[mb-users] Feedback/testing: track merging

[Aaron Cooper]

On 16-Mar-08, at 5:37 PM, Lukáš Lalinský wrote:

> Hi,
>
> over the last two weekends I've done a little mb_server code  
> refactoring
> and put together some old code, which implements "track merging" -
> http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/TrackMerging. I'd like to ask you for
> feedback, especially about the issues listed on the wiki page, but  
> also
> for testing on http://tests.musicbrainz.org/ (tracks can be merged  
> from
> the new "Tracks" page). The code is very far from finished, and so
> expect many things to be broken for now. But still, if you find
> something that doesn't work, please send a mail about it here, because
> those non-functional parts are usually also the ones that need
> discussion.

Right off the bat I want to say this looks like a lot of fun!  I  
haven't had much time to play with it because I just got home from  
Iron Maiden's concert in Toronto and I've got to get *some* sleep  
before work tomorrow!  Here are some of my early observations:

1. Merges aren't auto-edits for AutoEditors.  I think they could be  
and I personally would like to be able to merge without a vote.

2. Merges don't select a "destination" track by default.  I assume the  
only reason we pick one is so that we pick the correct spelling of the  
track title.  I hope in most cases our titles are consistent so it  
would save a click if we had the first track selected by default.

3. I think each track could use some context on the Tracks page.   
Maybe list the album name in another column so we can look at that to  
see maybe "Ah, this is their demo, so a different track." or "This is  
a live recording, I shouldn't merge this with the studio recording."   
Speaking of live recordings...

4. I assume we will not be merging different recordings together so  
the TracksMerging is not the same as works lists.  Is TracksMerging a  
step towards creating TrackMasters?

5. If we're now going to be working with track masters, we will  
probably need some way to disambiguate between the main studio  
recording of a song (say Enter Sandman) and the 200~ live versions on  
bootlegs.  On the Tracks page we're going to have 201~ tracks that say  
"Enter Sandman" and we won't want them merged.  Is listing the  
associated album names beside the track group enough?

In case anyone is interested, I've put in a number of Merge Tracks  
edits for In Flames (http://test.musicbrainz.org/mod/search/results.html?artist_type=3&artist_id=10984&orderby=desc 
).

Nice work, Lukáš!

-Aaron