Basschat.co.uk News

BC blog - coming soon

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:10:37 +0000

Hi everyone

BC are about to launch a Blog.

This blog will be full of weekly reviews, interviews, tips, exercises and more. We have assembled a team of writers who will bring you great content on a regular basis.

We're still looking for one or two people, so I'll be adding to the team over the next few weeks.

At the the same time, I'll request that from time to time people submit articles for publishing to the blog, for example if someone has a big project on the go, or write ups from BC bashes and so forth.

We hope you like it and enjoy reading the articles; you'll be able to comment on and discuss them on the forum and post video responses of your own.

Once we have the infrastructure to support it, we are looking at being able to host your on personal blogs on BC too, which will be readable from the same tab.

More updates as they happen

Cheers
ped

New stuff in the Basschat Shop!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:13:14 +0000

Hi everyone

In the next couple of weeks I'll be adding a new design Polo shirt to the store. First of all thanks to everyone who has helped support the site by purchasing one of the original design 'logo' shirts. These will still be available to buy as well as the new design.

Here they are - nice and colourful and in a variety of colour combinations. The best bit is that you can choose from one of six instrument designs for the chest of the shirt when you order.

Get them whilst they're hot - or before I get sued by Rickenbacker. Keep your eyes peeled as these will be available from the weekend, probably. Also in the coming weeks I'll be adding sticker packs to the shop.

Cheers
ped

Exciting news...maybe.

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:40:11 +0000

As of today, we've secured guitarchat.co.uk, synthchat.co.uk and drumchat.co.uk.

What that means apart from collecting The Set? Not sure. Lets see what happens in the "Other Instruments" forum...

Seasons Greetings from BC

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:48:02 +0000

I know it's tacky but I wanted to say Merry Xmas to everyone on BC. It's been a rollercoaster year and a very important one for the community. Thanks to the hard work from Ben, the admins and the mods we have managed to sort most of the problems with the new software.

Thanks to everyone who has donated, it makes a big difference to the way the site works and has recently paid for another database move. Thanks also to people who have bought a Polo from the shop.

2011 was a good year for 'Bass Bashes' too, with bashes around the country involving hundreds of members. I still think these are a key part of what makes the community so strong. I promise that when we have some money I'll set up a BC party/bash to say thanks properly. These bashes have raised a great amount of money for charity and have been entirely organised by generous BC members.

It's good to see people using the 'report' function to alert the mods to posts in the wrong area etc - thanks to the mods for picking those up and keeping the forum tidy. There have been typically few incidents this year behaviour wise and the forum continues to be a welcoming and vibrant community as a result.

We have some exciting new ideas and features planned for 2012 so keep your eyes peeled. We still have some little things to sort in the meantime, so it's going to be a busy year for sure.

Here are some statistics you might like to know about Basschat over the last month (Nov 22-Dec 22)

75,346 Unique Visitors

2,201,285 Pageviews

23.90% New Visits

00:09:01 Avg. Time on Site

United Kingdom- 191,221 visits

United States- 11,637 visits

Belize- 1 visit

Thanks for being part of the site and let's hope 2012 brings more of the same

Have a happy happy xmas and don't go into Off Topic if you've been on the juice!

ped

Basschat Facebook and Twitter

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:54:19 +0000

Hi guys

Those of you 'following' us on Facebook have no doubt been enjoying the interesting and thought provoking questions I have been posing over the last few weeks.

If you haven't already tapped into this rich seam of info and jibery please follow us via the button on the home page and spread the work to any other bassists you know. Over the next few months I'll be selecting interesting threads and For Sale items to promote on the page. It would also be great if users wanted to add their own pics to the wall, along with playing videos, music etc.

Interestingly, the Facebook feed is being followed by some 600 people, but the Twitter feed is a bit slower. Now I must confess I don't fully understand Twitter and it mirrors the posts I make in FB, but I know a lot of you use it and prefer it. It seems like a good business tool but you could help us out by telling other twittlers to tweet the stuff I'm twittering to their tweet recipients.

Basically I watched a programme about Facebook last night and I'm angling for a similar programme about BC to be made with a star studded cast - who knows, if you get us the most followers maybe you could be in the film and played by Tom Berenger of the moderately successful 'Sniper' movie franchise. Or someone else if you want.

Cheers
ped

@basschatuk

BC shop open!

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:26:46 +0000

The BC shop is now open

http://basschat.co.uk/cp/2-shop/

Please help support the site and spread the word - or buy a bassist a nice present for Xmas

Cheers
ped

Vote on the Basschat Reputation System

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:21:24 +0000

Let us know what you prefer.

