New Community Tool/Resource

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Wow awesome proof-of-concept! I have been wanting something like this for a long time. I even considered building it myself too. What I'd really like to see is a search bar that quickly filters for whatever amp/drive/etc. you're looking for.

I might have a solution to this data-duplication dilemma we're in!
  1. Someone (preferably Fractal themselves) creates a new public Github account.
  2. Create a public repository that contains all the current info and documentation in data-driven formats like markdown, json, yaml. Call this the "docs" repo.
  3. Fractal/Yek/<some authorized person> publishes a new release of the docs on every firmware update. This could even be automated via some kind of webhook.
  4. Create a new "wiki" repository that uses a tool to compile all the data into a clean, easy to read, static wiki. Tools that come to mind: Sphinx, Hugo, Jekyll. Search "static site generation" for more.
  5. Host the wiki on Github Pages or Netlify. Both free!
  6. Fractalpedia could then be a longer-term project that builds off of the same dataset and adds it's own features like comments/ratings/search/etc.

Doing this has two big benefits:
  1. Github provides an issue tracker where anyone can propose changes to the docs. Those changes(pull-requests) would have to be approved by a maintainer/editor before they get published. This addresses Yek's concern about the possible quality degradation.
  2. Static sites are super fast and easy to host (cheap/free).
 
Spartan1158 said:
Quality post right here. You clearly don't get it, but that's fine. I must say it is rather unfortunate to have experienced and well-respected community members (moderators, even) engaging and encouraging this kind of behavior. Keep it up, this will do wonders to encourage new folks to jump and try to be a part of the community. /s


I appreciate the detailed response. Wiki, wiki, wiki. Wiki? One tool for every job - a wiki. Though I disagree with a lot of your thoughts and opinions, you have some valid points in there. And yeah, a lot of this is subjective but you're running way too far in the wrong direction.. I mean, seriously. Yep, you guys got me! I want to spend hours and hours of my time and invest my money into my "walled garden" where I have complete control over all the content I stole and.. wait, what am I doing with it again? Haha, get real.. It's unfortunate that a few 'bad apples' that have completely misinterpreted what I've done have ruined what could have been an awesome thing for everyone..

I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read, comment, or send me a DM. I'm also rather disappointed with the interaction and behavior of a few key folks, but it is what it is. At this point in time, I have absolutely zero desire to put any further effort or energy into the project. It will be taken down shortly and that will be the end of it. It's simply not worth it.

Cheers 🍻
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Plug your ears Mods.

The absolute LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST thing Fractal needs is more documentation/over explanation on their products. That portion of the process is already a slog to get through without adding regurgitated/redundant info. My 2cents at least.
 
Spartan1158 said:
Quality post right here. You clearly don't get it, but that's fine. I must say it is rather unfortunate to have experienced and well-respected community members (moderators, even) engaging and encouraging this kind of behavior. Keep it up, this will do wonders to encourage new folks to jump and try to be a part of the community. /s


I appreciate the detailed response. Wiki, wiki, wiki. Wiki? One tool for every job - a wiki. Though I disagree with a lot of your thoughts and opinions, you have some valid points in there. And yeah, a lot of this is subjective but you're running way too far in the wrong direction.. I mean, seriously. Yep, you guys got me! I want to spend hours and hours of my time and invest my money into my "walled garden" where I have complete control over all the content I stole and.. wait, what am I doing with it again? Haha, get real.. It's unfortunate that a few 'bad apples' that have completely misinterpreted what I've done have ruined what could have been an awesome thing for everyone..
Click to expand...

Call me “old school” but I still think that gratitude and respect have to be earned, and not demanded before accomplishing anything.

And calling me names through PM doesn’t help either.
 
KornyDjentlemen said:
Wow awesome proof-of-concept! I have been wanting something like this for a long time. I even considered building it myself too. What I'd really like to see is a search bar that quickly filters for whatever amp/drive/etc. you're looking for.

I might have a solution to this data-duplication dilemma we're in!
  1. Someone (preferably Fractal themselves) creates a new public Github account.
  2. Create a public repository that contains all the current info and documentation in data-driven formats like markdown, json, yaml. Call this the "docs" repo.
  3. Fractal/Yek/<some authorized person> publishes a new release of the docs on every firmware update. This could even be automated via some kind of webhook.
  4. Create a new "wiki" repository that uses a tool to compile all the data into a clean, easy to read, static wiki. Tools that come to mind: Sphinx, Hugo, Jekyll. Search "static site generation" for more.
  5. Host the wiki on Github Pages or Netlify. Both free!
  6. Fractalpedia could then be a longer-term project that builds off of the same dataset and adds it's own features like comments/ratings/search/etc.

Doing this has two big benefits:
  1. Github provides an issue tracker where anyone can propose changes to the docs. Those changes(pull-requests) would have to be approved by a maintainer/editor before they get published. This addresses Yek's concern about the possible quality degradation.
  2. Static sites are super fast and easy to host (cheap/free).
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Thanks for the kind words! Some great suggestions here :)

JiveTurkey said:
Plug your ears Mods.

