Ideas
Add a Top-level Audio/Music Section?
I'm a little confused how the Multimedia Section's taxonomy is intended to work.
Other sites like the FA or DeviantArt model falls into the trap of having a labyrinth of subcategories. Conversely, Booru sites' tag-based system makes no distinction between different categories of media. FurryNetwork seems to be using both Categories AND Tags.
The tag system works a little cleaner in artwork than the multimedia section. For instance if I go to the Artwork section and type "music" into the tag filter, it will return pictures that have to do with music (assuming the artist included that tag in zir submission). But... if I go into the Multimedia section and type the "music" tag, so far only 9 submissions return.. but I know darn well there are more than 9 songs uploaded to the site. :) If I type "video" only TWO submissions are returned...
So how do we deal with the Multimedia section? Do we make tons of subcategories? It would become quite the slew of them.
As far as the Audio/Music category goes, I'm very much in favor if giving that art form its own section entirely. Two reasons for this:
- Just like art, photography or stories, audio alone does not constitute multimedia; you have to have more than one element combined (e.g.: art and sound, or photo and sound) for it to be multimedia. Therefore, just like artwork, stories, or photos, audio constitutes its own category/section.
- All the audiophiles and furry musicians would love you for it! It would be the first of its kind--an entire section dedicated JUST to that art form. That's never been done before since the Furry Music Foundation created its site back in the 1990's. They've been attempting to get off the ground for years, so this would be a big step in helping that effort.
Answer
That's actually a really big usability issue - not being able to tell types of submission from one another.
Perhaps adding a dropdown to the search form - say, "Show only...." with a dropdown (All, Music, Video, Animations/Games)?
You mean like, perhaps a drop-down on the right side column? Could work. From a design standpoint I worry about how crowded the layout could become if we're not careful. Depending how how delimited we want that drop-down to be, I could foresee that thing becoming really massive.
To avoid making the dropdown massive, a category for other alongside with music/video/animation/games could easily do it.
I kinda feel like the Multimedia section is already being treated as "other" right now. That's kinda the problem. I just think since audio is a single-malt type of media it should get its own category.
Artwork, Audio, Photos, Stories, Videos, Flash
- Artwork is a visual medium that doesn't move unless it's a GIF
- Audio is sound only.
- Photos are visual medium taken by camera rather than drawn or rendered.
- Stories are written.
- Video is a Multimedia type that combines moving pics w/ sound but is non-interactive
- Flash is an media type that may or may not include interactivity
I'm wondering if PDFs will be accomodated (or are they already?)
"Other"? Well, could be other types of files, perhaps maybe SVG/vector images, other filetypes if accepted. I don't see too much use unless they want to open the site to something more like DeviantArt all together.
I think that would pretty much cover all the bases.
I meant the other to be inside the multimedia tab, if we were to add the dropdown inside the category like varka said. Audio and video could be separated entirely tho.
Customer support service by UserEcho
That's actually a really big usability issue - not being able to tell types of submission from one another.
Perhaps adding a dropdown to the search form - say, "Show only...." with a dropdown (All, Music, Video, Animations/Games)?