beatlegdb.com

Hey all,
There's a lot of great material being shared, and we are probably past the time of trying to standardize the way it is done.

First of all a reminder that the rules are clear: official releases are not allowed.
These suggestions won't all apply to fan remixes, so let's not get caught up with those for now.

This thread will be an open discussion for beatleg share formats and once we decide on various 'standards', I'll create a new sticky to show the guidelines that we've decided to use.

Keep in mind there will be exceptions. Not everyone is sharing something they have ripped themselves. The expectation should not be that in order to post, a user has to have the ability and go back to clean up whatever problems are in the files. It is recommended though for the users to point this out in the body of their post.

I've filled in some basics to get things started, but I haven't ripped anything in probably 20 years so I'm not up on the latest technology there. Let me know if you have any suggestions for something missing below.

SUBJECT: [Artist] - [Title] - [Label] - [LabelID] Artist is probably only necessary for solo stuff
POST BODY: Artist, Title, Label, LabelID, Description of contents including source if known, Track Listing, link
RIP METHODOLOGY: TBD
FILE TYPE: Lossless FLAC preferred. However it's better to share 'as-is' mp3s (or other lossless formats) and let people here do their magic rather than make a potentially poor FLAC conversion.
MINIMUM FILE TAGS: Author, Album, Title, Track Number
FILE NAME CONVENTION:
--FOLDER: [Artist] - [Title] - [Label]
----(if more than one disk) SUB-FOLDER: [CDx]
----FILES: [track number] [Song Title]
SHARING PREFERENCES: mega / we / gdrive / etc?

The above are all just suggestions to get things rolling. What say you?

FLAC you very much!

Besides sloppy shares I always wonder why people post WAVs that are twice as big as FLACs... It hurts going up and coming down.

As for FLAC conversion, I use the free XLD for batch processing so if there any concerns about the app let know!

William--can I call you Bill?:

Seriously, I never thought that bootlegzone could be replicated, even when you announced your intentions on another website.

I was wrong, and am thankful that you've gotten this up and (more than) running...

My only concern with having a folder naming convention is that everyone has different ways to store their files, and I don't know if it will discourage people from sharing if they have to rename their files and folders just to upload it.

I'm all for the posting conventions though for sure. Would it maybe make sense to have a Beatlegs and Solo Beatlegs (and Video and Solo Video) forums separated? I know there was a big discussion on BootlegZone about having too many sub-categories, but also if you split out Beatles versus solo then you could drop the artist as part of the subject for the Beatles forum.

I don't know, I'm just spitballing.

My other fear is that if this becomes mandatory, the extra couple of minutes required to format things to these requirements might deter people from posting shares. Leading to less shares.

I agree with 20 years ago. Most people or some people just pop in drop some goodies and go.....I don't want to have to fill out a job application to post something....I think it's futile......

I totally agree about not wanting to discourage people. It should be framed more as a helpful guide for those who post and not a firm mandatory requirement.

There are people who ask about sharing and it would be good to have a sticky to guide them to…

True, too many formatting rules might slow things down, but you just addressed that.

Perhaps at the very least, uploaders should provide source and procedural documentation (especially for fan remixes), check tracks for cleanness (ie, no long empty or noisy tops and tails, no bad track spilts or uneven channel volume), no typos or sloppy track naming, FLAC whenever possible – and friends don't let friends use Mega or streaming-only services!

Not being that familiar with PHPBB or whatever is backing this site - I'm wondering if there are any mods that make something like that more accessible so it's an option on the post screen. I suppose we can save a draft of it.

edit: or I suppose an offline utility /script that could read a folder of contents and generate such a post/doc...

robbmacc wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:45 pm William--can I call you Bill?:

My mother calls me William; my father calls me Bill.
Billy is what my friends call me