The future of NSM

[universe-X]

Am I really the only one that voted, "No, but I would like to..." ?

[KefkaticFanatic]

No, there are invisible votes that only cool people like me can see.

[universe-X]

...cool people like me...

*chuckle*chuckle*

[Nintendude73]

The poll is just to gather info, no guarantee anything will come out of it... and we're not gathering info for the reason you probably think we are.  

[universe-X]

Good to know

[KefkaticFanatic]

ruh roh

[Seeker]

This reminds me... wasn't Nakah talking about some kind of master plan or something?

[Concerto No.20 in D minor]

Woaaah.  A lot of text there....maybe I'll read it sometime later; but from the 3 second skimming I did, I saw more uploaders!  .PDF's!  More people!  Seriously though, I told....maybe I didn't tell you guys; but there are going to be some changes in the coming month.  So be prepared.

[Cobraroll]

Actually, with Nakah stepping in, there are actually three uploaders (four if we somehow count G-Han, five with JaMaHa). If their internal communication is good enough, I can possibly call myself satisfied on that point.

Also, Concerto, I'm excited for this. Good to hear that there are concrete plans, that was possibly the key point of my rant. The way NSM has been for some time, may best be summed up with "unorganized". Good to hear that something is in the works.

[Jamaha]

Actually, with Nakah stepping in, there are actually three uploaders (four if we somehow count G-Han, five with JaMaHa). If their internal communication is good enough, I can possibly call myself satisfied on that point.

Guan is gone and I don't update.

[Nintendude73]

Seriously though, I told....maybe I didn't tell you guys; but there are going to be some changes in the coming month.  So be prepared.

Wait, what?

[raymondbl]

YAY!!! CHANGE!  BLESS YOU, CONCERTO NO. 20 IN D MINOR BY MOZART!  

[dahans]

Guan is gone and I don't update.

Guan is gone? Where is he?

[Dude]

http://www.ninsheetm.us/smf/index.php?topic=1025.0

[master_gamer38]

I'm here to throw my knowledge in. And to start things off, I have been here for a long time, August of 2007 to be exact. I remember the old users that have come and gone. I remember the_grimace splitting off. I remember BK-Pianist splitting off. NSM has made a huge impact in my life, if it wasn't for the site, I wouldn't have some of the great friends I have today. But, at the same time, letting things go can be necessary to move on. As Dude mentioned: http://www.ninsheetm.us/smf/index.php?topic=1025.0. He had other things to do, several of us have other things to do too. I can understand it being difficult to maintain a site run like this, so at that point, people succumb to laziness.

Over the years, it seems as if NSM was based on quantity, not quality. Look at some of the sheets, can you say that they are humanly possible to play? I can blatantly say that I've looked at sheets on here, and gone and learned it on my own, because the sheets were not pleasant (or even possible) to read from. Asides from being difficult, some of them are wrong. You can tell when people have directly copied from a midi too, with either terrible notation or completely wrong rhythms. I don't know why the uploading staff let this go. I'd rather have fewer correct sheets than multiple bad sheets.

With that being said, I am essentially ready to see NSM go, but I am reluctant. I'd like to see it stay. But, there seems to be no drive to keep it around by those that can do what is needed to be done. What needs to be done?

• Well, to start, we need to clean up the sheets. ALL of them. Wait, hasn't this been done before? http://www.ninsheetm.us/smf/index.php?topic=1443.0 Yes, it was attempted, note the "Project II" in the title. Like Hugo said, this has all been tried before. Look what happened in that topic, they gave up, and accepted that it was just going to happen. Thanks to DekuTrombonist for continuing that. But one person can't check and fix over 1000 sheets. We need to start a topic like that, and have veterans check each sheet, section by section. Tedious? Quite, but it would need to be done.
• Next, we need a better way to upload. A select few cannot be assigned a task to go through with checking several topics just to find a few good sheets. This has been fixed slightly by having a submission topic. But it can, and should, go further than that. A user uploader should be implemented. www.vgvirtuoso.net has a great uploader, I've used it. The concept of it is great, someone wants to submit a sheet? They go to the uploader, and there, it's done. Wait, what about bad sheets going on like that? Have an admin staff check them. Just a few people are all that's needed. SIMPLE.
• So, we've had mention of PDF again? well, that wouldn't be difficult at all to code into the site. Only issue is that there are so many files to make PDF's of. Simple solution? Yes there is, it fits along with the user uploader and the veterans checking each sheet. It can be done, just it'd take time.

