually attractive site that is rich in functionality, has relevant and interesting content, and has the opportunity to grow much larger and impact more people than MDCF. Minidisc is a Sony technology. The forum software at Sony Insider forums is much more advanced than the already advanced software here. It became clear to me as I was crafting the Sony Insider forums that there was an opportunity for me to bring all the years incredible discussions, content, and people from MDCF and ATRACLife to Sony Insider forums and create a place that has 100,000 members and 200,000+ posts. Centralizing all of this is a huge boost in resourcefulness to Sony Insider and makes alot more sense looking ahead long term. Centralizing all of the research and help we've done for one another will be much more beneficial to people who need it.

I asked myself when I made this decision - do I want MDCF to be the same right now five years from now? Ten years from now? Do I want to sit on all of that data from ATRACLife and have nothing to do with it?

It just makes more sense to bring this all together guys. I understand that when its all said and done things won't look the same and feel the same. I understand that I am going to lose some of you, which really saddens me. I don't want to lose anyone that still goes here when I complete the move. I am begging you to come with me. I really think that all of us could get along very well, and help people just as much as some of you are doing now and have done in the past. It will not be a pro-Sony experience, and I will encourage discussion of all Minidisc products, just as we do today. There will be no change in attitude.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Abby Normal]

Wow. I knew I was close, but spot on? It just goes to show that nobody needs to have mind reading ability to use a little common sense and see the logical conclusion.

Thanks kurisu!

[Christopher]

Thank you for defending me earlier, it meant alot while I was sorting all of this out and couldn't reply. I just hope people understand.

Will all of the topics from the old ATRAC Life Colloquium be restored and included on the new Sony Insider links? There are those of us who need access to the upgrade links (both software and firmware upgrades, especially for the NW-HD and NW-A series Network Walkmen, as well as all volume unlock codes for our EU-model owning friends) and classified ads that were previously on it.

Thanks,

Ray Jackson

MDCF/ALC user ID: BIGHMW

Yes, absolutely everything will be restored and merged to Sony Insider forums, placed in relevant categories and forums. Your old profile will be merged with your MDCF and ATRACLife profile and become a Sony Insider profile. Isn't that incredible news? It's all coming back, and together.

[sfbp]

Let me add my voice of praise, Chris. Initially I didn't notice that the new site was also IPS, which goes to show how much better it looks. Some of the most valuable stuff here is not so much the posted contributions, as it is the well-organized reference to all things MD off the minidisc.org site.

Of course it makes sense to have a single BBS. Very good luck with it, and I will continue to lurk quietly and lend a hand whenever I'm asked.

Cheers

[ozpeter]

One practical thing - here I can click on "view new posts" and I only see MD stuff. In the new forums, will that still work selectively or will I see reams of non-MD Sony-related stuff too? Of course I may quickly find that of interest - or not!

[Abby Normal]

One practical thing - here I can click on "view new posts" and I only see MD stuff. In the new forums, will that still work selectively or will I see reams of non-MD Sony-related stuff too? Of course I may quickly find that of interest - or not!

Best way to find out these things is to register under a disposable name (one that wont clash with your name here) and experiment.

You can add forums to a watch list and manage viewing new posts from your watched forums panel. You can also configure each "subscription" to either send you no email notification, delayed email notification, immediate email notification, daily digest, or a weekly digest (of new posts).

Pretty cool.

The other thing I've noticed is that the board doesn't look terribly busy right now. If there is going to be REAMS of anything it'll be MINIDISC content when WE arrive.

[sharpsony]

Will the cooperation with minidisc.org continue, and will there be a link to the moved forums on the minidisc.org homepage as it exists now? What about keeping the brand "Minidisc Community" as a subtitle at least? Maybe it is possible to put some reference to minidisc.org on the SonyInsider page.

Edited August 26, 2009 by sharpsony

[Abby Normal]

Will the cooperation with minidisc.org continue, and will there be a link to the moved forums on the minidisc.org homepage as it exists now? What about keeping the brand "Minidisc Community" as a subtitle at least?

I believe kurisu manages both domains. Current links to the forums should continue to function because there will be forwarding in place. As far as what the future holds for polishing up the content left on minidisc.org (there have been lots of dead links for a long time), that's at kurisu's discretion.

I can't speak officially to the request of the branding, but as I said before, what makes this site is the community not the brand or logos. I suspect that adding a subtitle would be confusing, not to mention inconsistent from a design perspective.

What I can say is that I believe the community will survive largely in tact. I echo kurisu's plea, at least for those of you who come here for the common cause of enriching your MiniDisc experience, that you give this a chance. I do not think you'll be disappointed.

