Ideas and suggestions

Written by Starvynth on 01.02.2025 at 22:39

And here it is.

corrupt this is great! Been wanting this feature for a while! Sorry people are such whiners over free new features and extra clicks but this is great and will get a lot of use out of me!

Is there a way to have more than one filter applied in the album charts? I'm trying to sort through 2024, but it would be nice if I could split the genres too.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 03.02.2025 at 17:22

Is there a way to have more than one filter applied in the album charts? I'm trying to sort through 2024, but it would be nice if I could split the genres too.

How about this one?
https://metalstorm.net/bands/albums.php

Written by Redel on 03.02.2025 at 20:02

How about this one?
https://metalstorm.net/bands/albums.php

Perfect, I figured there was probably a way to do it already implemented!

When we hover the cursor over album name in a forum post (where the BB tag is attached), a small pop-up appears in displaying details. I think it would be a great addition if the same functionality were implemented for band album mentioned in forum post titles under the "New Posts" section. This way, while scrolling through recent discussions, users can instantly get the details without needing to open the thread.

How about under album we have option to show up only videos what's linked under specific album?

Written by Bad English on 27.02.2025 at 19:12

How about under album we have option to show up only videos what's linked under specific album?

We already have a video section where the minority of MS users who are actually interested can watch whatever they want to watch.
But your proposal would force everyone who just wants to read some comments, check the tracklist, or look at the cover art to wait until the page has loaded all the unnecessary ballast. That’s a waste of time and resources and, in cases like Pro Xristou (12 low-budget videos), a real pain in the arse.

I think we need to roll back the option of "preview" before posting it on a forum to prevent misquotes or structural errors.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 21.02.2025 at 11:00

When we hover the cursor over album name in a forum post (where the BB tag is attached), a small pop-up appears in displaying details. I think it would be a great addition if the same functionality were implemented for band album mentioned in forum post titles under the "New Posts" section. This way, while scrolling through recent discussions, users can instantly get the details without needing to open the thread.

That’s an idea I would personally find very helpful because I use "new posts" extensively and have often accidentally opened threads I had already read in full multiple times.

The problem, however, is that album threads aren’t directly linked to a band. A thread is just a thread, like this one. Without significant effort, only a general preview of the thread is likely possible. If it’s an album thread, the cover artwork would be displayed along with excerpts from the first comment (here's an example), but there wouldn’t be any details about the band.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 01.03.2025 at 06:56

I think we need to roll back the option of "preview" before posting it on a forum to prevent misquotes or structural errors.

That’s not gonna happen. The vast majority of MS users know exactly how to quote properly. Of course, there are a few user who, even after nearly 8,000 forum posts and 14 years of MS membership, still haven’t fully grasped the very simple process of quoting, but should we cater to the laziness of this small minority? I'd say no.

How about you take a look at our FAQ instead?

When quoting other users, please delete any nested quotes (quotes within quotes) you don't want to comment on.

To put it another way: You’re suggesting that we program a completely unnecessary function just for you so that you can continue breaking a clear and simple rule, which would improve the forum’s readability if you would just follow it?

As much effort as bands and artists put into some of the awesome album covers, it’s a bit of a bummer that when you look at an album it has a small thumbnail that isn’t very visible. It would be pretty cool to be able to look at a large version of the artwork from the album page where you could see the detail. Obviously it would be a pain in the ass to make a change to every album, but next to the edit album and collection buttons, you could put another button where users could upload a large image and when you click it just takes you to the artwork. Obviously not a fully fleshed idea, but just something I thought could be cool.

Written by Starvynth on 05.03.2025 at 21:46

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 21.02.2025 at 11:00

When we hover the cursor over album name in a forum post (where the BB tag is attached), a small pop-up appears in displaying details. I think it would be a great addition if the same functionality were implemented for band album mentioned in forum post titles under the "New Posts" section. This way, while scrolling through recent discussions, users can instantly get the details without needing to open the thread.

The problem, however, is that album threads aren’t directly linked to a band. A thread is just a thread, like this one. Without significant effort, only a general preview of the thread is likely possible. If it’s an album thread, the cover artwork would be displayed along with excerpts from the first comment...

I do agree, it will be a strenuous adjustment to give a fair pop up with details like on an album does.

