BBZ.RU - my personal "startup" about breaks music

Something I have never written anywhere about my project BBZ.RU - a portal about breaks music, and in fact it is already almost 5 years old. The thing is that for me the project has never been a startup, it was a hobby that started with the fact that I liked the music in the style of breaks, breakbeat. At that time, somehow there were no resources in runet where it was possible to find something interesting and relevant on this topic.

Now the project has turned, as I was recently told, into a social network where Russian-speaking and not just breakers are “hanging out”, and regular club events are held regularly.

One day, the famous foreign musician Elite Force came to the forum and dispersed our entire fraternity with unflattering words about Russia and piracy. The discussion was also raised on several foreign thematic sites. I had to urgently remove all links to illegal content from the site, introduce new rules and communicate with all participants in the discussion on all sites, convincing them that Russia is not as bad as they think. The problem was solved, the authority was restored.

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Initially, the site was fairly simple and typical: news, description of releases, a section with music and a forum. No interactive. I found something interesting and shared it on the site. Historically, the engine on the site was CMS NetCat. The forum has always stood phpbb. I didn’t have enough strength, or rather to find the time and desire to combine the user base and the registration / authorization system of these systems.

Over time, the forum formed some community. There was a backbone of people who constantly and actively commented on something, discussed music among themselves and shared it. Battle'y were held, when 2 musicians each recorded their own mix and put it up for general voting, during the month that decides who won. Later projects appeared: a weekly or monthly DJ releases some thematic mix. At the moment, the most popular project is Morning Coffee - mixes in the style of progressive breaks, within which 29 issues have already been released, in which well-known foreign DJs have participated (I especially liked the release 29 from BETA).

The first design was my personal =) After what he saw, one designer suggested drawing something normal. So there was a second version. A year and a half ago, a redesign was proposed again, but this time also with a change of concept, since it became clear that all life on the site occurs only on the forum. It was decided to involve users in the creation of content of the project.

Since the project was and is a hobby, the implementation of the third version was delayed for six months. I was always the only one who was engaged in the site. I never paid special attention to the technical component of the project, functionality was more important for me.

I have to say that expectations were not justified a bit. I could not transfer communication from the forum to the site. All for one simple reason: the phpbb forum has a long history of development and stuffing with all sorts of functionalities that are very convenient to work with. To organize such functionality for communication on the site itself requires a lot of effort, programming, time. Of course, it is rather difficult for one person to master this.

So, what we have on the melon moment. In order to avoid unnecessary spam, unauthorized users can only watch. No voting, adding materials to the site they can not. After registration, any of your actions on the site will bring you a rating (points). The higher your rating, the more popular and authoritative you are on BBZ.RU. Three of the most successful users are honorable located on the front page of the site above. (unfortunately, the moment of “popularity” is still flawed and not developed to such a good system, for example, as in the Habré with its ratings, karmas, invites, and so on).

The first day of each month is automatically determined by the results of voting for the past month and the activity of Mix and Man of the month. They can always be seen on the title page.

What can be added:

• Own music track .
• Links to mixes (own and others) .
• Write a message to one of the communities (blogs) ( first you need to join it ).
• Event / Event / Radio .
• Write posts on the forum .
• News
• Comment on almost all the materials added by users.
• Evaluate all materials added by users.
• Create your own photo album .

What other features are there:

• Exchange messages.
• To make friends.
• Participate in ratings.
• Receive email notifications about any responses to you, as well as about upcoming events in which you expressed a desire to participate.

What should follow:

• The music track can be downloaded only one and only your own. If you want to add a new track to the site, simply change the information on the existing one.
• Links to the mixes you add should be relevant.
• Information about added events must be truthful.

A couple of years ago, in the era of web 2.0, social networks and other things, the idea was born to make it possible for users to store music materials on the site, especially as users mix as the most popular content, in second place are user tracks: personal or remixes. It is clear that for the implementation of such a functional, substantial expenses are needed, therefore at the moment I limited myself only to the ability to upload 1 music track (user creativity) to the profile.

Now club events are held regularly, for the latter a batch of T-shirts with the symbols of the project was specially made, a photo report on this can be found in the corresponding section “Photos” on the website.

PS why am I all this? Just want to share what is expensive, hear criticism, comments. Perhaps someone will be interested in the project from the point of view of music.