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Freedb.org Seeks Volunteers

Posted by michael on from the time-on-your-hands dept.

dtype writes "freedb.org is asking for your help. With the ever increasing popularity of freedb, the all-volunteer service has required more and more time. Joerg Hevers has been absorbing the brunt of the load for some time now, and we should all thank him for that. We're now looking for volunteers who would like to spend time on this great service, so that we can continue to serve the community at expected levels."

29 comments

  1. alternative by tps12 · · Score: 0, Troll

    If more people cannot be found to help freedb, it might make sense for people to start switching to cddb. For those not "up to speed" on these things, cddb is a commercial project that is basically designed to be a replacement for freedb. Because they make money from developers who use them for looking up track lists, they can afford to add servers and staff as necessary. Obviously, we'd all prefer to support a free project over a commercial one, but I think this is just a case where the "no cash flow" ideology just isn't going to work. By showing our support for cddb, we can demonstrate that their is money to be made in Free Software offshoots.

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    1. Re:alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice troll, moron.

    2. Re:alternative by JofCoRe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um... isn't that why freedb was created in the first place? As an alternative to cddb? I thought that once cddb got bought out, and started charging people to access their servers, freedb was spawned as a free alternative. (I could be wrong on that though..)
      Now we're supposed to go back to cddb? um...

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    3. Re:alternative by FattMattP · · Score: 3, Informative

      Wrong. Freedb.org was started as a replacement for CDDB not the other way around. Maybe you should read up on why this project exists in the first place.

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    4. Re:alternative by adr · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it was developed as an alternative to cddb. See, a bunch of people got really upset at cddb as they had been plugging in all these tracklists and other assorted CD info for free, and along comes Gracenote, buys out whoever was the prime mover behind cddb, and promptly starts capitalizing on a lot of work done gratis by a large community. Hence, freedb.

      I don't remember exactly, but I think there's some sort of GPL-ish clause in freedb that would prevent such a crass co-opting. At least I hope so.

    5. Re:alternative by dtype · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There is. Everything from freedb is GPL'd, and always available for download.

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    6. Re:alternative by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I know you think you're funny, but it is decidedly *not* funny to encourage people to support an organization that gained it's position by exploiting average consumers, and maintains their position through the abuse of the United States legal system.

      Furthermore, I have never seen - and Gracenote has seemingly never provided - evidence that they have turned a profit on the rape of their initial users labor. They could be gone tomorrow, and it is more likely that they will go away then freedb.

    7. Re:alternative by orthogonal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ever read the ccdb developer's license? Basically, it says that if you use ccdb in your product, you are contractually obligated not to use any other source of information about cd content.

      In other words, "if you want to use us, we get to be a monopoly". Your application can't even offer the end user an option to select between using ccdb and some other cd databse.

      Sorry. Even Microsoft doesn't require a developer to use only its API if he uses any part of Microsoft's API.

      Screw ccdb: I'll type in the song names before I'll use a service that tries to arrogate itself to monopoly status, especially when they rely on end users to do the actual data entry.

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    8. Re:alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've started using cddb recently, and thir db seems to contain less spelling errors, less duplicates, and more titles overall.

      For example, freedb is open source, which means anyone can upload track listings. The result is 30 spellings of "Oops I did it again!", while anything that isn't in the top 40 is unrecognized.

      cddb, however, has paid employees that follow strict guidelines, resulting in a professional product. Additionally, since they are for-profit, they have a larger and more diverse cd database (otherwise, people would use a different db). Since freedb is "free", they don't care

    9. Re:alternative by V.+Mole · · Score: 3, Informative

      For example, freedb is open source, which means anyone can upload track listings. The result is 30 spellings of "Oops I did it again!", while anything that isn't in the top 40 is unrecognized.

      I'll grant you the spelling issues, but I have a fairly eclectic collection, and I think the only one that freedb came up empty on was an obscure local band. Anyway, if it misses, you add them for the next person. That's the whole point of the system, isn't it? If you just want to leach off of the work of others, then stick with CDDB.

  2. Fool me once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    "We're now looking for volunteers who would like to spend time on this great service, so that we can continue to serve the community at expected levels."

    Uh-huh, I've never heard that story before. no way. nuh uh.

    Translation: "Shit, gracenote made a pile of cash, we can do the same thing, and eventually rip everyone off and make a pile of cash too!". I was fooled once before, I will not be fooled again.

    1. Re:Fool me once by mkaiser · · Score: 1

      You're completely wrong.
      Did you ever worked for a project that takes more that 15 hours a week of your spare time to set up and start working? Right now, it takes even more time to keep this service running.
      We spend/spent a lot of time an money getting where we are now, we are doing this for fun and to don't even think about commercial ads on our website or charing the user for the service or ANY other way to lower our personal financial expenses and we try to assure everyone that freedb will NEVER take the gracenote-way. That's why we put everything under an open licence.

