
Listening and Evolving: A Message From Discogs’ CEO
By Kevin Lewandowski
Dear Discogs community,
A few weeks ago, we announced that there would be some changes and improvements coming to Discogs. Today, I’d like to give you more details about those changes. Before I do so, I’d like to take a moment to explain why…
Discogs was built by a vast community of record collectors representing a broad range of musical tastes who all share a common love of music. It was built by all of you.
Over the 23 years since the site went live, Discogs has become a critical resource we rely on in different ways. It’s a humbling responsibility that I, and all of us here at Discogs, take very seriously. Our job at Discogs is maintaining the database’s health, the marketplace’s functionality, and the business that allows both to continue operating.
But we can do better…
Community
Discogs was built by a vast community of record collectors… It was built by all of you. And we hear you. We are actively working on improvements behind the scenes. But we are also updating how we, as a company, communicate with all of you, with a commitment to be more open and responsive.
Discogs was built by a vast community of record collectors… It was built by all of you.
To support this, we will be creating a Discogs Community Advisory Board. This group will consist of representatives from many facets of the Discogs community. Our goal with this is to give users a way to bring feedback and ideas to Discogs and influence how the platform evolves. Stay tuned for more details as this effort unfolds.
Technology
We’ve heard – loud and clear – the calls to update Discogs with enhanced experiences, new tools and features, and much more. To do so, we first need to improve the technical foundation that Discogs was built on 23 years ago.
Discogs was created by hand in the early days of the web before many modern solutions existed, which led to a patchwork of software that made it challenging to innovate the way we’d like.
Today, we’re in the process of untangling this knot. We’re migrating the marketplace, database, and other site elements to separate, modernized platforms purpose-built for each function. It’s like remastering a song recorded on a single track into multiple stems.
[Improving the technical foundation] is like remastering a song recorded on a single track into multiple stems.
It’s a large effort that will take time. We started earlier in 2023, and we expect it to take us into the first half of 2024 to complete the first phase of upgrades. This will be an ongoing process to ensure the foundation remains up-to-date over time. Most of this work occurs behind the scenes, so you might not notice the many immediate changes. But once implemented, these changes will allow us to move faster and create better collecting, contributing, and selling experiences for you.
Fraud
In the past year, online marketplaces have experienced unprecedented amounts of fraudulent activity. Any fraud within the Discogs Marketplace is simply unacceptable to us. We have been addressing this with an agile approach, using different tools for different scenarios.
We cannot detail all of our security efforts, but you’ve probably noticed several changes already. We’ve added an identification and verification process for new sellers. We’ve also stepped up our two-factor authentication as well as our customer support response and resolution time.
But this is more than a one-solution problem. It requires constant vigilance from all. And for that, we need your help. If you experience any suspicious activity, please report it immediately to Discogs Support. We also have a guide to the best practices for buying that has additional information on how to protect yourself.
Looking Ahead
These are some of the latest steps we have been taking to enhance the Discogs experience. We are also planning improvements to the Wantlist, shipping, and more. We’ll let you know as they get closer to release.
We look forward to sharing more information through our new Discogs News and Experience Updates sections of the website, as well as through messages like this. So be sure to sign up for our newsletter for more immediate communications.
Until the next update,
Kevin Lewandowski
Founder/CEO, Discogs
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