Disabling Tracks and the updated Collection features (for the time being)

Hi all,

I am sorry to have to inform you that we are having to turn off two Discogs features that we have been experimenting with over the last year - the Tracks feature, and the updated Collection feature. The reason for both are technical challenges in making the features stable and fast enough for us to run reliably for everyone.

I realise this may disappoint many of you. It is very disappointing for us as well. However, we have learned a lot from your feedback and usage of both features, and plan to bring them back in improved and stable forms in the not too distant future.

Thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm for the 20-year Discogs project: the best music database and marketplace in the world. We are committed to the continued success of Discogs and everyone who uses it.

Nik and the Discogs team.

Looks like I may have to update my new thread from just today. As a dev/product manager/tech lead at various times I feel your pain in mothballing something you have invested so much in! As a user of Discogs I have to say there really is a lot needed to make these useful to me, although Tracks at least had potential.
I'm sure you have your own plans and priorities, but is it worth revisiting Tracks as a contributor-driven rather than auto-generated feature? This would complement my new thread https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/803012 by attaching properties to tracks to reference a common ID (although I guess it's more in the model of release->master rather than composition-> external identifier). It depends where your performance and stability problems lie, but I do think that contributor-driven is worth exploring; it may be more slower but also more reliable.

Wow, that's a bummer! :(
I used Tracks so much, such a great & helpful feature, especially in finding/buying missing stuff.

Please bring it back asap!!

Was just using and loving the new Collections features yesterday. Looking forward to their return!

RIP tracks. How do we find different versions now?

Thank you very much for the Tracks feature, as long as it's been going. I checked today and was confused, but am glad to have conclusion. Take your time, I can't wait to see it return - it's been really incredible for finding the music I've been interested in, and I totally understand the reasons. <3

I'm a recent user and I've been incredibly happy with the tools on this site, and I'm looking forward to future updates to the tools!

dang. i had only used what was apparently the new version of collections. was a shock to lose it just now because this "old" version of collections sucks :(

I hope you get the Tracks feature sorted out soon. A very useful feature. I've been using daily. Thanks for updating us on the status.

Thanks all for your messages of support here. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and understanding means a lot! We want to continue improving your experience here on Discogs for sure. This is not the end of work on these features, just a break as we work under the hood. Cheers!

Hoping for the return of tracks soon. I loved using the feature, and found it really helpful.

tracks disappeared - but now i can go to filmogs or bookogs...
so why does this work - but not tracks????
disappointing

YEEEESSSSSS!! The collection feature was so terrible! Is there a way you can get it back to where it was before? Where it shows the release art you own with the price they are going for beneath it? Seems like it just shows the release now. The worst part of the collections feature was if you clicked on something and then used the back arrow on the browser it reloaded to the beginning of the collection again. Very frustrating.

The tracks feature was cool but I feel like you need to buy an entire server farm in Nebraska somewhere to hold that much data.

Wow, I agree that tracks was very useful to find rare versions/mixes.
Hope it will come back in one form or another, but I understand the challenge. The merge/demerge of tracks was convoluted and i never really got my hear around how it was supposed to work.

Can you use the server capacity instead to bring back the Collection filters for all of us who have more than 1500 items?

Yes, I really enjoyed the filter options on the left of the screen. I also really enjoyed viewing my collection with the larger covers. Either way, great job keeping this database, I use discogs every day.

I don't get it? My collection view hasn't changed in any way.

Sad for the Tracks feature though, but it seems you folks work really hard on it. Thx for you efforts and for this great database!

devotionalie
My collection view hasn't changed in any way.

I think that the new view was only implemented for those that have less than 2000 entries in their collection.

nik, IIRC, you told us that for the sake of Tracks we should start entering track & mix titles "as on release" instead of making corrections to obvious typos. What is the status of that advice?

So I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!

Why does the sort by Max not sort by Max value anymore, it just points the arrow down, surely it should be up for Max value?, Or am I missing something.

spaznfluff
So I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!

