Mike: Most of the chat that used to be on w2s now takes place on FB. The reason I think that the forums have become a little more hostile than what they were even only a year ago is that new posters most of the time seem to have agendas and are now viewed suspiciously. No one's fault, just the Boy Who Cried Wolf phenomenon.

David: Given that the site's premise is to give singer's a resource to find gigs, the two questions that need to be asked (and no doubt you've already asked yourself these) are 1) under what circumstances are singers trying to find gigs and 2) what do they need from the site in order to fulfill their objective?

If people are accessing the site from their home computer in order to find a gig, they're likely to be in the process of planning their night. Their main focus is likely to be *how do I get there*, *do I maybe want to have dinner there*, *what's the list like*.

How do I get there is already covered by the Google Maps link but I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile having user-uploaded features like menues from the venue (often easily copied from venue's websites) and the host's songlist. Another reason why I might plan to go out to one venue over another is who is likely to be there on that given night. FaceBook usually fills the gap on that, but if you wanted to, you could incorporate some kind of 'I'm going to this venue this week' feature. Perhaps something like the Reconfirm Gig button where it lists who has clicked it... I dunno, just stream-of-consciousness stuff here...

If people are accessing the site from their mobile, I imagine that their priorities change dramatically. They'd most likely be interested only in the gig listing (which is a little ironic given that at the moment, the gig listing is a little cumbersome to use on a mobile). It's likely that the idea of karaoke has become a last minute decision, the person (or group) is already out and about and they want to find the gig closest to their current location. They might also be interested in knowing how busy it is (some might want to steer clear of a busy venue whereas others might loath to go to somewhere that is quiet). I have to say, I really don't understand why Twitter is so popular but it really is tailor-made for achieving the above goal. Some sort of rolling updates (dropping off after say, 30 minutes) where people can simply type in 'am at xxxxxxx venue, really quite' or 'am at xxxxx venue, heaps of people, getting through rotation quickly'. I know a few people that hop around different venues each week that would definitely contribute to something like that (I'm looking at you MA.... lol). I couldn't think of anything more efficient than being able to log onto w2s, being able to click a 'find gigs closest to me' link and being presented with say 5 venues on a map with limited text info on what's going on there right now...

Just some thoughts... lol
Submitted by LeatherBaron on 25-07-2009

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