Well, obviously, I seem to have a solution. Wait, it seems there has always been a solution. But there isn't enough care for that solution to be seen through. Lets take a look at what has been said by Hugo.

"More uploaders (preferable two more)"
"I think we should establish an uploader team, with specific guidelines to follow, such as the formatting of sheets."
"a team with knowledge, a goal and guidelines"
"Sweeping, with comments, will be done by the team continuously"
"a new section of the site dedicated to full arrangements."
"add .pdf-files to the sheets"
"Promoting NSM some way would be cool too."
"photos of members thread"
"annual member awards"
"download statistics"
"it becomes a regular activity, rather than a full sweep that has to be completed in one sitting."
"veterans are often the glue that sticks the community together"
"a site culture"

And then, to top things off, those members operated in a way that didn't take from NSM, nor did they try to harm NSM in anyway. In fact, after they had gone off and done their thing, they still tried to help NSM. They still offered to do such things as submissions, or clean through sheets, or what have you.

I'm going to go through them one by one. Lets see what happens.

"I think we should establish an uploader team, with specific guidelines to follow, such as the formatting of sheets."
I've already covered this, an uploader team cannot stay constant.

"a team with knowledge, a goal and guidelines"
This doesn't come together in the end. We start a team, and it falls through. Look at the video project.

"Sweeping, with comments, will be done by the team continuously"
Again, previously covered. It won't be continuously .

"a new section of the site dedicated to full arrangements."
I'm not sure if you realize how that could work on the way this site is set up. Where would we put them? I'd be all for LOOKING INTO it, after we fix up what we have though. No need to dig a bigger hole for ourselves.

"add .pdf-files to the sheets"
Previously covered.

"Promoting NSM some way would be cool too."
Sure, go ahead and promote that NSM has faulty sheets and links. We need to fix first. We have people, but they won't do the work.

"photos of members thread"
Honestly, I'd like someone to explain how on earth this would help NSM.

"annual member awards"
For what? And what would be given? Honestly, people should do this because they like doing this. They shouldn't need any more motivation.

"download statistics"
Great, so we know whats popular. Besides this being slightly useless to actually fixing NSM, we could gather data on what people want.... Wait, we have a request forum. I must have forgotten about that.

"it becomes a regular activity, rather than a full sweep that has to be completed in one sitting."
So, do any of you have time in your day (EVERY day), to sit down and take 30 minutes to focus on doing uploads?

"veterans are often the glue that sticks the community together"
Well, it appears it's the only thing REMAINING holding this community together.

"veterans are often the glue that sticks the community together"
IRC is home to many cultures that most of you don't even realize exist. Hugo and I go way back, and I doubt very many of you actually know who Zeta is.

THERE, well, as you can see. Nothing said there is going to help, it's already been done and tried. We need to try something new. In all honesty, there is a lot of coding that is broken on the main site too. I don't know how many of you have found it, but I've found a lot that should be changed. So, what do I propose? Lets formally start something. Not just another topic that will die. Let's put together a team of people that are able to stick around to fix things, or at least get things done. NSM is my birthplace essentially, I don't want to see it die.

Now, who do I suggest for this team of people? Well, the veterans, people that JaMaHa deem necessary, and people through nomination. Let's hear everyone's opinion on this topic. If there is a demand. I will find a place for a topic. Think this through again, we still need someone to code the site. I'll volunteer to put time into that, I can get done what I have time for, but in order to code for NSM. I would need JaMaHa's approval. All of this needs JaMaHa's approval.

It appears as if NSM's life is being held in JaMaHa's hands. Everything is revolving around him. For that reason. I would like to speak to you, JaMaHa. Send me a PM or a Memo on IRC. It's your choice. We need your help to save NSM. As we can't function as two individual groups. All I am asking for, is a talk right now. Let's just forget the formal plans. I would like to speak to you about saving this site. If that cannot be done. I am able right now, to leave NSM and permanently migrate to VGV, and I would encourage all of you to do the same. That site is being run by magnificent admins. They won't let that site die anytime soon, if ever. And I'm sure they already have plans of what would happen if it did start to die off.

Just to finish off that wall of text, to get a start on a team that is worthy of taking some time to fix up NSM if they so wish. I nominate KefkaFanatic, DekuTrombonist, myself, along with the staff. Who do you think deserves the responsibility to save NSM?