Bas's dashboard

A comment on the problem "Newsweek 2010 repeat stumbles" in StumbleUpon:

Yeah, good idea. Hope I don't forget to unblock then ^_^ – Bas, on December 19, 2009 01:01

Bas replied on December 19, 2009 00:46 to the problem "Newsweek 2010 repeat stumbles" in StumbleUpon:

I have a similar problem... A really high ratio of my stumbles are directed towards the (lame) 2010.newsweek.com pages... All sponsored stumbles.

I like Newsweek, but this subdomain and stumble spam is annoying and I'm thinking of using the 'block' function to block the site to prevent them from coming up altogether...

The problem is that it doesn't just block the subdomain, but the entire Newsweek domain - incl. parts of the site that I wouldn't mind stumbling upon at all.

Bas reported a problem in StumbleUpon on December 19, 2009 00:44:

Too many Newsweek 20/10 sponsored stumbles...

It's really making SU suck... and I really like Newsweek and would like to SU on them again, but the only way to stop these particular sponsored stumbles from showing up is by blocking the whole newsweek.com domain... Being able to block the 2010.newsweek.com subdomain would resolve this.

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

working fine for me. – Bas, on December 06, 2009 17:28

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Yeah, David got in touch with me because initially I complained on Twitter and they're really reading along, but they're busy. It's a fast growing start up... They don't have a huge amount of employees, but they have a lot of things to do...

And it's cool that the CEO/Founders themselves have been involved in this discussion and are keeping an eye on it. I don't find it likely that they'll have a solution for us in the short term. They can't change the site and then backtrack every time someone complains. I wouldn't mind if they went back just this once though ;-) but that's highly improbable and really not justifiable in the eyes of (potential) investors. – Bas, on December 03, 2009 21:38

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Yeah, David got in touch with me because initially I complained on Twitter and they're really reading along, but they're busy. It's a fast growing start up... They don't have a huge amount of employees, but they have a lot of things to do...

And it's cool that the CEO/Founders themselves have been involved in this discussion and are keeping an eye on it. I don't find it likely that they'll have a solution for us in the short term. They can't change the site and then backtrack every time someone complains. I wouldn't mind if they went back just this once though ;-) but that's highly improbable and really not justifiable in the eyes of (potential) investors. – Bas, on December 03, 2009 21:37

A comment on the idea "tracklists for dj mixes" in SoundCloud:

Hm, I don't think they make a mess... When I signed up to Soundcloud, it appeared very unclear if DJ sets were actually allowed on here. I decided to give it a go, nothing happened... so I figured I could post my DJ sets here.

The thing is, they're not specialized in DJ sets and with the recent change from tracks to minutes allowances, I suspect the number of DJ sets uploaded will decline a lot. So... these features would be useful, very useful even... but I doubt Soundcloud is willing to spend their development hours catering to a niche they're not even purposely targeting.

We have to think of a way that would be more useful to both the regular users of Soundcloud (producers) as well as DJs. If a suggestion is framed like that, and offers significant advantages to the main target group of Soundcloud, then they're much more likely to pick it up and go with it. :-) – Bas, on December 03, 2009 12:43

Bas replied on December 03, 2009 12:36 to the problem "Long topics are cut off." in Get Satisfaction:

Thanks!! :-) Woohoo.

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Ah, it's only 500 if you can pay in one go. Else it's 59 per month. – Bas, on November 30, 2009 11:34

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

It's 500 euros per year. So if you divide that by 12, it's about 42 euros per month total. I think it goes slightly against the terms of service of SoundCloud (accountsharing or sth), but if it's really branded as a collective / netlabel, then it should be fine (and at least Soundcloud will make some money off of the DJs participating). – Bas, on November 30, 2009 11:32

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

It's 500 euros per year. So if you divide that by 12, it's about 42 euros per month total. I think it goes slightly against the terms of service of SoundCloud (accountsharing or sth), but if it's really branded as a collective / netlabel, then it should be fine (and at least Soundcloud will make some money off of the DJs participating). – Bas, on November 30, 2009 11:30

Bas replied on November 26, 2009 23:13 to the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Oh, and for the community side...