No emails?

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:44:29 +0000

Anyone else still not getting any emails since the redesign? I've tried changing many things in my settings but still can't get emails like I used to. I've got all the stuff set to send emails for replies but they just don't come.

Reputation system

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:54:50 +0000

As many will have noticed with this new forum we have had a 'like' system where we can , .......errr, 'like' another person's post/comment/witty remark/helpful advice etc.

In order that we have a more balanced reputation system, I've pulled the giant lever on the server so we can now 'dislike' another's post if they are rude/insulting/stupid etc

Moderators and admins have the ability to monitor the system if necessary.

Replying to email notifications rather than the sender.

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:10:04 +0000

I'm getting on average 3-4 emails every day in the admin inbox from people who are replying to notifications that they've received a PM instead of replying to the original message.

At the moment all replies receive a automatic response but in 2 weeks I'll set the admin account to automatically respond and delete these emails as they're clogging up the inbox. They will become a nightmare to weed out every week if it continues.

Unfortunately we don't have the same email system as Ebay or Facebook and messages won't be received by their intended recipient.

Scammer alert - 'Gearman' aka: ea7zd1@gmail.com and custom@exterminator.net

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:27:45 +0000

Hi all

I've just picked up this new member Gearman. He says he is:

Manuel Fernandez Garcia
Jesus del Gran Poder,
137, 41002 - SEVILLA,SPAIN

With an email address of ea7zd1@gmail.com

He just happens to have the guitar I'm looking for..........................

However, his name/email address is known to Google as a scammer, and his IP address is from Nigeria.

You have been warned!

Basschat features - an FAQ and update

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:05:20 +0000

Hi folks

Well, it seems the transition to the new software has been easy for some, less so for others. Whilst I know that the proportion of you having issues is small, I though it would be a good idea to update you and let you know where we are.

First of all, the 'notifications' (little icon next to the envelope in the top right hand side of the screen) shows a notification every time someone replies to a thread you have 'followed' (either by posting in a thread, starting a topic or clicking 'follow' in any topic or forum).

It SHOULD behave in a way which shows one notification for the update, i.e 'Tom and 5 other people have replied to...'. At the moment, it doesn't. This is the software's fault, and we are waiting on an update to fix it. For the time being, you might as well turn them off if it bugs you (like if you have notifications for a really busy thread) until we fix it.

Email notifications are apparently similar, behaving in the same way (several emails). This too will be fixed. I have turned off email notifications by default in your 'settings' tab so they shouldn't bother you for now. I just have emails for PM's, personally - the new system lets you read the PM in the email so you don;t have to open the website if you're on a mobile, for example.

'View new content' area!

It's the new name for the 'view new posts' bit. And it's much better.

On the old site, if you posted a thread and it fell down the forum, it would be hard to find again unless you manually bookmarked it in your browser. In the new 'view new content' area you can filter to show threads in different ways. Most importantly you can display 'threads I have participated in' which is like a list of threads you have posted in. You can go to the first unread post in these threads by clicking the star icon next to the thread title.

Click the orange bars on the left hand side of the 'view new content' area to play around. To de-activate the filters, click them again.

Mobile version

The mobile version of the site was OK but because of the problems with notifications and the like, we disabled it and have allowed the full site to display. Soon, we will have a dedicated mobile site which hatches our theme which works nice and quickly on mobiles and let's you read your PMs and view the forum. You will also have the option to view the full site, should you wish.

Attachments

We had some problems using Amazon servers (or something) for attachments so they kept on breaking. We should have fixed this any time now so they should work fine.

Browser problems

It's very difficult to answer why one person's screen has a button in a different place, and it will take time to test the forum on different platforms. If you see something weird, please report it. More about this later.

Calendar

Will be installed soon

The theme's too bloody bright!

Well, it's not easy to change, unfortunately. I can't afford it at the moment and if you think about it, and look at the size of the white area, it's the same as looking at MS word. Not too bad, really. The old forum was white too, probably whiter, on balance. Sorry if you don't like it, I hope you'll get used to it. One day we'll have another option perhaps but it's not a top priority.

Why did we upgrade, anyway?

A good question, and totally valid. The problem was that the old forum was becoming a nightmare to manage with it's older system of spam filtration and other things I don't understand. The upshot is that mods were banning hundreds and hundreds of spoof accounts every day and we simply had to upgrade to the latest and most secure software.

