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Is dead format.........dead?


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31 minutes ago, fitterhappier said:

I think Discogs is the superior database/website to Dead Format.

Problem is that I don't have time to add 1000+ records to my collection on Discgos

 

Anways, is there a easy way to transfer your DF list into something else (other than the obvious copy/paste)?

You don't have to do them all at once....just add a few each day my collection is at 3,000 + pieces and would take days to do....or you know just a few minutes each day when you are spinning records.

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Once the community aspect dwindled, DF was like tracking your collection in a Word document.  It barely qualified as a database, and it never got better.  I switched to tracking my collection myself in a spreadsheet, and I've never looked back.  At the time I made that choice, Discogs wasn't good for tracking specific variants, and I didn't have the time or drive to create my own submissions.  Discogs has gotten a hell of a lot better since then, but I simply don't have the time to transfer over my whole collection at this point.

Know who has two thumbs and won't miss DF?

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3 hours ago, stl_ben said:

You don't have to do them all at once....just add a few each day my collection is at 3,000 + pieces and would take days to do....or you know just a few minutes each day when you are spinning records.

That's exactly what I did and mine was at quite a few more than that when I first started putting them on, it took a long time but as you say I did it whilst listening to music and it was a good way of working through things I hadn't listened to in a while. Also you get quicker at it as you go.

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2 minutes ago, dawhizz said:

For the people who use Discogs, what do you do for test presses?  Do you submit them to discogs so you can add them, or just not include them at all?

If someone else has already added them...then I do, it's not that difficult.  I own probably around 60 and have had to submit the majority of them myself.  You can find most of them here: https://www.discogs.com/contributions?user=stl_ben

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10 minutes ago, stl_ben said:

If someone else has already added them...then I do, it's not that difficult.  I own probably around 60 and have had to submit the majority of them myself.  You can find most of them here: https://www.discogs.com/contributions?user=stl_ben

Thinking about it, I guess I could also just add the regular version and indicate in the "notes" that it's a test press, though I assume I would not be able to add both a regular and a test press of the same album if I had both (which is frequently the case).

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3 minutes ago, dawhizz said:

Thinking about it, I guess I could also just add the regular version and indicate in the "notes" that it's a test press, though I assume I would not be able to add both a regular and a test press of the same album if I had both (which is frequently the case).

You could definitely add more than one version of the same album and note accordingly, but as stated above, there are plenty of Test Pressings already on Discogs.

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3 hours ago, dawhizz said:

For the people who use Discogs, what do you do for test presses?  Do you submit them to discogs so you can add them, or just not include them at all?

If I have something that isn't on Discogs and I want it to be catalogued in my collection, I add it to Discogs.

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3 hours ago, dawhizz said:

Thinking about it, I guess I could also just add the regular version and indicate in the "notes" that it's a test press, though I assume I would not be able to add both a regular and a test press of the same album if I had both (which is frequently the case).

the rest of us would appreciate it if you added the TP as its own release.

Edited by tape
no spel gud
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9 hours ago, dawhizz said:

For the people who use Discogs, what do you do for test presses?  Do you submit them to discogs so you can add them, or just not include them at all?

Yes I add them to the database and I also do for variants that I find, I know some of the people on there can be more than a little pedantic about the rules but if you don't add them they won't be on there. And better to add them badly rather than not at all.

 

Test pressings and white labels can be a problem because they are not always the same thing with white labels often being promo's rather then test pressings so there can be a lot of discussion about that.

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19 hours ago, bridley said:

I signed up for both DF and Discogs at the same time when I started cataloguing and caring about my record collection after over a decade apart. I immediately found DF to be an entirely unacceptable website and to this day my head spins when people take such strong pro-DF stances. DF was an objectively poor quality databasing website and I have yet to hear a cogent negative complaint against Discogs but I am listening.

