Important Update for PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10109
Printed Date: 16 June 2025 at 10:27pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Important Update for PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Posted By: aaronk
Subject: Important Update for PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Date Posted: 15 August 2024 at 3:39pm
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If you are a current paid subscriber, I tried sending you an email with this information today. Some of the addresses I have were not valid, so I'm reposting the info here.
As you probably already know, Pat is retiring from keeping the website updated and has handed it off to me to continue maintaining. There is, unfortunately, no way to move the PayPal subscriptions from his account to mine. As such, I strongly recommend you log into your PayPal account and CANCEL your subscription TODAY (currently being paid to Patrick Downey). Rest assured, by cancelling within PayPal, this will NOT affect your access to the database. I have a list of all active accounts and when they expire, and you will continue to have access until your expiration date. Once you’ve reached the end of your paid subscription, you will be able to resubscribe (and I really hope you do!) by using the checkout button on the website, which is now connected to my PayPal account. Here are the steps to cancel your subscription: 1. Follow this link: https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/ - https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/ 2. Use your PayPal account credentials to log in. 3. Find “Patrick Downey” in your list of Active subscriptions and click on it to view the details. 4. At the bottom of the details that appear, you should see a link that says “Remove PayPal as payment method.” Click this link and then confirm on the next screen. The exciting future of Top40MusicOnCD.com I have hired a web developer to give the site a much-needed update, visually and functionally. While I do not know how long these changes will take, your continued paid subscription will help cover the expenses and your input can help determine what the future site will look like. I welcome any suggestions on what you hope to see on the newly updated site. Please feel free to reply to this thread to let me know. Again, thank you for being part of our little community of CD collectors. I look forward to talking with you soon. Aaron Kannowski ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Replies:
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 9:40am
Aaron, Some of the "charm" of the board is this old style message board. The bell and whistles are nice on some sites, but here as long as you know some html to bold and italics and link (which some don't know of course) you can consider it retro. Retro isn't bad. I don't know what you have in mind but would love to know. Anyways thanks for caring and allowing us a space to truly enjoy the music we collect. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
aaronk wrote:Posted By: chendagam
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 11:19am
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Hi Arron,
I have to agree that as soon as I read your post I started taking screen caps of the site because I just love the old school look. I wouldn't mind an update but there is a lot of charm about the way it is now. Just my two cents. I hope you are doing well. |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 12:57pm
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 3:52pm
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Concerning the forum, it's been broke for a while, but
we've all learned how to navigate around the issues. For starters, I can't leave registration open, because we immediately get attacked by spam bots. Second, if someone forgets their password, it's not possible to retreive it via email. Instead, they have to email me, and I have to reset it manually. There are also some issues with the search and formatting. The main focus, though, will be to update the searchable database. In addition to getting it up to today's web standards, I have quite a few ideas that I'd like to implement. As I mentioned above, I'm very much open to ideas for new features and improvements. There's no sense in giving the site a refresh if everything looks and functions the same. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: prisdeej
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 5:24pm
Actually, I think change is inevitable. The website and forum has gone unchanged since I came along in 2011, possibly longer than that. This HTML format is a bit of a learning curve at first, and it can be wonky depending what system you're using. I'd like the ability to change my forum username if this is something that can be implemented in the future. I agree with others, this forum and digital book work just fine, but the website itself could use some color. ------------- DJ L. |
Posted By: mjb50
Date Posted: 17 August 2024 at 9:48pm
| Hopefully with whatever forum upgrades are coming, some effort will be made to set up permanent redirects in the web server so that links will keep working. |
Posted By: JMD1961
Date Posted: 18 August 2024 at 2:35am
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Late yesterday, I got an e-mail from PayPal stating that
Pat had cancelled my auto-payment. I'm assuming that this takes care of that. Is there something else I need to do at this point? |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 18 August 2024 at 4:21am
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One thing I've learned from my 32 years at Record Research is that you can't please everyone. I even butted heads with Joel a few times over
the years. Sometimes he'd listen, sometimes not, but ultimately as the owner, he had the final say. Pat did a terrific job for many years and has earned his retirement. I'm confident that Aaron knows what he's doing and I for one can't wait to see how this site will evolve under his stewardship. |
Posted By: Santi Paradoa
Date Posted: 18 August 2024 at 9:55am
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For the most part change is good, so I would say "it's about time." One thing I hope happens eventually is that the online database gets expanded
with entries for songs from the past that should have always been included. I give you a couple of examples: From 1963: "A Love She Can Count On" by the Miracles. The song hit #'s 31 (BB), 43 (CB) and 37 (RW) for a total of 111. Take that total, divide by three and you get 37. It should be in the online database. From 1973: "Pretty Lady" by Lighthouse. The song hit #s 53 (BB), 31 (CB) and 33 (RW) for a total of 117. With an average of 39 it should also be in the database. From 1980: "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" by Barry Manilow. Peaked at 36 (BB), 43 (CB) and 40 (RW) with a total of 119. By now you probably realized that if the total is 120 or less it belongs in the database. There are several more songs like the above from the 50s, 60s, 70s and early 80s that could be added, making the online database that much more valuable to collectors. Now would be a golden opportunity to consider doing this. ------------- Santi Paradoa Miami, Florida |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 18 August 2024 at 12:37pm
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Thanks for all the responses so far! I would like to add that when Pat and I talked about me taking it over, he also recommended that it needed an update, as the code was written 20 years ago.
