New Inbox Message Expiration Policy

Beginning Dec 1st, 2009, system-generated messages in your Discogs Inbox will automatically expire after 60 days (they will be permanently removed).

System-generated messages include:

• Messages from Discogs
  
• Marketplace order notification messages
• Notifications from our support system

We are making this change to keep our database servers fast.

User-to-user messages will stay in the system as they are today.

Update to Reviews, including a new Discussion feature

We have updated the 'Review' feature on the release, artist, and label pages. It is now called 'Reviews & Discussion', so allows you to post comments as well as reviews.

You'll see the 'Reviews & Discussion' section at the bottom of any release, artist, or label page. Click the 'Post Review or Comment' button to open the form.

If you are posting a comment, you just need to make sure your post is on-topic for that release, artist, or label page, and it follows the usual forum guidelines.

If you are posting a review, tick the 'This is a review' box before you submit. Please follow the advice on what to put in your review. We have removed the automatic checks on review capitalization and length, but reviews may still be deleted if they fall below the standards set out.

You can now be notified of replies to a review or comment, please tick the 'Notify me on replies' to enable this.

You can read further explanation of the Reviews & Discussion feature on it's Discogs help page.

Guideline Updates

We have reached the conclusion of the planned 'Guideline Review 2009'.

The entire Database Guideline section was reviewed; we did some alterations to the layout and formatting, and incorporated a lot of the planned changes. Many of the changes were minor in nature, clarifying or bringing things into line rather than radical alteration, but the following is of note:

• List any items that were initially sold as a package as one release, no matter what the packaging. (1.1.4)
• For file type releases, Qty should be used for the number of audio files in the release. (5.1.2)
• There was a new page on how to go about updating releases.

The full guideline changelog for this update has been posted in the Development Forum.

It is obvious now that the full guidelines are far too much for anyone to simply read through or learn off-by-heart, so we created a very short set of 'Basic Guidelines' that will hopefully help set new (and not so new!) users off on the right track.

Each page of the guidelines has a 'quick link' menu at the top, that moves the page down to the required section. It is possible to copy this link and paste it into submission comments and forum discussion, for example http://www.discogs.com/help/submission-guidelines-release-trk.html#Position

The guideline review process is ongoing, there are outstanding issues that have not been decided upon or formulated yet, the current list of which is up at the wiki, and discussed in the help forum.

Site design change, including the new 'Collection And Wantlist Notes' feature

We have just turned on the previously announced changes to the website design, and added the new 'Collection And Wantlist Notes' feature. We hope you find these changes useful! Here is a run down of what has happened:

Overview

The big news for many will be the Collection And Wantlist Notes feature. This allows you to add your own notes and other info to each release in your collection or wantlist.

This can be used for most any purpose imaginable, for example, noting the condition of the release, listing your favorite tracks, organizing the location of a record in your collection etc. You can see a full explanation of how to use this feature in the help section.

The overall design of the site has been revamped, the header has been updated, and the site width fixed. The release, artist, and label pages have been redesigned. On the release pages, the tracklist has been moved above the credits and notes, and the right hand site navigation has been changed into a more modular layout.

Please note that all release, artist, and label editing functions are now accessed from the relevant history page, the navigation list for this is in the gray bar on those pages.

Details

General Layout Changes

The revised site header is more compact, allowing you to see more information on each page. The search box has been moved to the right. The main site navigation is more central, and the dropdown selection happens without clicking now. Other than that, it is the same, with all the same functions and links as before.

The site width is now fixed. This allows us to provide a more consistent display, and avoid the 'hole in the middle' feeling on release pages viewed on bigger screens

Collections and Wantlist Pages

You can edit your collection and wantlist notes from your Collection and Wantlist pages

There is now an 'Added' field in your collection and wantlist pages, this shows how long ago you added the release to your collection or wantlist. You can mouse over the field and it will display the exact date and time.

Release Pages

Changes To The Main Release Information Display

• Images have now been moved to the top, and there is now an 'Update These Images' link on the images page. If there is no image, "no image available" is displayed in this area instead.


• The artist and title have been moved alongside the image


• The release label, catalog number etc field names have been justified to the left


• The Tracklist has been moved above the credits and release notes. The header and horizontal divisions between tracks give it more definition, allowing us to move the track times and the iTunes links to the right hand side.


