The site looks good. It is easy to navigate. Thanks for keeping it simple and elegant.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I plan to check back from time to time to see what's listed for MI, OH, IN.

The site seems to be working well, Stephen.  I'm hoping someone posts something from Hawaii so my listings will no longer be the most westerly on the map.

That's cool, Stephen.  

UPDATE: The site is going well. Organizers, clubs, and individuals are signing up. I recently sent the following out to many event organizers. Please spread the word!

I made a website for listing and searching mountain and hammered dulcimer events: http://dulcimerevents.com . It's easy to submit and edit your events. You can search present and past events, see everything on a map, and even search for events near you. Dulcimer clubs and jams, it even allows recurring events so you can add your upcoming meetings. Visit http://dulcimerevents.com and register to create a free account. Your events will appear after an administrator approves them. If you have any questions or need any help, please let me know.

Thanks,
Stephen Seifert
stephen@stephenseifert.com

I'm attaching an image of the map. It looks pretty cool!

Screen Shot 2018-11-15 at 2.46.21 PM.png  •  246KB

I think you're probably right, Strumelia.  ED had a list of dulcimer clubs and instructors and other resources and gave the appearance of being comprehensive.  I will be forever grateful to ED for introducing me to the dulcimer and allowing me to ask all sorts of (what now seem to be ) ridiculous beginner questions.  However, I found some of the resources there outdated. When I searched for local dulcimer groups I found about 5, all of which had be defunct for years.  I hope these new resources will be kept more updated.

I was thinking Big Data is as dizzying as Big Mon .

I think the demise of everythingdulcimer site may have had something to do with people feeling inspired to create new sites to house Tab collections, event calendars, club lists, teachers, etc... perhaps to help fill in the gaps that ED left behind. It's admirable that people are doing this. But it's no easy task, for sure!

Unfortunately, there's little money to be made from dulcimer sites in general. And running sites of any kind efficiently requires regular input of time, effort, and maintenance.

I've always liked to make FOTMD to be more of a social friends network, with discussions, groups, videos, audios, photos, and messaging. Not so much an archive for databases of information, or tab. In fact (unlike on ED, which did not offer video/audio/photo sections), I periodically delete members who are long inactive, along with all their site content. I want to keep things 'in the now', and I try to avoid accumulating a monumental amount of old information and multimedia files. This trimming keeps the site reasonably manageable in scope for me.

That's interesting that McSpadden is actually reaching and soliciting such information, Dusty.  "Big Data"... is that anything like Big Scioti ?  lolol

Stephen, I only learned about Eulberg's site when I asked him if I could list the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering on your site.  I had no idea either.

Perhaps at some point you two could indeed coordinate the two sites somehow.  And Steve E. does not include regular dulcimer groups, so perhaps the two lists can fulfill different purposes.

I recently received an unsolicited email from McSpadden checking on the details of my local group for some kind of database they are gathering.  I guess lots of folks are trying to create big data on the dulcimer world.

I like that you can SORT that list by the column heads, like by State... or by start date. Seems like it has a lot of entries.

It's difficult when events don't have a way of very quickly seeing their location. (like if it's in the small print, OR if the poster only puts the local city or town...like we know where that is, lol)

I just learned that Steve Eulberg maintains a list of dulcimer concerts, workshops, and festivals at Dulcimer Crossing.  The link is  https://dulcimercrossing.com/dc_events.html .

As Steve says on his home page:The only way this works is if you spread the word. So, please, yell it from the mountain tops. Talk about it in your newsletters. Tell your friends. Share a link on Facebook. We’ve got to let people know this is here!

I probably am the only active mountain dulcimer at Paint Creek Folklore Society, but we have a few players who like to get hammered, so I sent it to our hammered dulcimer playing vice president and to our newsletter editor, oh & I'm going to send it to Wanda Degen & Deedee Tibbetts, who have an event coming up & also do workshops in the summer at Interlochen.

Let's spread the word (& thanks, Steve, like you I find past events give a planning guide when looking ahead).

That looks good, Steve!  I'm imagining the site will get lots of traffic as it builds. 

