Quote:
Originally posted by Wojtek
I strongly support solution 'bans for requesters'. Deleted tracks are very often simply fantastic and the guilty people can overrequest with impunity, taking the next non deleted epics. I am afraid it will be vicious circle if the reaction stops on deleting songs. Malice has no limits, they can do it with all 12000 tracks.
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Very good points, Woj, and I'm working on just that. I fully intend on having functionality in place that will eliminate the two or three people that are actually guilty of overrequesting single songs, be it from the ability to request or the ability to listen to the station at all, long before we get to this point. I suppose that I should apologize to the regular listeners of this station for not having this in place a LOT sooner. I fully intend to rectify this grave oversight with all due haste.
However, I'd like to take a moment to clarify what I see as a misunderstanding: exactly what Jim and I mean when we actually say "overrequesting".
We aren't going to complain if, say, Wojtek requests "Close to the Edge" at 8 am eastern, then Vaxman requests it again at 6pm eastern. That's not what we're having issues with. We're well aware of the fact that nobody has the station up on a 24 hour basis, and we don't keep a public record of what's been played over the course of the day. We don't EXPECT you to know what was played 10 hours before, while you were doing something else (be it sleeping, working, or engaging in your favorite non-computer-related activity). We are also not going to have very serious issues with the inevitable overplaying of new titles as they're added to the station for the first week or so. We understand full well that people are going to want to hear the latest tracks by their favorite artists when they come out. It happens. We'll deal.
What we have problems with, what we will continue to have problems with, and what we are actively addressing even now, is the two or three individuals (that we've found so far) that request the same song or same three songs by the same artist day after day after day, week after week after week. Those that view Aural Moon as their own personal music collection.
For instance:
Let's say that Vaxman, having lost his good senses and good taste in a gardening accident, sells his VMS equipment, ships me his Powerbook, and invests in $14,000 in PC equipment (loaded with the latest version of Windows XP). With this, he sets up a timed event that will, every 3 hours and two minutes, submits requests for the SAME THREE songs:
Providence by GY!BE
Please Tokio, Please This Is Tokio by Don Caballero
Domanique by the Singing Nun (that he smuggled on the station)
This goes on 24 hours/day, 7 days per week.
Not only would I be ACTIVELY working to remove even his access, but I would likely invest the money to fly up there and have him locked up, forcibly if necessary, into an insane asylum.
THIS is what we're fighting. THIS is what we're going after.
I picked this absurd example to illustrate a point, of course. Vaxman would no more do this than I would. Or Wojtek, or Rick, or Spaz, or any of the other responsible listeners of this wonderful resource.
But is this really an absurd example? The case of person and song titles, yes. The frequency, not really. For example:
Rome - Blue Shift:
6/1/04 11:13
6/2/04 14:22
6/4/04 11:19
6/6/04 13:43
6/7/04 14:13
6/9/04 13:36
6/10/04 12:24
6/15/04 16:55
6/16/04 15:34
When it was finally removed from the station. This is the request history FROM ONE PERSON. This ONE PERSON
ALSO has requested:
I Am The Sun (part 1) - The Flower Kings
8/23/04 16:15
8/26/04 14:11
8/30/04 11:18
9/1/04 14:11
The Love Supreme - The Flower Kings
9/1/04 10:54
9/3/04 09:55
9/7/04 15:43
9/11/04 11:22
9/13/04 14:16 (after having tried THREE TIMES to request it but was blocked due to time constraints)
And this was ALL BY ONE PERSON!
And this isn't the entire list, either. The list spans back months, and has OVER 300 ENTRIES!
Containing less than 20 different songs, as I recall.
I hasten to assure one and all that as soon as I am able, as soon as I have the code in place to restrict this type of abuse, this person will be the
VERY FIRST person to be blocked. Now whether this is a block from the web site request functionality, or whether it's from access to the station itself has yet to be determined (and that will be decided largely on how easy it is to code, how easy it is to expand, and how quickly I can get it into place).
Another person simply has a thing for Grendel (which I personally can't blame him or her for, as I like the tune myself -- in fact I like it enough that I
(HINT HINT) BOUGHT THE ALBUM), and as I said in an earlier post, it was requested on average of once a day for the last week and once every other day over the past month.
THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is over requesting. Requesting a song because someone's having a bad day and needs a shot of good feelings that music brings to us all does
not qualify for overrequesting. Requesting Dance on a Volcano on a weekly basis because Wisla Krakow seems to win whenever it's played does
not qualify for overrequesting.
The above example DOES, in fact, qualify for overrequesting.
Had this person mixed up their requests, asking for Flower Kings one day, Transatlantic the next, something by Yes on Wednesday, ELP on Thursday, etc. etc., we wouldn't be in this position, and I wouldn't be having to code up a fix that they likely will NOT like.
And to borrow my favorite phrase from Hewlett Packard: Not My Problem.
Roger -Dot- Lee, working to fix the problem as we speak.