Written by Vellichor on 06.03.2025 at 00:35

As much effort as bands and artists put into some of the awesome album covers, it’s a bit of a bummer that when you look at an album it has a small thumbnail that isn’t very visible. It would be pretty cool to be able to look at a large version of the artwork from the album page where you could see the detail. Obviously it would be a pain in the ass to make a change to every album, but next to the edit album and collection buttons, you could put another button where users could upload a large image and when you click it just takes you to the artwork. Obviously not a fully fleshed idea, but just something I thought could be cool.

It doesn't seem to me that MS could have enough resource to be host a big amount of quality pictures, there's already the gallery for concert shoots. People can look up the cover elsewhere. Do you think MS would be more attractive being the place people go to look the artworks? Maybe ...? Or we could find a third party host maybe...

Also if it's just the thumbnails bothering you (in your collection for instance), admins could just tweak a CSS value (or add a button for the user to do so) in the .img-micro rule to make it bigger.

That being said, it also means that opening a collection page will surely have the site load 50 images in their full size (that is still small, granted). The strain on the site could also be alleviated if the thumbnails were actually smaller version of the target image. - Maybe not worth bothering though

Written by Vellichor on 06.03.2025 at 00:35

As much effort as bands and artists put into some of the awesome album covers, it’s a bit of a bummer that when you look at an album it has a small thumbnail that isn’t very visible. It would be pretty cool to be able to look at a large version of the artwork from the album page where you could see the detail. Obviously it would be a pain in the ass to make a change to every album, but next to the edit album and collection buttons, you could put another button where users could upload a large image and when you click it just takes you to the artwork. Obviously not a fully fleshed idea, but just something I thought could be cool.

That's something I've wanted for a long time. We've been fairly limited on storage space but that's not as much of an issue anymore. Maybe album covers is a good place to start experimenting.

Written by Ansercanagicus on 07.03.2025 at 07:50

Also if it's just the thumbnails bothering you (in your collection for instance), admins could just tweak a CSS value (or add a button for the user to do so) in the .img-micro rule to make it bigger.

That being said, it also means that opening a collection page will surely have the site load 50 images in their full size (that is still small, granted). The strain on the site could also be alleviated if the thumbnails were actually smaller version of the target image. - Maybe not worth bothering though

Yeah, there are factors to consider. Just making the current images bigger will only make them blurry. most of them are only a couple hundred pixels squared.

I figured there was a reason it hadn’t been done yet. It’s probably just not worth the effort.

But as I thought about more, you click on an album and pretty much see everything you want to know, but adding the option to view the album artwork and descriptions of album themes and concepts from the artists themselves would make this place basically a one stop shop!

I’m obviously not that knowledgeable of the work that goes into doing this stuff, but another button next to the lyrics where you pull up artist descriptions like this example from Kadath on Bandcamp

“ THE GREAT OLD ONES stand as harbingers of cosmic nightmares and arcane melodies. Forged in the ancient mists of Bordeaux, France, their evocative soundscapes transcend mere music, invoking the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos.
Prepare to embark on an odyssey of the soul with their latest offering, Kadath. In this seven-track masterpiece, the band delves into Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," guiding listeners through the doomed dreams of Randolph Carter and his quest for the elusive, magnificent city denied to him by malevolent gods. Traversing the perilous Dreamlands, Carter's journey is one of both awe and dread, his path marked by phantasmal realms and crawling chaos.”

would be really cool too! And like lyrics just leave it to users to upload optionally.

I realize it is probably more work than it’s worth for the handful of people who would use the feature though.

Written by Vellichor on 07.03.2025 at 13:23

I figured there was a reason it hadn’t been done yet. It’s probably just not worth the effort.

But as I thought about more, you click on an album and pretty much see everything you want to know, but adding the option to view the album artwork and descriptions of album themes and concepts from the artists themselves would make this place basically a one stop shop!

I’m obviously not that knowledgeable of the work that goes into doing this stuff, but another button next to the lyrics where you pull up artist descriptions like this example from Kadath on Bandcamp

“ THE GREAT OLD ONES stand as harbingers of cosmic nightmares and arcane melodies. Forged in the ancient mists of Bordeaux, France, their evocative soundscapes transcend mere music, invoking the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos.
Prepare to embark on an odyssey of the soul with their latest offering, Kadath. In this seven-track masterpiece, the band delves into Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," guiding listeners through the doomed dreams of Randolph Carter and his quest for the elusive, magnificent city denied to him by malevolent gods. Traversing the perilous Dreamlands, Carter's journey is one of both awe and dread, his path marked by phantasmal realms and crawling chaos.”

would be really cool too! And like lyrics just leave it to users to upload optionally.