If you tried to sign up and had trouble, try again. We fixed it.

That's cool Stephen!  

And here it is: http://dulcimerevents.com . Are any of you interested in helping me test this website? Head on over there and submit an event. I hope everything's clear and easy. If not, post back to this forum topic or use the contact form. THANK YOU!

I'm going to go with Strumelia's advice. I'm creating an online hub for dulcimer events. I'll get the details out when it's ready. 

Sorry guys, but the software of this platform is not going allow for separating out 'coming' Events from 'past' Events into two different places. It's either show ALL events (which along with all the events' posts and images etc- would take up unnecessary server space going back 9 years now)... or I can have past events become hidden after they are over with (which is how it's set now). Neither can I move events to a 'group' once they are past- events are entirely different animals from discussions, posts, or groups- they can't be interchanged.

I encourage people who are putting on such festivals to simply list them in our Events section.  If they can't be bothered to or are only interested in FB posting, then they miss out on possibly getting a few extra attendees at no cost to them.

I won't keep collecting or organizing everyone's long past events year after year- I've got plenty of work to do in my life already. I don't intend FOTMD to be a reference archive of such things. I suggest that anyone hankering for such a reference who has the time and inclination should just 'have at it' on their own sites!     

Linda,

I agree completely with your "festival  stalking."  My own schedule -- or more  accurately lack of one -- makes this my own way of considering festivals and  workshops.   To make a comparison,  I post an email list as part of a site  I run devoted to storytelling in Michigan.  Another storyteller puts the list together each month from submissions by either storytellers about their gigs or from venues.  Space and format is limited for each event.

I don't know if the limitations of our specific instrument is comparable, but I keep access to past issues available for exactly the resource Linda requested.

Does it list everything?  Dunberidiculous!  If the event isn't submitted,  nobody goes after anyone and asks for a listing.  Clarification?  Of course,  especially for anyone new to the format.   Posting websites and ways to contact the venue also are encouraged as part of the  listing format.

What might FOTMD do differently?  Only Lisa can say, I don't know if it would be a problem, but couldn't it be handled like a group?  When an event is finished, would it be a problem to move the posting to a "group " called Past Events ?  Just as groups have introductory remarks, it could say it exists to offer an opportunity to see past events that may recur.

No worries, @Diane-R. Looking back over my post I can see why you interpreted it the way you did. I really meant that members should post Events listings of their own events.  That's why I mentioned the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering, since I've been involved in organizing and teaching workshops at that event for several years.

It also takes a lot of work to do this well. An Event listing ought to have active links to the event's webpage, links to the instructors' pages, information about how to register, costs, lodging, and more. There is no way a single person could maintain that information for more than a handful of events unless it was a full-time job.  That's part of the reason the festivals listing at the old Everything Dulcimer website was so outdated.

I should also add that there is a festivals list toward the back of each issue of Dulcimer Players News.

Stephen, you would actually be the perfect person to create this comprehensive list that you are wanting!  You could put it on one of your websites (which would surely bring lots of good traffic).  Of anyone alive today, you probably have traveled to, attended, and taught at more dulcimer festivals than anyone else on the planet. You are a fount of knowledge about such events. It's a project that really calls your name.  

Diane- thanks for understanding! I see how you could have interpreted that as a call to arms.  ;)  Dusty is on staff at the Berkeley festival and he manages their event listing every year here on FOTMD. 
I definitely encourage anyone who is part of staff or admin of a festival to add their listing here in the Events/Festivals section - for one thing, it's FREE advertising!  

Ok, totally understand...I must've read Dusty's post incorrectly.  Sorry about that...

Diane, the problem with your plan of posting lots of other people's events into FOTMD's Event section is that the people who have something to do with running the event really should be the ones posting it here.  That's because THEY should be the ones to add information, answer member questions, and make editing changes to the event listing.  They can't do that if some other random person posted the event. 

