History:Preparing For NGS
Introduction
On May 16 MusicBrainz will be switching over to the much anticipated Next Generation Schema (NGS). NGS is a drastic improvement over the existing MusicBrainz system that includes a much more flexible database layout and a complete re-write of all the server code. We've been planning this change for 5 years and we've been actively working on this project for over two years now. And we're finally ready to make it happen on May 16!
We have purchased a complete new set of servers to facilitate this change over; we hope that this will allow us to work out the major bugs before we unleash it on you, our end users. However, we do know that there will be problems, bugs and missing features. No system as complicated as MusicBrainz can switch over to a new system without trouble; we hope that you will bear with us as we make this massive change to MusicBrainz.
Changes to our edit system
One of the most significant things that we must prepare for is the migration of our edit system. We've spent a lot of time ensuring that we can keep all the old edits to provide a complete edit history as we have it now. But, there is one catch! We must close all the edits before we migrate the edits to the new system. Right now, two weeks before our change-over we have nearly 20,000 open edits that we need to have closed in two weeks time.
14 days before release (May 2)
On May 2, we're going to encourage users to not enter any new edits. It will still be possible to enter new edits, but this is discouraged during this phase. We would like to get people vote on existing edits rather than adding new edits.
7 days before release (May 9)
FAQ
Q: What happens to edits that are still open when the edits are migrated? A: They will all be rejected and users will have to re-enter them under the new system.
Q: Will MusicBrainz be available during the change-over period? A:
