the future of FAWM and 5090
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@burrsettles Mar 2022
hi fawmers (and 5090ers)!
this is a PSA to give you a little heads up about the future of FAWM and 5090. (for those of you who don't know, 5090 is a summertime version of FAWM to write 50 songs in 90 days, from july 4 to october 1).
as you may or may not know, FAWM and 5090 have been run by completely different codebases (FAWM by me, and 5090 by @ericdistad), both of which are kinda outdated. the core guts of this website were written by me in a 2-week code sprint in 2009 and have been held together with digital duct tape and prayer with the occasional facelift ever since. for perhaps a decade, i've hinted at the GFROW ("great FAWM rewrite of whenever").
well, i'm delighted to announce that this year it's happening. and we will use 5090 as a sort of "proving ground" or "test drive" for the future. moving forward, FAWM and 5090 will share the same codebase and sport a very similar online experience.
that means this summer's 5090 will be a completely new website. (as will next year's FAWM).
at first, it might be kinda bare-bones (whatever we can get ready in time). but it will evolve and new features added, bugs fixed, etc., over the course of the summer. we will continue to work on it over the fall and winter, based on 5090 feedback, to make FAWM 2023 (which will be the TWENTIETH FAWM!!!!) the best ever.
all that to say: 1) get excited, and 2) be forgiving, as 5090 is kinda gonna be like building the train while we're moving on the tracks... -
@vomvorton Mar 2022
Exciting stuff! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. And being EXTREMELY forgiving about it, haha. Bring on 50/90!
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@adforperu Mar 2022
Excite!
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@headfirstonly Mar 2022
So cool! Very excited for this.
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@splittybooms Mar 2022
Awesome! Thanks for all you do. FAWM and 50/90 are the only things I look forward to (well, Christmas and Wrestlemania, too). Excited to see what you all do.
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@tcelliott Mar 2022
Awesome. Thank you so much, Burr and Eric etc.,
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@leka Mar 2022
I'm excited to see the new features. I'm planning to participate in 50/90 for the first time.
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@katestantonsings Mar 2022
<3 thanks for all you do! Creators & Mods. You're so appreciated.
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@fuzzy Mar 2022
Ah yes, greatly looking forward to this.
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@phenola Mar 2022
Hmm. I was going to give FAWM a miss next year, because my heart plainly wasn't in it this year, but now I'm less sure.
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@standup Mar 2022
Sounds like fun.
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@lemonsmoke Mar 2022
I just can't wait to get started on something!
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@nadine Mar 2022
Thanks for the news! Will it be two different websites / domains / databases or will you merge?
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@hmstreetteam Mar 2022
Boom! Yes, I am excited!
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@wolfkier Mar 2022
Yay! Thanks for all you guys do! Let's move it forward, bigger better.
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@metalfoot Mar 2022
Oh, this sounds promising! Can't wait to see what's coming.
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@mikeskliar Mar 2022
great!!! will be fun to see the 'new' version! and yeah, 50/90 for working out all the new stuff, great idea.
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@elesimo Mar 2022
This is awesome! I'm amazed that the FAWM website was written in 2009, it still feel very fresh and modern. Having both sites sharing the same (and fresh) code base and being consistent is a big win!
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@mahtowin Mar 2022
I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!
Thank you so much for all your work and your passion!!! -
@toms Mar 2022
Adds another good reason to take another shot at 50/90! :) Thank you for years worth of great good in the world, Burr!
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@musicsongwriter Mar 2022
Awesome. Thank you so much. So exciting. So wonderful to hear good news for a change.
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@jwhanberry Mar 2022
Thank y'all for doing this work. FAWM is my favorite thing all year long!
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@coolparadiso Mar 2022
You continue to do amazing things. Us 50/90s are happy guinea pigs! As long as we can post listen share and comment we will make do with anything you throw at us!
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@siebass Mar 2022
Awesome! Thanks for putting in the hard work!
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@audrey Mar 2022
Wow! This IS exciting and what a perfect way to celebrate 20 years of FAWM. Thank you so much @burrsettles and @ericdistad for creating and maintaining this wonderful place for us all.
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@nancyrost Mar 2022
I'm excited!!! And happy to participate in the 50/90 test-drive adventure. :-)
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@stephenwordsmith Mar 2022
Perfect update; 50/90. 70/90 with rice.
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@timfatchen Mar 2022
I'm just glad to know there IS a future...
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@unpronounceable Mar 2022
Oh man, so grateful! Thank you for all you've put into this, Burr! :)
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@calumcarlyle Mar 2022
@burrsettles/@ericdistad I have nothing to respond except encouragement and thanks to you and the team, seriously, both sites are very well designed in my view as a user, and i am sure that the update will be great too. The site(s) really supports the community in many ways.
Here's to thirteen more healthy and happy years for this community!*
--
* using 2009 as our starting point, i know you guys were doing FAWM a few years before that, but that's when the rooting tooting website went up (and also my first and most productive FAWM)! -
@spingo Mar 2022
Thank you and I wish for smoothness for your work!
