ShadowMusic - future of this website and the thinking so far

[abstamaria]

A screenshot of the local car club’s’s Facebook page, showing its photo albums.

Andy

[winkrich]

Just wanted to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed over the years and to our great site organizers. It's been a wonderful ride hearing all those opinions about the music we love and the characters who created it. Thanks everyone!

[MikeAB]

Sad to see this go. So many of the good times slipping away now.

I miss the regularity of tours like Hank/Moody Blues coming around every two years or so - acts like that can never be replaced (maybe apart from Steve Hackett who is not exactly a spring chicken himself).

But watch out Charlie Hall - your site is soon to get an avalanche.

[Shadbarmy1]

Sorry to read this. I have gained much knowledge from the folks on here (who know who they are by my thanks previously). I haven't been on for a while as I have been helping my 99 year old mum after a fall, when she broke her arm, then get back to this sad news. Thanks again for all the help and advice. It was and still is, much appreciated, so I'll triple echo my thanks and try to "Dance On"!

[Iain Purdon]

We have carefully considered the various suggestions you have made following our announcement about the future of the site.

We believe there can't be any significant Shadows questions that haven't already been answered over the many years we've been running. So we plan to retain the essence of what’s here but to withdraw the facilities for posting, private messaging and moderating. There will be no need for anyone to log on. ShadowMusic will become purely a reference site available to anybody.

Getting the site ready for its new role will take us time and we will leave things as they are until further notice.

Some have suggested that we should create a Facebook equivalent, either as well as this one or instead. But - and it’s a big but - to maintain the standards of this site, a Facebook presence would need to be moderated and someone would have to take on that role. With an unmoderated Facebook page or group, sooner or later someone gets on and starts annoying other users with their behaviour. It mushrooms. You’ve only to look at the site formerly knowns as Twitter, which is packed with such rubbish. We got rid of that kind of thing very quickly in the early months of this site. We would expect any Facebook presence of ours to be reputable and legally sound. None of the current ShadowMusic team wishes to volunteer for such a task.

[bazmusicman]

I understand exactly what you are saying Iain, with a facebook page you would be solving one problem but creating another!
Thank you and the team for everything you have done for us all.

Regards,
Baz.

[JimN]

I volunteer.

I already run several Facebook Groups which are fairly well-known round here and would undertake to carry the links to the existing archive as well as to run a new ShadowMusic Community Facebook Group as tightly as circumstances require.

As a matter of fact, I have already started constructing such a page, though it is not as yet a public place.

[362436]

Thanks in advance Jim.
I have been following all the comments with various suggestions but most appeared to be against the Facebook proposal.
You are prepared to tackle what appears to be an incredible workload and I wonder if you will be able to manage every aspect involved.
Should you require any assistance will you be looking to members for help of any sort?
I know I'm a bit of a distance from everyone but will offer my services if needed.
All my best, cheers for now.

[JimN]

Hi, Ian,

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

You are quite right. In my other FB Groups (the curated ones dealing with Shadows 45s, EPs, Albums, plus one dealing with the venerated Bell Musical Instruments catalogue), I gratefully accept the assistance of others, including Paul Wray here in the UK and Ian Kershaw in Australia. I also help out on a couple of other groups , including one dealing with TV theme tunes which is bombarded from time to time with off-topic posts.

I would envisage seeking the assistance of several existing ShadowMusic Community members if I were to launch the Group I have currently called "Provisional ShadowMusic Community".

My current thinking on the operation of such a group is that there would be just one discussions forum (taking account of the reduced traffic here these days), plus a series of references to archived discussion threads within this Community. If you are offering assistance, I would be eager to take it! Coverage on both sides of the world is very helpful!

Best wishes,

JN (currently six hours behind GMT).

[JimN]

My current FB Groups - run with a firm hand in order to prevent spam and other undesirable material - are:

The Shadows' Albums (Curated)
The Shadows' UK EPs (Curated)
The Shadows' non-UK EPs (Curated) [that was a mistake - they ought to have been combined!]
The Shadows' 45rpm Singles (Curated)
Beatles UK EPs

Bell Musical Instruments - the catalogue dreams were made of...
Musical Instruments (Curated) [another catalogue and brochure group]

I also assist the originators of:

Shadows Friends International
Golden Age of Television Themes - 50s, 60s and 70s