From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V6 #59 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, March 23 2006 Volume 06 : Number 059 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] La La La, I Can Hear You ["Michael Mitton" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:42:42 -0800 From: "Michael Mitton" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] La La La, I Can Hear You If anyone is interested in trying out lala.com, you can get an "exclusive" beta invite here: http://www.lala.com/invite/pcworld It's still got its kinks (beta!), but already it's pretty slick. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:52:01 -0500 From: Dan Sallitt Subject: Re: [loud-fans] La La La, I Can Hear You > If anyone is interested in trying out lala.com, you can get an > "exclusive" beta invite here: > > http://www.lala.com/invite/pcworld I'm confused about two things. 1) They seem to want you to sent CDs out without anyone else offering to send you one. I thought they were going to make matches, sort of. Does la la let you know when someone has a CD you want, and get a trade going? Or are the giving and receiving components completely separate from each other? I'm reluctant to send CDs off into the ether. 2) Do they want us to list all the CDs we have, or just the ones we want to get rid of? Why would I want to list CDs I want to keep? And yet they seem to be using the CDs I list as an indication of my taste - they keep calling it my "collection," not my "reject pile." - - Dan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:31:36 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: [loud-fans] La La La, I Can Hear You On 3/22/06, Dan Sallitt wrote: > > If anyone is interested in trying out lala.com, you can get an > > "exclusive" beta invite here: > > > > http://www.lala.com/invite/pcworld > > I'm confused about two things. > > 1) They seem to want you to sent CDs out without anyone else offering to > send you one. I thought they were going to make matches, sort of. Does > la la let you know when someone has a CD you want, and get a trade going? > Or are the giving and receiving components completely separate from each > other? I'm reluctant to send CDs off into the ether. answers most of that. I think the working assumption is that when you send out a CD, you become entitled to receive one of the CDs on your want list. Unless your want list is full of utterly obscure albums, it's rather likely that someone will have at least one of them. Note that you're under no obligation to send out CDs at all (of course, if you don't, you won't receive any): you could just use the site as a "here's what I have, here's what I want" list. For what purpose, I don't know - but you could do that. Note also that it costs you nothing to send out CDs - therefore, even if you don't get a CD in exchange (unlikely) it costs you nothing - and since you're under no obligation to send out CDs, you wouldn't do so unless you wanted to get rid of it. > 2) Do they want us to list all the CDs we have, or just the ones we want > to get rid of? Why would I want to list CDs I want to keep? And yet > they seem to be using the CDs I list as an indication of my taste - they > keep calling it my "collection," not my "reject pile." You can list the CDs you have but do not want to get rid of so the site's engines can build a better notion of what you like (the "have" list has checkboxes for "keep" or "trade" that you can mark for each title you enter). As critics of earlier versions of the site pointed out, it's hard to get a sense of someone's taste from what they're getting rid of. Again, though, there's no compelling reason to have the site build up a profile of your taste - except insofar as the site is also trying to become a music-fan's community. Over time, the CDs you *want* would certainly be a better indicator of your taste than the CDs you want to get rid of, of course. I haven't done much yet in the way of either listing CDs I have but want to keep, or even going through my collection to cull titles. So far, everything I've listed (wow - 6 titles!) has been stuff I've bought newer editions of. Which raises another point: the site *does* distinguish between different editions of same titles, although sometimes you want to add a note or something so people know what they're getting (although for $1, who's gonna complain if it's not *exactly* the right edition, esp. when I believe you can simply ask?). For instance, I replaced the '80s-era 2-fer of Zappa's _We're Only In it for the Money_/_Lumpy Gravy_ with the single disc versions of each...but potential buyers of that 2-fer need to know that it's the one with the rerecorded bass and drums on _Money_, so I put a note to that effect (I think it was actually in the form of a review of that title). Oh - and it also lists titles you receive automatically on your "have" list - so you should (one presumes) mark those "keep." Hope that helps - I think it's a very cool idea, especially for people more inclined than I am to edit one's collection. (Only bug so far? It's taking them a *long* time to get my initial set of shipping envelopes to me...so I haven't been able to send out the first disc someone requested yet. Grr.) - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V6 #59 ******************************