I’m continuing to streamline the process and trying not to break too much
The Needs Review page now has filters by State and Genre/Format. The default is still to show stations where the software already flagged the station as needing human review. A new Option is added for “Check Website” where all websites not reviewed in xxx days will show up, sorted with the oldest first
(Click Image to view full screen)
One of the problems with the entire volunteer thing is it looks so massive when I say there are 10,000 streaming stations.
I’m going to be my own volunteer. CharlotteNC is me without my super powers and how I’m testing that the programs work reasonably. I’m going to “own” North Carolina and fix all the problems, and visit the 300 or so web sites to review them to see if what I’m hoping for is unreasonable. You can see, North Carolina has 5 “Issues” that need to be cleared up. That’s not a major time commitment – and once they are fixed, the future work will be minimal – unless I choose to take over Idaho or something.
Since I disbanded the volunteer program a few years ago, it won’t be a shock that Editor is the most active user. Just as a starting point, here is what the current state of things is:
+----------------+--------+ | username | ucount | +----------------+--------+ | editor | 6063 | | WesternMA | 539 | | TheJerseyDevil | 311 | | Devo | 167 | | 3tooz | 158 | | mazzonem002 | 155 | | jbi001 | 143 | | fhiggins | 90 | | briand75 | 68 | | RadioListener | 50 | | SumItUp | 26 | | Robrrt | 25 | | Floridave | 21 | | gweldar | 15 | | CharlotteNC | 15 | | NULL | 11 | | greenheart | 10 | | w5mx | 9 | | Linda S. | 9 | | foyle | 9 | | janderson021 | 8 | | salubrious | 7 | | snolly605tg | 7 | | firetech | 5 | | florida fresh | 5 | +----------------+--------+
If we go with the FourSqareish “Mayor” notion that the person who goes somewhere the most “owns” it, here is how the country is at the start
+----------------+--------+--------+ | username | Statex | ucount | +----------------+--------+--------+ | WesternMA | AL | 11 | | Devo | AR | 12 | | WesternMA | AZ | 9 | | WesternMA | CA | 22 | | TheJerseyDevil | CO | 17 | | WesternMA | FL | 37 | | WesternMA | GA | 19 | | WesternMA | IA | 8 | | TheJerseyDevil | ID | 7 | | WesternMA | IL | 9 | | WesternMA | IN | 19 | | WesternMA | KS | 15 | | WesternMA | KY | 11 | | Devo | LA | 9 | | WesternMA | MA | 11 | | WesternMA | MD | 5 | | WesternMA | MI | 19 | | WesternMA | MN | 10 | | fhiggins | MO | 9 | | Devo | MS | 23 | | WesternMA | MT | 11 | | WesternMA | NC | 17 | | WesternMA | NE | 6 | | WesternMA | NH | 5 | | mazzonem002 | NJ | 5 | | WesternMA | NM | 7 | | WesternMA | NY | 44 | | WesternMA | OH | 20 | | WesternMA | OK | 10 | | WesternMA | OR | 15 | | WesternMA | PA | 19 | | TheJerseyDevil | SC | 6 | | WesternMA | TN | 15 | | WesternMA | TX | 28 | | 3tooz | UT | 7 | | WesternMA | VA | 17 | | fhiggins | WA | 7 | | WesternMA | WI | 11 | | TheJerseyDevil | WY | 18 | +----------------+--------+--------+
Here is the list by Station Format:
+----------------+--------+----------------------------+ | username | ucount | FormatName | +----------------+--------+----------------------------+ | WesternMA | 20 | News / Talk | | TheJerseyDevil | 17 | Sports | | WesternMA | 5 | Unknown Format | | WesternMA | 11 | Country | | WesternMA | 44 | Oldies | | TheJerseyDevil | 16 | Soft/Lite Rock | | jbi001 | 5 | Educational | | WesternMA | 28 | Religious Ministry | | TheJerseyDevil | 9 | Catholic | | WesternMA | 9 | Ethnic | | TheJerseyDevil | 21 | Gospel | | WesternMA | 37 | Disney | | 3tooz | 9 | Classic Rock / Hits | | 3tooz | 10 | AC / Variety / Mix | | WesternMA | 9 | Local News / Talk / Sports | | WesternMA | 5 | Alternative/Hard/New Rock | | TheJerseyDevil | 18 | Public Radio | | mazzonem002 | 13 | Mexican Regional | | 3tooz | 14 | Spanish News/Talk | | mazzonem002 | 5 | Spanish CHR/Latino | | TheJerseyDevil | 16 | Spanish Religious | | TheJerseyDevil | 8 | Silent | | WesternMA | 15 | No Web Site | +----------------+--------+----------------------------+
I’m a little reluctant to push this idea – as it creates the incentive for people to “rush” and “Review” everything without actually don’t any review. Any thoughts how I can discourage that?
NC status
Here is an updated status after two weeks of new volunteers helping:
Before: (see above)
Prepare for compulsory volunteerism. I fully understand this likely will end the web site. That's an outcome I'm prepared to accept.
Is there a way I can sign up to work on 10 stations today… and then another 10 for tomorrow or the next day? I have some time but not enough to sign up for every station in the state of California if you know what I mean. Is there a queue of stations needing work were I can check one out so no one else works on it until I am done? … or do you still have statewide blocks of work?
As per the example above, with a list of call letters, I can use google, bing, yahoo etc and locate their new websites…. do a block of them as a mechanized process so that someone later can look for the streams… etc.
Not sure how to help.
Given the lack of feedback, at least for now I’m not pursuing the idea of any kind of formal “ownership” of groups of stations. You can do one a day or you can do a hundred a day, and which you choose to focus on is entirely up to you. Start from the assumption that I’m competent and most of the current information is accurate until proven otherwise.
I think the most effective way would be to focus on stations that are geographically close to you, or perhaps a music genre which you have expertise in. Start small. Two thirds of the stations will be nothing but going to the website, seeing that it is still current and clicking the link that says Accurate!
With 15,000 stations, to review each one twice a year means looking at 80 stations a day. Let go of the notion of being Superman – I need more people doing a small amount of work – not two or three people feverishly working all day long.
Looking for websites for stations where I was unable to find one will be very time-consuming and frustrating. I would not recommend doing that until after all of the existing stations that you’re interested in have been verified. Links are provided to generate a reasonable guess as to what might find a station. There may however be better ways to find things them search engines – for instance there is probably a website for the New Jersey Association of broadcasters, which may or may not have useful information.
Links to register and the link to access the volunteer pages were in the prior messages. Just do it. Becoming a volunteer commits you to absolutely nothing. Once I see some tangible results from a few dozen volunteers, maybe I’ll get excited about improving the tools further – for now I see no evidence that people actually care beyond making up reasons why they can’t help.