Tony’s Acoustic Challenge – The New Way to Learn Guitar › Family Forums › Community Support › What I miss
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What I miss
Posted by Alfun on June 11, 2021 at 4:42 pmI have been patient with the new webpage. I can wait for the speed to pick up. The lessons come as usual. The skill page works well. I was never one to post small wins or videos of my playing, but I do occasionally like looking at others posts.
However, I miss the member map. I used it to see who in my community was a member in the event I wanted to contact them. I miss being able to log in to the Tuesday Acoustic Show from this page. I miss the feeling of inclusiveness that was created on the old website that seems to be missing here, although I can’t put my finger on why? I miss being able to go the the songbook directly from this page. I miss how the old webpage had several things at our finger tips and was friendly to the eyes where as I find this one a little sterile.
Does anyone else feel this way? I feel I am becoming disconnected from the TAC community since the change and that concerns me because, besides the lessons, sense of community was an important reason I have continued with TAC for 4 years.
Alfun
andrewd35 replied 3 years, 8 months ago 25 Members · 44 Replies -
44 Replies
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@Alfun you are not alone. There have been many discussions regarding these same exact things. Unfortunate, yes. Will they change, unlikely.
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I agree. It took me a while to feel connected to the community in the old format, but I came to look forward to my daily access, not as much for the lessons as for the interaction with other members. This is no longer true. I certainly miss it.
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I agree with @Alfun , there seems to be a big disconnect with the TAC community now. The forum is what made the site special. It is so slow and has been since the change, I wonder if this was done on purpose so people don’t use it? It used to be fun to read different comments, watch the songs being sang and song, But now it takes too long for anything to load. The forum seemed to work fine before? Why when they updated it, did it become so painfully slow? Maybe they want to do away with it so they can just use the facebook page instead? As for the daily challenges…. Mondays it’s hit or miss if they challenge will be there. When I joined the TAC family I was allowed to copy the video and tab. Now…. I am on a time limit to get my tabs copied and saved and I can’t download the video. I think that was a big takeaway.
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Thanks for your reponses. It is haertening to know I’m not alone in my feelings about the “new TAC website”.
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First off, I’m not a computer person so I don’t have any idea of the scope of work in re-building the TAC website- but imagine it was a tremendous undertaking.
I think the new version seems easier to get where you want to go, maybe somehow “cleaner”. Don’t ask me to explain that- just seems that way to me.
I do think there are quite a few of the Forum “regulars”- (from when I joined TAC all of 5 months ago)- who just don’t seem to be around in the “new” Forum. The threads from before seemed more personal somehow.
Sure, the conversations kind-of wandered around a bit, but they also maybe had a friendly feel- and- to me anyway, that “personal feel” was great because the help, advice, and encouragement that passed from one to another seemed friendlier, and because of that- maybe more effective.
Not complaining- and I really like the new site- but, again, I kind-of miss “seeing” some of the regulars from when I joined.
MJ
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I, too, like the new site, @Mark.
As for not “seeing” some of the regulars from before, I have to plead guilty. At first, it was shock. I spent a lot of my time on the TAC forums and the forums as they used to be were gone. Then, when I tried to get more involved again, the very slow load speed put me off. I am too impatient to wait. But when the speed on the forums finally became reasonable, I was turned off by all the complaining.
So now, the only problem is me. I just haven’t contributed to the community like I used to. I used to tell people who complained about the community that you get out of it what you put into it. So that goes for me. I’m not getting much of anything out of the community any more, not because of the new site, but because I’m not putting much into it. My bad.
MG 😌
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Thanks- Mike.
I think folks’ll start to wander back in time. Could also be the time of year- people are outside more– it’s NICE outside!– there’s stuff to do and people to maybe go see after a long pandemic- and then Winter….. It’s even startin’ to dry out a bit up here on the Washington coast– where Summer starts sometime after July 5th😜………
I’ve spent less time in the Forum myself… just workin’ my way thru a few of the Skills Courses- (Foundations of Fretboard Navigation, and the 5-day Finger Stretching Challenge most lately), grindin’ away at the Daily Lessons, and tryin’ to figure out all these “cone drills” will someday magically fit together to make music.
