Pega-whew || December 6, 2006
Back at our Dallas Observer tenure, we had access to the paper's comprehensive, private concert database, and thank Vishnu. With one click, every North Texas gig on a given day/week/month could be found on a single page. No obtrusive ads, no long page loads, no extra clicks...nothing but gigs on one big, convenient list.
This was swell, because we wouldn't be caught dead bothering with the abomination that Village Voice Media's corporate offices called a Web site when they "overhauled" the public pages at its syndicate of papers earlier this year. Truly, when we had to search for live music info anywhere other than the Observer office, we knew where to log on: TexasGigs.com, with its all-on-one-page, mega-simple concert database that made switching from day to day quick and painless. Upgrades like that made the site a shoo-in for its Best Music Blog win at the Observer Music Awards this year.
Unfortunately, that convenience has been choked to death this week, now that TexasGigs.com has finally transformed into the larger beast that is Pegasus News. As the site has expanded to include a zillion more articles about news, sports and general entertainment, the search has as well, which isn't terrible at first glance--art gallery info and other interesting local events are popping up on the calendar now, and not everybody in Dallas is as concert-crazed as the Dd staff (weird, but whatever).
But the search function now spreads its results on multiple pages, and considering that the thing lists roughly 5,000,000 music events a night, many of which are throwaways like the "Funk 'N Blues Evolution Jam" at the Mardi Gras Cafe (uh?), this is a big pain when trying to keep track of events on a given night. Expect to keep five browser windows open if you want to sort through this coming Friday's musical goings-on, for example.
Mostly, we're bitching because it used to be so easy to zip through dozens of regional clubs in one fell swoop. Open the TexasGigs calendar search, hit control+F on the keyboard, search for keywords like "cavern," "gypsy" and "ridglea," be on our way. Maybe we were spoiled, and the site still has a pretty good database, but we still hate to see Pegasus News fall victim to a greedy "let's get more pageclicks" scheme that already ruined the Observer site. But we assume bitching won't change a thing over at Pegasus...Perhaps it's time to get our crap together, hire more interns and start a new section modeled after http://www.showlistaustin.com, one of the simplest and finest concert calendars in any American city. Whaddya think, folks? -SM
UPDATE, 1:05 p.m.: Well, that was a waste of a tirade. We just received a response from Pegasus News President Mike Orren via e-mail, who confirms that they were working on that very problem at the time that I wrote my rant, which has now been fixed! "Never assume that bitching won't change a thing at Pegasus. We listen to and answer every user complaint. Even from people who jump off with an axe to grind without the courtesy of asking a few basic questions first." Duly noted, but what axe? Like we said, we're just greedy concert bastards, nothing more, and apparently, TexasGigs isn't being greedy about pageclicks after all, so I guess they take the moral high road? Have fun up there.
The question now is whether the Dallas Observer ever plans on catching up. Guys?
This was swell, because we wouldn't be caught dead bothering with the abomination that Village Voice Media's corporate offices called a Web site when they "overhauled" the public pages at its syndicate of papers earlier this year. Truly, when we had to search for live music info anywhere other than the Observer office, we knew where to log on: TexasGigs.com, with its all-on-one-page, mega-simple concert database that made switching from day to day quick and painless. Upgrades like that made the site a shoo-in for its Best Music Blog win at the Observer Music Awards this year.
Unfortunately, that convenience has been choked to death this week, now that TexasGigs.com has finally transformed into the larger beast that is Pegasus News. As the site has expanded to include a zillion more articles about news, sports and general entertainment, the search has as well, which isn't terrible at first glance--art gallery info and other interesting local events are popping up on the calendar now, and not everybody in Dallas is as concert-crazed as the Dd staff (weird, but whatever).
But the search function now spreads its results on multiple pages, and considering that the thing lists roughly 5,000,000 music events a night, many of which are throwaways like the "Funk 'N Blues Evolution Jam" at the Mardi Gras Cafe (uh?), this is a big pain when trying to keep track of events on a given night. Expect to keep five browser windows open if you want to sort through this coming Friday's musical goings-on, for example.
Mostly, we're bitching because it used to be so easy to zip through dozens of regional clubs in one fell swoop. Open the TexasGigs calendar search, hit control+F on the keyboard, search for keywords like "cavern," "gypsy" and "ridglea," be on our way. Maybe we were spoiled, and the site still has a pretty good database, but we still hate to see Pegasus News fall victim to a greedy "let's get more pageclicks" scheme that already ruined the Observer site. But we assume bitching won't change a thing over at Pegasus...Perhaps it's time to get our crap together, hire more interns and start a new section modeled after http://www.showlistaustin.com, one of the simplest and finest concert calendars in any American city. Whaddya think, folks? -SM
UPDATE, 1:05 p.m.: Well, that was a waste of a tirade. We just received a response from Pegasus News President Mike Orren via e-mail, who confirms that they were working on that very problem at the time that I wrote my rant, which has now been fixed! "Never assume that bitching won't change a thing at Pegasus. We listen to and answer every user complaint. Even from people who jump off with an axe to grind without the courtesy of asking a few basic questions first." Duly noted, but what axe? Like we said, we're just greedy concert bastards, nothing more, and apparently, TexasGigs isn't being greedy about pageclicks after all, so I guess they take the moral high road? Have fun up there.
The question now is whether the Dallas Observer ever plans on catching up. Guys?
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