The NinSheetMusic Redesign Suggestion Thread: Site features

[LeviR.star]

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

I agree with Slow here. Nice idea, though.

[Dudeman]

I do see the merit of splitting up the section a little bit. I don't think it needs to be in 7 different categories, because all of a sudden our sidebar is flooded with Mario, but maybe, like, the Mario RPG's could have their own section, and/or Mario Kart.
And yeah, daj has kickstarted an easy sheet thing for his own purposes, but we could probably use that as a baseline for difficulty ratings in the future. I agree that we probably don't need to make it any more complicated than "easy" and "advanced."

[Yug_Guy]

At the very least, we could separate it the way Smash does - Yoshi & Wario get their own series, but the rest of the Mario series is all under the same umbrella.

Tbh, at some point we really need to figure out what counts as a "series", or even what we want to accomplish by giving a franchise a spot on the sidebar in the first place. I think once we figure that out, we can make some progress on this topic. Otherwise, we're just making arbitrary distinctions.

[Trainer Ave]

I have a rather odd suggestion. Could we maybe have multiple arrangements on site for a single track? Or maybe provide a forum link to maybe a collection of other arrangements for a single track? To that end i was thinking that we could have a similar submission process to get it onto this hypothetical thread. Basically the idea is to have a stickied thread where people can submit alternate arrangements or where replaced arrangements can go. Maybe also have the thread arranged in a similar manner to the main site just with a spoiler pyramid.

[Dudeman]

But...why? Are you talking, like, creative variations on an existing tune, or just the same sheet done by other arrangers?

[Trainer Ave]

the creative variations thing yes.

[Olimar12345]

At the very least, we could separate it the way Smash does - Yoshi & Wario get their own series, but the rest of the Mario series is all under the same umbrella.

The issue with that is that there are very few wario/yoshi sheets in comparison, and I don't think doing that will solve the problem. I could see mario kart being its own section easily, and maybe a few others. If we do opt for splitting up all of the mario sheets, we could also keep a section that contains all off the sheets if desired.

Also, @Cobra that's a great idea with the easy sheets! It would be less work to put together and being isolated could be a beginners dream.

[Maelstrom]

the creative variations thing yes.

Nope. This has always been a thing the site will never host, right alongside musicXML and musescore files.
The point of the site is to have one definitive sheet, which best represents the original. That's why we go hard on creative liberties in the submissions.
There's pages and pages of discussions already done about this, and I don't feel like typing them out. Suffice it to say that it would cause a headache for updaters, ruin the focus of the site, and negate the need for replacements.

It's just now how we do things here.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

Nope. This has always been a thing the site will never host, right alongside musicXML and musescore files.
The point of the site is to have one definitive sheet, which best represents the original. That's why we go hard on creative liberties in the submissions.
There's pages and pages of discussions already done about this, and I don't feel like typing them out. Suffice it to say that it would cause a headache for updaters, ruin the focus of the site, and negate the need for replacements.

It's just now how we do things here.

the creative variations thing yes.

I mean, there is a section for those things on the forums, just not the main site. So, it's not like it's nonexistent. (I'm on Mael's side, in case that wasn't clear.)

[Cobraroll]

I do see the merit of splitting up the section a little bit. I don't think it needs to be in 7 different categories, because all of a sudden our sidebar is flooded with Mario, but maybe, like, the Mario RPG's could have their own section, and/or Mario Kart.

Oh, sorry if I wasn't clear. Or maybe I hadn't thought it through entirely, I can't really remember. I realize that making 7 new categories would rid us of one problem at the cost of making a dozen more. The "sub-series" I listed in the previous post would be mostly for discussion purposes. Say, if we made two or three new pages, we should avoid splitting up the various series (for instance, we shouldn't put two Wario games on one page and the rest on another). And which series would go on which page? How many/few pages would we need to put every game on an appropriate, but distinct page?
 
Would it be possible to have sub-menus of each section? That is, when you click "Super Mario", you are not taken to a new page, but a bunch of smaller categories pop up underneath the button: "Super Mario series", "Mario Kart", "Mario Party", "Yoshi", and so on. Or maybe the main Mario page would be a disambiguation page. Both solutions would require a bit of extra work, though, which I agree is a heavy argument against them.

I think that if the current system is kept, and we seek to do this as easy as possible by making new pages, we should seek to:

• ...split into as few pages as possible. Again, there's the argument of flooding the sidebar, and it could be difficult for visitors to understand which page to look on, or frustrating to browse through multiple pages in search of one specific sheet (again the ambiguity of SMW 2: Yoshi's Island, for instance).
• ...take out as many sheets and game titles from the main page as possible. We won't reduce the clutter of the Super Mario page by removing the 6 games and 15 sheets from the Yoshi series, for instance. That would still leave 64 games and some 7-800 sheets, hardly a noticeable change.
• ...make it as clear as possible where to look for which sheets. For instance, a "Super Mario RPGs" page would include the Paper Mario games if I understand correctly, but that's not very intuitive.

My best suggestion that satisfies the criteria above would be to take out the Super Mario series, those considered the "flagships" of the franchise. Twenty titles with a few hundred sheets in total, that fill roughly half the current page. All other Mario games would remain on a page named "Mario spin-offs". This approach would also be directly applicable to the Pokémon series.


Anyway, I'm glad to see the discussion, if nothing else. Even if we end up agreeing to do nothing, at least the issue is addressed, and/or we will determine whether it is a problem or not. Discussing the problem is addressing the problem! (I might have spent too much time in academia already)

[mikey]

Woah hi cobraroll

[mastersuperfan]

My best suggestion that satisfies the criteria above would be to take out the Super Mario series, those considered the "flagships" of the franchise. Twenty titles with a few hundred sheets in total, that fill roughly half the current page. All other Mario games would remain on a page named "Mario spin-offs". This approach would also be directly applicable to the Pokémon series.

From my conversations with other NSM'ers it looks like this might just be me, but in my mind I always think of the Mario RPGs as being part of the "main series," so I could see some potential confusion with this.

[Dudeman]

Static just brought up the idea on Discord that each series tab could have a console sub-tab, so you could divide up a series by consoles. Thoughts? I think it's a step in the right direction.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

Static just brought up the idea on Discord that each series tab could have a console sub-tab, so you could divide up a series by consoles. Thoughts? I think it's a step in the right direction.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Would make it easier to find the game you want.

[WaluigiTime64]

I don't know if it would be the best to divide them by consoles, but that might just be me.

I wholeheartedly agree with drop-down menus (that appear when you click/hover over the "Super Mario" link on the sidebar) that allow you to select between various parts of the whole franchise. It takes a little bit longer than I'd like for the whole section to load just so I can reach Super Mario 64.