Australian Guest Musicians

  • Afraid I have to agree with vl1. I've authored 3 websites in the last 21 years, and I find yours too "fussy" to be worth the bother. You seem to have been seduced by techno flash delivery, to the detriment of ease of use. A shame, for there's a lot of stuff on there, (more than I am interested in, TBH,) but it's just too hard to quickly get to what you want.


    The fact you've felt the need to create a youtube guide speaks volumes.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • Ian,


    The volume of material and the way it needs to be presented, dictates the design. It is very difficult to showcase the materials in any other way. Although suggestions which are allied to solutions are always welcome.


    It is easy for the both of you to criticise, something neither of you have invested the time and money into. As for the material, trying to please everyone all of the time is an impossible task. But archiving the history in the most accessible way possible was our intention from the beginning, this continues to be the case.


    As for being seduced by techno flash delivery, its a wordpress website which uses a theme. Nothing to flash about that. But far better than using drupal, and light years away from a html based website.


    As for the three websites that you have authored, kudos to you. But providing an archive over over 10,000 items is a far more challenging task, especially when people expect something for nothing.


    TGA

  • If however, it used the all available screen space, and is at an appropriate magnification to be readable, I might just stay a little bit longer and read it. Same for the articles from magazines, the initial sizing is unreadable, the magnified sizing is often just as annoying, there's a limit to how many clicks and drags people are prepared to make to get to the nitty gritty. In the past I've had to resort to using magnification software, because the sizing was so inappropriate.

    You do realise that since the summer of last year, we have had our magnify function reinstated. This was an original feature, but the plugin that powers it was discontinued. At a great cost along with other crucial updates, the magnify feature was brought back.


    The youtube video which we posted here, demonstrates how to use that feature at 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Adverts on youtube are just as annoying for everyone, but youtube is a business and that's how it makes money.


    Again, as you're not the one who ploughed close to £3.5k into the website last year. Its easy to complain, the magnify function is there and it should work fine on your computer.


    We have tour itineraries and all sorts of multi-page documents that are easy to read. We have had very little if next to no help from the supposed Genesis community, but plenty of nay sayers, detractors, people drying their teeth and those were the pleasant recollections.


    TGA

  • I'm increasing less patient with crappy or flashy style over content websites, the moment youtube tries to play a Grammarly ad in the middle of something interesting, (for the 3000th time), I just shut it down, no content is worth that aggravation.

    One solution to YouTube ads is to download the content, some won't download due to copyright protection being applied, ie/ official accounts like artists own uploads, but most will. I've downloaded episodes of Blake's 7, and films like Slade in Flame and The Abominable Dr Phibes, use sites like Tubeoffline.com or https://www.tubeninja.net/ - others are available. I've mainly done it because of problems with watching and the stream freezes, which can be broadband issues, or server issues, usually the latter.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • TBH, it had occurred to me to comment years ago, but I thought you'd be unreceptive to them, it's human nature. Since VL1 commented, I thought it time to add to his opinion. Turns out I was right in my initial thoughts. Oh well, nothing lost!

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • Slade - Got the tape somewhere, How does it feel, and far far away are two of my favourite ballads, the vocals are beautiful.

    I got the CD. It's not the best mastering I've ever heard, but the whole album is pretty good really.


    Pointless Trivia: It's a 70's release on Polydor, as is One + One Is One, the Medicine Head album, which includes a song called How Does It Feel. Different song, but also very good.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I'll try once more.


    I personally cannot read it, without an enormous amount of faffing about .. at my age, time is running about, I don't do faffing about anymore. You could solve some of that by scaling images to use the full height of the screen, that would in most cases make it readable without magnification.


    Good Evening Vari-lite 1 (VL1), we are more than welcome to permit you to bring you're immeasurable CSS and Js skills are welcome. These programming skills will save us £hundreds in altering the design of the website.


    We continue to be puzzled at your difficulties in navigating the website, again we are not certainly that you understand how the magnify plugin works. To clarify an interview in Melody Maker or NME and even Sounds are often close to A3 size, to have a screen big enough to see that page displayed in full would require a monitor set to portrait. This is often the preferred choice of programmers. The user would be looking at a cost of £250+ for a decent enough monitor.


    Our materials are navigated present with a magnify function, if you do not understand how to use it. Then please be honest.


    Again along with foxfeeder, you're both welcome to construct you're own websites and collate you're own archival materials.


    Our design and format choice is certainly more easily navigated when compared to that of http://www.genesismuseum.com/


    TGA

  • I find the materials on the archive site to be a lot of fun. The performance contracts and tour itinerarys are interesting to look at and see the other side of touring. I'm not sure about the "constructive feedback" here, I mean there is a way of giving feedback that is helpful, and calling the website a waste of effort doesn't sound constructive to me. Could it be improved? Sure, but so could just about anything with enough time and money. However, I'm not griping about how the materials are presented since I'm not paying for it. I'm just glad to have access to it, it's a bit of fun to peruse.

  • I read your details in the posts that followed, but it was the initial post that I think set the tone of the conversation from there. I was quite a bit surprised to see the direction of the thread, which originally was about the string musicians...

  • I really like this version of Your Own Special Way as well, and I enjoyed Hackett's versions of Genesis classics with orchestra. Without wanting to labour the off-topic bit too much, I had visited the TGA website recently and struggled with it - but I was on my Iphone. I've just been on it on my laptop and it was very simple to navigate and also to expand the pages. I have a lot of issues with my eyes in terms of reading clearly and age isn't helping, but for what its worth it was fine, looked great and I'm looking forward to exploring it now I've discovered it, so thanks to all!