Great to hear from ya!
Mark J
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Yeah, @Mark , the drills don’t seem to lead to musicality, but they will eventually. The musicality doesn’t actually come from the drills, the music comes from within you. But you can’t express that music without having done the drills. And believe it or not, the drills can help you develop your music when you “stumble” upon something fun and you kinda go off on a tangent from the drill.
An long time TACer said on the VOM the other day that it was never the new site or the “rules” that put the big kibosh on the discussions, but it was our perception. We stopped ourselves because of wrong assumptions. I think that is an accurate assessment.
It’s good to get back to having productive discussions. Talk to you soon.
MG 😀
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Mike-
Always good to hear your thoughts. Again……. again……. you have provided an encouraging answer- (and that is way more important than you may realize….).
(Maybe like you?)- I’m kind-of a “grinder”. I’m at a point where I actually do add a little bit of zing to some of the Daily Lessons- maybe bending strings or “double-picking” the licks- (although slower). Stuff like that. I’m not that good at it (yet), but that kinda stuff seems fun to me. I’m hopin’ that this is the start of the “going off on a tangent from the drill” you mention. It isn’t any kind of “musicality” (yet), but I get a kick out of that kinda stuff. To me, it’s playing….
I’ll take your encouragement and keep on grindin’.
I’m gonna have to re-read your second paragraph a couple more times- it seems over my head- but I’ll think it out and get the message.
I miss and love discussions and odd side trips like this. They are what gives our Forum that good-old friendly feeling.
We’re all learning guitar- the “little bit off topic” stuff sometimes makes it easier— warts ‘n all. Last I heard, we’re all humans. To me, it’s about “the connection”.
Analogy— Workers learn just as much about their jobs— sittin’ around AFTER work— BS’ing ABOUT work— as they do when they’re actually AT work.
My dumb opinions……….. and asking for others’…..
Thanks again-
Mark
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
the-old-coach.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
the-old-coach.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
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For me personally, the impacts of Covid and the changes it has forced on my life have been fairly substantial. I haven’t recovered yet, but I hope in time I will return to TAC in full force again. Still seeking new employment to bring some stability back into my life. Guitar just hasn’t been a priority, which makes me sad. I would imagine there are others that have been impacted as well.
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Hi All,
So I have been paying for membership for my guess is at least 2 years, but likely longer. Since before the pandemic I haven’t been on here, imagine my surprise when I found this new website. I feel very disoriented to say the least.
Can anyone tell me how to access the Clubs and songbook pages?
I very much miss the way the forums were before….seemed much more connected. This feels a bit more sterile. I miss the month after month little chunks of daily lessons.
I do appreciate all the work that went into this new site and alas things most change. Again, if anyone can help me find the TAC Clubs and songbook pages, much gratitude.
Sherry
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@Sherry C, the Clubs are no longer supported by TAC, and are each rebuilding in their own way. That being said, and not knowing where you are, the Old Forums at tac.tonypolecastro.com still has a listing of what existed in March, and you may be able to reconnect that way.
During the Pandemic, a lot of the Club people started running and attending Virtual Open Mics (VOM’s) and here is the page to lead you to those, if interested:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Azx0ah3P2M3dAPN-mSPoR0cSg4rbiwbe/view
As for the Song Book (Song Vault), it still exists for those who subscribed to it, and can be found at TACsongs.com.
Welcome back.
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I have been thinking the same thing. The website is still good, just not as fun as it was on the old site. Also, I missed the June guitar party. Did that happen or is that a thing of the past now as well?
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They don’t have monthly parties anymore. Now they just have the quarterly goal-setting workshop, which by far has ben my least favorite of the guitar parties since it was first introduced.
