Even though this website is already very well designed, I have some ideas for the Audiotool website that might be some cool additions:
[I] Portfolio/photo gallery for people visiting your page - similar to how Spotify has theirs set up.
[II] **DMs/private messages; **people can set their DM status to open, closed, or request and would allow Audiotoolers to collaborate, share, and communicate privately - without the need for social media.
[III] GIF profile pictures/track covers. Could be a really nice Audiotool Patreon perk. Also could be a way to show your videos, animations, visualizers, etc.
[IV] Bring back live drafts!! Audiotool was very active and close when there were live drafts posted on the front page for Audiotoolers to visit, chat and work with each other.
[V] Profile banner GIFs/images - similar to SoundCloud's profile format. Would be awesome to have custom work or GIFs to give your page a little more personality.
It would be dope if these ideas sit well with the development team enough for consideration, these are all the suggestions I have for now :)
Comments (19)
This sounds like a great idea! I'm thinking about creating a few concepts for Audiotool at some point, this definitely spawned a few ideas for me so thanks for that! I'll make sure to credit you if I use them within the concepts. :)
The only thing I don't exactly agree with (or see the point of) is DMs. On the sketchbook, it's a great idea! However, considering how small the Audiotool team is (and how they handle their servers), it's not ideal. Here's why:
1: It could put some sort of strain on the servers, therefore using a lot more resources, costing a lot more money and more maintenance.
2: Most people nowadays do own some form of social media. I understand that certain creators wouldn't like to use Social Medias, however I don't think that Audiotool should have direct communication because that can easily side-track Audiotool, making the platform seem like a social media more than a DAW station.
3: Moderation is going to be frustrating for a team like Audiotool, considering their size. Don't get me wrong, their moderation is pretty great! However, that may prevent them from experimenting and working on new features just so they moderate chat messages. You may say that they could hire moderators, but that of course comes with a price.
Those are the 3 main reasons why I don't agree with DMs. Apart from that, love it. <3
Solution for DMs: Just use social media anyways, Discord is probably good.
social media wont cut it, i want my homies on speed dial
Discord means you can have them on speed dial
with the rist ok insta-gaining 5 kilos in fat everytime i open the app
Don't have to constantly attend it though
using another social media platform for DM and group chats is not a solution, just a remedy
also audiotool really is a social media platform for audiotool artists and i don't see anything wrong with that. bringing in DMs could increase moderation if you report a DM. but its not like every DM is going to be moderated
Well, more data to process means more server power is needed to process the data means more strain on the servers. More servers means more power usage means higher energy bills, plus servers create massive amounts of heat and you'd have to have a massive cooling system to deal with a room stuffed full of servers, and running cooling systems also consumes energy which also then means higher energy bills. There is high doubts adding DMs to Audiotool would cause these major price increases for the devs, but it is still a possibility. Also, surely the DMs cannot be monitored, but they can be like Discord DMs where people can just report DMs. That doesn't mean an elimination of an increase in moderation effort for the whole site. Oh and getting more employees to deal with moderation effort increase will just cost more money. If developers are stuck with moderating, they can't develop stuff, and vice versa. It would be great for DMs to be added, but it is somewhat unnecessary and could potentially make things harder for the AT team.
Yeah, I agree with Major. There's much to consider, even things I haven't considered in my original comment. I don't believe that Audiotool should be considered solely as a social media platform. While yes, it does have many aspects of it being a social media, per se: the comments sections under songs, the board, the collaboration feature (I think that would also be considered), etc. However, the main point of Audiotool is it being a DAW, at least that's what I think it's intended to be, correct me if I'm wrong.
I love the idea, don't get me wrong. Implementation may be frustrating though, and considering what Major said, I'd say the cons outweigh the pros. Plus, the current servers on Audiotool (at least I'm pretty sure they're the cause) are notorious for crashing. There would be a lot of maintenance to do, and according to someone closely related to Audiotool, the whole site is based on really old servers, IIRC. I'd prefer slowly reworking the servers onto like, Cloudflare or something before adding new features like DMs. That's my take on it. :p
the idea itself is good because it defers audiotool from other daws, making audiotool a bit more unique, i dont really care bout if its gonna cost more and servers and all of that since i dont have enough knowledge about it, and anything that would make this daw better than daws like FL and ableton, overthinking what damage something will cost may lead the website to just not do anything and stay in the "safezone".
yeah, I get where you're coming from. though my main point is that Audiotool has to work on things that are impacting us users at the moment, such as the frequent crashing and buggy interface. We do have to be considerate on both ends, our end and their end. I wouldn't consider it as overthinking because they are pretty drastic changes that can impact the performance of the site severly. Audiotool's only source of income as far as I'm aware is their social media accounts and our donations. They don't benefit from advertisements like most platforms do, and their product is free. So, I'd cut them some slack.
Managing servers (and upgrading them) comes with a price. DMs would need better servers, the current servers are struggling as is already, so let alone.
How do we feel about everything except the DM idea?
yeah theyre good
Is it possible for us to discuss the idea of having extra photos on each page of the site? Like could it potentially force the servers to deal with more information? Ideas [I], [III], and [V] will be all taken into this discussion.
Fair! So if we had to consider the data being used by pictures, it will definitely leave an impact, especially gif. However, Audiotool can set a limit to how much MBs a media asset is. Per say, a profile picture is forced to be 4MB or less (tbh the system is buggy, sometimes it doesn't even accept 3MB)
They could set a limit to how much data media assets can store. I think before adding any of these new features, they should work on upgrading their servers. Possibly consider CloudFlare Workers too! It will be beneficial for us, it can even fix current bugs like the previously mentioned limit size!
Essentially the problem with I, III, and V are the same as the problem with II. And therefore the fixes for II are the same for I, III, and V. But of course images are heavier than plain text. Seriously, txt files are flipping lightweight as heck and you can store a billion of them on a device that can only store a hundred images.
Yeah that's a reasonable arguement. I think before any of these updates, servers need a massive upgrade. However, I really doubt that it will be considered soon. IIRC, Audiotool is working on reworking it's website slowly. I'm not sure, I forgot what my friend told me.
They also will have to consider the price of the servers (and managing them). I think they're great ideas, but servers and money will delay it sadly
Keeping this post up!