Feature Request

[gr8sho92]

I know that telling what tracks are in the queue is against "da rulez", but perhaps ordering the upcoming artists in play sequence is allowed rather than the current alphabetical view.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by gr8sho92

I know that telling what tracks are in the queue is against "da rulez", but perhaps ordering the upcoming artists in play sequence is allowed rather than the current alphabetical view.

OK. Let me explain a few things about requesting.

1. The user can only request once per hours. This is enforced by IP address and a lookup in the database. This is one of the few nearly sure bets when it comes to request. Of course, we all know that the IP issue can be circumvented. I will, in time, get to having this be based on username now that it is incorporated into the database. Out of the mayhem that was that abusive over-requester has come some good things.

2. Once you have made a request, the only sure thing is that you won't hear it within the hour of your requesting it.

Let me explain with an example. When it comes to requests, you can think of it as 2 queues. One I will call the Request Queue and the other is the Pending Queue. There is also a History Queue this the top entry being the item currently playing.


History Queue
ELP - Lucky Man
Gentle Giant - Alucard
...
...
...
...
...


Pending Queue
Yes - Heart Of The Sunrise
GYBE - who cares
Pink Floyd - Julia Dream

Request Queue
Yes - Close To The Edge
Pink FLoyd - Pow R. Toc H.
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
ELP - Karn Evil #9
King Crimson - Epitaph

Assume that no Genesis, Yes or Pink FLoyd has played recently.

Here is what will happen. SAM has taken the three tracks from the Request Queue (Yes, GYBE, and Pink Floyd) or has selected a track from the library. Since none of these has played in recent history, other users can request Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis. They cannot request any more ELP because it is NOW in the History Queue. Requests for an ELP will return "artist has recently played".
Since Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis are in the Pending Queue, SAM will not promote the requested Yes, Genesis, or Pink Floyd tracks anytime soon. What track will be next? Assuming that King Crimson has not played in recent history, SAM will likely put Epitaph in the Pending Request queue once the hour wait time has been exhausted.

So, what you are asking for is impossible. When you look on the Web Site and see the coming up list, what you see is the top 2 entries of the Pending Queue. The only thing that is a sure bet is the Pending QUeue but we are restricted in showing that.

The requests page collates artists in the request queue alphabetically. I could ORDER that queue by requested time but, if you understand the simple scenario outlined above, you will see that that too has no real relevance on what will play and in what order.


FYI, I will make this a FAQ item too.

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by VAXman

The requests page collates artists in the request queue alphabetically. I could ORDER that queue by requested time but, if you understand the simple scenario outlined above, you will see that that too has no real relevance on what will play and in what order.


FYI, I will make this a FAQ item too.

Wow, impressive write-up. A FAQ for this would certainly be a nice to have. I seem to be making a habit of asking for these.

FWIW, while I didn't understand the exact method used for managing the queue, I kinda got a sense for how it worked. Just showing the relative ordering of the request queue by request time itself is a gross enough cut and is what my original request was based on.

The whole purpose of this really is about time management and to get a high level sense of when one's request will get played in the next 60-90 minutes. (Even here there is a great amount of imprecision because it only takes a few 26 min plus long songs to mess you up.)

Thanks for listening,
Carl

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by gr8sho92

Wow, impressive write-up. A FAQ for this would certainly be a nice to have. I seem to be making a habit of asking for these.

FWIW, while I didn't understand the exact method used for managing the queue, I kinda got a sense for how it worked. Just showing the relative ordering of the request queue by request time itself is a gross enough cut and is what my original request was based on.

The whole purpose of this really is about time management and to get a high level sense of when one's request will get played in the next 60-90 minutes. (Even here there is a great amount of imprecision because it only takes a few 26 min plus long songs to mess you up.)

Thanks for listening,
Carl

My ONLY issue with ordering it by the entry (requested) time-stamp is that people may misconstrue the ordering and then I'll hear, "Why did that request play before mine when I requested my at 0600 and that one was requested hours later?"

Also, since it is only a list of artists in the request queue, it's does seem easier to scan the list alphabetically.

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by VAXman

My ONLY issue with ordering it by the entry (requested) time-stamp is that people may misconstrue the ordering and then I'll hear, "Why did that request play before mine when I requested my at 0600 and that one was requested hours later?"

Also, since it is only a list of artists in the request queue, it's does seem easier to scan the list alphabetically.

With the simple notion that people will assume that their request will play "right away", the FAQ will surely help, but then that relies on people to take the time to read the FAQ and we all know how that goes.

I won't lose any sleep over this either way. It's fine as it is.