What if I have a problem

Please post a thread in the site issues area. Have a look first to make sure you aren't repeating anything which we are already aware of. As soon as you post the problem, we'll be aware of it and will be working on it, so don't be dismayed if it looks like you're being ignored.

Speed

We are doing well at the moment, after a shaky start (see Amazon problem above). A server upgrade will be necessary soon to secure this speed for the foreseeable but it's a big jump financially and after paying for the upgrade and giving HMRC all my money I haven't got much available. I think we have something like 2/3 of capacity left so it's nothing urgent. I'll start washing the neighbours car and start shining shoes.

Thanks

Finally, a word of thanks. I know some people HATE change, and it's never easy to please everyone. I have had lots of messages of support from members who have really helped give me (and the team) a bit of a boost. Please be patient and hang in there. We'll do it.

ped

New Basschat Features

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:11:17 +0000

Hi guys

Welcome to the new version of everyone's favourite bass guitar website. Ever since we started this site we have endeavoured to bring you the best features we can offer to make the forum as strong as possible.

Here's a few of the main new features, apart from the new skin:

All new PMs will be organised by thread - sort of like Facebook messages. You can then invite members to existing threads.
Reputation system
Revamped search engine
Content sharing via social media buttons
Facebook/Twitter login
Mobile site for your smartphone - faster and better access to message board including PMs
A shop for Basschat merch!

We all hope you enjoy the new features. I'm sure some issues will crop up so please let us know on the site issues forum if you discover anything or need some help.

We're still converting posts and PMs. Some old posts will be unformatted and some of your old PMs will be unavailable. Normal service should resume in a couple of days!

I would also like to thank Ben for all his hard work on the site. Brilliant work, thanks!

Enjoy

ped and Kiwi

Basschat upgrade: Site will be down this afternoon!

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:10:41 +0000

Sorry for the short notice, but we're upgrading the site this afternoon, so it'll be down from around 1pm until the evening. I'm sure ped will update you with all the exciting new features once the upgrade is done.

New 'Bassline Publishing' forum

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:43:41 +0000

http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showforum=79

New 'Events' forum

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:41:28 +0000

http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showforum=77

This forum makes it easier to keep track of all the 'Bass Bashes' happening around the country.

Enjoy
ped

Basschat Bash, Surrey, Sept 24th

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:22:39 +0000

http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=144613

BC Member Nik has organised the SE bass bash, more info in the link above. Be there or be sitting at home on Basschat

Cheers
ped

'Affiliates Marketplace' frozen temporarily (now back online)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:19:06 +0000

Hi guys

The 'Affiliates Forum' will be frozen and up and down over the next few weeks whilst I am doing some stuff; sorry for any inconvenience and happy Basschatting

Cheers
ped

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS !

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:00:08 +0000

Hi people.

It has come to our attention that we are close (no emergency yet though) to running out of disk space. The main reason for this is user attachments, we currently have 52500 attachments uploaded by members and using 40GB of disk space ! Whilst the quantity of attachments is not the issue, the size of them is.

Quite often we see For Sale threads with several images attached that are over 2MB each and are just big blurry pics of something that level of detail is not required. 500Kb per image should more than sufficient for most images, however we are not imposing a limit at the moment. If you aren't sure how to make your image smaller, try resizing it in any imaging software you have or there are websites that can do this for you (e.g. http://resizeimage.org/).

We ask that ALL users review the attachments they have, and see if they really need to be there. This can be done by going to the 'My Controls' section and 'Manage Your Attachments'. If you have some from a For Sale thread for something you sold a year ago, does it need to be there now ?

It would be preferable for the situation to be resolved this way rather than by forced deletion of the oldest/largest attachments as this could lead to missing images in live threads.

Also, there are numerous sound files uploaded, one of them is 15MB alone ! It doesn't take many of those to start filling the server up, we ask that you transfer any large (<2MB) sound recordings to an externally hosted website (such as SoundCloud) as these are likely to be removed in the near future.

If you have any questions then please ask here or send one of the mods a message !

Your co-operation is appreciated.

Many thanks,

Machines

Website developer wanted

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:06:51 +0000

We've decided to take advantage of the latest upgrade of the Invision software for the forum but Phatmonkey doesn't have the time to do it. So we're looking for a website developer with experience in database management to carry out the installation process.

We're happy to negotiate a fee in exchange for a guaranteed delivery deadline and fully functioning upgrade. If this upgrade goes well, we'll probably keep the person on for future development work. If you or anyone you know would be interested in doing the work for us, drop me an email via the admin inbox with a CV and contact deets.

cheers
Steve