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@bithprod Mar 2022
Thank you, @burrsettles and @ericdistad, you're awesome! Without FAWM a lot of us would still have been musically lost in cyberspace. I owe a lot of my progress and all of my song releases to the great FAWM community.
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@kiffa Mar 2022
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue-- but the right year to take part in 50/90 for the first time! Looking forward to it even more now! Thanks @burrsettles and @ericdistad!
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@wylddandelyon Mar 2022
Yay!
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@yewnorker Mar 2022
If you want to test drive it early (june?) I'm sure a bunch of us would be glad to test all the bells and whistles
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@karlsburg25 Mar 2022
Superb stuff Burr. defo getting excited
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@andygetch Mar 2022
Sounds like a plan. Thanks!
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@fuzzy Mar 2022
So here's a question; will the Watchlists be reset? Should we be copying them down?
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@conorg Mar 2022
Exciting news! Have you decided on the language/framework for the new site? And do you need any help with coding/testing/bug fixing etc?
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@andrea Mar 2022
Sounds like a big undertaking. Thanks so much for all you do. I can't wait to take part in 50/90 and FAWM next year!
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@gm7 Mar 2022
Great news...thx Burr for your time and exuberance ! Looking forward to seeing the new version.
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@burrsettles Mar 2022
@nadine the idea is that the two will share the same core data, so you'll share a single login/account across both events. FAWM account details will be considered the "gold standard" though (we'll use FAWM user names/IDs for the migration, for example)
@yewnorker odds are we won't really start writing it until june. :)
@fuzzy it couldn't hurt to backup your watchlist be safe, but the plan is for the new site to inherit legacy watchlists and profile info.
@conorg thanks for asking... some decisions are made, others not yet. if you are a professional developer and are interested in helping, feel free to email info at fawm dot org. -
@nadine Mar 2022
Thank you :)
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@jamkar Mar 2022
I am further impressed and pumped! Thank you for all the hard work!
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@zecoop Mar 2022
I had 90% decided to jump back into 50/90 this year, and this sealed the deal. Sounds great Burr and Eric!!
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@calumcarlyle Mar 2022
@burrsettles a very snall point on the usernames, if i may. The FAWM usernames cannot contain a space, while the 50&90 usernames do, at the moment. Personally i think it's better to allow spaces in the usernames, however there is also the consideration that tagging people in the forums is easier on the FAWM site. Allowing spaces in the usernames seems to require square brackets when tagging on 50/90, presumably to identify the end of the username.
Anyway, i am sure that waffle wasn't too helpful, but i don-t know, i did like having usernames with spaces on 50/90 as i think it-s more human readable. -
@wobbiewobbit Mar 2022
thank you! i was worried for a moment there when you started... this is great news. really excited for 50/90 now!
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@beacon Mar 2022
This sounds great. Thanks to @burrsettles, @ericdistad, and all the wonderful people who make this community what it is. I'll be happy to be a 50/90 guinea pig. Bring it on!
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@jlampson Mar 2022
Oh, that's super cool, especially since I was looking to finally take part in 50/90 this year (which, for some reason, seemed unobtainable in previous years, "so why even both"). But the relationships built this year, the community engagement, and enthusiasm of the folks involved just cements for me why I NEED to take part, even if I write zero songs. Much love to you all!
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@hmorg Mar 2022
Oh yeah! Maybe this year will finally be the year when I reach 5 songs in 50/90.
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@sheilerk Mar 2022
This really is exciting!! Reading the header I was waiting for a shoe to drop, but instead it was all good news! I’ll be joining in with 50/90 this year.
I have yet to get more than 5 or so songs for 50/90, though I pretty much always do 14+ in February. I’m going to try to up my game and actually get at least as many in August as I would in February, but probably won’t be able to do much more than poke my nose in during July. Thank you so much for all that you do to keep this all going!!!. I look forward to FAWM more eagerly than the winter holidays, or my birthday, and now we’ll get to see the new era unfold. :D <3 -
@johnstaples Mar 2022
@sheilerk and @wobbiewobbit I had the same initial reaction! So glad this was/is good news!
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@zeekle1998 Mar 2022
I’m just in awe of what you guys do, and thank you. Looking forward to the new era of FAWM & 50/90.
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@sunnysays Mar 2022
Look forward to it!
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@miga Mar 2022
@hmorg LOLOL maybe I too can participate in 50/90 if others also have such lofty goals! =D
@burrsettles and co, thanks VERY much for making this possible. I so appreciate the positive peer pressure to create and the feedback! It was/is a brilliant idea and a great community! -
@hmorg Mar 2022
@miga, the joke is that I've participated 3 times, first time I got 4 songs done, second time I aimed for 5 and got 4 done. Then the third time I took my summer vacation from work to coincide with 50/90 to make sure this time I would top the 4 songs. End result: I managed one song. Had a bunch of personal stuff happen just as the challenge was about to start so that drained me of energy, creativity and time to do better than that. But maybe this year will be the year that I can finally manage 5.
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@fuzzy Mar 2022
@burrsettles, will there be some allowance for the continuation of Rocktober built in to the update? :)
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@plainwhitetoast Mar 2022
Awesome! Totally awesome!
