[Feat] Category: Composers should have a 'popular' page

genericguy · Post by **genericguy** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 4:24 am

Hi,
I think it would be really handy to have in the contents of the composers category a Popular page which has the 200 most visited composers (which are also listed under the relevant letter). Some may chastise me for it, but I most often navigate to 'big' composers such as Beethoven, Dvorak, Mozart, Bach, etc.

Lucas

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:21 am

What of the great composers whose famous works are still in copyright?

scottorr · Post by **scottorr** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:53 am

Yagan Kiely wrote:What of the great composers whose famous works are still in copyright?

Well they wouldn't be on IMSLP anyways.

I was thinking of this feature a while back. I think the right concept is stated in this thread, but I was thinking perhaps it could be done for composers with x amount of scores, or by the sheer distinguished nature of their works. The complete works composers would also be on this page.

If this page were somehow linked from somewhere prominent on the main page it could serve as a large introduction to the sheer volume and quality of the works hosted on IMSLP. I just think that having those most visited composers would be handy. It could go in the left sidebar for example.

I also think the name "popular" composers wouldn't be completely suitable to what my idea for this is. I can't think of a good definition or synonym for what I'm thinking, but it is described in this post.

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:55 am

Well they wouldn't be on IMSLP anyways.

Not yet, the US server is still an option, in which case they would be.

It could go in the left sidebar for example.

It could be a page in of itself, but that is not an option as it would be a very ugly obstructive addition to the site.

I don't like the idea of popular, or most visited, however most scores might be an option.

Melodia · Post by **Melodia** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:02 pm

What I've always HATED about "most visited/most DLed" etc lists, is that that it often is biased toward itself. If a list if prominant like that, more people will visit them, and thus they'll remain on the list...

genericguy · Post by **genericguy** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:56 am

Just for an example, I wanted to get to Dvorak's page just then.
Search isn't an option, because it always returns pieces by Dvorak, not the composer page. Instead I had to go to the index, D, then Dvorak among the many lesser known composers. They are no less important, true, but someone is more likely to want Dvorak's page with 71 pieces then Frédéric Duvernoy's with 2.

That's a good point Melodia, and maybe for that reason it would be a better idea to do it by most scores, since the most 'popular' composers will probably have the most scores anyway.

Melodia · Post by **Melodia** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:04 am

I do agree it should be easier to get to the top composers. The main problem is, I think, that since the 'main' sorting method is by catagory, the seach engine isn't going to catch things. I like being able to 'go' directly to an article on Wikipedia, rather than 'search' for it (if you know what I mean), and if there were a way to implement it here....

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:20 am

Search isn't an option, because it always returns pieces by Dvorak, not the composer page.

Yes it is, and no it doesn't - if you do it right. You can't enter the query, and then press enter/return, you have to enter the query and select/click "Comp.".

I believe these should be swapped however.

genericguy · Post by **genericguy** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:57 am

Yagan Kiely wrote:You can't enter the query, and then press enter/return, you have to enter the query and select/click "Comp.".

Oh... I never knew that. I just assumed it stood for computer or something

Post by **Leonard Vertighel** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:37 am

genericguy wrote:
Yagan Kiely wrote:You can't enter the query, and then press enter/return, you have to enter the query and select/click "Comp.".
Oh... I never knew that. I just assumed it stood for computer or something

The search function is pretty broken by design. I guess most users have no clue what those buttons really mean. Sadly we have very little manpower and a huge workload, but I hope that one day we will have a more intelligent search engine that automatically returns the composer page if you enter a composer name, etc.

Lyle Neff · Post by **Lyle Neff** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:00 pm

In the meantime, you can create a redirect page on the last name of a composer. This is what I did with several Russian composers (Rimsky, Musorgsky/Mussorgsky, etc.), because I don't want to remember to type "Category:" and have to know the exact full form of the name to get to it. Also, I don't like to bother with diacritics, so I created redirects for "Cui" and "Vitols" some time ago.

Mendelssohn has been done this way, I noticed the other day.

The only problem with searching by relying on a redirect of a short name in order to get to the full-name composer page is that it does not work unless you are logged in (unlike Wikipedia).

ras1 · Post by **ras1** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:06 pm

Yeah, the composer thing is kind of annoying - how can we make redirects like those on CPDL? (It doesn't seem like it should be that hard.)