This has happened a couple of times before- where a well meaning person has posted an event in the Events section... and later one of the people actually in charge of the event has come to me not happy because they want to post it themselves and put in the information and be able to control and edit the listing.  I then have to figure out who is the 'official' person actually in charge of that event and I then must delete the one that is not the 'official one'. 
It really is best if people in charge of promoting an event are the ones to post it here, so that they can keep the Event listing updated with changes, pictures, and be able to answer questions accurately.  They need to be able to edit their own event- and they cannot do that if they did not create the listing.  So I'd prefer it if only people who are in some administrative role of the event create the listing for it here. I hope you can understand the reason for that. 

I've posted two in the Events section that I've found already and will post some more in a couple days... :)

I agree both that it would be nice to have a comprehensive list and also that such an effort would be very difficult and take a lot of work on someone's part. On ED there used to be lists of festivals, teachers, and dulcimer groups, but they got very outdated very quickly.  To create a list for a single year would take a lot of work. To maintain that list year after year when dates change, new festivals emerge, old ones disappear, and so forth, would be a herculean task.

What we can do is encourage members here to use the "Events" feature more often and list festivals as soon as dates are known.  (Perhaps you've noticed that I already created a listing for the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering in May 2019!) When the date for an event passes, the event is removed from our general listing, but it still exists under the original creator's Events page and can be easily updated with new dates and guest artists each year.

I agree with Stephen that it would be good to see a list of all dulcimer festivals in a given year. I thing, however, that it is an impossible task. We depend on volunteers to post notices of these events. Some get posted and reported to sites like FOTMD or the old ED. Some are not promoted outside of a specific region. One might be able to construct a list for given year doing some kind of internet search, but that probably will not get all of them. It also would require an awful lot of work. We can keep hoping.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I ended up doing Google searches for dulcimer and acoustic music festivals and newsletters to come up with some in my area.

Hi Stephen!  

The Festivals you see listed in our Events/Festivals section are all the ones that have been input by site members, minus ones that are past and over with.  I understand your frustration with not being able to peruse past years.  I tried showing 'past' as well as upcoming Events, but it was very confusing to people when they were all showing... dozens and dozens of long past events.  (more like FB... LOL)  I try as best i can to keep things unconfusing here, and to keep things 'current' so folks don't get lost or overloaded. My goal is not to maintain and archive. People mostly want quick reference and current info.

Does not DulcimerPlayersNews (subscription magazine) put out a yearly festival list?  I see a "Festivals List" mentioned at the bottom of their issue's Table of Contents .  Is that list not comprehensive enough?

As far as this site (FOTMD) goes-   since festivals are not static information, a list of dulcimer festivals is only as good as the person/people maintaining it and contributing to it. An accurate and comprehensive traditional 'list' would require someone tracking down and verifying information all over the country. I've got my hands full just maintaining this site, and I have no paid staff to build or maintain an official type list. FOTMD has no subscriptions to fund such projects.

As you know, we do offer a FREE Events/Festivals section here on FOTMD where folks can input their festivals with photos and any supportive materials they like, and their event will show on our site's Main page as it draws near, and disappear when it's finished.  If people don't add their events into it, that's unfortunate since it's a free service.  If they want additional exposure here, they can also advertise their festival on our main page Ad Slideshows, for as little as $10/month. I can't offer any cheaper than that. I think it's a good option for those who want to have their festival really stand out on this site. Of course they can also buy ads in DPN.

I suspect Facebook has gotten people used to simply instantly posting their events and promotions wherever/whenever, on dozens of music and dulcimer FB sites.  'Instant' has taken the place of plan-ahead maintained lists or spreadsheets.

To have a truly 'comprehensive' online Festival List, either: 1) most everyone must submit their festivals via software, OR 2) there'd need to be a person dedicating time and effort into manually creating and maintaining one.  On FOTMD, we have option 1) already in place, but I suspect most folks just post their festivals on FB instead since they're on their phone on FB anyway all day.  FB tends to suck energy away from more traditional websites.

I've never seen a comprehensive Festival list; not even on ED 'back in the day'.  

Where is there a full list of dulcimer festivals? I see some on this site but I would very much like to see festivals for all of 2018 and perhaps past years. I've been searching. Any ideas? Thanks!