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@jamkar Mar 2022
That “Future of FAWM” title deserves a song, or two, or three.
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@sunnymae Mar 2022
You guys are so amazing for housing us Tribe of sound wizards year after year and for taking endless hours to keep us going. We appreciate you so much. I'd be just as fine with the way things are but any changes you want to make we are all in full support of and will adapt quickly.
And of course it will be food for fodder especially for the folk singers who will all write songs about how they liked the old one better! :0))) Oh..tsk tsk... I write folk songs myself so I can say it. -
@ampersandman Mar 2022
Returning to the site to find these awesome news. I’m excited! Thank you guys so much for creating this space!
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@ianuarius Mar 2022
Glad to hear it and kudos for putting your time and effort into the site!
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@erikleppen Mar 2022
I wish you both luck and fun on your journey of rewriting, modernizing, improving, etc. the new website.
I could imagine it to be quite exciting - but maybe also a bit frightening - to have to design and develop an entire new website that you know will actually be used a lot. That's quite the responsibility! As a non-5090er (so far), I'm looking forward to what will await us in January 2023 :) -
@ballyhoot Mar 2022
Looking forwarding to seeing what you guys come up with.
On a slightly-but-not-at-all related note: one time, in college, my small local fraternity was building a float for the Homecoming parade and nothing was going right. In the wee morning hours, we were faced with a decision: Stay up all night to try to finish or scrap the whole thing. We chose the third route: Take a break, get some sleep, and then finish building the float WHILE IN THE PARADE. Somehow, we didn't win any awards that year (just like every other year, come to think of it). -
@max Mar 2022
Lovely!
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@brisk Mar 2022
You chaps have given me so much pleasure over the past decade with FAWM and last year 50/90. Thanks so much, and I'm really excited to see what you come up with for July.
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@cairobraga Mar 2022
I am very very very hyped and excited for this revamp and looking forward to participate on this very special 50/90. thanks for all the work you do @burrsettles @ericdistad @jendistad <3 <3 <3
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@outinpublicdrummer Mar 2022
can't wait! Already wanted to give 50/90 a try this year
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@psyt Mar 2022
I'm looking forward to it, and thanks for all the work you do.
I think I will start a new account tho, come 50/90, as I've been feeling pretty dissociative with my current one for a while now.. It feels weird being referred to (mostly in tags) with an alias I've retired many years ago rather than by my name. -
@sph Mar 2022
Wow, good news!
"building the train while we're moving on the tracks" - think I have an idea for a 5090 tune... -
@markg Mar 2022
Good news, and thanks for all the work you put into making it happen. It brings joy to me and so many others.
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@burrsettles Mar 2022
@fuzzy @metalfoot one step at a time. at this point i won't commit to official rocktober support in 2022; we'll see.
@psyt one of the new features should allow you to change your account handle, so if you want you should be able to log in with your current account and then change it. -
@metalfoot Mar 2022
@burrsettles should we assume a custom site or will you be leveraging an existing cms?
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@mariekevinkmusic Mar 2022
Awesome!
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@burrsettles Mar 2022
@metalfoot custom, built-for-purpose site
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@kendrakinsey Mar 2022
That’s great! Hope to keep on keeping on w y’all
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@johnstaples Mar 2022
@burrsettles I would love to see a publicly visible engagement ranking for FAWMers! I know this would be technically challenging and prolly go a bit against the general easy-going FAWM ethos but it would make it easier to focus my listening/commenting on those who are also actively listening/commenting.
Another useful variant of this could be a list of "who is still here" based on recent activities such as comments given and forum posts.
One other variation that would be quite useful is a private indicator to show me who I "owe" a listen/comment to. -
@miga Mar 2022
@hmorg aww that sounds rough - 'the best laid plans of mice and men...' territory. Thanks for filling me in. I find the high numbers 50/90 very intimidating. I certainly don't wish any misfortune on you, but I already feel better considering that not everyone gets to, say, 25.
@metalfoot I think you sold me, though I may be traveling part of the time. But I'll give it a go. thx! -
@ianuarius Mar 2022
@johnstaples Yea, gotta be careful with that so that the site doesn't turn into something... else.
But something like "last online 2 days ago" I don't think would be too detrimental. -
@dreamscuba Mar 2022
@burrsettles and @ericdistad - wonderful... I think I once attempted 5090, but never completed the challenge... how/where/when do we get the URL details for the new and shiny 5090 site?
Thank you. -
@tcelliott Mar 2022
That's a good question. And I'm not a guru so I don't want to speak for the admin team. But I bet they'll make an announcement if it changes from the current spot: https://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/
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@burrsettles Mar 2022
@dreamscuba we haven't decided yet, but rest assured that you'll be able to find it when the time comes from any of the existing urls, including https://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/ and https://fawm.org
and socials. and we'll probably send an email blast, too. -
@dreamscuba Mar 2022
@burrsettles thank you.
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@donna Mar 2022
That's great news, burr. Thank you so much for all the fantastic work you and Eric do to keep things running. (-:
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@sbs2018 Mar 2022
Love it!!
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@madeline Apr 2022
Amazing. Thank you both for all that you do.
