View Single Post
  #5  
Old 2008-03-11, 11:20 PM
katnapz's Avatar
katnapz katnapz is offline
What'cha Got There?
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Re: Question regarding file naming conventions..

Quote:
Originally Posted by stercesderised View Post
.....the band name isn't even in the flac folder name......and I screwed up other people's ability to upload off of my PC as well..
My suggestion would be: BandName_MMDDYY_city..
Just a couple 2 cent comments from me....
-Don't try to rename shows that you're thinking you're going to continue seeding...
--If you do really feel like you have to, then place said show into a sub-folder of a folder named with whatever naming convention suits you. That way, you can have a consistent naming setup that you like.

-Many people who torrent keep separate folders on their drives - one for torrents they are or could continue to seed, another for storage of torrents they're done doing so with and are waiting to either burn or transfer to an archive media. Again, if you're so set to keep the original folder name that came from the torrent, then place the entire show as is into a subfolder that you name yourself while you seed.

-Do not use the a naming convention (for your own keeping) that uses a date format of MMDDYY....try doing this as an experiment and you'll see what a hassle this becomes. For example: "A Band" performs on Jan 3 1999, June 20 2003, and Feb 9 2004. Using your naming scheme your listing will show:

A Band_010399
A Band_020904
A Band_062003

Is this in the correct chronological order? No, because you're forcing any kind of database (including something like Windows files structure) to go by what it sees as simply an increasing number. So your listing for each band will then be firstly dependent on the month, then day, and lastly the year.
Use a date structure of YYMMDD (but really for completions sake a more logical YYYYMMDD would be better...the days of limited characters is over thankfully).

Using this scheme your listing will now be correctly shown in chronological order of:

A Band_19990103
A Band_20030620
A Band_20040209

You might not think this is very important if your collection is small, however, when you get to a point where you have hundreds of recordings by an individual band/artist, then multiply that by having hundreds of recordings by "lots" of bands/artists and things get tricky.
Things get even more interesting then, if you come across a potential trade/torrent where the information you're given is that a recording was made "in early 1998"....so now...you're shifting through who knows how many dates because you can't simply go by year...you're looking at months (01 for Jan - through say 04 for April) to see if you already have that recording. Potentially 120 nights right there, "but"...you're looking at other years before you realize they aren't in 1998 by having to look at the full date of each listing. Or, some shows have been mis-dated...with the same problem of cross referencing, because maybe it wasn't in the 23rd, but on the 22nd or 24th. You have to realize that many times you'll look at a show's info and setlist and think, "I know this show...I don't think this information is right.....now where is that one in my collection that I'm thinking of???" With repeated "dammits" as you scan through your collection unable to find it.

I speak from personal experience of having a naming format that I started out incorrectly many years back which has just compounded over time as I've tried to migrate over to something similar to the above. Hopefully I help someone from making the same mistakes I did (and here ends our weekly AA meeting as it's starting to sound like )

You might also want to do a search back through old technobabble posts for the same subject, along with searches for databases that people use to keep their collections straight. With the right system you can find a recording and the info on within seconds if your naming scheme is set properly. Everyone has their favorites and it's probably a good idea to read as to why each likes a different one.
Hope this helps. Good luck.

(PS, I finally had a decent enough connection to stay on for awhile...figured I'd take advantage of it by writing a book)
__________________
...Catnip is my middle name...
Reply With Quote Reply with Nested Quotes