New MFT coming soon

[Jeb Banner]

MFT 2.0 or is that 3.0 has been under daily development for the last few weeks. After a couple false starts the last year or so we have been able to consistently free up one of our developers at Small Box, Jordan Wilson, who is also a great designer and flash developer. A triple threat he is! We are working from the Kevin Fitzpatrick designs for the overall look and feel of the site.

I expect to launch the site by the end of the summer. I want to get it rock solid before going live if possible.

Like many of you, I think, I've been frustrated with the lack of activity and relevance MFT has had recently. This is partly due to my inability to invest in the project to improve it. Things have improved on that front the last month.

Here's some of the features under development. Please feel free to post your ideas and suggestions. If they make sense and don't delay the launch then we will seriously consider including them.

Anyone posting to this form will get a test link when it is ready. So posting a comment signs you up for Beta testing.

Band access to their pages to add new music, make old music inactive if wanted (we won't delete MP3s from the backup database), update their profile and hopefully comments on band pages- that's a little trickier if we want to integrate with the main Ning site. We'll see.

Band Sign Up allow new bands to apply for the archive. We do plan to have an approval process. The idea is not so much to filter music on a aesthetic level but to make sure the band is related to Indiana, doesn't suck (ok that's subjective a little but we have to some control, it will be a pretty wide aesthetic), is playing original music and has permission to post their music (we can't have someone upload tracks they don't own and then we get the site in trouble).

New Flash Music Player a big pet peeve of mine and others is how bad the Flash player on the band pages is. The old player was better but we are building the new player from scratch. It will be a big step forward.

The Community stays much as it is but will not be the home page. The new home page will pull the most recent content from the archive and the community along with some specific content. The community areas will get a new look and feel but have much of the same functionality. No content or member accounts will be lost. It's essentially a "re-skin".

The Store gets a much need re-working and new look. Easier to navigate and just easier to use we hope. Store items will pull into band pages. We are also considering ways to let bands sell digital downloads or concert tickets on their pages. It would basically mean they use a Paypal account and it would integrate into their page. MFT wouldn't take a cut- since it would go direct to the bands- but I'm hoping/expecting if it takes off bands will give us a kick back in the 10%-20% range. I'm really interested in feedback on this idea since I've been thinking about implementing it for a while.

Content I'm working to produce better site content. I'm hoping to act more as an editor and solicit, and pay, for good content for the site. The blog will be featured on the new home page and will only pull in featured content. I think in order to grow this site I need to invest in content. I also think we will get more donations with good content.

There are many other, smaller things but this covers the big stuff. Would love your feedback.

[Jeb Banner]

ok, still much to do but the beta is now ready for some viewing and feedback.
http://beta.musicalfamilytree.org
PLEASE- do not go to the Community section and create an account. The current community will be re-skinned when we push live so nothing is lost.

[David Schlabach]

Please count me in.

[mike whybark]

sorry so tardy checking in - saw this go by in my email. Sure, count me in.

[indyfitz]

Jeb..

1. HELL YEAH!
2. Knowing what is coming, I have a great deal of faith that Musical Family Tree will breathe cleanly after this takes off.
3. Facebook is aight.. The future of MFT is going to be better. Like Jeb mentioned, it's content driven. I always liked coming to the site to see what the latest songs have been playing, and where I can find my friend's bands.. or just crazy bands in general. I'm glad it's coming back to that.
4. Is there a way to have a shortcut for America Owns the Moon? Ok.. just wondering.

Rock that code Jordan..

[Zac Burke]

Yep I've been on Facebook, but not even there much lately. Good luck Jeb I hope it turns out well, I get few messages, so I rarely check over here anymore.

[Jon Wells]

Sign me up for Beta!

[s.Jane Mills]

Looking forward to it! Thanks so much for making this a cool place! :)

[Mike Emmett]

Can't wait for the Beta, thanks for the hard work!

[Brian Wyrick]

Hi Jeb - sign me up for the beta!

[Jeb Banner]

Marvin, I'm "guilty" of Facebook and Twitter hopping. Like I said to Ed, there will be peaks and valleys and that's fine. I see this as a lifelong project and I know PJ does as well. We will keep pushing it forward as we have time and lately we had more time to do some of the things we have had in the works for over a year. I think you will really dig the new archive look and functionality. It will make the band pages much more interesting in general.