Me too, that's such a pity :(

spaznfluff
So I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!

It's very sad, the collection became a useless list of records.

[quote=icarus212001][/quote]
Oh dear, that's terrible news. I use a pc so this was a great attribute, going to be so difficult to use now

vitaly_in
spaznfluffSo I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!
It's very sad, the collection became a useless list of records.

[Yes that's what i'm thinking too!!!!!
quote=spaznfluff][/quote]

vitaly_in
spaznfluffSo I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!
It's very sad, the collection became a useless list of records.

As far as I understand, the Tracks feature is just down for improvment, and it will be back someday. I have been a huge last.fm user before the site got its new, mobile-friendly redesign and actually got scrapped. Then Discogs released the Tracks feature and it actually filled the void that the new Last FM has made. I have also noticed that Last FM is actually using a Discogs API. I wish you luck improving the Tracks feature. It wasn't perfect, it had a lot of issues. But it was/is great. I don't want to think of scrapping this feature, a bit more coding and feedback and it shall be back, improved. Since Last FM changed its politics Discogs is the only site that acts as a decent musical social network and the Tracks feature is much needed. Thanks for the brief availablity of the great Tracks feature! Keep the great work!

User216
As far as I understand, the Tracks feature is just down for improvment, and it will be back someday.

Yeah. There's a lot of back end type stuff that needs to happen to make it run more quickly / less load intensive.

HashimA
Why is every single page on the Discogs site redirecting to this page? I don't know anything about the above features, I just need to search the database, yet every album link I click from Google takes me to this post.

Hmm, it should only be happening on pages on the tracks system.

Could one of the links that lead you to this forum be provided so we can investigate? (That or what search terms used, etc)

kmccathran
I often used to filter my searches by .... type (Classical, Jazz, Pop) but now see only a useless list.

The same here :(

can you get google to unindex all the track pages ? everytime i google a track that link appears way above the release link and i get sent back to this forum post

Question: I want to sort my collection by year... starting with 2019 and then going back to 2018 etc. Since the changes I can only check my collection otherwise, starting with the releases with no exact release year and then going up to 2019. Is there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?

DrBassdrum
Is there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?

https://ogger.club/

mjb

https://ogger.club/

Been wanting to try this, but sketched out by third-party apps... Is it safe?

Farjenk - Yes, it just uses the API. When you "log in" to Discogs through it, you are only just giving your OK to Discogs to transmit, via the API, info which is specific to your account (e.g. your collection). You are not handing over your login info to the third party.

DrBassdrum
Question: I want to sort my collection by year... starting with 2019 and then going back to 2018 etc. Since the changes I can only check my collection otherwise, starting with the releases with no exact release year and then going up to 2019. Is there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?

Click on Year (where you see the headings Artist, Title, Label, Year , Format) and it will sort the other way.

mjb
Yes, it just uses the API.

Thank you! You're just all kinds of helpful today. :)

Noooo! I LOVED the tracks feature! I used it many, many times daily. What a bummer.

I registered just to respond to this thread; disappointed to lose such a powerful feature that I've used for many months to clean up my library, particularly track release dates (as opposed to compilation album release dates). This site is way more efficient to use for this than Wikipedia. Out of curiosity, what other ways do people use the site? Album art (big one for me)? Artist info (rarely)?

mjb
https://ogger.club/

Thanks a lot!

Ainooh, the TRACKS feature was super helpful...

While not perfect yet, the tracks feature was something that I used more and more in the last year.
I am really hoping it will come back at some point.

kmccathran
I often used to filter my searches by format (78s, LPs, CDs) and/or type (Classical, Jazz, Pop) but now see only a useless list. Bummer!

exactly, the only way to do this now is using folders!!

While you're at it, check if you can extend the added to collection date to more than 5 years.
Not a big deal but i would like to know when i added something to my collection.