One reason it may seem easier for some folks to navigate is simply because there is a lot less here. A lot of the stuff I liked is gone. But this site was never supposed to be about what I like. It’s about the daily lessons and a few special topics courses, plus the add-on Fretboard Wizard (and I’m curious how well the forums will integrate with FW – one learned a lot from others’ FW posts in the old format). It works for those things, but it doesn’t seem like a fun place to hang out.
To me, it seems as if they hung out a “No Loitering” sign. Since the main reason I participate is to have fun and I get a lot less of that now, I don’t visit forums often. Pretty much I do the dailies, maybe look at a few posts and move on, which I think is what they want us to do.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
dr_dave.
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I think you hit the nail on the head. I wonder if most of the changes were for cost efficiency. That 5 star rating I gave long ago is now about 3 1/2 stars. I still check in and do a daily lesson but a lot of the thrill is gone.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
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By the way, the next quarterly goal setting workshop is in July if you like that sort of thing.
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I sense one of the Value Added to TAC was a sense of community, which Tony fostered with this “fellow guitar geek” lingo and these TAC forums and events. But I’ll second concerns voiced in this thread. About 2 weeks ago, I asked administrators to address my “curriculum” questions and the former active Songs tab, but was told all changes were made after surveying members, so I posted my concerns in a “new discussion” moments ago. I came in after the changes and I have other ‘currriculum’ questions I’ll post later- that’s what the administrator asked me to do.
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“I asked administrators to address my “curriculum” questions and the former active Songs tab, but was told all changes were made after surveying members,…”
Sounds like they say these changes were “member driven.” It must be a “silent majority.” I did participate in. A mentor “Town Hall” when the need for change was discussed, but I did not get the impression it was member driven. I also didn’t envision anything that resembled the change that materialized. I would venture that most of the people who participated in that Town Hall are likewise shocked.
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Your recollection agrees with mine dr_dave. Having worked (as you know) in data driven industries I always like to know where the data comes from and if it is a sound basis for decision making. The jury is still out so far as I’m concerned. Like you I do the dailies, drop onto the forum on the rare occasion I have nothing better to do.
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Thanks All. I started this thread because although I was getting the daily lessons and doing the skills courses, which I think is much better organized, I was missing the interaction with other members. Like others I found myself doing the daily lessons and if I had time would do some skills lessons, check out recent forums and if none were of interest I was gone. I am not sure why the links to the songbook, which I paid for, has been hived off to another separate link. Is not part of TAC anymore? The member map was changed for member search under our name drop down, but is not as interactive as the map, but that is a minor personal thing. The forum I find most useful is the one that is attached to the daily lesson. There I find members helping members with each lesson, and I get some great ideas from that. However, I do miss the way the old forum had participation, on a number of subjects, that seemed to be more robust than the current one. Anyway, I have opened a bit of a Pandora’s box and hope Tony and the team are listening. I would like to see it more about playing/music than about complaints, such as this. Thanks for listening and participating.
Alfun
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And now, other things added over time will leave.
In March, there was a pre-change discussion from Admin about what to expect. The main post is gone, but Levi’s description is still there at: https://tac.tonypolecastro.com/topic/31030-announcement-the-future-of-tac-forums/. I suggest anyone seeking to evaluate the changes and make decisions capture it, as it will no doubt leave soon, too. (All the old forum posts are slated to go the way of the dodo anytime, now, based on what we were told in March.)
We are now almost 90 days in, and there is a lot that is not yet happening, and trust me as someone who has communicated with Admin a lot on this, and worked diligently to try to connect those local to me, that is a really hard pill for me to swallow. The new features are not there (yet??) regarding connecting to fellow, local members. The map is permanently gone, there is no way to capture and communicate with a group (on the TAC system), and the location feature has only started to work better in the last week or so (and CO still brings in Connecticut, Wiconson, British Columbia, and New Mexico, fwiiw).