• The Credits and Release Notes sections is now below the Tracklist, in their own sections


• Recommendations now have scroll arrows and blue dots, the same as for videos.


• The reviews section is unchanged

Changes To The Release Page Right Hand Side Menus

• 'Release' - contains all the necessary links and data information for the specific release. The 'history/edit' link top right takes you to the history page. All the links to do with manipulating the release information are now accessed from the gray box on the release history page. 'All Versions' links to the Master Release page. The Master Release feature is now available to all users to create and edit:

• 'Ratings' - have been moved here from the release information, and the display has been changed slightly. Now, the average rating is displayed as a number, and below this, your rating is displayed using the LED type display. Note that you can now click directly on this to change your rating - this same method and display is also used on your Collection and Wantlist pages.


• 'Collections' - displays the number of haves / wants for the release, and the buttons to add the release to your collection or wantlist. If the release is in your collection or wantlist, you'll see the Collection or Wantlist Notes boxes here, which you can edit as explained in the help section.
  


• 'Shopping' is unchanged from the previous version.


• 'YouTube Videos' are now in this section, instead of underneath the release as before. The 'edit' link on the right allows you to add or update videos. If there is more than one video, you'll see thumbnails and navigation buttons for up to five videos bellow. If there are more than five videos, you'll see blue dots representing groups of five videos. You can click on the dots to go to a particular group of five videos. You can see an example of the complete video functionality at the bottom of the Aphex Twin artist page:

• The 'Lists' section is unchanged.


• 'Contributors' is the list of Contributors to this releases data, again unchanged apart from being moved from it's previous position at the bottom of the page.
  

Artist Pages

• The general layout changes for the images, profile, and navigation follow the release page.


• The Artist Profile field is now compacted, and can be expanded with the 'more' link. This helps give us more room for the discography information.


• The 'URLs' field is now named 'Sites', and the links have been abbreviated.


• The 'Add Release' and 'Create Master Release' links have been moved to dropdowns on the right hand side of the yellow 'Discography' section heading. The 'View releases in' genres selection and 'Sort release by' filters are also now found here:

• The release status highlighting (telling us new additions to the database, edits, and releases that need changes) has been changed to colored band on the left hand side of the releases list. Yellow is for a 'new submission', gray is an 'update', red is 'needs changes', and orange is used on Master Releases that contain multiple release states. Note that this scheme may be changed again in the not to distant future due to planned updates to the artist page lists.


• Reviews and YouTube videos are at the bottom, YouTube videos have the same updated functionality as on the Release page.

Label Pages

The changes on the Label page follow the same changes as on the Artist page.

Further Updates

We plan to continue to work on aspects of the site display to try to keep improving the usability and attractiveness of Discogs. We take all comments and criticisms of the site into account, so please keep them coming.

We are in the final stages of planning for revamping the artist page lists. This update will give Discogs a much clearer and better organized artist page display. We look forward to updating you with more info on this as it develops.

Design Change Sneak Preview

Hey, all. We've been working on a update to the site design that we're really excited about and wanted to share with you.

Here's a screenshot of the updated release page:




Artist Page:




Label Page:



These changes will also include a new feature, allowing you to add personal notes on your collection and wantlist. Wantlists will have a basic notes field, which can be edited on the release page and wantlist page. With collections you'll be able to set your own custom fields. Here's a screenshot of the page where you'll do it:



There are several more small enhancements with this update but these are the big changes. Let us know if you have any initial feedback based on the screenshots. Thanks!

New Discogs Office / We're Hiring!

Last month we moved from our relatively small office into a much larger space, allowing us room to grow. We thought you might like to see some pictures we took shortly after moving in and getting a few desks set up.

Speaking of growing... We're looking for a few more bright and talented people to join our team. If you're interested, please check out our jobs page and get in touch.

Audio Clips on Release Pages

We've removed the downloads tab from Artist and Release pages and have added audio clips, where available, on the release page next to track listings. Our goal is to make audio available for all of the releases in the database over time. We're currently using audio clips from iTunes, but will soon be pulling in a number of additional sources.

If you prefer not to see the audio clips and buy links on the release page, you can disable the feature in your settings: http://www.discogs.com/settings

We hope you like this change. Let us know what you think!

Update: This feature is currently available to users based in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.