IMSLP Forums

I've published an article about IMSLP in the Brightcecilia Journal:

In Praise of IMSLP

I want to write something regularly about IMSLP and/or encourage others to submit to the Journal on IMSLP or anything else, in the classical music realm, they fancy. Do contact me if you'd like to write something.

Alternatively/additionally, why not have an IMSLP wordpress journal? They're dead easy to set up and maintain, they can look very smart, Google loves them, and there's tons of clever, informed, opinionated people connected to IMSLP who are also fine writers. It looks like a win-win-win to me.

Thoughts?

The idea has been thrown around in the past, and I still think that it's a good one. It shouldn't be too hard to find a few good "columnists" here to create some kind of classical music/free content/net culture "e-zine" in blog format...

I agree, and think it's a fair idea. The article was well written, and I'm sure we could find people to maintain articles on classical music, and maybe even e-letters (new things send via email?). I think it's a good thing to do and will give IMSLP even more publicity, and thus potential contributing members to improve the site.

I guess the first thing to would be to find columnists and people willing to maintain this?

I've changed the title of the thread to reflect the way the discussion’s gone. Random thoughts:

1. Whoever it is from IMSLP whose name would be on the writ, should someone get libelled on the journal, would need to agree the project in principle then sign off the structure. S/he would need to be happy and maintain overall editorial control - it's their head on the block.

2. A settled day-to-day editorial control framework would be needed - where the buck stops - kept as simple and non-bureaucratic as possible. I suggest 3-4 people reporting back to this thread to get the project off the ground (and satisfy 1. above). I'd be happy to be involved.

3. Statements covering license/copyright - plenty of experts on that here - plagiarism and submissions policy. I use the following on various cooperatist blogs. It may be too strong for IMSLP:

1. ********* Journal is the online journal of the ********** classical music community. It covers music, culture, the arts in general, pop culture and politics/current affairs as they apply to the arts.

2. ********* Journal welcomes submissions. To submit articles and story pitches:

- post on the forums or
- email the editor at: journaleditor [at] *********.com

3. When you submit material for publication in ********* Journal you grant ********* Journal a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive and fully sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part, world-wide and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

4. Material submitted to ********* Journal must be original work and previously unpublished. The author should hold copyright. Sources must be cited and plagiarism avoided. Plagiarism is defined as the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."*

* Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, 1995

4. Articles wouldn't need to be academic ball-breakers (but they'd be be welcome too) but include short, pithy, chatty stuff - e.g. news of a key manuscript upload to the wiki, a report on the launch of a new music publishing house or CD label, news of a famous conductor falling off a podium etc. The journal should be respectable - obviously - but not take itself too seriously (imo).

5. Links to imslp.org, these forums, other classical music blogs and music resources. Performers, composers, concert venues, orchestras, chamber groups etc would fight to appear on the blogroll.

6. A live feed from the IMSLP Twitter account.

7. A dedicated "IMSLP Journal" board here for people to discuss & propose articles, complain about having an article rejected etc. Plus the Wordpress bureaucracy - themes, updates, plugins, SEO, dealing with spam (there would be a hell of a lot of it).

8. Decide where to put it. I suggest http://imslp.org/journal - a 20 second job to set up via Fantastico.

9. Get the first few articles written ASAP. Once there are half a dozen or so, publicised here, Tweeted, linked on forums, etc a buzz will develop which would drive the project. Once it's up and running an article a week would keep the pot boiling. With a bit of thought and planning we could end up with a superb journal which basically runs itself.

I agree with almost everything. And I think it's a wonderful idea. The http://imslp.org/journal link isn't valid, but I like the name, of course. Slightly unsure about the content of the journal, though. Suggested topics to start off with?

BKhon wrote:The http://imslp.org/journal link isn't valid...

It's not been set up yet.

A nice nerd with server access would need to upload the Wordpress package to that directory and then distribute the admin password to whoever's running the project. But there's no agreed project yet. Such is the enthusiasm we're getting ahead of ourselves (which is great). Feldmahler needs to think about it and comment. There may be good reasons why the idea's a non-starter. If so, fine.

Slightly unsure about the content of the journal, though. Suggested topics to start off with?

Suggestions off the top of my head:

• - Q&A interview with a key contributor
  - Something brief & pithy about how to use IMSLP based on the tutorial
  - 500 words on the battle with Universal Edition. I've read bits and bobs and it's an amazing story
  - How IMSLP can help living composers
  - Funny story from the classical music world - a five minute Google search would find something. Sopranos falling into orchestra pits (on condition they're not killed) always raises a laugh

The other thing we could do are brief background pieces on particular uploads. For example, IMSLP carries some Leclair but is missing his Op 1. Copies are sat in libraries around the world so it's just a matter of time before someone uploads it. Leclair happens to have been murdered in strange circumstances in 1764. His murderer was never caught. He'd just left his wife and had gone to live in a poor area of Paris. Why? He was a wealthy man at the top of his game. It's a mystery. He was stabbed twice in the front. I've seen the police report.