    2. Re:Fool me once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You worked for RH? The MS of Linux?

      - Gawd damn POS ./ - first post and tells me to wait 20 seconds...

  3. I'm in by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Tell me what to do.

  4. No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Freedb.org is the typical open source project. The home page does not have any introduction. It assumes that you know everything about the project already.

    1. Re:No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by mweber · · Score: 2, Informative

      How about clicking on the 'About' link?

      It's really not tough. It's almost, dare I say, intuitive. Slashdot's homepage doesn't have a description about how it works, but even you managed to figure it out. So why are you complaining?

    2. Re:No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by orthogonal · · Score: 2

      No, the OP has a good point. Too many open source home pages start with a change log. Nice for people already in the know, but I've wasted too much time clicking around for some summary of what the project's all about.

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    3. Re:No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by mweber · · Score: 1

      They start with a change log because the second time someone visits the page, that's probably what they'd rather see. The third time, they probably want to see some useful information that they don't already know too.

      The only time that someone needs an overview of a project is the first time they check it out. If that person is too lazy to click two links to get a general overview, then I don't think it's the open source home page that has the problem. The pages obviously cater to the people who contribute to the project (and, indirectly, those who just want to follow the project's progress). If someone is interested enough in a project to help it out, they'll follow the 'About' link.

    4. Re:No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by orthogonal · · Score: 2

      The only time that someone needs an overview of a project is the first time they check it out. If that person is too lazy to click two links to get a general overview, then I don't think it's the open source home page that has the problem.

      Well, OK.

      But you do see that this is the problem your typical Windows user has with open source, right? That it's too complicated, too obscure, too concerned with "in-crowd" obfuscation and jargonizing, and not anywhere as user-friendly as Microsoft's talking paper-clip?

      No way I'm going to devote hours and hours to a project, just to see it languish without users because I can't point to a crisp, clear, informative homepage.

      But if you have other agendas, like showing the in-crowd how cool and terse your documentation can be, so be it. Whatever floats your boat, it's all good.

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    5. Re:No paragraph of introduction on the home page. by seanyboy · · Score: 1

      Maybe not even a paragraph of introduction is needed. A byline like "an open source replacement for cddb - click about for more info" would have been perfect.

      First time I went there it took a few frustrating seconds to pick up on the fact that I'd have to click on "about" to find out what it was. This was caused by my expectations of what product homepages usually are, and it would have been nice to have been given an instant pointer to the info I needed initially to know.

      I agree that you have to be pretty stupid to not be able to work it out, but some people are pretty stupid.

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  5. They just told you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://freedb.org/modules.php?name=News&file=artic le&sid=151

    1. Re:They just told you... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Alright, so give me a password and shit.

    2. Re:They just told you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why the bloody hell are you posting here asking for a fucking password? Go away.

    3. Re:They just told you... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Fine, if you don't want help, don't take my help.

  6. I'm confused... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I thought that freedb was created as the free alternative to cddb (after it went bogus)?
    And that the 'creators' of freedb, knowing this, were fully hoping, and expecting, that it would catch on?
    So, given that, how in the hell do they get caught with their pants down now that it has?????

    Sure, maybe it's not that. Maybe it's something simple, like a few people left the project to pursue other things fulltime or something. But if that were the case, why did they let that go on without looking for help before they needed it? Don't misinterperet, I know the headline was for that purpose, but they should be doing this before it presents a threat to their operation. The only time I ever hear about freedb is the occasional slashdot headline.. if they don't make themselves a bit more widely known they'll never get the ammount of help they'll need if/when CDDB goes belly-up.

    Here's one thought.. make a client. One that acts as a proxy to intercept requests going out to CDDB. An addition to the hosts file (available on most OSs if I'm not mistooken ;) and a "TSR" type deal and there you have it. You could even have it paste an annoying splashscreen when it's being used, so users *know* they're using freedb instead. Of course that requires that you sell (not in the $$$ sense) yourselves and your service to the users. Submit the thing to Lockergnome, post it to download.com and the like. And above all, DO NOT make it hard to install - it should be just a couple mouseclicks for most OSs to install without a hitch.

    1. Re:I'm confused... by chez69 · · Score: 0

      Jeez,

      this post looks like the Marque_Off wrote it.

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  7. It's fun to violate DMCA by yerricde · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One that acts as a proxy to intercept requests going out to CDDB.

    This is a direct violation of the DMCA. The CDDB protocol version 2 (used in newer apps) is proprietary and encrypted, and it controls access to a copyrighted compilation of data maintained by Gracenote. However, for CDDB 1 apps, a napigator-like program that intercepts DNS for cddb.com should work fine.


    DeMoCrAcy?
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  8. volunteers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Volunteers? Shouldn't the IT-sector focus a big more on making a bit on money by now?

  9. I *gotta* start reading these things by BlankTim · · Score: 1

    20 minutes of comments reading before I realized it was freebd, not freebSd

    Yeesh.

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