the "new" Harmony Central

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thinskin57

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what the hell were they thinking?! they DESTROYED their website! can't find the reviews. horrible. absolutely horrible. taking them off of my browser's bookmark. have no use for them now.
 
i agree man, i never dug their forums (too many trolls), but i always used their user reviews database as a tool to aid in my purchases. maybe i`m just stoopid and cannot see the magic button :roll:
 
Yeah, I was surprised yesterday with this. It's definitely hard to navigate around on and just looks dumb.
 
Did you read the letter from the CEO? It explains what's going on.....



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Announcement: AN OPEN LETTER FROM CRAIG JOHNSON, HARMONY CENTRAL CEO

Dear Harmony Central,


We listened.


Harmony Central is not just a web site, nor is it bits and bytes. It is a community. This community has been loyal and supportive, and we have been happy to provide a home for what we feel is the most important community in the music world.


Unfortunately, that home has been falling apart at an accelerating rate due to a combination of hardware and software issues, many unique to our situation. To keep the community alive, we made a decision to switch to a more capable platform. Our intention was to take Harmony Central into the 21st century with a site worthy of all of you.


As you know, that is not what happened. After a week of operation, it’s painfully clear HC 2.0 is not ready for prime time. However, we’re also aware that many people are getting familiar with and enjoying the new site, bugs and all, and we respect their opinion too.


So, we are working to create a “hybrid” site. For example, there have been virtually no negative responses and many positive responses about news on HC 2.0, so it makes no sense to roll that element back to the 1.0 version. On the other hand, user reviews on HC 2.0 are, frankly, broken. There are no articles in the 2.0 Resource Center, and due to the video player only recently becoming stable, only a handful of videos in the 2.0 Media Center. And the forums...


This is clearly unacceptable.


Our plan – and there are significant technical challenges, so bear with us – is to maintain those elements of 1.0 that work until the equivalent elements in 2.0 are equal or better, regardless of how long that takes. For example, if you want to go to user reviews, then you could access the 1.0 version until we are absolutely sure that the 2.0 version is better. If you want articles, you’ll go to 1.0 because that’s where they are for now. Same with videos.


Forums are a special case. Our plan is to make most forums available as HC 1.0 / VBulletin forums. There will be some exceptions (like Pro Reviews, as they have so much rich media, and archived forums, as it makes no sense to re-migrate them as they get limited traffic). If particular moderators want their forums on 2.0, that’s fine; if they want to stay with 1.0, that’s fine too. If they want, they can even moderate both and steer them in different directions. We want the moderators – the unsung heroes of Harmony Central – to have full freedom in charting the course of their own communities.


Concurrently, we plan to keep the 2.0 forums open for two reasons. First, these forums need a lot of changes for them to meet our (and your) expectations, so we need a “test lab” to try these changes. Second, based on user feedback, there are people who see the huge potential of the new format but don’t like the implementation, so who better to direct us on how to improve it?


Unfortunately, getting 1.0 back into the picture brings back its problems as well. But if all goes according to plan, 1.0 will remain viable while 2.0 will continue to improve with the help of the community. In a way, it’s the same kind of transition as when Apple went to OS X or Intel chips; old and new platforms were supported until the new platforms were up to the task.


One fact remains certain: We can’t have a site where things don’t work, or that people don’t want to visit. We recognize and deeply regret the disruption to the community. The hybrid approach is risky, but either rolling back completely to 1.0 or trying to tough it out with 2.0 are even riskier. And details need to be worked out: What happens with re-directs? Will you have to log in twice if you want to visit both 1.0 and 2.0? Will 1.0 crash and burn before 2.0 fulfills the community’s expectations? Will it be possible to migrate the 1.0 forums to 2.0 if 2.0 is also live?


So please, this isn’t the last word; this is the first word. But we wanted to let you know as soon as possible what we hope to do. We are certainly aware it’s a compromise, but after studying all the possibilities, it’s the least objectionable combination of a quick fix while simultaneously laying down the long-term foundation we have to pursue.


Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation for our exceptionally hard-working team of moderators and our editorial staff, who have taken the heat for problems not of their own making – particularly Craig Anderton. They made a heroic effort to make a problematic site work, but in the end, even they couldn’t. They have all served as extremely strong advocates for the community. The course of action we are pursuing is based on their input as well as yours.


Reading over your feedback on the new site, yes, I saw anger but more than that, I saw passion for what Harmony Central represents. We do not want – ever – to interfere with that passion.


Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you for speaking, so that we could listen. We can’t promise this will be a glitch-free process, but we will do everything in our power to give you the site you want now while simultaneously building you a better one, with your continued (and greatly appreciated) assistance.


Sincerely,


Craig Johnson

CEO, Harmony Central
 
Well, it's good to see a CEO do what he has to do ... admit they ****** up. I can't believe how bad their site is now. I never really liked their forums because their content is 80% off topic (at very best) but I'd go there for a chuckle from time to time. The reviews were the best place on the net IMO because of the volume.

Anyhoo, I just hope they get their act together.
 
the gist of his letter implies that even though the majority of the users (consumers) liked the original format, and rejected the beta version of the current format, they went ahead and did what none of the users wanted anyways. This apparently because *they* know better what the users want than what their readers/users want. Must have taken their cue from the federal government...I'd like to see how their google revenue is doing these days.
 
Yep, had a problem finding reviews, so I googled what I wanted and was led to the actual review.

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/brand/Mesa%2FBoogie
 
Harmony Central really got way to big for its britches. My old amp tech told me about 4 years ago to take what those people say with a grain of salt. I started spending some time on the site about 6 months ago and truely saw how many ******s there were on there. Just way to freaking big. Bigger isn't always better. Especially when everybody wants to rag on everyone else and not focus on Music stuff in an openminded sort of way.
 
droptrd said:
Rig-Talk is cool too.
MesaGod666 said:
The Boogie Board is the only relevant forum on the internet...Next to GearSlutz.

The End.

I personally found those three to be about the best sites to visit and research with regards to getting some sincere opinions, reviews, and education of musical gear.
 
original poster here. i too found that the site lost its credibility as far as reviews go. with me anyway. they were either totally glowing reviews by noobs w/more money than experience and/or brains, or unfair bashing by haters. i'll stick to this site and gearslutz, personally.
 

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