Post-deadline audio file updates

[Paulie]

Would love to get a definitive answer from an admin/screener. I just realized today that I submitted two songs to the classic blues listing a while back, but noticed that I uploaded the same song twice. I just replaced the duplicate today, hopefully the system is based on the files we upload... I doubt that they pull files to a second location before listening.

PC

[RPaul]

I guess what you're saying here (and what Marco was saying earlier) is that, when you make the submission, the submission system makes a copy of the audio file from the member page (as opposed to just putting a link to it in the submission) in some other area within TAXI's system, so that the audio from the entry is frozen in time, in some separate area. That would seem to me a pretty inefficient way to design this sort of system given the significant extra storage needs (i.e. if I submit the same exact song to 5 different listings, that would mean there are six copies of the audio file on the system -- i.e. the one on my member profile and one for each of the five listings -- my IT background speaking here).

Actually, having just thought about this more from the IT systems design perspective, the scenario I mentioned wouldn't necessarily be as extreme as what I suggested with the 6 copies. In between the extremes of just making a copy at each submission and just linking to whatever is current on the member profile, there is a potential middle ground. If they kept a history of updates to the files on the member profile, essentially having one pointer to each version that gets uploaded -- so, say you change the version of the file exactly once, you get two files, one for the first version and one for the second, with a pointer to each version), they could link the submission to the pointer that is the active version in the profile at the time of the submission. Of course, that would still mean keeping the old versions around, but maybe they could clean them out once there are no active submissions pointing to the older version or something.

In any case, I agree with the subsequent comment that it would be nice to get clarification from TAXI on what happens behind the scenes.

Rick

[AlanHall]

Actually, having just thought about this more from the IT systems design perspective, the scenario I mentioned wouldn't necessarily be as extreme as what I suggested with the 6 copies. In between the extremes of just making a copy at each submission and just linking to whatever is current on the member profile, there is a potential middle ground. If they kept a history of updates to the files on the member profile, essentially having one pointer to each version that gets uploaded -- so, say you change the version of the file exactly once, you get two files, one for the first version and one for the second, with a pointer to each version), they could link the submission to the pointer that is the active version in the profile at the time of the submission. Of course, that would still mean keeping the old versions around, but maybe they could clean them out once there are no active submissions pointing to the older version or something.

In any case, I agree with the subsequent comment that it would be nice to get clarification from TAXI on what happens behind the scenes.

Rick

The one thing I can quantitatively state that we know is... that we don't know what happens behind the curtain in Taxi's server room.

The fact that I can upload a submission to the listing directly from my home computer without having track on my member page, as well as NOT being able to update a listing's submission by pointing to the track on the member page (it only works for an initial submission entry) leads me to believe that the systems are separate; different database organization and file addresses. If that notion is correct, then yes you would have 5 copies of the same track in the submissions pipeline. Of course, those files likely get deleted at the end of the screening process.

Another notion, related to the edit button, is that (at least some of) the screeners - who are working from home - may retrieve the tracks from a Taxi server and put them on their local machine to avoid any streaming glitches. If that's the case, the Taxi server may be aware of the file transfer and disable the edit button at that time. That notion is based purely on Aristotelian logic and not any knowledge of IT

[RPaul]

The one thing I can quantitatively state that we know is... that we don't know what happens behind the curtain in Taxi's server room.

LOL. Yep, that seems like a fair assessment.

[superkons]

Another notion, related to the edit button, is that (at least some of) the screeners - who are working from home - may retrieve the tracks from a Taxi server and put them on their local machine to avoid any streaming glitches. If that's the case, the Taxi server may be aware of the file transfer and disable the edit button at that time. That notion is based purely on Aristotelian logic and not any knowledge of IT

We know that we do not know, but that was more Socrates than Aristotle

[Casey H]

Whatever you submitted first is what the screener hears. Updating the track in your Profile page does not trigger an update to your submission. If you are "lucky" enough, you might find an "Edit" link for your submissions, which will let you upload the new version of your tune. I said "lucky" because there has been a lot of discussion around how and if the "Edit" link gets displayed, I hope you will be able to see it!

My understanding is the EDIT button is active until the review process has begun or the deadline, whichever comes first. Sometimes reviewing starts before the deadline, though nothing gets announced until after all reviews are done, to get a jump on things. This probably explains why there are inconsistent observations.

First, it's best not to depend on the possibility of updating after submission. Second, AFAIK, if the EDIT link is still there, you can update and the screener will hear the updated track.

Casey

[AlanHall]

Another notion, related to the edit button, is that (at least some of) the screeners - who are working from home - may retrieve the tracks from a Taxi server and put them on their local machine to avoid any streaming glitches. If that's the case, the Taxi server may be aware of the file transfer and disable the edit button at that time. That notion is based purely on Aristotelian logic and not any knowledge of IT

We know that we do not know, but that was more Socrates than Aristotle

Goes to show what I (don't) know! Socrates was before my time... Aristotle? Well, not quite so much!

[irthlingz]

The fact that I can upload a submission to the listing directly from my home computer without having track on my member page ...

Really? When we go to submit, it seems it just lists the songs we have uploaded to our member page, and we check the one(s) we want to submit. Don't see any way to upload directly from the home computer. How is that done?

===
Michael & Sharon

[AlanHall]

Really? When we go to submit, it seems it just lists the songs we have uploaded to our member page, and we check the one(s) we want to submit. Don't see any way to upload directly from the home computer. How is that done?

===
Michael & Sharon

Geez... Now I have to see if I can actually do what I claim to do. Let me try (shuffles off).

(sound of crying from off screen)

[AlanHall]

Hi, I'm back. Now I remember why I was confused.
1. You have to pick a song from your member page for the initial submission.
2. You can't pick a song from your member page when updating a submission.
Which leads me to wonder if it is true that the submission is linked directly to the member page files. Seems like I had good reason to think not.