The absolute LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST thing Fractal needs is more documentation/over explanation on their products. That portion of the process is already a slog to get through without adding regurgitated/redundant info. My 2cents at least.
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Completely disagree. What's something that crops up time and time again? People have created courses for hundreds of dollars to teach people how to use the unit, people are on the forum wanting to pay money for someone to help them dial in some sounds on a box they paid $2500+ for, on and on. I see a problem with this and came up with what I felt like could be a better solution. I knew there was a moderately high probability adoption wouldn't be there, but I still felt like it had enough merit to take a swing.

yek said:
Call me “old school” but I still think that gratitude and respect have to earned, and not demanded before accomplishing anything.

And calling me names through PM doesn’t help either.
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Name calling? I don't think so. Unprofessional is an adjective and I thought that was a respectful course of action. Apparently you didn't feel the same and decided to 'call me out' publicly - cool.
 
As what will likely be a final post, as I have zero desire to continue this type of discussion, I wanted to announce fractalpedia has been taken down.
As soon as I am able I will update the repository and remove any material (that is not publicly available, factual information) that was pulled from the guide to completely disassociate. I may go as far as removing the repository completely but I'm unsure at this point.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this discussion. I wish you all the best!
 
Spartan1158 said:
Hi everyone!

Over the past couple weeks I have been working on what could be the successor to Yek's Guide to the Fractal Audio Amplifier Models.
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I’m sure your intentions were good and I understand how disappointing it is that this wasn’t received the way you wanted when you had put in so much work.

In general, it is presumptuous to publicly nominate yourself or your work as the successor to anything that belongs to someone else. It almost doesn’t matter whether your ideas are any good when you start by stepping on the toes of the person you are trying to convince.

My recommendation: be humble, not combative. Learn from the mistakes and don’t let bitterness take root. Shift your focus from defending your ideas and take some time to cool down and apologize as appropriate. Many have expressed that you are still welcome in this community and I think you have the potential to make many valuable contributions in the years to come, if you decide to mend these bridges instead of burning them.
 
iaresee said:
Just make an account and have at it. There’s no gates or other barriers to contributing to the wiki.
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It's true but mediawiki is not something I want to deal with in my free time. If someone puts together a more reasonable and maintainable method to contribute to the community IMHO it's going to be a good step. The dude went about it a little naively and checking with @yek ahead of time would have been better, but I think it's fair to recognize that he's trying to fill a real gap.
 
luckymethod said:
It's true but mediawiki is not something I want to deal with in my free time. If someone puts together a more reasonable and maintainable method to contribute to the community IMHO it's going to be a good step. The dude went about it a little naively and checking with @yek ahead of time would have been better, but I think it's fair to recognize that he's trying to fill a real gap.
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I'm not against discussing an alternative to MediaWiki but there's limited time to support a big migration to something else.

Good to know that the MediaWiki choice is an impediment to people wanting to contribute. What system would encourage you to want to work on the content and help maintain it?
 
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Spartan1158 said:
Hi everyone!

Over the past couple weeks I have been working on what could be the successor to Yek's Guide to the Fractal Audio Amplifier Models. I found myself playing around in a certain framework again and needed a project to work on. After some thought, I had an idea for a companion site of sorts that the Fractal community would hopefully find helpful.

It's far from complete, but after some thought (and a little hesitation) I figured it would be best to get it in front of folks sooner rather than later. If enough interest is generated I would be more than happy to continue development. I have a lot of ideas and would love to see this grow into something amazing!

I need to get my SSL cert sorted, but I would be thrilled if people would take a look and offer some feedback. While you should be able to register for an account, there's no reason to do so at the moment. Hopefully there's enough mock content to get my ideas across but eventually ratings/favorites, comments, etc would be tied to your account.

It is my pleasure to introduce http://fractalpedia.net

Also, I should mention I'm not affiliated with FAS and it was absolutely not my intent to infringe upon anything or copy/rip what Yek and simviz put together. I simply used it as a resource to get the project off the ground; please take a moment to read the about page :)

Many thanks!
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Looks nice... one idea would be to also list some Axe\FM3 presets and user made IRs. Maybe list some of the better presets by artist (JP, Billy Gibbons, Edge, etc)
 
iaresee said:
I'm not against discussing an alternative to MediaWiki but there's limited time to support a big migration to something else.

Good to know that the MediaWiki choice is an impediment to people wanting to contribute. What system would encourage you to want to work on the content and help maintain it?
Click to expand...
disclaimer: I'm not thinking about feasibility or how much it would cost AT ALL here, but this is where my mind is at:

