The NinSheetMusic Redesign Suggestion Thread: Site features

[The Deku Trombonist]

Off the top of my head (posting from phone) the only thing I can think of is that something would make the mime type not be application/pdf, but something like application/x-pdf. Although that sounds dodgy in itself because it implies silent header modification somewhere along the way.

Rewriting of everything is currently in progress anyway. And we've advanced a few PHP versions since I wrote that so now I can take advantage of some newer functions. Which hopefully might improve some things.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

I did several tests with old and new PDFs and they all went through without any errors. It is pretty bizarre on what could have been causing the error, but it does not seem to be causing any errors now.

The oldest arrangement that I have is from last November which I know for a fact was generated using my previous setup. When I did encounter the issue, I checked my files against other user files as well as the PDF specs and it followed the format. Although, whatever may have been causing the error is gone now.

Off the top of my head (posting from phone) the only thing I can think of is that something would make the mime type not be application/pdf, but something like application/x-pdf. Although that sounds dodgy in itself because it implies silent header modification somewhere along the way.

Perhaps that is what caused it. It was definitely unexpected.

Anyway, I'd be interested to see what you have on .mus/.musx files.

I'll PM the results from my examinations right now.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Just gonna throw this out there before I forget, but file input tags can have filters applied, which would be helpful with file submission. The filter is enabled by using the "accept" attribute, but it still allows users to select "*.* all files" and find a file with other types (can't remember name). Below is an actual example that is being used in my current alpha of Virtuoso.

<input type="file" id="file" accept=".midi,.mid" style="width:49%;display:inline-block;"/>

[Onionleaf]

(Wasn't quite sure which topic this should go under)

Just thought of a small idea for the main site: Wouldn't it be nice to give special credit to the game soundtracks that have been 100% completed, usually after an official arrangement project? I made a couple of GIF images to show what I mean:

Something like this, perhaps?


Or


Merged together:


Example of what it could look like on the site:

Spoiler

[close]

What do you think?

[Sebastian]

Ooooo. I am all for this idea.

[E. Gadd Industries]

That would look so cool!!

[MashMish]

Hello!

I really enjoy the site and the effort this community puts into it! Problem is, I frequently forget it exists. 

I wonder, could an RSS Feed could be put into place on the site? It would really help if the site alerted me to new sheets so that I don't get swamped after checking in sporadically.

I hope these sentiments are shared by other users.

Much appreciated!

[BlackDragonSlayer]

I've never really seen (and used) any RSS feeds, so I can't personally attest as to their helpfulness and/or necessity, but if it's not too difficult to implement, and doesn't take up too much space, I don't see why it would hurt.

Also, forgetting about NSM? For shame!!! : P

[mikey]

We have a facebook page

[Latios212]

For now, in addition to Facebook, you can enable email notifications on the Site News board, which will let you know when we run an update.

[Static]

One small idea I thought of (and sorry if it's already been mentioned earlier lol) is including a YouTube link or MP3/OGG download next to the other filetypes. This way, people would have a convenient way to listen to the original songs. It would be a pain to add like >3K extra links, sure, but I think it might be really helpful.

[Cobraroll]

Hello! I know it's not really polite to stroll into here after being away for a year and a half, but I'm afraid my presence is a little more sporadic these days since I no longer enjoy near-infinite spare time (that being said, I usually respond if thrown a PM). But now I've finally got my own apartment (after living in student housing/collectives for the past five years), and have some time to play piano again, so I may be around a little more now.

Anyway, the Super Mario section of the site is getting awfully long. I think we should look into splitting it up. By my count, it features 70 games, each with a large handful of sheets. Breaking it down a little, one can identify at least 7 "sub-franchises" under the overall Mario umrella:

Super Mario core series¹: 20 games (Bros., Bros. 2, Bros. 3, Land, World, Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, World 2: Yoshi's Island, 64, Sunshine, New Bros., Galaxy, New Bros. Wii, Galaxy 2, New Bros. 2, New Bros. U, 3D World, Maker, Run, and shortly, Odyssey [As well as The Lost Levels, but we don't make the distinction on-site]). Plus the re-releases, some of which have their own sections (Super Mario Advance, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario 64 DS).

