All members

Don't know if this has been requested before ...
Could you add a link on the band pages that lists all the artists that have ever been in that band?

You're not alone. [bandtoband.com] http://bandtoband.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=113

I've added the list off all the members who played with a band and on which line-up on the main band pages. Right now only a "few" people can see it so let me know what you think and I'll make it live for the world. I hope you get some use out of this because I was reduced to hurling obsenities at my computer trying to get this to work. I'm sweating now.


Kevin

I've already noticed a few formatting problems such as line-up lettering not coinciding, unknown aliases, and proper timelines, all of which I will address once my brain becomes un-fried.


Kevin

Yep, if a member doesn't connect to something else he doesn't show up either. I want to cry now.


Kevin

Well, it looked good at first, but it's totally screwed up for L.A. Guns. Well, not totally, but it's not exactly correct either. Nickey Alexander, Tracii Guns and Mick Cripps aren't in the 'M' lineup (with Stoddard and Black).
And Tracii and Phil are missing in the 'I' lineup as well.

Personally, I don't really need the additional lineup information. You can always click on the artist to see the albums he/she played on.

It seems to be working okay for me so far, but I've only seen it for a few specific pages.

I think I've fixed all the outstanding problems with the Members section on the band pages, let me know if anyone catches any problems. Thanks.


Kevin

could you also make the letters, that represent the line-ups, clickable so that we can view a page of all the releases that line-up put out?

I found another small glitch:
[bandtoband.com] http://bandtoband.com/index.php?Page=Search&BandId=1795

This page shows an unknown member for the third album but shows an empty string where an unknown member should be for the second one.

I've patched that glitch on The Cramps page. I have been tinkering with the idea of how to implement the clickable line-ups but haven't come to a conclusion as to the best solution for that just yet. I'll let you know when I come up with something.


Kevin

The 'unknown member' problem still occurs on this page:
[bandtoband.com] http://bandtoband.com/index.php?Page=Search&BandId=6550

I believe the caching mechanism had some bad data still stored on that last glitch but I've flushed everything now so it looks good.


Kevin

All line-ups are now clickable and will show you the releases by a particular line-up. If you've got any more suggestions let me know.


Kevin

Really? I can't seem to click the letters. Am I just stupid?

Also, I'd like to request a change in the sorting function, though maybe it doesn't make sense.

I think members should be sorted first by value in binary. "WTF does that mean?" you think. That means that you convert the "present" or "absent" in each lineup to a 1 or 0, concatenate into a binary number for each artist, and then sort by that. (Then within those groupings sort alphabetically.)

Since this probably still isn't clear, let me give an example and hope my ASCII art will remain semi-legible:

Input:
Dave: A B C (= 111)
John: A x x (= 100)
Fred: x B C (= 011)
Mark: x x C (= 001)
Harv: A B x (= 110)

Output:
Dave: A B C
Harv: A B
John: A
Fred: x B C
Mark: x x C

This sort has two nice properties:
(1) It continues the current pattern of putting "all the people who played in A" first
(2) It sorts members such that people who played on more lineups, especially more early lineups (which is often the "important" part of a band's history) appear first. The members who have been present throughout the band's history, which are undoubtedly the most important, appear at the very top.

Another optional sort function that sort of does (2) (though with a bias toward most lineups instead of early lineups) is one that simply sorts by most lineups, with early lineups as the tiebreaker. This would produce slightly different output for the above input:
Dave: A B C
Harv: A B
Fred: x B C
John: A
Mark: x x C