You/we could of course set up a group of DJs (kind of like a netlabel) and all chip in 5 euros per month for the 'Pro Plus' account (unlimited everything + so much functionality). You only need 10 DJs to make this work. It's kind of 'gaming the system', but probably permissible.

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Hmm, if it's just the downloads you're worried about, I think it's cheaper to just set up a domain and hosting with a hosting service, although they don't offer the additional extra's that upgrading to solo on Soundcloud gives.

I think the only way Soundcloud could compete with that is by applying P2P technologies, like advanced functionalities of bittorrent, to the downloading. This way they could also loosen up the download limit a little, but it requires a lot of effort to get such a system in place and I doubt Soundcloud currently has the manpower for that. – Bas, on November 26, 2009 23:10

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Hmm, if it's just the downloads you're worried about, I think it's cheaper to just set up a domain and hosting with a hosting service, although they don't offer the additional extra's that upgrading to solo on Soundcloud gives.

I think the only way Soundcloud could compete with that is by applying P2P technologies, like advanced functionalities of bittorrent, to the downloading. This way they could also loosen up the download limit a little, but it requires a lot of effort to get such a system in place and I doubt Soundcloud currently has the manpower for that. – Bas, on November 26, 2009 23:10

Bas replied on November 26, 2009 20:43 to the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

Just had another idea. Someone commented on a thread about this topic: http://soundcloud.com/forums/sc-annou...

Grade E said:

"The thing that is so frustrating is that this is not what soundcloud was founded on.. I'm an early adopter.. I remember when the video on the home page with the chick talking made the statement "oh yeah and there's no size limits" .... sure you could argue there is still no file size limits but there is definitely a limit and this is NOT the brave new world that Soundcloud lured all of us musicians in to. It's sad really. As I said in my previous post. Soundcloud has lost some it's soul."

This gave me an idea. The cloud grows. Storage gets cheaper, bandwith gets cheaper. Look at GMail for instance - and their ever expanding inbox...

How about you just add some minutes to the total allowance every month? Let the cloud grow :-)

This way you:
1) Don't have to make radical changes so soon after another radical change;
2) Meet part of your community half-way, while also pleasing the rest of your community;
3) Don't impose rigid limitations and can stay ahead of potential competition.

It's still not ideal for us DJs/podcasters/etc. but at least the ceiling is moving up.

A comment on the idea "tracklists for dj mixes" in SoundCloud:

Erm, actually, if I were a producer and you were to use one of my tracks in a DJ set you post online without listing it, I'd be quite pissed off. – Bas, on November 26, 2009 20:37

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

I personally dislike Mixcloud because of its 100MB limit per mix, plus the embeddable player isn't as nice as Soundcloud's. Other downsides are: not embeddable in Facebook, hardly any exchange between producers and DJ's on there, plus in my eyes the system is just a lot less elegant.

But it will have to do for now. – Bas, on November 23, 2009 19:51

A comment on the idea "New limits and DJ mixes" in SoundCloud:

I personally dislike Mixcloud because of its 100MB limit per mix, plus the embeddable player isn't as nice as Soundcloud's. Other downsides are: not embeddable in Facebook, hardly any exchange between producers and DJ's on there, plus in my eyes the system is just a lot less elegant.

But it will have to do for now. – Bas, on November 23, 2009 19:51

Bas replied on November 20, 2009 14:11 to the problem "Long topics are cut off." in Get Satisfaction:

Might I ask how shortly 'very shortly' is? (If I were you, I'd answer 'very', but I'm asking more in terms of how many days/weeks)

Bas started following the problem "Long topics are cut off." in Get Satisfaction.