Restarting Advice

I am back again. Making noob mistakes already (ha!) so bear with me. I have been collecting a lot of CDs and data on local Western NY bands over the past year or two now. Most of it is on paper because I haven't found connections yet. I was trying to figure out how you all were using the "sandbox" entries because I had one accidentally go there, does it work to enter them and start getting them connected even if I don't have that connection into the live data yet? Or better to keep it in my notes?

I have reread the rules/instructions a bunch of times recently to refresh my memories. For the record I didn't see the s/t anywhere, that would be a good note to add right in the instructions. I had forgotten it.

I think the others have loaded quite a bit into their sandboxes, but I usually avoid it. I prefer clicking around on Discogs or Encyclopaedia Metallum until I find something that connects, and then trying to work backwards. If there's a large group of interconnecting bands I may start a sandbox, but I've only ever had one such group going at a time.

If you find a connection for your sandboxed entries through someone else's queue, you may have to temporarily add a dummy member from the live DB to bump the entries out of your sandbox.

I have a considerable amount of stuff in my sandbox. I sometimes research a particular compilation in order to break into an area we haven't covered. I will enter everything on that compilation, and then gradually work outwards from each element until I find something links. Then there is an instant new subtree of stuff which can be worked through. This was my technique when I entered a lot of Finnish avant-garde stuff.

If something never links, then it stays in sandbox indefinitely. And then someone will release that magic linking item, like the Kate Bush live album cleared her entire back catalogue for entry.

What do you have to do to get them to connect in once a connection is there, or is it automatic?

It only automatically bumps out of your sandbox if the connection gets made by your own entries. Otherwise you can do the dummy live member thing I mentioned. But a sandboxed entry connected through someone else's entries can still be made live - it's just harder for us to find.

Ah okay, I get that now. Thanks!

How was this post two years ago already? My local Western NY list has grown tremendously but still no link in band member wise. The good news? A couple musicians I know here just started a new band and are in the process of recording a new album. One of the guys in the band will be my link in. In the meantime I'll keep working on my paper trail :-)

Hey kribbit, do you have some of those Western NY bands in your sandbox now? If you give some of the band names, maybe we can help you get them unsandboxed.

I never put them in my sandbox I have a folder with lots of paper trees, still no connections I found. Why do Western NY original artists like solo projects so much? HA! My main ones I'd like to start with, because I own the releases:

Immaculate Mary
Maybe Never
Streetlight Circus
Cyanide Scream
Lot 16
Tommy Brunett Band
The Meddling Kids