You had to use google to find certain records in your database. For example try "my heart stood still" by the Jim Tyler Orchestra to track down the 9 LP compilation where this is to be found at. Now, no possibility to find that track at discogs anymore. Without that possibility anymore, many of those entries will remain disappeared in the discogs nirvana forever, even if entries exist.So please, please think over your decision!

0bleak
DrBassdrumQuestion: I want to sort my collection by year... starting with 2019 and then going back to 2018 etc. Since the changes I can only check my collection otherwise, starting with the releases with no exact release year and then going up to 2019. Is there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?

Click on Year (where you see the headings Artist, Title, Label, Year , Format) and it will sort the other way.

Yes I know. But not by year as I want.

kosutasu
While you're at it, check if you can extend the added to collection date to more than 5 years.
Not a big deal but i would like to know when i added something to my collection.

Possibly that's because you created your account about 6 years ago?
This stamp was created in August 2009. All items I had in collection at this point are marked as such (Added over 10 years) and additions since then have the actual stamp, Added 9 / 8 / 7 etc. years ago.
Not sure you can expect Discogs to track when you bought something before creating an account or before adding it to your online collection...

_jules

... expect Discogs to track when you bought something before creating an account or before adding to your online collection......

Yes that's exactly what i expect. Discogs stuff coming over my room examining all my collection and putting timestamps on them.
Why not grading them too?

Oh My Nothing! Thanks dude, i should have added this to my original post.
That's why i love the Discogs forum :D

vitaly_in
kmccathranI often used to filter my searches by .... type (Classical, Jazz, Pop) but now see only a useless list.
The same here :(

This was a must to organize a somewhat large collection.... Hope you can bring this back!!! I am lost without it...

mjb
DrBassdrumIs there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?
https://ogger.club/

Super-helpful... makes up for missing advanced collection features in discogs. THanks!!

the collection has become useless, I am sure there was a problem regarding the loading time but at least we had filters and everything.

Thanks all again for your feedback here, it is much appreciated.

mjb
nik, IIRC, you told us that for the sake of Tracks we should start entering track & mix titles "as on release" instead of making corrections to obvious typos. What is the status of that advice?

Thanks mjb. I still think we should be capturing things like track title typos rather than trying to make them conform to be identical.

mjb
https://ogger.club/

I've been meaning to try this.

+1 for the tracks feature!

Looking forward for the return of both features. Would've needed some of the collection features this morning... :(

All the best for the re-engineering under the hood for Tracks! Very much looking forward to its' rebirth some time hopefully soon (and it hopefully addressing the unsolved composition/cover/remix/version complexities that had irked Tracks since it's been beta'd).
And since I never saw the new collection features - apparently there's a collection size threshold..? - very curious about that too.
In case you need feedback, sing out.
Churs.
c.

I too liked Tracks, really useful for double checking which artist(s) were involved before crediting the wrong Smith etc!
Logged in after a few days away and was faced with the (now very clunky acting) old fashioned collection page... I really would like the "new" one back!
Hopefully both can return. To borrow from Joni Mitchell
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone"

Just tried it myself... I will use it again.
Thanks!

Diognes_The_Fox
Diognes_The_Fox about 8 hours ago

mjb
https://ogger.club/

I've been meaning to try this.

Rockosurf
The worst part of the collections feature was if you clicked on something and then used the back arrow on the browser it reloaded to the beginning of the collection again. Very frustrating.

+1

This is the whole reason I added all my jukebox 45s to my Discogs collection even though I was really planning to give them their own account - to get over 2500 releases and be done with the unbelievably tedious reloads. Glad I can finally move them off without consequence.

So wait, the collection beta was the function that allowed you to filter your collection? I use that feature daily, and it's unfortunate to see it depart. Hopefully it can be returned soon.

nik
Hi all,

I am sorry to have to inform you that we are having to turn off two Discogs features that we have been experimenting with over the last year - the Tracks feature, and the updated Collection feature. The reason for both are technical challenges in making the features stable and fast enough for us to run reliably for everyone.

I realise this may disappoint many of you. It is very disappointing for us as well. However, we have learned a lot from your feedback and usage of both features, and plan to bring them back in improved and stable forms in the not too distant future.

Thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm for the 20-year Discogs project: the best music database and marketplace in the world. We are committed to the continued success of Discogs and everyone who uses it.

Nik and the Discogs team.

It`s O.k Nik and what I saw in music writters (C) the songs are a mess. I suggest to improve all that you got or ask a very good databes in S. rights for the things stay all clean and decent. You also must check the ISWC number coz it´s the REAL ID tracks connect to Rights Society country. So with that U can see who the songs belong. Cheers and good luck. Kindly Rui

Please work diligently to bring back the Collection and Tracks features. I found them incredibly useful for both organization and research.

Tragic, but upon revival could you integrate similar features to the Wantlist? As well as adding support for specific years and not only decades.

Rockosurf
Is there a way you can get it back to where it was before? Where it shows the release art you own with the price they are going for beneath it? Seems like it just shows the release now.

If you access your collection from your public profile (or any other collection from any other user) it shows prices of copies for sale. Folders etc can't be accessed from there.

If you access your personal collection from the dropdown menu in the upper right corner it won't show prices, but folders are accessible and it has the collection value feature. This works only for your personal collection.

nik
the Tracks feature

Hi,
Realising that I've been occasionally linking to Tracks / Compositions pages in some MR or release notes.
Do you recommend deleting / updating those links or should I keep those for now?
(they're directing to this thread, I see - so I guess they should be removed)
If it's recommended to delete those, would you guys have a way to retrieve list of all pages with discogs.com/composition/ urls
Thanks

The collections feature as well as tracks were super useful to me - while not being perfect :(
I used both features extensively and really hope they return soon...

A real shame! In this regard, I am writing to the development team for about 8 months to ask you the possibility of being able to order the WANTLIST NOTE head very useful for searches and the only one that does not have this feature among those present in the form.

I look forward confident.

beolinpassive
A real shame! In this regard, I am writing to the development team for about 8 months to ask you the possibility of being able to order the WANTLIST NOTE head very useful for searches and the only one that does not have this feature among those present in the form.

I look forward confident.

https://support.discogs.com/hc/it/requests/173700
https://support.discogs.com/hc/it/requests/143764
https://support.discogs.com/hc/it/requests/135432
https://support.discogs.com/hc/it/requests/119194

It's a relief that the new collection feature is disabled. It was both visually and technically waaay too heavy. Hope you can find a better way to work forward with this. Thanks for a great site in all.

Good, tracks was terrible. Never used it,seemed such a waste of time and effort to maintain.Useless addition to the site

The only downside to me is that I can no longer search my collection by Maximum Value. That was a useful feature which helped me track the value of my most expensive records

vitaly_in
spaznfluffSo I don't quite understand, has the left hand column with dates, genres etc gone for good??
If so I don't like the new way at all!!
It's very sad, the collection became a useless list of records.

Same here :-( i was shocked when i saw the look of the collection today.
What´s the use of a database without possibility of filtering? bummer!

nik
Hi all,

I am sorry to have to inform you that we are having to turn off two Discogs features that we have been experimenting with over the last year - the Tracks feature, and the updated Collection feature. The reason for both are technical challenges in making the features stable and fast enough for us to run reliably for everyone.

I realise this may disappoint many of you. It is very disappointing for us as well. However, we have learned a lot from your feedback and usage of both features, and plan to bring them back in improved and stable forms in the not too distant future.

Thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm for the 20-year Discogs project: the best music database and marketplace in the world. We are committed to the continued success of Discogs and everyone who uses it.

Nik and the Discogs team.

Does it mean that it is no use in registrate all of my records in collection anymore? Or have misunderstood the message?

incredibly disappointing

Why I can't filtering my collection by genre now?

LyricalGroover
The only downside to me is that I can no longer search my collection by Maximum Value.

