When the CotW topic was formed today (replacing Private Passions) there were other suggestions coming in.

For example the Popular Programmes on R3 don't get much talk on here, so do they deserve a whole section in the forum?

We have some boards with over 50 threads, with a wide range of topics, so it's difficult to put a structure to those boards, which means a lot of the threads get forgotten (they may have died naturally of course).

Suggestions on forum structure are welcome. This is a guide to what we have at present:

R3 BOARDS
Classical Music on Radio 3 (54 topics)
Popular Programming
- Breakfast with Rob Cowan (2 topics)
- Afternoon on Three (3 topics)
- In Tune (2 topics)
- Performance on Three (20 topics)
Specialist Programming
- The Early Music Show (9 topics)
- CD Review (7 topics)
- Music Matters (1 topic)
- Composer of the Week (4 topics)
Radio 3 Listeners' Discussions
- New Music (47 topics)
- Choral Music (13 topics)
- World Music (15 topic)
- Speech & Drama (23 topics)
General Radio 3 Discussion (59 topics)

MUSIC BOARDS
Classical Music on non-R3 programmes/stations (7 topics)
Opera House (50 topics)
Concert Hall (37 topics)
Music Appreciation
- Baroque Music (2 topics)
- Classical / Romantic (8 topics)
- 20th Century (16 topics)
- 21st Century (3 topics)
- Other (6 topics)

Jazz (26 topics)
Making Music (9 topics)

Collectors' Resource (31 topics)
Coffee Bar and News (80 topics)
Community Area (30 topics)

John,

I don't envy you your task, as you aren't going to keep everyone happy.  I suppose you also need to beware 'tinkering' (will it just annoy everyone?) and 'wholesale changes' (will it just confuse everyone?).

My view of what to aim for (and perhaps you get there gradually?) is:

Welcome and Help Area
- Welcome
- Announcements and Suggestions
- Board Usage and Useful Links

Radio 3
- Classical Music on R3
   (able to have threads in its own right, but also with child boards of
   - Breakfast
   - CD Review
   - Performance on 3
   - Composer of the Week
- R3 Specialist Area
   (able to have threads in its own right, but also with child boards of
   - New Music
   - Early Music
   - Choral Music
   - World Music
   - Jazz
   - Drama and the Spoken Word
- R3 General  (Don't really like the word general, but people seem to have the idea that this is a place to discuss how R3 is run, and ideas for the future)

Music Boards
- The Opera House and Ballet
- The Concert Hall
- Music Appreciation and Making Music
   (able to have threads in its own right, but also with child boards of
   - New Music
   - 20th Century
   - Classical and Romantic
   - Baroque and Early Music
- Other Radio

Collectors
- Vinyl and CD Discussion and Exchange
- Equipment
   (able to have threads in its own right, but also with child boards of
   - Audio and Hi Fi
   - PC Hardware and Sofftware

General Chat
- Coffee Bar


I would dump
Classical Music Q and A - that can be covered by musical appreciation etc.
News and Current Affairs - that can just be threads in the coffee bar
Afternoon on 3 - that can just be threads in 'CMoR3'
In Tune - ditto
Music Matters - ditto

I have trouble with Jazz and Opera.  Jazz could be up a level from where I have put it.  Opera could also be a topic under CMoR3.

Anyway, hope it gives you some ideas, and look forward to a forthcoming poll.

Thanks

Tommo

[edit:  added 20th Century Music to Music Appreciation after Autoharp and Tim R-J's timely posts below]

Yep, I think it's probably better to keep '20th Century' under Music Appreciation, and 'New Music' under the Radio 3 Discussions or whatever they're to be called. Having two 'New Music' boards under different 'mothers' is only going to confuse everyone. Seems fair enough to drop 21st Century from Music Appreciation, since people seem more inclined to post that sort of stuff under New Music.

Actually, I'll go and edit my post

Tommo

[trundles off stage]

Indeed I do, John! Adorno said something similar - he said there was some music from the 1910s and 1920s that, unlike even the most radical 19th century music, would remain 'new' for ever. (He then got terribly disappointed with what the most apparently advanced composers were doing in the 50s and 60s and wrote a polemic called 'New Music is growing old', but that's another story ... )

However, messageboarders (and even composers!) seem to resist such neat categorisations, and of course the dividing line isn't black and white in the first place (if I may be allowed to mix a metaphor for lunch ...). Indeed, one of the things that frequently gets discussed about both the kinds of contemporary music you mention is precisely the question of what in a given piece/style is 'new' and what's simply 'modern/21st century/whatever you want to call it'.

In practice, very little has been posted under 'Music Appreciation - 21st Century', while there are plenty of things under 'New Music' (on the R3 section of the board) that in theory ought to fit 'M.A. - 21st Century' better. So in practice, it seems to make sense to keep '20th Century' under Music Appreciation, while there'd be a strong argument for combining the current '21st Century' threads into the more inclusive R3ok 'New Music' section.

I'd be happy with that, anyway.

Phew! It's not just me then that can't make sense of it all 

time_is_now,
I agree with much you've (and Adorno) said, and I suppose that very little has been posted under 'Music Appreciation - 21st Century' is because no-one has discussed anything non-new music written since 2001 (though some recent film music was discussed somewhere).

Ian, is your thin red line suggesting we are separating two things that are in fact the same?? 

I don't mind some near-empty topics, hoping discussions arise, after all this forum is only eight weeks old.

I am most curious, though, that there are R3 topics almost empty when the reason we formed this forum was because the BBC wiped out discussions about those particular programmes 

John W

No that's not exactly my thinking. I still post on R3MB and see it currently as THE interface with the R3 presenters, but the presenters are having a hard time there and I think that WE would not be so harsh on them. I don't know of course, because we don't post enough opinion here about Rob Cowan, Sean Rafferty or Ian Burnside etc but I just have a feeling that we are all a bit more level-headed here and would welcome presenters posting HERE and we would give them the respect they deserve.


In terms of members and postings, for sure, and in terms of us being a community of listeners - though I know some prolific posters here seem to rarely listen to R3 


I'm not sure that is the case. If the persistent negativity by posters continues at R3MB who knows how Roger W will react. As well as negativity about programmes and presenters, some posters there seem only happy to post about conductors they don't like, and musicians that they don't like, it's very disappointing.


Well it certainly helps me to 'distinguish' the music. I see many new composer names appearing on here, I google and listen to clips but am mostly disappointed, and can't find recemtly composed music that I like 


If I remember, when we set up the current structure, there had been no postings about pre-Baroque other then relating to the Early Music Show which was given it's own topic.


John W

I think there are too many categories. I would just have three:

Music on Radio 3 (much like the old CMoR3) - with no subcategories
Classical Music elsewhere - covering concerts you've been to, music matters in general, but again with no subcategories
Miscellaneous: waffle, quizzes, anything