Forum username changes: Noted! Permanent redirects: Noted! Cancellations in PayPal: Yes, Pat tried to manually cancel anyone who had not already done so. Hopefully, he was able to take care of all the remaining accounts. Database expansion: Noted! I'd also like to echo Paul's sentiments about Pat's terrific job in maintaining the database over the years. The physical storage and organization of 33,000+ CDs is a part-time job by itself. On top of that, he's single-handedly cataloged all of those in the online database. It's an incredible amount of work. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 7:47am
Aaron, It is a fantastic job. He did an incredible amount of work. There are still plenty of Top 40 hits with no pages in the database but I think that can be fixed with you taking over. These days though less and less hits are on CD for the more current Top 40. Are you going to keep the same pricing structure that Pat did? ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 7:51am
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The pricing is the same right now, yes. I don't think it has changed in the last 20 years. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: ChicagoBill
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 10:29am
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I was so glad to see the memberlist cleaned up. More than half of them were spam. I still wonder
what happened to some of the usual members who would post things weekly, and then nothing. I know of some that have since passed away, but I can't believe the rest just lost 'Interest'. -Bill. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 10:44am
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I'm glad someone noticed, Bill! It took me over an hour to manually delete about 350 profiles, and yes, most of them were Russian spam bots that registered in 2008 and/or people who had zero posts and hadn't logged in since they day they registered years ago. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 10:52am
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To add to Bill's point about people losing interest, I've also wondered what we can do to encourage a little growth here on the forum and with the searchable database. I do love our little community, but as Bill pointed out, there aren't many of us. Over 20 years, there are only around 250 people who have ever registered and posted something. There could be hundreds (or thousands) more who just lurk and have never registered, and that's also fine. It would just be nice to see a few more join in the conversation. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 3:39pm
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"Patrick Downey" is already in my inactive accounts tab in the autopay list so I'm assuming I do not need to take any action until its time to re-sub? ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 19 August 2024 at 8:20pm
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Yes, it sounds like you're all set until the end of your subscription period. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: VWestlife
Date Posted: 21 August 2024 at 4:16pm
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I'm also in favor of keeping the design and layout of the
web site and forum simple and efficient. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 21 August 2024 at 7:08pm
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I often visit this site on my phone. While the site has
it's charm, I'm hoping the updated design will be mobile friendly. When visiting the site, I have to currently expand it so I can read it. I know you have great things planned for our little community. There are members I've seen come and go and hopefully those that left a while ago will have a reason to come back. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: Ringmaster_D
Date Posted: 22 August 2024 at 1:35pm
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Hey Aaron. One of my top requests would be an improved
search feature. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Default the search to both the Topic title AND the body text. 2. The search seems to have problems with special characters. This is especially troublesome since we often note song titles with " ". 3. Allow a search for a phrase by enclosing it with " ". For example "Barry White" which would exclude Barry Manilow. 4. Allow for some simple boolean logic (AND / OR). For example, "Chubby Checker" AND "The Twist." I think these are all just about standard these days. Oh, one more thing, the formatting is weird with regards to "carriage returns." If you look above, Aaron, your text extends to the right side of the screen, while mine (and others') inevitably have a carriage return about a third of the way across the page. Thanks for reaching out for suggestions. Dave |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 22 August 2024 at 6:48pm
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I think the carriage return is a Google Chrome thing.
That's the only browser I use and I think it's limited to Chrome. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 22 August 2024 at 10:18pm
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The reply box is adjustable (lower right corner of the text box) in my web browser so the carriage return is able to be adjusted with it. ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: Ringmaster_D
Date Posted: 23 August 2024 at 9:12am
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Testing out the carriage return by adjusting the reply box. Testing out the carriage return by adjusting the reply box. Testing out the carriage return by adjusting the
reply box. Testing out the carriage return by adjusting the reply box. |
Posted By: Ringmaster_D
Date Posted: 23 August 2024 at 9:12am
| Well, how about that! (I'm still using Google Chrome, by the way.) |
Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 27 August 2024 at 12:48am
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Allow me to chime in and say that I am very excited about the future of the Top 40 Music on Compact Disc website and can't wait to see it receive a very welcome makeover! Although this site was practically a godsend to the internet 20 years ago when first introduced in its current form (and, to my knowledge, still remains pretty much the only one featuring a comprehensive music database of its kind), website developing technology, programming, and graphics have advanced by leaps and bounds to the point where there are practically unlimited ways to create a really dazzling-looking layout by 2024 standards. I have no doubt that this website will be in fantastic hands under Aaron K.'s proven track record of leadership and guidance!