See? There's a story there. So when his Op 1 is uploaded we (a) publicise the fact in the Journal together with a few screengrabs (Leclair's scores are very beautiful) and (b) say a few words about his murder. A similar technique could be used with most uploads - link the upload to the composer's biog.

Then there are the heavy duty academics associated with IMSLP. One may wish to publish something weighty on, say:

The Diminished Fifth Chord in John Adams' 'Doctor Atomic'

Great! Bring it on! The more the merrier.

I completely and absolutely agree with the idea of having a blog/journal for IMSLP. In fact, as Leonard mentioned, I had wanted to start one in the past, but there was not enough people who were willing to blog.

A few points regarding the technical aspects:

I don't mind giving the journal a dedicated subdomain, e.g. journal.imslp.org, however, I would much prefer to keep Wordpress off the IMSLP server proper. Another site that I administer got hacked into recently via a bug in Wordpress. IMSLP server's security model is tighter, but it is still better to be safe than sorry.

This means that ideally we will do one of two things: 1) host the blog on a dedicated blog hosting service, e.g. Wordpress.com, or 2) put Wordpress on a shared hosting account (perhaps someone has an unused shared hosting account or can create another website under an active account?). Both are fine because 1) Wordpress.com takes care of the security issues, and 2) the worst that can happen to a shared hosting account is that the Wordpress installation is hacked and nothing else.

We should also remember to make rigorous backups, preferably every day.

P.S. I would also be happy to link to the blog from the sidebar and portal page.

It sounds like a good idea to keep the blog quarantined from the core business of the site, which is the Wiki and file servers.

And I suppose I’d probably be prepared to contribute very occasional, and very curmudgeonly postings, which could include a suitable disclaimer warning that “the views of this grumpy misanthrope do not reflect the views of IMSLP”.

Regards, PML

imslp wrote:I would much prefer to keep Wordpress off the IMSLP server proper.

Agreed. Check PMs.

pml wrote:I suppose I’d probably be prepared to contribute very occasional, and very curmudgeonly postings, which could include a suitable disclaimer warning that “the views of this grumpy misanthrope do not reflect the views of IMSLP”.

YAY!

imslp wrote:2) put Wordpress on a shared hosting account (perhaps someone has an unused shared hosting account or can create another website under an active account?)

I'm not familiar with Wordpress installations, however I think this server running the IMSLP Forums may host it. Daily backup of these forums is regularly performed and backup files are stored on another server in a geographically separated location. It shouldn't be difficult to extend the same backup concept to other directories on this same server.

Max

Choralia wrote:

imslp wrote:2) put Wordpress on a shared hosting account (perhaps someone has an unused shared hosting account or can create another website under an active account?)

I'm not familiar with Wordpress installations, however I think this server running the IMSLP Forums may host it. Daily backup of these forums is regularly performed and backup files are stored on another server in a geographically separated location. It shouldn't be difficult to extend the same backup concept to other directories on this same server.

Max

Great. FM - pls take that into account when reading my PM. I'm happy to take either route. Your call sir.

Thank you, Choralia and Philidor, for offering to host the Journal! From what happened recently with my other Wordpress installation (Wordpress was hacked, but the malicious code [i.e. backdoor] was actually hidden in another part of the site) I would suggest that we separate the blog from the forums completely so that we don't end up with a hacked blog and a hacked forums.

Hence, if Philidor feels up to the task of maintaining and administering the Journal site, please go ahead and set it up (your proposal in your PM sounds good). Of course, if Philidor has time constraints or other issues with the maintenance or administration of the Journal, I certainly do not mind if the Journal is passed to Choralia (hopefully we will have an idea of how bad the security situation really is by then).

BKhon and I have pressed ahead with the Journal project. I bought imslpjournal.org, put it on some spare server space, and did basic nerding: new theme, banner, favicon, twitter feed, 'About' and 'Submit' headers, various bits of SEO and other stuff behind the scenes.

IMSLP Journal

We've written the first few articles and have chosen a house style (12 point Verdana).

Comments/criticisms welcome. We're happy to change it about, amend/delete current articles, add new material, until everyone's content. Once we're agreed here we'll let the Google robots in, launch it, and call for articles.

At that stage a link on the IMSLP Portal would be great, plus a "journal.imslp.org" sub-domain pointing at it.

If anyone wants to write something for it now - great. Ideally we'll have a constant stream of new material. But an article a week would be fine, or even one a month, to keep the pot boiling. These things take 12-18 months to mature. We should end up with a neat Journal.

I suggest we start a new forum here called "IMSLP Journal" between "Score Requests" and "Other".

'Tis done.

Wonderful! I'm busy at the moment, but as soon as I have free time (i.e. early next week) I will (1) add journal.imslp.org (and maybe forums.imslp.org as well?) and (2) change the portal page to include the journal. I've already added it to the sidebar; feel free to move it around. Sidebar is on Mediawiki:Sidebar.