Should the blogging support be removed for beaTunes 3?
Hardly anyone seems to be using the built in blogging support (http://www.beatunes.com/beatunes-blog.html). So it appears to be clutter rather than useful.
Should it therefore be removed in beaTunes 3?
-hendrik
2 Posted by OddyOh on 05 Mar, 2010 11:23 AM
For me, I never knew it even had that, but I wouldn't use it anyway. I bought beatunes only for the tempo detection.
3 Posted by Rick Fritz on 05 Mar, 2010 04:02 PM
There are too many social networks with multiple blogging opportunities. If needed they can setup a group on Facebook as an example.
So my opinion is to "KISS" and improve other features. Have you considered any of the improvements I suggested to allow a simple quick look while going between screens in Get Info, and trying to insert lyrics where your auto lyric finder has failed to pick up the song's lyrics?
More instructions and troubleshooting info might also cut down on the email you are having to deal with every day!
Anyway, thanks for asking, and keep up the good work!
4 Posted by Jason on 05 Mar, 2010 06:52 PM
For me, it was actually nice to be reminded of this feature. I only recently even started a blog and I would definitely consider using the feature - I just need to look into how it works.
5 Posted by John Hall on 05 Mar, 2010 08:03 PM
I don't use the blogging feature. It's OK with me if you remove it for v3. Thanks for asking, though! :)
6 Posted by ladyships on 05 Mar, 2010 10:19 PM
i never use it. you might want to just convert it to a plugin & have it be an option in case somebody DOES want to use it. or, if you keep it, move it to the last tab in the preferences since it's so auxiliary.
you might want to add a few other blogging services besides blogger, if you have some time to kill & don't know what to do with it.
p.s. it'd be great if you could have a dialogue in the preferences that lists & describes all plugins that work with the current release of beatunes, along with the option to automatically install any you select. it'd be cool if it checked for any updates to installed plugins on startup & asked you if you wanted to install the update if it found any [like in firefox, or songbird, or something]. i think people would be far more inclined to use plugins---& i, for one, would be more motivated to write plugins if it weren't so difficult for folks to use them. perhaps it's good to remember that most people are lazy & won't be interested in things if it requires too much effort on their part.
7 Posted by ross.hudgins on 05 Mar, 2010 10:39 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: ladyships <***@tenderapp.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 14:19:51
To: <***@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Should the blogging support be removed for beaTunes 3? [Suggestions]
Support Staff 8 Posted by hendrik on 06 Mar, 2010 04:51 PM
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
@ladyships: it actually works with other services but blogger as well - the requirement is Atom 1.0. Regarding a plugin list in the app itself, that's definitely on the todo list. Part of that will be the attempt to simplify the API a little and add some more plugins. BTW, if you ever write a plugin, I would be more than glad to post about it in the blog and host it on the server.
Talking about plugins - sounds like I should make the blog code a plugin.
If there are other features that you never use (e.g. Amazon charts), feel free to let me know. Also, please start new discussions with the category suggestion for feature requests. I do look at them!
9 Posted by ladyships on 09 Mar, 2010 02:50 AM
i was playing with the idea of adding a MusicBrainz metadata plugin for fixing tags...if BeaTunes isn't going to be incorporating that functionality in the next six months, i'll go ahead & get started on that. depending on how much trouble it is, i may write another one for discogs while i'm at it.
Support Staff 10 Posted by hendrik on 09 Mar, 2010 08:17 AM
Musicbrainz sounds like a great idea... but I won't be able to host that on my site. I can link to it though. The reason is simple: Musicbrainz regards beaTunes as a commercial application and will charge for commercial access. That's why there isn't import from Musicbrainz right now.
Discogs is different - I just haven't gotten to it, but probably will. It's at least on my todo list for 3.
-hendrik
11 Posted by Peter Dick on 09 Mar, 2010 10:26 AM
As far as I am concerned, drop the blogging feature...
As for new features... create me a way of fading in and fading out a track. Especially for tracks in Loss Less format. I am tired of live recordings that feature boring speeches before or after a great track. Yes... I know I can set the start/stop times... but this causes an abrupt start/stop when a neat fade in/out would... err... be neater.
Support Staff 12 Posted by hendrik on 09 Mar, 2010 10:52 AM
Fading would imply building a real player or manipulating the file
itself.
While I consider implementing a simple player (additionally to the one
in the Get Info dialog), I will probably not go and build a tool to
actually manipulate audio files.
But I can encourage you to ask the iTunes people to add fading to the
start/stop feature... Or is that maybe already covered by the
crossfade feature iTunes has already (iTunes Prefs, Playback)?
-hendrik
Support Staff 13 Posted by hendrik on 09 Mar, 2010 11:18 AM
Since we are now talking about a couple of features...
Do the Mac people amongst you care about the provided UI theming? Or would you rather see more work on just the (Snow) Leopard look?
How about you Windows people? Is the theming important or would you rather see a more standard, native look?
What about the Amazon charts? Do you guys like those? Or are they just dead weight?
-hendrik
14 Posted by bootcockie on 09 Mar, 2010 11:40 AM
MAC GUY HERE OSX 10.6.2
I WOULD LIKE TO SEE WORK ON SNOW LEOPARD LOOK.
AND Amazon charts ARE KINDDA WASTEFUL TO ME. UNLESS IT GAVE ME THE RARE ARTWORK COVERS. AND IT NEVER DOSE THAT - SO I NEVER FOUND A USE FOR IT.
15 Posted by musicalheartz on 09 Mar, 2010 08:14 PM
Please keep it I plan to use it thanks
16 Posted by bootcockie on 11 Mar, 2010 02:57 AM
NO REAL NEED FOR THE BLOGING PART ON MY END. THIS FORUM WORK JUST FINE FOR ANY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS.
Support Staff 17 Posted by hendrik on 11 Mar, 2010 07:00 AM
Just to clarify:
The blogging support in beaTunes is not for blogging about beaTunes,
but for blogging with beaTunes.
I.e. you can write blog entries for your own blog, which contain
information about a song or a list of songs.
-hendrik
18 Posted by kosmar on 01 Apr, 2010 06:04 PM
i was just looking into the feature. i think its not really clear what it does. this might be the reason nobody uses it.
does it fill a blog with the songs i played, the tracks i own or what exactly? automatically or on songs i choose to blog about? how do i do that? i love the idea to have a blogpost created kind of automatically and have it connected to my amazon affiliate. always wanted that.
again, i just think the feature is not quite clear in the app …
19 Posted by kosmar on 01 Apr, 2010 06:50 PM
just tried it. it seems not to work with wordpress, does it? also the preview gave me links without my affiliate id …
Support Staff 20 Posted by hendrik on 04 Apr, 2010 09:45 AM
If wordpress supports atom 1.0, it should work.
Feel free to start a new problem discussion, to have the problem addressed.
Thanks.