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About 18 months ago, Rich started sending
out emails of CD reviews of the stuff he was receiving from the
Rough Trade music club. These proved popular and before you knew
it everyone was having their say on the things they were listening
to. Early highlights included the torrents of abuse being levelled
at Anthony & The Johnsons, lengthy discussions on the merits
of Green Day by people who should be old enough to know better and
the casual dismissal of the music tastes of anyone who disagreed
with you.
Unbeknownst to me, Andy had started to collate any and every comment
about music in a spreadsheet (example: A passing “I like the
new Super Furry Animals album” comment ended up as a review),
and I was approached one day with an idea that had been festering
in the bonces of my colleagues.
Rich and Andy thought that putting the reviews on the internet would
be fun and that maybe other people may want to read them. Suddenly
interested, I showed Rich the Indietron site.
It didn’t look like it does now, it didn’t have any
layout or design, and the interface was basic in the extreme. It
was the result of a similar idea back in 2003 when a group of friends
thought pretty much the same thing as Rich and Andy but were defeated
by the twin monsters of indolence and apathy.
So we gave it another go and the website you’re looking at
now is the result. Whilst I dragged out the design and coding of
this website for as long as my laziness demanded, Rich continued
to churn out reviews at an alarming rate, whilst Andy concentrated
on working out how he could make money selling Indietron t-shirts,
mouse mats and possibly even branded femidoms.
I hope somebody derives some enjoyment from the site and if you
have any comments, complaints or suggestions, either refer to the
FAQ below, email the admin team here or go to the forum. |
| Glenn (May 2006) |
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| Q: “What does Indietron mean?” |
| A: “Well, it could be taken to mean that
we provide independent music reviews (because we do), but it is
also what Glenn used to call his CD cabinets. He also has the Indietron
robot seen on the main page and wanted to incorporate it into the
design as he thinks it’s cool. It has recently stopped working
however and this makes Glenn sad.” |
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| Q: “I’ve applied for an account but I
can’t get on. Is there a problem?” |
| A: “Accounts need to be validated by a member
of the admin team before you can log on. This can range from minutes
(if one of us is around) to anything up to 24 hours. We apologise
for any delay. Please make sure you’ve used a valid email
address, if your email address looks suspect then admin may not
validate you.” |
| |
| Q: “I just clicked on something and an error
message came up. Why did that happen?” |
A: “Indietron was written from scratch in
notepad. That was a bad idea wasn’t it? Testing is very boring
so occasionally things may go wrong. I am slapdash.
If you spot anything not working as it should, problems may be reported
on the forum (here). Indietron is a work in progress, new features
are being added all the time so if you have any ideas then feel
free to suggest them on the forum.” |
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| Q: “Why are some of the reviews really short,
whilst others are overly long epics?” |
| A: “When we imported Andy’s spreadsheet
into the database, we didn’t exert much in the way of quality
control. A lot of the very brief reviews imported have been expanded
(and more will be over time) but there will actually be some short
reviews left. Maybe you could do a better one. Maybe you could join
our team of reviewers. See below for details on this.” |
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| Q: “I just read a review which contained several
spelling mistakes and grammar that I’d be ashamed to use in
a text message. What’s going on?” |
| A: “See the answer above. Most of us are
from an engineering background, great with wires, diodes, computing
languages and the like but reliant on a speak n’spell when
it comes to the English language. Actually, this isn’t really
the case, it’s just that most of the reviews were written
whilst drunk. Sorry.” |
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| Q: “Come on then, I’d like to be a reviewer,
where do I sign?” |
A: “Most of our reviewers are part of the
team because they’re friends or work colleagues of Rich, Andy
and I. So, they didn’t have to impress us with their gibberings,
their backstage passes came free.
We are on the lookout for new reviewers however, people with something
to offer; in their writing style, their taste in music (any will
be considered and it’d be great to have a reviewer into classical
ambient speedfolk) or their prolific output. There are two ways
to join the team, one is to pop a few reviews on the Indietron forum,
the other is to send a sample of your work to the admin team here.
It’s all for the love at the moment, but who knows, if you’re
any good then you may one day get your face on an official Indietron
prophylactic.” |
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| Q: “What are the advertising links on the review
pages for?” |
| A: “On some of the review pages you’ll
find links to reputable vendors for the CD in question so you can
go and buy it if you’re interested. Also, we’ll get
a small cut of any sale so the money will go to pay for any costs
in hosting this website. You don’t have to buy via Indietron
but it would be nice if you were planning to buy it anyway. Plus,
we need to pay for Rich’s addiction to strawberry dib-dabs
somehow.” |
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| Q: “Hi, I read a review which I found to be
offensive. I’d been enjoying your site but found the torrents
of abuse levelled at Jon Bon Jovi to be unfair. Will you remove
the review?” |
| A: “The reviews on this site are the opinion
solely of the reviewer. No offence is intended with any review on
the site. If you have a genuine grievance with a review on Indietron
(rather than just a general disagreement with the reviewers opinion)
then please contact the admin team (email / forum) and we’ll
discuss your problem. If you disagree with a review, the forum is
the place to argue about it.” |
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| Q: “I read something libellous/obscene/disgusting
on the forum. What are you going to do about it?” |
| A: “Again, if you have any grievance with
something on the forum, please contact the admin team (email / forum)
immediately. Whereas the views expressed on the forum are obviously
the opinion of that particular poster, the admin and forum moderators
will immediately remove anything they consider horrendous.” |
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