Were the weekly “Journal” and “Hollar” a major need? Well no, but then, they both followed up on a party topic and intro in the before times rolled out with great fanfare. (So was the “WOGI” or progress party, which is now all that remains.)
As for were we consulted? As a member, NO. Were the mentors? Mostly you get a “that wasn’t really discussed” and now they are gone too. Is the content and teaching worth it in the rapidly post covid times? Hmmmmmm, each of us has to decide where we spend our money to gain on this obsession we worked out way into. It has brought real progress, but I am evaluating if that is still true as I come up on next February.
I guess I sound like I am complaining, so I should say that, well, I am responding to this thread with what Admin has been told by me, and what my perceived results have been to date. Will it improve in some of these other areas beyond a mostly working speed? Who knows, I hope so, but stuff seems to go away faster than it gets fixed.
And the fun is far less, for me at least.
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Well said @AttyTJ. As stated, many changes happened and for the most part members were told, not asked, what they were or, more likely, changes just happened and we are left to deal with them. The community aspect of TAC, the main reason I paid to switch to lifetime membership, is now gone it seems. Worse yet, it seems this was the actual intent of changing the site. They say TAC was becoming “clicky” with insiders doing most of the discussion and others left out and that members asked for these changes. Former mentor here and I assure you we had a meeting but that led to nowhere before they then decommissioned us all with the site change.
As a lifetime member I’ll stick with TAC and hope for more, BETTER, changes down the road. But I rarely even get on here and even more rarely post anymore. I’m fine with change but these changes don’t seem to motivate me anymore. I wish that weren’t the case and hope others are getting more out of the new site than I am. Apparently TAC ownership believes that’s true but unless that’s a “silent majority” based upon the ratio of posts and the commentary after the change I respectfully disagree.
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If you remember, @SoCal_Ian, Levi stated that the active forum members (in the old forum) only represented about 2% of all active TAC membership, so the forums themselves are a minor consideration in all of this. Maybe a survey was done for those who rarely or never used the forums, which would be the silent majority. Maybe they strictly used their customer service data to paint the picture of where TAC and its forums should go. Who knows? One thing is apparent: other than creating marketing content for TAC, the forums hold no priority for the powers that be. Not sure what “community” they’re currently advertising, but it’s not this one.
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Oh, I know what was said. That 2% number got thrown out there and I guessed that of the thousands of TAC members that still represented a good number of people. As with most things and especially internet related things, the majority stand by, listen and learn while a few drive the engine. That shouldn’t be taken as non participation but rather just the way things are.
We’ve been told that these changes were asked for (ex. song vault issues) by a majority of members but I, and others, do not recall that happening at all.
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Just FYI, the new sales pitch doesn’t really advertise the community aspects, it’s all about the dailies. Now they are also cutting down on the emails, so we can “concentrate on the playing”. To me it looks like they want to cash in on the lessons, which already exist and just need to be posted, that can be automated, and amputate the high-maintenance aspects of TAC, anything that involved more work: song vault, monthly meetings, emails, forums… maybe Tony is tired or has another project going on. Or, to end on an optimistic note, they’re working on something new for us and this is all in effort to manage resources to make it happen. They did the thing where they asked us to comment on the dailies, and there was a follow up asking to do a video questionnaire on Friday chords (at least I got one, I assume many others as well), so that’s a sign of something brewing.
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I only joined in May, I think. I am shocked and saddened to read about the manner and scope of the changes. It makes me wonder about the intent of the content creators. It seems from what I am reading that content and growth are being whittle away, with very little new stuff. That MO doesn’t really warrant me spending my money. I want my investment to grow, not dwindle. And the website itself has simple usability issues, which annoyed me at first – and continue to do so. The gray color of the links, the virtual disappearance of comments when in night mode, the speed – not endearing, not enrapturing. And I read that Tony was some sort of member of the group, albeit the head honcho. I read comments about his voice disappearing. I am very concerned that I may have made a poor long term investment.
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