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Source Admin

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Getting Started

First off, you'll find admining a lot easier if you use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. Not all of the db's features work in Internet Explorer, and you'll find many tasks easier if you use the tab feature of Firefox (CTRL + click on a link) to "blow out" a page into separate tabs. Do yourself a favor: [Get Firefox].

Second, remember that each SHN/FLAC source requires an entry in the show database to support it. No show = no source. If you haven't read the SetlistAdmin page, please do that now.

Where Do I Do The Thing I Do?

Virtually everything you need to do as a SourceAdmin is available from the [Source Maintenance page] which we call /shnmaint. You can add or edit shows, add, edit or remove SHN/FLAC sources, change the "header" and "footer" on your band's source page, remove inappropriate comments about sources, add a SetlistAdmin to help you out, etc. Most of the choices there are pretty obvious. The format of the Source Maintenance page changes from time to time, so there's no description of it here.

In the upper left corner of the /shnmaint page, under "Pending Review" you will see:

x Source Entries (x will be a number)

Those are pending Sources for your band(s), and if you don't review them, no one will.

Before clicking that link, please read the rest of this article!

First Thing First: How Set Up A New Band, Or Join An Existing Band

To become a Source admin, you must contact the [admin team] and, if the band is not yet tracked, demonstrate that the artist is trader friendly.

Once you become an admin, there are some tasks to do right away:

First, join the SHNCIRC mailing list. Communication is very important. There's a link called "mailing list" on the /shnmaint page. It's low-volume, but it's how admins reach each other.

Second, please make sure that you have valid e-mail addresses in your db.etree profile. We need to reach you. Other db.etree users need to reach you. You gotta check your e-mail, dig?

Third, set up the header and footer for your band, using the link on /shnmaint. That's the text that appears above and below the SHN/FLAC listings on the /shncirc page for your band. You can put whatever you like there, but you must include a way for users to reach you, and it's good practice to include a link to the band's website, its trading policy (if possible), and other resources that users might like (covers, fan sites, etc.). The header is also a good place to put cross-references to other projects by the same artist or about what material may be tracked or traded. Check out the [Steve Kimock] listing for an example.

Finally, start adding Sources. The rest of this article is about how to do that. Your band won't show up on the /shncirc page until there is at least one Source entry.

How To Add Sources To The Source Database

There are three ways that Sources are added to the database:
  1. You can (and should!) add them yourself. Start at the the /shnmaint page and type the artist's name, and then the performance date, into the lookup box. Add the show, if necessary (try CTRL-click!). Then, choose "add source" and add the Source.
  2. Other users can add them, using http://db.etree.org/addshn1.php. In fact, that's a good link to put in your header/footer. (You can also work from http://db.etree.org/addshn1.php, if you want, but that adds a step.) These Sources are queued up for your approval on /shnmaint.
  3. Sources are imported from archive.org or bt.etree. These are also queued up on /shnmaint.

Where Do Sources Come From? How Do I To Find New Sources?

Depending on your artist, Sources can be found in many different places. You should check bt.etree.org and archive.org from time to time for new submissions. You should also check other trackers and fan sites for your artists. Mailing lists are also a good place to look. You may have to make some friends and persuade them to send you checksum files, in order to get all of the info you need to add the Source. One benefit of this job is that you get to meet people who share your interest in your band(s).

What Does A Proper Source Entry Look Like?

No matter how you get your hands on new Sources, the final product needs to be consistent. Let's go over the parts of a Source entry. The information is the same, whether you add one from scratch or edit someone else's submission.

Please [CTRL-Click] here and take a look at a well-formatted Source entry.

Here's the really critical stuff:
  • Links to archive.org and/or bt.etree.org -- sometimes, these are added automatically. If not, you can add them.
  • The Source Summary, which shows the recording and transfer info for this particular recording.
  • The Source Description which is the .txt file for this fileset -- reformatted if necessary to get rid of bogus characters, useless information, and bad formatting.
  • The checksums -- .md5 or .ffp or both (sometimes .mkw or .st5) -- click on "add checksum" to add new ones. Don't leave checksums as part of the .txt file.

Your most important task is to make sure that those four pieces of information are done right: available, properly formatted, and put in the right place. If you don't do these four things, the site admins will go berserk, and not in a good way.

It's also important to add as much information as possible for:
  • The disc counts
  • The circulation date -- often, the posting date at bt.etree or upload date to archive.org, both of which you can easily check.
  • Intelligent comments about the Sources (comments like "Where can I get a copy" should be deleted).