[sharpsony]

I can't speak officially to the request of the branding, but as I said before, what makes this site is the community not the brand or logos. I suspect that adding a subtitle would be confusing, not to mention inconsistent from a design perspective.

I fully agree with you on the fact that the people make the community. But as adminstrator of the German MiniDisc forum with over 5,200 members and almost 230,000 posts I can say that the brand "minidisc.org" has an extraordinarily good reputation among MD aficionados over here in Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). They regard it as the world reference source of MiniDisc related knowledge. My fear ist that this excellent reputation could suffer from the move. So I think there should remain some recognizable tie with minidisc.org.

[Richard]

I fully agree with you on the fact that the people make the community. But as adminstrator of the German MiniDisc forum with over 5,200 members and almost 230,000 posts I can say that the brand "minidisc.org" has an extraordinarily good reputation among MD aficionados over here in Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). They regard it as the world reference source of MiniDisc related knowledge. My fear ist that this excellent reputation could suffer from the move. So I think there should remain some recognizable tie with minidisc.org.

Minidisc.org as far as I am aware is owned by Eric (the webmaster) and not Chris. Thus all the equipment browser and that stuff is technically a separate resource for which Eric is responsible. However I'm sure we can put a link on the SI home page and in the forum and as Abby said there will be a re-direct on the forums.minidisc.org subdomain.

[Abby Normal]

I fully agree with you on the fact that the people make the community. But as adminstrator of the German MiniDisc forum with over 5,200 members and almost 230,000 posts I can say that the brand "minidisc.org" has an extraordinarily good reputation among MD aficionados over here in Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). They regard it as the world reference source of MiniDisc related knowledge. My fear ist that this excellent reputation could suffer from the move. So I think there should remain some recognizable tie with minidisc.org.

Well, there will indeed be a tie-in insofar as sub-domain redirects will reach the same reputable and knowledgeable user base. All the old posts will be there as well. Would you stop reading your favorite columnists and reporters just because the newspaper they work for changed its name? I think you'll find that as far as being the #1 resource for knowledge and experience in the MD arena, you'll still find it when the forums content and users database resides on SonyInsider.

[bluecrab]

We just have to see how this turns out.

My thoughts exactly. I don't want to get all worked up about something that could turn out to meet our needs just as well. Just have to wait and see how it goes.

[RobA]

All our usernames will merge? I'm RobA here, but I believe I was roba5263 at ATRACLife, and the same at sonyinsider.

[cornreaper]

I couldn't personally care less where this forum is located, or if it's perceived to be tied to a specific brand. I come here to read up on MiniDisc info, to engage in the odd bit of commerce and to ask the occasional question or two. What I type in the address bar is completely irrelevant to me. I have 5,182 more important things to worry about than the politics of an internet forum. Bottom line, it's a valuable yet free resource created and maintained by good and knowledgable people and will continue to be so!

Edited August 28, 2009 by cornreaper

[Azureal]

I couldn't personally care less where this forum is located, or if it's perceived to be tied to a specific brand. I come here to read up on MiniDisc info, to engage in the odd bit of commerce and to ask the occasional question or two. What I type in the address bar is completely irrelevant to me. I have 5,182 more important things to worry about than the politics of an internet forum. Bottom line, it's a valuable yet free resource created and maintained by good and knowledgable people and will continue to be so!

I completely agree with cornreaper, the forums have been great and wherever they live they'll be the same. Don't make rash decisions about 'never returning' or whatever, it is the people here that make it what it is, it is a community and it will remain so. I am looking forward to the new look and feel and I hope all of the same folks who have contributed so much for so long will continue ...

[Sparky191]

I couldn't personally care less where this forum is located, or if it's perceived to be tied to a specific brand. I come here to read up on MiniDisc info, to engage in the odd bit of commerce and to ask the occasional question or two. What I type in the address bar is completely irrelevant to me. I have 5,182 more important things to worry about than the politics of an internet forum. Bottom line, it's a valuable yet free resource created and maintained by good and knowledgable people and will continue to be so!

+1

I think its a great idea.

[Modernaire]

I like it. Nice place. I love Sony products of all kinds, especially of course MiniDisc and ES, SACD and other products, so its a nice place to look into more of the Sony world. I also feel that perhaps this will get other Sony fans interested maybe in something they hadnt really looked into. People may crossover and for fun dip into the world of MiniDiscs in general, you never know!

[coldblooded1]

I like it. Nice place. I love Sony products of all kinds, especially of course MiniDisc and ES, SACD and other products, so its a nice place to look into more of the Sony world. I also feel that perhaps this will get other Sony fans interested maybe in something they hadnt really looked into. People may crossover and for fun dip into the world of MiniDiscs in general, you never know!

I totally agree with you our oppinions are 100% same.