 

If you're not the only person looking for such extensive cataloguing capabilities, then it sounds like you've noticed a new opportunity. If you can code and database, I'd recommend you give it a go.  Since Discogs is for music - I don't think anyone is suggesting it as the solution for your music collection, plus your anime, Viva La Bam DVDs, Bartman comics, and fidget spinner collection. But seriously, if no one is making what you want (and it sounds like you looked), you should think about making it.

 

This is fascinating to me. It sounds like you don't know how to use the filters built into Discogs despite it is so intuitive and easy. You can filter by different options which should cover nearly anyone's needs, plus choose how many items to show per page (up to 250), and change the page layout between three different views - large covers, text with covers, and text only.  Using the filters can get you alphabetical and text only in a matter of seconds.  To your complaint about difficulty in putting a collection together in discogs, it is a databasing website and (un)fortunately data quality is important so we're going to have to deal with the extra few seconds in choosing the actual pressing we have and contributing to the database. Seriously, spend a few minutes on the site clicking on things. If you still cringe about it, then learn how to use excel.

 

I think there's a difference between "not knowing how" and "never bothering to try" in utilizing filters. I spent a few hours adding records to my "collection" on Discogs a couple of nights ago in attempt to familiarize myself with it more. Things I still hate about it- when searching for a record variant, any major 12" record has about 5 million options to choose from, sometimes with 15 incredibly similar variants, and I have to click on 5 different links to find the one I'm specifically looking for... on deadformat I could have just typed in "artist - record - color" and submitted it into my trade list. Holy. Crap. This was SO much more difficult than it had to be.  I think I would prefer if the search results showed a lengthier list than just the first 3 letters of whatever the variant could be. Second, why the hell cant I see how many copies were pressed of these records? I really liked that aspect on deadformat. Third, I loved how I was able to see my entire tradelist on one long page on my deadformat. On Discogs, being able to only list 250 on one page is definitely a bummer for me. 

 

Obviously, I need to make a google doc, but it's just frustrating.

 

 

The one major thing I love about Discogs conparatively to Deadformat is that I can see the values of my albums. I had no idea that feature existed, it makes my life easier, and shows me clarification that I have spent way too much of my income on music. Overall, diving deeper into Discogs made me enjoy it more than beforehand, but I still stand by simplicity in my list, which is what I felt deadformat offered me.

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1 hour ago, Kyle_ftl said:

I think there's a difference between "not knowing how" and "never bothering to try" in utilizing filters. I spent a few hours adding records to my "collection" on Discogs a couple of nights ago in attempt to familiarize myself with it more. Things I still hate about it- when searching for a record variant, any major 12" record has about 5 million options to choose from, sometimes with 15 incredibly similar variants, and I have to click on 5 different links to find the one I'm specifically looking for... on deadformat I could have just typed in "artist - record - color" and submitted it into my trade list. Holy. Crap. This was SO much more difficult than it had to be.  I think I would prefer if the search results showed a lengthier list than just the first 3 letters of whatever the variant could be. Second, why the hell cant I see how many copies were pressed of these records? I really liked that aspect on deadformat. Third, I loved how I was able to see my entire tradelist on one long page on my deadformat. On Discogs, being able to only list 250 on one page is definitely a bummer for me. 

 

Obviously, I need to make a google doc, but it's just frustrating.

 

 

The one major thing I love about Discogs conparatively to Deadformat is that I can see the values of my albums. I had no idea that feature existed, it makes my life easier, and shows me clarification that I have spent way too much of my income on music. Overall, diving deeper into Discogs made me enjoy it more than beforehand, but I still stand by simplicity in my list, which is what I felt deadformat offered me.

Yes with older records you will find there's several presses.

As fast as DF being easy with artist/record/color, that's because DF sucks.

With Discogs you k kw exactly what press you have, and if I buy an album on there, I k kw I'm getting exactly the album I wanted, not some record that matches the artist/record/color.

 

As far as # pressed, it's usually in the description/notes section of the release page if it's a limited press), otherwise just assume there were several thousand pressed. If you would like to add a pressing #, you can edit the listing. Just be sure the # and info is accurate. You also include it in the notes section after you add it to your own collection. (Notes such as color, where you bought it, autographed, sealed etc)

They have really worked out pretty much all the kinks over on Discogs, and the formatting doesn't look like some high school kids computer class project.