Of course you can sort your collection by max. value.
go to your collection
select Text with covers or Text only view (icons top right)
then order by Max by clicking on Max column heading
https://www.discogs.com/user/LyricalGroover/collection?sort=max&sort_order=desc

if you want to use the collection features like genre etc. that are now missing i suggest you could move all your items to for sale but make the items unavailable in any country except one most unlikely for sales. this would be similar to the collection but without custom folders.

As contributor, the most time I spent updating the database in the last one+ year was:
1.on Tracks pages, merging tracks where appropriate (quite time consuming, especially on prolific major artists).
2.on traditional Release pages, in direct relation to Tracks, i.e. in track titling corrections.

I somehow feel like I have wasted my time, especially regarding point 1, and hope the work was not done for nothing.

In other words, I expect the work done manually by all contributing users on Tracks pages, since the launch of the beta feature, not to be lost and found back when the functionality is up and running again — in whatever form.

bertielego
I expect the work done manually by all contributing users on Tracks pages, since the launch of the beta feature, not to be lost and found back when the functionality is up and running again — in whatever form.

The pain, and the expectation, is mutual ;-)

Hi, this is a sad discovery and I hope that it returns. When it does return will our folders etc return or will we have to recreate and populate them?

im dedicated to classical music and must say that the tracks feature was useless and confusing, simply beacause a certain musical piece can have as many different titles as you like (mostly language variations). in english pop/rock it made sense but there is still the search function that do the work fine.

snakeman313
Or have misunderstood the message?

Have you read all of Nik's post? What is not to understand about it?

nik
Hi all,

I am sorry to have to inform you that we are having to turn off two Discogs features that we have been experimenting with over the last year - the Tracks feature, and the updated Collection feature. The reason for both are technical challenges in making the features stable and fast enough for us to run reliably for everyone.

I realise this may disappoint many of you. It is very disappointing for us as well. However, we have learned a lot from your feedback and usage of both features, and plan to bring them back in improved and stable forms in the not too distant future.

Thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm for the 20-year Discogs project: the best music database and marketplace in the world. We are committed to the continued success of Discogs and everyone who uses it.

Nik and the Discogs team.

bruh

Looking forward to the return of these features.

DrBassdrum
Question: I want to sort my collection by year... starting with 2019 and then going back to 2018 etc. Since the changes I can only check my collection otherwise, starting with the releases with no exact release year and then going up to 2019. Is there someone that dan explain me how I can check my collection the way I like to?

The problem with the year that it would show say '2001' for a reissue of an album issued in an earlier year - rendering the sort function by year useless in my opinion, but I appreciate that it might not have bothered others.

My collection feature only "changed" w/in last several days & no, not crazy about the changed one. Not even sure if the actual features of it changed, or if it's only visually, but don't care for the layout properties of it now compared to before.
While you are implementing program/hardware revisions, the collection feature is still available? (Please/won't be lost. ~ I imagine many would be horrified if that were to occur.)
If possible, please don't lose the random feature. It took me awhile before I knew about that & it's great way to play items in your collection, which may have taken a backseat ~ terrific!
Thanks Discogs team. :)

That's too bad, Tracks was very helpful in helping me find some credits in several cases.

The Collection view I never saw, so don't really care.

Does this mean the development team will switch focus to features that improve existing issues like the Artist Page and things like the growing collection of pages filling with dozens and dozens of "live releases"? Because that'd be cool.

What I don't understand is why it shuffled the albums within an artist's listing? Used to be you could add them chronologically into the Collection and it would maintain that order, now they assigned a random order when you do that and all the ones I had in order before are jumbled out of order.

bertielego
In other words, I expect the work done manually by all contributing users on Tracks pages, since the launch of the beta feature, not to be lost and found back when the functionality is up and running again — in whatever form.

It is backed up.

Kadee1
the collection feature is still available?

Goodness yeah. We're just turning off the new one we were working on. :)

Wow this collections view is useless now guys ... sort on min/med/max values doesn't even work. So why not do your new development on a parallel system and implement it when your done ? Shutting it down when it mostly works without a new version to replace it seems drastic.