Equipboard Improvement Ideas

Is the new formatting bugging anyone else?

You’re not alone. It’s undergoing some refinement.

The Artist pages in particular are what's bugging me, everything else is fine.

Would you mind elaborating on what is bothering you the most? We'll do our best to address it.

Thanks for bearing with us as we redesign!

I personally found the previous formatting alot easier to navagate, aswell the previous item layout was about perfect (in my opinion), and if I had to make suggestions, I would say keep the old formatting but incorperate the new features (e.g. the "Hide incorrect submissions" switch, and perhaps the "Sort by" dropbox).

It would be convenient to have a more clear and efficient way to add artists and bands to Equipboard (maybe a peer-review system like we have for verifying gear submissions). I've sent multiple requests for artists, including some whose bands are already on Equipboard, and most I've requested still haven't been added. Also, I only found out certain artists I requested were added when I saw it on the homepage for recently added artists. Maybe a notification system for artists you've requested have been added would be helpful, as well.

It would be convenient to have a more clear and efficient way to add artists and bands to Equipboard (maybe a peer-review system like we have for verifying gear submissions). I've sent multiple requests for artists, including some whose bands are already on Equipboard, and most I've requested still haven't been added. Also, I only found out certain artists I requested were added when I saw it on the homepage for recently added artists. Maybe a notification system for artists you've requested have been added would be helpful, as well.

This reminds me, all of the artists I've tried to approve as of late have thrown back a "something went wrong" error. I'll see if the Admins know what's up. This potential bug aside, I'm with you that the artist approval system needs improvements.

Another thing I've been thinking about is maybe we should add a few more categories for instruments, but not many, mainly Bass. I'm not talking anything too specific, I'm thinking like "Fretless Basses", "Extended Range Basses" (e.g. 5+ Strings), "Multi-Neck Guitars" (Guitar or Bass neutral category), and maybe "Extended-Range Acoustics" (not so much like 7-Strings as like 12-Strings).

Control-Z

So I've been filling out some slots in a favourite artist's empty profile with reference to a Premier Guitar article which at first seemed pretty thorough. Subsequently in the comments it's suggested the submission could be improved so I dug deeper and in doing so I find that items referenced in the article do not match items I can see being played on YouTube. For instance the artists Gibson ES-339 has two fewer controls than usual and is in fact a Gibson ES-339 studio which is listed separately on EB, and their Princeton Reverb is a significantly different version to the one I selected (thinking it was generic/duplicated). I want to go back to refine the submission, however presently I can find no way to fix the error by actually changing the item submitted for the correct alternative.

This has happened with me a few times now and no doubt it is as frustrating to admins as it is to me; getting a submission slightly wrong and having no way to revise it myself. I resolve in future to cross check my own submissions more thoroughly but sometimes the sources are scarce or else conflicting but verifiable information can emerge subsequently. As someone who enjoys making submissions here I'd welcome the facility to act on comments and correct any errors that are spotted by folks here with a keener eye/deeper knowledge.

It would be convenient to have a more clear and efficient way to add artists and bands to Equipboard (maybe a peer-review system like we have for verifying gear submissions). I've sent multiple requests for artists, including some whose bands are already on Equipboard, and most I've requested still haven't been added. Also, I only found out certain artists I requested were added when I saw it on the homepage for recently added artists. Maybe a notification system for artists you've requested have been added would be helpful, as well.

Revisiting this after a couple weeks. I've seen some agree that a revamp for the system to add artists. I'd like to posit something simple: for artists who are in bands documented on Equipboard (or at least the website that's used to cross-reference artists that are already established somehow), maybe connect the names of artists to the bands somehow? Part of my frustration about this initially was that there were bands on Equipboard with missing artists, and I've tried adding artists from those bands or supporting musicians for FAMOUS artists that still aren't on the website. Not sure if it would be worthwhile to revisit and resubmit those artists, but worth mentioning that.

The system for editing submissions or rating their quality doesn't feel all that intuitive. We can rate the accuracy, but not much seems to happen with those rated partially or wholly incorrect. Sometimes I find I can edit the instrument in a submission, but most of the time not (even when it's my own submission). Puts us at a loss when we find more specific information on an instrument a player uses or need to make a fix for any reason.

I have a red "1" by my notifications and no unread notifications. It's been that way for a few days now. Even just a simple "mark as read" function would be nice.

I have a red "1" by my notifications and no unread notifications. It's been that way for a few days now. Even just a simple "mark as read" function would be nice.

This happens to me every now and then, it eventually goes away. it's definitely a bug, not intended functionality. As soon as you click on the notification, the red-bubble numbers usually USUALLY go away as intended.

The ability to "add item manually" isn't really prominent. If we could make it a little more obvious that you don't NEED to use a Sweetwater/Guitar Center/Reverb link to add that would be cool. It makes it seem as though that's the only way to add gear if you don't scrutinize the page. Some may notice it in an instant, but I actually put off a few additions because of it. Maybe do a 50/50 split on the screen, like an "either/or".

I try to click on the "reply to" link at the top of the forum post, and nothing happens. Glad to send admin/devs my system specs to debug.

The gear add system used to be similar to what you just described, but it was recently re-designed to only permit adding items that fit the criteria you mentioned.

The tiny manual-add option was put there for the moderators and admins to use as-needed, but after some community feedback, the system was changed again to open that link up to anyone that had reached 500 GearIQ.

So that manual-add option is kind of a bonus for your 500 points of hard work, not an either/or, at least not at the moment. If item has a link that fits the criteria of option #1, users need to use that option, even if they have access to the manual override.

The gear-add system was changed due to the large number of redundant and overly-specific items being added -- it had been discovered that these pages were contributing to a major drag on Equipboard's visibility within major search engines.

Hopefully the system will continue to evolve as the search engine stuff is sorted out, but this is what we have to work with for the time being.

That's happened to me plenty, but this time was different. I figured out what it was, but it was strange. I didn't get the notification on Equipboard, but I did get it through email. Once I interacted with the post, the notification bubble was gone from Equipboard.

Now just hoping that the other things I've mentioned here (especially the issues with artist submission) get resolved. I also can't resubmit artists that I've tried to add once.

This might be a stretch, but maybe a modding section when adding gear. Like so and so adds their JCM800 but can tick modded and write what mod to be displayed on their page but also maybe total collection of users with modded units under the individual items list. goes with guitars, add what pickups you put into it or what you did to it cosmetically? idk. Ill just take my 3 points thank you.

This might be a stretch, but maybe a modding section when adding gear. Like so and so adds their JCM800 but can tick modded and write what mod to be displayed on their page but also maybe total collection of users with modded units under the individual items list. goes with guitars, add what pickups you put into it or what you did to it cosmetically? idk. Ill just take my 3 points thank you.

I likee!

Another idea I've had floating around for a while: What about adding manufacture dates to items? aswell making options for discontinuation/revival timelines (e.g. Fender Mustang: 1964–1982, 1990–present).

I experimented with that loosely in the item name when I was merging duplicate fender amplifiers. I'm all for it.