From the two “What’s Your Pleasure?” polls and the “Pulse” poll (where we asked how members felt about paying a “per use” fee for special content on Thunder Row), the results came up like this.


I want to see more:

Roy - 11
Links to Instructional Sites/Material - 11
Lane on Bass - 7

Member Uploaded Videos - 5
Bass Guitar and Gear Info/Reviews - 5
YouTube videos of Bass Players in Action - 5

Member Satisfaction Polls - 4
Slejhamer’s Playalong Sessions - 3
Member Biographies - 3

Famous Bass Player Biographies - 2
Other (which included cleaning up the glitches in the forum itself and the “in the style of” contributions from Roy) - 2

Lesson Quizzes - 1
Famous Bassist Quotes/Trivia - 1
Ralph - 1
Chats and Games - 1

Would You Pay for Extra Content? 5 votes NO and 4 votes YES



The top three vote getters, more Roy, more links to instructional material, and more Lane on Bass reflect our desire to connect with bass lessons and our teachers. We’re hungry for as much instruction as we can get.

The three “middle of the road” vote getters (the 5s) involve watching other bassists strut their stuff and learning about the gear they use.

The 4 and 3 vote-getters are starting to get into the realm of feedback and participation with each other as members - where we share experiences, opinions, and have the chance to interact with each other.

The 2s are of different categories to each other. The smaller number of votes for Famous Bass Player Biographies means we’re not always interested in the back stories of the people who’ve made it to the top. My opinion on this topic is that interest (for me) would depend on whose biography I was reading. I suspect this area didn’t get too many votes since most of us can go to Wikipedia and just look someone up ourselves. I think the biographies serve us well when they are of very interesting players - those with unusual stories, as opposed to the run of the mill.

The other 2 vote getter is the OTHER category, which included (in conversation) the “in the style of” contributions from Roy, and the request to clean up the glitches in Thunder Row itself. Both issues have already been tackled. Roy will be posting some music for us to practice, and Patrick dug in DEEP to solve the forum glitches. (YAY, Patrick!!)

The 1-vote getters are more or less part of the friendly aspect of the forum. The fun, socializing, etc. I was a little surprised to find Lesson Quizzes so low, since I thought it was a great suggestion when I got it in an email from one of our valued members.

As for Ralph...I can’t get enough. Ralph is my pet. Always.

The “Would You Pay for Special Content” poll generated a lot of feedback from our members. Not a topic to be decided lightly, I’m sure TLD will be taking all opinions into consideration.

Summary:

As a group, on the whole...

Teaching and Instruction are the most important things to the students
Watching other bass players work the room is next - along with the equipment they use
Interacting with each other as fellow students is somewhat important to our members
We’re only moderately interested in learning about the back stories of famous musicians
Quizzes, trivia, games, chats, and (sigh) Ralph don't seem to be as important to our members.

And finally, we’re pretty much split down the middle on the concept of paying for extra content.

Remember that these results reflect very general trends - and might not reflect your own personal tastes.

Democracy at its finest.

Anybody have any opinions on all these votes? You have the floor!!