[Debate] Using Music On Your ProBoard

[Bretty]

This reminds me of one board I went to.

It was a while ago, so I'm not sure if they're still around. It was a general talk forum, and it was doing pretty well. They had a graphics designer on board who made a whole template just for the forum, plus they had a lively community (including myself) and monthly contests.

It was all going good till the admin decided to add some lively music to the main page. And from that day forward, the rants and the pleads came streaming in to take the music off. But the admin, being the brilliant admin he is, simply replied by saying:

I'm keeping it because it's cool.

Needless to say, I, among a load of other members, abandoned the board there and then (the admin probably didn't think losing around a 100 members was cool). I still haven't regretted it.

Maybe the admin took the music down after we left - I don't know. But he probably learnt that music may be cool on a MySpace page, but not on a forum!

So, to make the message loud and clear:

Never use music on a Proboard!

[Former Member]

No I know this is a question with in a question, but if one set up a small drop down menu at the top of the fourm and the users had the ability to select the music they wanted and if they didnt want any music playing they jsut had to put it 'None'. Do you think something like this would be ok for a forum?

I would realy want to know what you think about this, becouse I need to know if I should remove it from my site or not.

[Foozlebootz]

I say no for all of the reasons already stated. However, here is a suggestion for say Starwars sites - Have the music only on a splash page - with permission of course. Once a person has joined they can just bookmark the main site and avoid the splash page.

Personally, I run like hell when I encounter music on a web site or forum.

[Former Member]

Ya well the music don't play unless the user tells it to and it don't look tacky. Only if I can show you all what I'm talking about, but I already tried that and the URL to my site was deleted.

[Beatle Aimee]

Don't put music on unless the users have to press a button to get it to START playing. Let me tell you, every time I'm on a site with streaming music that I can't stop, all my programs freeze up and I have to shut down the computer the hard way, and one time I lost half of a school report because of streaming music!!

[Former Member]

Its not by a button, but my a drop down menu that by fault is set to no music

[Beatle Aimee]

Well that's what I meant. A button or something.

[Jennie]

I have a site called Daydream roleplays and thought a small on/off button to have Daydream in blue as background music would be quite a nice touch.

What do you think?

[Former Member]

I really don't like the idea of music on a forum.
I have seen many forums with the media player embedded on their global headers / footers and every time you load a page, make a thread, view a board (basically click a link on the forum) the song stops and re-loads again!
This can not only be annoying, but it makes you hate the song, due to hearing it so much
To have music playing on a forum(that members will like) they should:

• Choose a song / theme song that will be liked by the majority of the members.
  
• Change the song every so often - as the song can get boring =p
  
• Put it in a pop up window so that the song can carry on playing - or be stopped easily by the user if they don't want to hear it, and not so they have to click stop every time they click a link on the board
  

Personally I'd never use music on my forum, unless it was for a short (and I mean short) period of time only =)

Edit: Typo =p

[Graham]

I've got music on one of my forums (Smerkers) but i thought that it would get rather tedious if it kept playing each time one were to load the page. I found it easier if the player were put on a seperate page, and a link put on the main page so if people wanted to listen to the music, they could. It wouldn't interfere with their (hopeful) enjoyment of the forum.
Also, so people would feel more "integrated", i hold votes as to what the songs should be - if i can find a copy of it, it goes up. It helps the community side of the forum, i feel.

[jetpilot1000]

I used to have music on my forums, but it caused so much problems that I took it off. Some of my friends said it actually froze their computer trying to load. And overall for most people it was a very slow loading process, too long to be worth it. So I simply don't use it any more.

I might would make a specific board and threads created specifically for a song, that way they would only have the music box if they click the thread to get to it, and it doesn't take up space on the main page. Those are my thoughts on the issue.

[Short of Daybreak]

Here's my opinion:
I don't really like when there's music on a forum, that's just my opinion. I like going on a board, where it's quiet, and also there doesn't need to be any extra loading. Also, then you can get your headset and listen to whatever you want. I just think it's annoying to have sound on a fourm.

[MotoModding]

Defiently annoying! (how do u do it No seriously..how) they should have a choice of a on or off button and sound controll and if possible a choice of songs

[Snakeair]

brandoni said:

Defiently annoying! (how do u do it No seriously..how) they should have a choice of a on or off button and sound control and if possible a choice of songs

I don't like music on forum's either, but a option to turn it off would be great. Some people make like jamming while hanging out at the forum and some people think it's annoying. But one thing that could make everyone happy is a choice of music like alternative, or classical. Playing 1 song over and over again is not a good think.

Ok, my small rant is done.

[kizna]

I personaly think you should have music on your fourms. It can be entertaining, and makes the board more intresting. The downside is the loading on older computers. Many people have complained that it slows their computer down. I would suggest a music player, where it is off when you first come to the board, but you can play it if you want to.