Mario Kart series: 8 games (Super Mario Kart, 64, Super Circuit, Double Dash!!, Wii, DS, and 8 - we have no sheets from Mario Kart 7 at all). With an estimated 10-15 sheets per entry in the series, that's roughly a hundred sheets, more than several franchises with their own page.

Mario Party series: 6 games (out of 9 existing - we miss sheets from 4, 6, and 8 ), with a total of 31 sheets. Still more than on the Dragon Quest and Metal Gear pages, for instance. More sheets than them both put together, actually.

Mario & Luigi series: 5 games, 45 sheets.

Mario Sports series: 6 games (Mario Golf, Mario Golf GBC, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, Mario Tennis, Mario's Tennis [yes, that's a separate game], Mario Power Tennis, and a handful of titles we don't have on site ). Not that many sheets, though, but it is one of the most successful Mario spin-off series by sales numbers.

Paper Mario series: 4 games (Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Color Splash, Super Paper Mario, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but two of them seem to have more than 50 sheets each.

Wario series: 9 games (Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Land II, Wario Land 3, Wario Land 4, Wario Land: Shake it!, Wario World, Wario's Woods, Wario: Master of Disguise, and WarioWare: Smooth Moves), with a total of 21 sheets.

Not sure on what to do with the Yoshi series, since the biggest and most well-known installment (Yoshi's Island) technically belongs to the Super Mario series, but apart from that there are still sheets from 6 games on site, although four of them only have one sheet, and the two others 5 and 6, respectively. Those 6 games and 15 sheets still outnumber the Metal Gear sheets we have, but I seem to recall from a few years back that that page shouldn't really be taken as an ideal example.

¹Wikipedia makes the distinction between the Mario franchise and Super Mario series.

At the very least, I think we should give the numerous Mario spin-offs their own page, since they either bury or are buried by the main series games people generally look for sheets from. The same could be said about the Pokémon games. And speaking of giving games their own page, I think the Undertale section of the "More" page is big enough to warrant separating, even though the franchise only has one game. It has, what, 120 sheets?



And as for the popular suggestion of difficulty levels, let me throw out another approach to that. People would usually want to look up only two difficulty levels: Easy sheets that beginners can play, and ultra-hard ones because complicated music pieces are interesting. I'd say we gain no further traffic or enhance the visitor experience from focusing on the latter, but the people looking for the former probably constitute a big portion of our "non-regular" visitors. Instead of ranking ever sheet in the database with difficulty scores, I think we could make a little page recommending some easy sheets for beginners, with direct links to the relevant arrangements. Of course, it's hard to really quantify what counts as "easy" or "difficult" to play, but I think there are some sheets out there that our more professional members can agree are suitable for beginners. Being very far from a professional myself, I wouldn't know for sure, but for instance, "File Select" from Super Mario 64 looks like it wouldn't pose much of a challenge to aspiring piano players. I think it would be helpful - and not very work-consuming - to dig out a few easy pieces from the database, and feature on their own little page.

[AmpharosAndy]

Welcome back! I agree with Mario being a bit long but let's make sure we don't separate it into too many sections or people might not be able to find stuff. In regards to the easy sheets thing, daj has already been working on this: http://forum.ninsheetmusic.org/index.php?topic=9535.0

[SlowPokemon]

I think it should stay as-is, but that might just be me.

[Sebastian]

Whoa, welcome back, Cobraroll! Nice to see you around again.

As for your suggestion, dividing up the Super Mario section is something that we have been thinking about doing. I'm not sure where everyone stands on it as of now, but hopefully some of the others will voice their opinion.