I realize it is probably more work than it’s worth for the handful of people who would use the feature though.

I like the idea of making the album art more high res. But your other suggestion seems to be a mix of bio and review. The band bios are planned to be discontinued at some point, if I recall correctly, as there aren't enough users that bother to update them. The same problem could arise for album "bios". And I wouldn't want to take away the attention from an album review, which can also give insight into the descriptions of the album's themes (as my review of that Kadath album does).

Written by F3ynman on 07.03.2025 at 13:39

And I wouldn't want to take away the attention from an album review, which can also give insight into the descriptions of the album's themes (as my review of that Kadath album does).

Yeah that’s fair, I just used Kadath as an example. You gave it a great review and explained the concept well, but there’s tons of albums that just don’t get reviewed or older albums with cool concepts or in languages most of MS don’t speak that I was thinking about as well.

But I also know when someone is softly saying “this is a bad idea” so I’ll drop it

Written by Vellichor on 07.03.2025 at 13:50

Written by F3ynman on 07.03.2025 at 13:39

And I wouldn't want to take away the attention from an album review, which can also give insight into the descriptions of the album's themes (as my review of that Kadath album does).

Yeah that’s fair, I just used Kadath as an example. You gave it a great review and explained the concept well, but there’s tons of albums that just don’t get reviewed or older albums with cool concepts or in languages most of MS don’t speak that I was thinking about as well.

But I also know when someone is softly saying “this is a bad idea” so I’ll drop it

I wouldn't say it's bad per se. A short description for albums can be helpful, like indicating that Enter The Moonlight Gate and Terminal Redux are concept albums. I like Metal Archives' feature of listing lyrical themes for a band. It helps me search for Lovecraft-themed bands, for example.

But, it's a question of implementation, I think. If we have enough motivated users who are dedicated to add descriptions (and add high res images), then I don't see a problem.

Written by Vellichor on 07.03.2025 at 13:50

Yeah that’s fair, I just used Kadath as an example. You gave it a great review and explained the concept well, but there’s tons of albums that just don’t get reviewed or older albums with cool concepts or in languages most of MS don’t speak that I was thinking about as well.

But I also know when someone is softly saying “this is a bad idea” so I’ll drop it

The problem really is just participation. And to some extent our reviewing capacity. Unfortunately we're not wikipedia. It's hard enough to keep our existing database up-to-date and if it weren't foe people like Starvynth and Yaniv who spend insane amounts of their free time maintaining the database, we'd already be in a pretty terrible spot there.

I'd rather have few features that are used and maintained than a whole array of stuff in a state of perpetual neglect. And band bios fall into that category. We have to acknowledge the situation we're in. Metal Storm is a platform of another time. Compared to 20 years ago, the amount of people willing to dedicate their time to the maintenance of a database like ours is minuscule. Hence I'm leaning toward removing these kinds of features and focusing on what we're strong at.

Doesn't make it a bad idea, though.

Written by corrupt on 07.03.2025 at 12:37


Yeah, there are factors to consider. Just making the current images bigger will only make them blurry. most of them are only a couple hundred pixels squared.

Yeah I know, but sometimes 200x200 feels better than 32x32 and I happen to change that on my end. But yeah it's not the 4k image to see the grain of some cover art.

There’s a follow feature on here and I’m not really sure what its use is, but is there any way when you click on a rating you could see what the users you follow rated it? For example, I don’t put much stock in ratings overall since I find albums that are more to my taste rated 7 or lower often and albums I don’t like at all rated over 8 sometimes as well. There are a lot of users that I usually share opinions with though like musclassia and it would be cool to be able to filter down to 10 people you follow who will give a better idea of what you’ll like than a collective rating from a bunch of randos. Maybe I’m alone here? Maybe not?

It's me with my whimsical requests again. Is it possible that once you rated an album, the rate you gave is always visible next to the album name, anywhere on the site. I'm especially thinking of user lists. Currently browsing a list, I have to click on most entries to go to the album page and see if I rated it something. It would be nice if it was showing in the list in the first place. It could also appear to the quick discography on the band's page, or anytime someone links to an album, or more importantly in the album search list.

