User:Reosarevok/Overview options

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So, the overview is a mess right now. We're releasing a change soon that'll make it less bad, but we should decide what to do about several issues (please sign your comments!):

Changes to the release group list (current overview)

The two main issues with the current display seem to involve the following:

a) Unofficial releases

While we've always shown release groups by default even if they only contained unofficial releases, the problems of that have become more apparent lately. An option would be to only show them by request. Should we do this? If yes, how? Should the options be official/all or official/unofficial? (the latter sounds more useful for people who care about bootlegs, but one of them should tell us!). If a release group only contains releases with no status set, they should probably appear on the default list - that'll make people more likely to fix them if they're actually not official!

Display options

All in one list
Official/all
Official/unofficial
+1 --Reosarevok 08:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

No status set

In official list
+1 --Reosarevok 08:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
+1 --Wizzcat 12:21, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
In unofficial/all list

b) Compilations

Apparently some people want to hide compilations altogether (and require the user asking for them to show them). Others want to keep them away from the list in a "Compilations" section, and yet others want to keep showing them (the official ones at least) in the main list. One of the reasons to keep them in the main list has been providing a chronology - although since the main list is already broken in Album, Single, EP and Other, having a dedicated "chronology" page might be a better option for that.

Display options

All in one list
Compilations section
+1 --Reosarevok 08:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
+1 --Wizzcat 12:21, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
Hidden until requested

Future developments of the overview page

Some people argue that it would make sense to decide what an overview page should actually be, apart from a list of release groups, and work on that (for example, it could show members for bands, or a description from wikipedia when available, or... you name it). So, we would like to know your ideas on what an ideal overview would be like. Please add your comments at the bottom of this section!

For comparisons sake, here's what MB does versus what SoundUnwound, Discogs, and Rate Your Music do with an artist overview page. A few ideas that I (ideally) think we should adopt for our artist overview:
  • Display an artist picture
  • Display release group pictures
  • Display band members
  • Use wikipedia for bios
  • Use JS to filter and sort through the release group list
  • Use JS to display the contents of a release group
  • List more/all? relationships on the overview page (use a JS filter for performance credits, display all URLs in sidebar)
  • Use a JS filter to display VA release groups
  • Make it very obvious and easy to see the JS filtering mechanism (we currently hide our filter by default)
  • At all costs, prevent a blank overview page such as this supporting artist.
--navap 16:53, 22 May 2012 (UTC)