  • mediawiki is organized around pages, while documenting the Axe is a better fit for documenting "things". Something that had the ability to create "templated entities" would probably be a good fit.
    • Notion has something like that, otherwise whatever other content management system where you can express the concept of block, parameter etc...
    • > result: fresher content, easier to reuse, update and consume
  • editing in mediawiki is fucking painful. Something with a modern editor would be a gamechanger. Even if it's still all page-based, something like Confluence would lower the barrier to contribution quite a bit, and reorganizing the content would be simpler since it comes with a lot of tooling to reuse content across pages (includes, lists etc...) > result: more people could contribute, fresher content
  • Thinking about "product strategy" even further, I feel like it's a shame that Fractal has such a great community but can't seem to bring together a good digital experience. Imagine a Axechange where for every preset you can see blocks, configuration and parameters. For each block you can click through the "knowledge base" and see what the model is, how the parameters influence the sound (with soundclips!) and you can see how many other presets are using the same block and which blocks are the most similar to it...
    • make it super simple to share presets straight from axe edit
    • make it a showcase for professionally created preset libraries, and help the ecosystem thrive
    • make it possible to manage a longer list of presets online so it's easy to swap things in and out using Axe Edit, and Fractal gets a great sense for what is being used and what are the usage patterns so the info can be used for product development
    • lots and lots of other stuff I can think of... the point is, right now Fractal is kinda wasting a giant opportunity and I would really like that it wasn't the case!
    • result: lower learning curve for the product, more info about product usage to guide development, deeper moat against competing products...
So take all of this and feel free to ignore me or berate me, I don't mind.
 
I went through this very thing about 20 years ago when I first got into programming. It was for a video game, and I put out a pack of enhancements and scripts for it that was heavily based on another player's work. At the time, I thought I was adding value and didn't understand all the dynamics and nuances of copyright, plagiarism, and IP theft. The response to my work was similar to the response here (albeit much more intense).

Suffice it to say, I absolutely empathize with what @Spartan1158 was trying to do here, and also empathize with him on what it's like to get this kind of unexpected backlash. And I agree that the backlash is 100% warranted.

These are hard lessons to learn, but they gots ta be learnt regardless.
 
luckymethod said:
disclaimer: I'm not thinking about feasibility or how much it would cost AT ALL here, but this is where my mind is at:

  • mediawiki is organized around pages, while documenting the Axe is a better fit for documenting "things". Something that had the ability to create "templated entities" would probably be a good fit.
    • Notion has something like that, otherwise whatever other content management system where you can express the concept of block, parameter etc...
    • > result: fresher content, easier to reuse, update and consume
  • editing in mediawiki is fucking painful. Something with a modern editor would be a gamechanger. Even if it's still all page-based, something like Confluence would lower the barrier to contribution quite a bit, and reorganizing the content would be simpler since it comes with a lot of tooling to reuse content across pages (includes, lists etc...) > result: more people could contribute, fresher content
  • Thinking about "product strategy" even further, I feel like it's a shame that Fractal has such a great community but can't seem to bring together a good digital experience. Imagine a Axechange where for every preset you can see blocks, configuration and parameters. For each block you can click through the "knowledge base" and see what the model is, how the parameters influence the sound (with soundclips!) and you can see how many other presets are using the same block and which blocks are the most similar to it...
    • make it super simple to share presets straight from axe edit
    • make it a showcase for professionally created preset libraries, and help the ecosystem thrive
    • make it possible to manage a longer list of presets online so it's easy to swap things in and out using Axe Edit, and Fractal gets a great sense for what is being used and what are the usage patterns so the info can be used for product development
    • lots and lots of other stuff I can think of... the point is, right now Fractal is kinda wasting a giant opportunity and I would really like that it wasn't the case!
    • result: lower learning curve for the product, more info about product usage to guide development, deeper moat against competing products...
So take all of this and feel free to ignore me or berate me, I don't mind.
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There's some fantastic stuff in here. I appreciate you taking the time to put pen to paper.

Notion and Confluence aren't really aimed at open-to-the-web collaboration in my experience with them. Neither is free enough I suspect. But, it does sound like a solution with a more WYSIWYG editor would be helpful for contributing? I'll see what we can do about that.
 
rossipedia said:
didn't understand all the dynamics and nuances of copyright, plagiarism, and IP theft.
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Those were going through my head as I looked at the proposed site.

For many years I had a side job running my own pro-rodeo action photography business. Before starting it I had a couple meetings with an intellectual-properties lawyer who explained all sorts of interesting things and told me to become very familiar with how U.S. copyright works.

The majority of people have no idea how the laws work, they think it’s not a big deal, and that they’re free to do whatever they want with someone else’s work especially if they wave the fair-use flag as a protection.

Thomas Jefferson was the god-father for our system and recognized the need to protect artists and inventors so they could earn a living and enhance the lives of those around them. I spent a lot of time thinking about how much the country benefited from his belief, and am regularly dismayed by the attitude and with the lack of knowledge and understanding shown by the average citizen. As musicians who perform and record it’s really important to understand the laws, how works are protected, and why they are protected because they will protect our ability to earn an income.

This thread really brought that delta into the light.
 
iaresee said:
There's some fantastic stuff in here. I appreciate you taking the time to put pen to paper.

Notion and Confluence aren't really aimed at open-to-the-web collaboration in my experience with them. Neither is free enough I suspect. But, it does sound like a solution with a more WYSIWYG editor would be helpful for contributing? I'll see what we can do about that.
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Yeah I threw out a couple things without thinking too hard about feasibility. I know Notion is not the perfect tool for this but I've seen plenty of companies publishing docs using Confluence open to the public, including Atlassian itself. I think Confluence would be doable, but I bet if I spent an hour or two researching I could come up with a better suggestion.
 
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