For layout, instead of displaying the actual number, it could be that the album name is colored with the same rating color, red, orange, yellow or green. That would make a colorful Metal Storm but I guess it's the right month to coin this.

And maybe you could add a feature to rate bands as a whole, so the same idea applies.

And also i could do this myself in my browser, if only there was a means to export album votes. I mean album votes, not the collection. (I had a script to parse the vote page before, but since it was tedious for the site to load, it's been broken into pages, and I have 86 to go through...) -> I think this part of my request is the easiest to tackle, just the simple csv export.

((Btw now that I think of it, you can export collection but not import it... nobody does that anyway))

Written by Ansercanagicus on 21.06.2025 at 11:41

It's me with my whimsical requests again. Is it possible that once you rated an album, the rate you gave is always visible next to the album name, anywhere on the site. I'm especially thinking of user lists. Currently browsing a list, I have to click on most entries to go to the album page and see if I rated it something. It would be nice if it was showing in the list in the first place. It could also appear to the quick discography on the band's page, or anytime someone links to an album, or more importantly in the album search list.

For layout, instead of displaying the actual number, it could be that the album name is colored with the same rating color, red, orange, yellow or green. That would make a colorful Metal Storm but I guess it's the right month to coin this.

And maybe you could add a feature to rate bands as a whole, so the same idea applies.

And also i could do this myself in my browser, if only there was a means to export album votes. I mean album votes, not the collection. (I had a script to parse the vote page before, but since it was tedious for the site to load, it's been broken into pages, and I have 86 to go through...) -> I think this part of my request is the easiest to tackle, just the simple csv export.

((Btw now that I think of it, you can export collection but not import it... nobody does that anyway))

Import of external data is something I would like to avoid allowing. It's too much of a can of worms having to deal with input that doesn't go through the site's UI.

As far as your (show my own rating) idea, that should be doable. I would put it in the popup, though, not mess with the formatting of the album name itself. That would mess with articles and reviews and such and force formatting on them. The popup is there for exactly this, and I think it's a great idea to add this information there.

I'm currently working on a huge update that has been a few months in the making. I'll build this in, but it'll likely be a few more weeks until I'm ready to release.

Written by corrupt on 21.06.2025 at 12:49


Import of external data is something I would like to avoid allowing. It's too much of a can of worms having to deal with input that doesn't go through the site's UI.

yes, completely understandable.

Written by corrupt on 21.06.2025 at 12:49


As far as your (show my own rating) idea, that should be doable. I would put it in the popup, though, not mess with the formatting of the album name itself. That would mess with articles and reviews and such and force formatting on them. The popup is there for exactly this, and I think it's a great idea to add this information there.

I'm currently working on a huge update that has been a few months in the making. I'll build this in, but it'll likely be a few more weeks until I'm ready to release.

Thanks

Written by corrupt on 21.06.2025 at 12:49



As far as your (show my own rating) idea, that should be doable. I would put it in the popup, though, not mess with the formatting of the album name itself. That would mess with articles and reviews and such and force formatting on them. The popup is there for exactly this, and I think it's a great idea to add this information there.

This would be really, really, really helpful for someone like me too (with my 8k+ album votes). In the popup would be a good place to put it. Big thumbs up here!

Can we add Groove and Crossover metal as parament genre not write in genre?

Thanks corrupt for the changes to the site layout. I spotted a mistake : on one album page, the drop-down menu to choose between "I have it" - "I want it" or "Remove" appears slightly off. There could be some padding on the left on li elements so they align well, and it would be nice if all the li had the event onclick, rather than the a, because when you're quick it's rare to land your cursor precisely on the text.

Written by Ansercanagicus on 02.07.2025 at 22:06

Thanks corrupt for the changes to the site layout. I spotted a mistake : on one album page, the drop-down menu to choose between "I have it" - "I want it" or "Remove" appears slightly off. There could be some padding on the left on li elements so they align well, and it would be nice if all the li had the event onclick, rather than the a, because when you're quick it's rare to land your cursor precisely on the text.

That dropdown simply hadn't been converted yet. It's fixed now.

How difficult would it be to bring the preview button back? right next to "post reply". it's really handy for when you're experimenting with the formatting or linking images and aren't sure it it'll work. also for any edits (e.g. adding or editing an album) perhaps a view of what the page would look like would be really useful to prevent rework (I always spot check my work after and catch a bunch of mistakes, but then I gotta go back and edit...or I could have just not made the mistake )