One suggestion I might make -- and, admittedly, this might not be a very popular one with everyone... But I am amazed at how a comprehensive informational database of this magnitude consisting of contents from 33,000+ CDs and 230,000+ total entries continues to be made available at the incredibly low annual subscription rate of $30... the very same rate that has been offered every single year over the past two decades! That level of consistency is practically unheard of! By the same token, I also want to be mindful of what a potentially costly expense Aaron will incur by hiring a developer to not only update the website and database to modern standards, but also manage ongoing general website maintenance. With that said, I have no qualms with perhaps suggesting a reasonable annual subscription price increase to help defray the costs and expenses for Aaron. Of course, I would recommend that any subscription increase shall not take effect until either: a) the renewal date for each individual subscriber, or b) a predetermined future date for all subscribers. Now, I realize that these may be difficult economic times for some forum members and, therefore, I certainly would not want to render the database unaffordable for anyone, particularly longtime veterans who have made numerous valuable contributions to the message board. However, I think it is also important to keep a couple of other factors in mind... According to a figure that I calculated from an inflation calculator, a $30 database subscription in 2004 would cost the equivalent of $49.95 in today's U.S. dollars. Couple this with the fact that the database has accumulated an enormous amount of additional information over the same 20-year time period that is available to users today. To me, having a first-ever subscription rate increase makes sense from multiple vantage points. Having personally known Aaron for many years now, I have no doubt that he has graciously accepted the undertaking of this website renovation and management project NOT for profit, but primarily out of his love and passion for collecting Top 40 Music on CD and sharing his knowledge and talents with our special close-knit community of fellow enthusiasts. At the same time, I also want to be mindful in making sure that we're all willing and offering to do our part to help Aaron avoid having to absorb a disproportionate amount of the burden to finance this project. One other possible option would be to include a "Donate" button somewhere on the site that would allow database and forum users to voluntarily make donations to help fund this renovation project. This way, those of us who are in perhaps a little better position to make a periodic financial contribution can opt to do so. Thoughts, anyone? |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 27 August 2024 at 7:48am
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Perfect! Let's add a couple zeros to the end of that subscription price, and maybe I can retire early!! :-D ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: Robert
Date Posted: 28 August 2024 at 8:22pm
| As invaluable as this database and the forum have been to me over the years, I think Todd's idea is an excellent one. In addition, I would suggest a "donated" button, so we can build up a little fund to help those in our group who need it. (Maybe there'd even be enough to send Pat a little something to thank him for this wonderful service.) This isn't just me getting caught up in the moment, it's something that I think about every year at renewal time. I couldn't do what I do without it and I'm happy to pay more. (Not deleriously so, but happy.) |
Posted By: Jack45
Date Posted: 09 January 2025 at 9:11am
| I just renewed my subscription last night, but when I log into the database, it still shows that subscription ended. Do I need to change my username? |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 09 January 2025 at 10:12am
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Hi John - The payments/subscriptions are not yet automated (we are working on that), which means I have to manually update it. I did so about an hour ago, so when you log in, you should see that you're up-to-date. Thanks! ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: Jack45
Date Posted: 09 January 2025 at 6:39pm
| You're welcome, and thank YOU, Aaron, for taking care of it. |
Posted By: Jack45
Date Posted: 09 January 2025 at 6:42pm
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Posted By: Jack45
Date Posted: 09 January 2025 at 7:06pm
| I realize updating a website takes quite a while, but has any progress been made yet? (I wanted to quote only some of the post but don't know how.) |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 10 January 2025 at 10:01am
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We're making progress, although it's slower than I would've liked. There are always unforeseen obstacles with these types of projects, but my web developer is working through them. Also, as updates are happening, you won't see them live on the site until everything has been fully tested and confirmed to be working properly. The initial update will be rolled out all at once, rather than small incremental changes. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 10 January 2025 at 9:58pm
Give us a chance to say a proper goodbye to this forum before we do lol. Thanks Aaron. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: sriv94
Date Posted: 15 January 2025 at 8:49am
Wait, what? ------------- Doug --------------- All of the good signatures have been taken. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 15 January 2025 at 11:30am
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The forum is not going away, and this isn’t part of the first phase of
updates. At some point I would like to update the forum, though, to fix the bugs we’ve been living with for the last two decades. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 15 January 2025 at 1:31pm
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A couple hundred of the former BSN site visitors are now on
a new Proboards site. Perhaps, that might be an option for this forum. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 15 January 2025 at 3:01pm
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I just checked out Proboards, and yeah, that could be an option. The main thing is to not lose 20 years of data, so I'm first looking into an update rather than moving to a new platform. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: TomDiehl1
Date Posted: 17 January 2025 at 6:51am
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I find the proboards site a *lot* harder to
go through on my cell phone than either this board or the old bsn board, so I rarely, rarely even stop over there to look at anything. I do sometimes glance at the Facebook group if it pops up during my scrolling on there, though I don't seek it out, either. I don't access my main computer often anymore unless I need to go print out a shipping label for something I've sold on discogs. I like this board, I find it easy to use on my phone and easy to search, so I sincerely hope it doesn't go away. ------------- Live in stereo. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 17 January 2025 at 7:41am
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It won't "go away," but there's a strong likelihood it will be updated. As I've said before, the forum software is now 20 years old, and it has no "captcha" protection against spam bots. That's why registration has to remain closed, and all new members have to be added manually by me. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |