We pushed some changes to the site this morning, here are some details and then a section below on what’s coming.
NEW
- The tab display pages now know the difference between tabs we have rights for, tabs we know we don’t have rights for, and tabs we’re not sure about and need more data. We’ll be asking our community to help update these tabs (Bill will post more about this later has posted more about this).
- Top Tabs box now displays top tabs contextually based on what page you’re on.
- Instrument stickiness: based on your last search or last menu tab load, we’ll remember that and base some display things on that (cookies required). For instance, if you last clicked on the Bass menu tab and then arrive at a song page (that displays the tabs available for each instrument), we’ll already have the Bass section opened up and the Guitar/Drum sections closed.
- Speaking of Song pages: you’ll now be shown only the section (guitar/bass/drum) that you were looking for, but can open up the other sections with just a click.
- Lots of Artist names fixed in tab data. Also number of tabs available has been corrected when you’re looking at any search/browse page.
- Lots of misc CSS fixes. Should display properly in all modern browsers. (Please post comments if you catch something in whatever browser/OS you’re using.)
COMING
- Pagination: This will help dramatically increase the usability of search and browse pages. We’ll get this up ASAP.
- Comments: We’ll populate the old comments as well as give you the opportunity to post new comments (now in-line on the tab display page instead of a pop-up window like the old site – more “blogesque”)
- More tab fixes: The old site held every tab in a text file. To get things more usable, we’ve converted them all into a database and that has caused a few glitches in some of the characters used in the tab files. We’ll be correcting this soon.
- Artist/Title CAPS: We’ve noticed a lot of bands are listed in ALL CAPS. This is annoying and we’ll be fixing that.
- Tab submission: Yes, you’ll be able to submit tabs again soon. We’ve developed a submission process that takes the best of the old site (well known as producing the highest quality tabs online) and combining it with a new approach that will allow the entire community to have their say on what tabs make it into the “live” system. This will be a very exciting and never before seen tool in a tab site… we’re calling it “Flood Gate”.
- Tabber Hall-of-Fame: We’ll get this back up as it was before, and then will need to make some adjustments based on our new submission/approval system.
- Community features: Forum, profiles, etc. will be coming… patience please! We’re cooking in a system that should make the interaction on the site unlike it ever was before!
OTHER
- Some people have mentioned a few design issues (everything looks big, site too bright). The “biggness” is just a preference. Based on stats from MXTabs users, we’ve designed the site to be viewed comfortably in a 1280×1024 monitor. Someone with a 20″ screen at 1600×1280 will be even more comfortable. The previous site was designed for 800×600 which almost no-one uses anymore (at least in MXTabs land). As far as brightness, I’m toying with making the background fade into something less white, but we’ll see how that goes. We understand that our users look at a page longer than normal and that a mellower background could help the eyes. However, we may also have a way for everyone to select a “theme” to use for their viewing only. We could even have something as simple as a button to turn the page background black whenever you need it… hmm… I like that. What do you think?
- Of course, we’ll be constantly working on obtaining new contracts with publishers for more tabs. This, as you know, has been a long process – but the Publishers are starting to see the opportunity. If given a choice, don’t you think that users would rather get their free tab from a high-quality LEGAL tab site over an illegal site with questionable quality to boot?
Thanks for everyone’s feed back so far – it’s been great and we appreciate the support. We’ll be having more beta alpha testers coming in over the next week so we may not have the opportunity to respond to everyone’s comments individually. Thanks for understanding!
Tags: updates
Filed in: Alpha Announcements
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Thanks for the update and efforts….I am glad to be a part of it all…really!
I like the layout a lot. Although, I’m building a list of things I thing could use some tweaking! Like it though…
i havent had a problem with the white, but a quickchange button at the top or bottom would be kinda cool, especially along with a theme-based site, it would help user-interactivity and make it feel more user based
o and i dont know exactly what the grey box with the guitar is for i assume you will change the picture to a different instrument with each page, if not that would be a cool experience enhancer, maybe even having instrument based themes… hmmm
the gray background you have down in the comment section is easier on the eyes than the white on your guys’ blog entry part of the page…just to point that out.
and the whole theme thing sounds really cool and more user based feeling. you guys do such a great job. i appreciate being a part of it. i really do.
I’m pretty much disappointed with the new design. I love the new logo, and the favicon. I like the color scheme and general layout of the site.
However, there are some serious letdowns that need to be addressed. First of all, don’t take away my right click. It’s a stupid unneeded piece of shit javascript addition to the site. I can just block your javascript and right click my way around to block all of those annoying ads!
Seriously, there are WAY too many and they’re very badly placed. That one at the top has got to go, it’s so distracting and annoying.
The search box doesn’t match the site. How about designing a nice glossy button or something. And the text size is WAY too big. Take down a notch, most of the people that play music are not blind, so why treat your visitors like they are?
Also, try doing some more browser compatibility testing, it’s lacking. You guys put a lot of effort into the site, but at this time I think I’d rather wait it out. My eyes hurt and you make me feel like I’m a blind person who’s been playing drums and doing web design for 6 years.
Try again.
http://www.xghozt.com/jing/mxtabs.png
^ Screenshot (Not public, Don’t worry)
<3
~XGhozt
nice job guys keep up the good work.
So, after looking at the new site and just bouncing around some of my favorite bands (most of which aren’t here yet which is completely understandable) I thought maybe a list of labels that have given you permission (I think I saw BMG…) could be useful?
Maybe just as a method for viewing the progress the legal aspect has gained.
Maybe text size can be adjusted in the theme adjustment also? A user set theme (similar to the normal stuff that livejournal used to do, i haven’t done that thing in forever) would be cool, and the black background button is an incredibly simple idea.
It’s high time that we can all submit tabs again. Could there be some way to expand on a particular tab similar to the way wikipedia expands on certain aspects of their pages. For instance, a tab is right on and completely correct, but the band plays an extra verse or section of the song that sounds completely different from the rest when they play it live. Maybe a link to something like “Additional sections/Alternate Methods” or something.
Again wikipedia has a dispute section that can dispute the whole article or part of it. I understand that the comment section of the tab pages will somewhat help in this regard, but starting out, I really didn’t care what everyone else had to say and I was pretty sure of what sounded right and what didn’t. I hardly ever looked at the comments because I thought most people were just being kind of dumb. The praise, banter, and friendly discussion is a great thing to continue, don’t get me wrong, but being able to dispute a certain tab or riff would make every tab (and the site) almost invincible. In the process of it all a dispute would be displayed to all to see and available for comment and vote. When a certain number of votes to 2nd the change or addition or to dismiss the change or addition then the dispute would be displayed on the tab instead. Hmmm, it all seems like so much but wiki, does it all without much problem.
I do seem to think that there would be an overwhelming number of tabbers unwilling to change their work, which make my whole idea a complete and utter waste. But of course, those not open to criticism really shouldn’t be putting their stuff out there for everyone to see, right?
I think it would be great for people to be able to see a second way of playing a riff, or learning that the live riff is slightly different and more challenging. Because all in all we’re not only putting this out for everyone to play, but for everyone to learn. We have to expand what the musicians of the site know and what they can play.
I really do appreciate being a part of all this and I will be working more on finding other problems and gems on the pre-site.
@XGhozt
Re: No right-click on tab pages – Not only do we have to leave that, there will also be more security as required by the publishers in order to provide a free, legal guitar tab site.
Re: Too many ads – please see above regarding requirements to provide a free, legal tab site
Re: Search box doesn’t match – we may design a “glossy” search button just for you.
Re: Text size too big – the text size matches the site. As noted in MANY other posts, for people who want a slightly different design we may have that option in the future. If it bothers you that bad, you could get the Stylish plugin for Firefox and write some CSS to replace anything on the site.
Re: Compatibility testing – the site works in IE 6, IE7, Firefox (Mozilla), Safari 3, Opera 9 — If you’re having serious issues with display, you can either Get Firefox, or provide the exact broswers/OS you’re using and the problem you’re having and we’ll be glad to look into your unique case.
The next big project we are working on will be adding community features such as discussion forums and user profile pages. After this we will be focusing on tab submissions / approvals, etc. We have a new way of doing this that should help MXTabs quality of tabs continually improve using community feedback and creation. There will be more details later, but it will be called “Floodgate.”