 

The 250 per page thing perplexes me. How many items can you see on the page without scrolling? You certainly can't see your whole list on DF without scrolling down, so what's the difference in how many pages it is?

Clicking to the next page takes literally 2 seconds for the next 250 to load.

 

 

Keep using it and I think you'll get a bit more comfortable with it and really see what Discogs has to offer.

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17 hours ago, coreystevens88 said:

You could definitely add more than one version of the same album and note accordingly, but as stated above, there are plenty of Test Pressings already on Discogs.

Yeap, i made that with Have Heart Demo 7", all 70+ different variations. Most of them i also included pictures, it took a couple of days but it was fun.

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Just now, dnl said:

Are you trying to submit a new release? If so, it's much easier to copy to draft from the existing release and then make the necessary changes for the new variant.

I'm not sure exactly. Discogs confuses the shit out of me. 

I have Bridge and Tunnel 7" 2nd Press on Yellow /59. It's listed in some of the text for other variants but the variant itself is not an option to choose. It's a No Idea record with like 500 variants.  What would be the easiest way to add that variant to this?

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6 minutes ago, kylet said:

I'm not sure exactly. Discogs confuses the shit out of me. 

I have Bridge and Tunnel 7" 2nd Press on Yellow /59. It's listed in some of the text for other variants but the variant itself is not an option to choose. It's a No Idea record with like 500 variants.  What would be the easiest way to add that variant to this?

Here you go...took about 90 seconds:

https://www.discogs.com/release/10812175

 

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8 minutes ago, kylet said:

I'm not sure exactly. Discogs confuses the shit out of me. 

I have Bridge and Tunnel 7" 2nd Press on Yellow /59. It's listed in some of the text for other variants but the variant itself is not an option to choose. It's a No Idea record with like 500 variants.  What would be the easiest way to add that variant to this?

1. On this release, click "Edit release" in the top corner

2. Select "Copy to draft" on the right

3. Change "orange" to yellow in the format and change the notes "59 on yellow" or something similar

4. submit (add some notes; "new variant" should suffice). Also click the box to add to your collection.

5. Once you have the new submission, look at the url. On the end is a string of numbers. Copy them.

6. Go back into the Master release you linked to here. Click "Edit Master Release".

7. Click "Edit.." again and a paste the number string you got from the URL in the box that says releases.

8. Submit and your done.

 

It might seem like a lot of steps (because it is), but it's all pretty simple once you get used to Discogs.

 

EDIT: basically what @stl_ben did. Anyway, here are the steps if you have other releases.

Edited by dnl
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19 minutes ago, kylet said:

I'm not sure exactly. Discogs confuses the shit out of me. 

I have Bridge and Tunnel 7" 2nd Press on Yellow /59. It's listed in some of the text for other variants but the variant itself is not an option to choose. It's a No Idea record with like 500 variants.  What would be the easiest way to add that variant to this?

There's a How To section  /forum on discogs and it's not easy, but if I could learn to add a variant to a pressing already there you can. (I'm 54 and not computer savvy). Like someone said, Edit the Master Release by Copying a Draft and go from there. Have a link to copy/paste in that at least is close to pertinent - if not the webpage showing the  pressing numbers. etc.

Yes, there are some OCD people over there that will tear you up if you do it wrong, but they get around to fixing it. It's just the internet.

I have never done a new a new listing from scratch as the liner notes, credits, etc. would take longer than I have time for. 

 

Edit: some very nice folks posted ^^^ :)

Once you're finished with your new variant, it will show up as a separate entry on the band's main page.

I see these stragglers all the time, and to bring them under the umbrella of the master release, click on the Right side of the master release where it says "Edit Master Release"

All the variants will show up with check boxes, and your new entry will have a box that is not checked. Check it, and then add some notes on the bottom right (not required), and submit. voila, the new variant is home with all the other pressings. :)

 

 

Edited by drds89
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