There are some sources that lack .txt files or lack checksum files. In that case, just do the best you can.

Don't Just Hit Approve!

Most new Sources come from auto-generate links from bt.etree.org or archive.org. They will have formatting problems and missing data. They will always require some cleanup.

The SourceAdmin who approves everything that comes into the queue without looking at or thinking about it adds no value to db.etree. Think about it: if hitting "approve" was the only part of the job, what do we need you for? A computer could do that faster.

Your job is to use your judgment and look everything over first!

The reasons Sources are queued up for you to review are:
  1. Mistakes happen -- wrong artist, wrong date, etc.
  2. Duplicates happen -- that's why you can will see links to other Sources on the same date. You have to decide whether to accept or reject the new Source, or to pull information from it to supplement the existing Source (and then reject the new one).
  3. Entries need cleaning up -- formatting is wrong, information is in the wrong place, etc.

Please, only hit approve after you've looked over the data. Here are some tips for the most common data problems you'll run into:

Sources Linked from bt.etree.org

Sources linked from bt.etree usually require a couple of tweaks:

  1. Add the # of discs will always be empty. Make an educated guess.
  2. Look for bogus \ characters in front of single and double quotes, like this: I\'m A Man or something like Billed as the "Monster Ball" or even Don?t Fear The Reaper. These come from an error importing the shows, and they must be removed.
  3. The "description" on bt.etree usually has in it three things: (1) the .txt file, (2) checksums, and (3) whatever comments the seeder added. Move the checksums to the checksum area, and delete the seeders comments, leaving only the .txt file behind.
  4. The Source Summary is whatever the seeder decided to name the torrent, and it must be replaced with the actual recording and transfer information, which you can pull out of the .txt file.

Sources Linked from archive.org

Source linked from archive.org also require a couple of tweaks, before you hit "update":

  1. The "archive.org identifier" link is just the name of the fileset, not the entire URL to archive.org. For example, this Source http://db.etree.org/shninfo_detail.php?shnid=79963 is linked to archive.org here: http://www.archive.org/details/gomez2006-06-22.mk4v.flac24 but the "archive.org identifier" is just gomez2006-06-22.mk4v.flac24
  2. Sometimes, there is no .txt file, or the .txt file is only checksums. You can always find the missing information by CTRL-clicking the archive.org link, and poking around. Cut/paste the missing information into place.
  3. Don't forget to move the checksums into the checksum area first -- don't just discard them! Give them a decent name, too.
  4. The Source Summary is sometimes the entire .txt file, or the first few lines of it, and must be replaced with the actual recording and transfer information, which you can pull out of the .txt file.
  5. Sometimes, the same Source is submitted twice, once with checksums and once without. Or, a Source is queued for approval that is already in the Source database, but the checksums are in the .txt file, so the db can't figure out that it's a duplicate. When that happens, the easiest thing to do is to edit the existing source, copy over the archive.org identifier, and then delete the pending source.

How To Force A Link to bt.etree


When a torrent is submitted to bt.etree.org and any of the Show or Source fields are not filled out, the torrent will eventually appear in the link-up page, http://db.etree.org/shnmaint/bt.etree.php where it can be linked to the db. You can force that torrent to appear in the linkup script by using this URL: http://db.etree.org/shnmaint/bt.etree.php?id=XXXXXX (replacing XXXXXX with the torrent ID# as shown on bt.etree.org). That will allow you to select the corresponding Show and either submit a new Source for it, or link the torrent to an existing Source.

How To Be Efficient

The biggest challenge for a SourceAdmin is keeping up with new material, which can take a lot of time. It doesn't have to, though. Here are some tips for speeding things up:

  1. Use Firefox. Can't say it enough: CTRL-click + leaving the original page up is much faster than back-arrow and waiting for the first page to reload.
  2. Don't let your artist get all backed up. (Try washing a month's worth of dishes in your spare time!) It sucks for the site users, too.
  3. Work from the /shnmaint page. That way, you'll have the tools you need at your fingertips. Also, you can see if the Show needs to be added first. Nothing is worse that adding a Source and getting a message that the Show doesn't exist.
  4. CTRL-A selects all text on a page. This makes it easier to copy/paste information from one website to another, without downloading anything.
  5. When you add a new Source, you are always sent back to /shnmaint where you can click a link for "Edit Last Source". That's great, because you can click "add", and then click "Edit Last Source" right afterwards, and cut/paste .txt and checksums into the half-finished Source and click "update" to finish.

That's basically it. Remember, if you get stuck, or have questions, just [e-mail us] and ask!

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