openmikes.org blog

New Feature: Subscribe to Local Listings

2012-11-19T01:39:54Z

openmikes.org lets you find open mikes in a variety of ways, but it's always been up to you to drop by and search. As of today, there's something new.

When you search for open mikes near you (via the "Search Near Me" section of the front page), you now have the option to subscribe to that search.

So you're searching for open mikes near Miami, and you choose to be emailed on Mondays:

Each Monday, you'll receive an email like this:

What's new and updated around you, and what's happening in the week to come. Just what you were looking for, nothing else.

You can remove or update your subscriptions from your profile page:

You'll need to register and log in for all of this to work, but you should do that anyway to add photos, receive notifications of comments on nights you submitted, etc.

Why Wasn't My Comment Posted?

2012-07-28T20:36:25Z

Perhaps you've recently posted a comment or two -- or perhaps you've posted many over time -- that have never made it onto the listing page.

The most common reason, lately, is this:

Anonymous comments slamming hosts, open mikes, venues, other performers, etc. will not be published. *

They'll be ignored, perhaps ridiculed.

This is not to say anything at all is allowed if you're signing your name; but if you're going to be criticizing others, you'll at least need to stand by your words.

It's only fair.

And no, this does not apply to the vast majority of the site's users. So please don't worry too much about this notice. If you cared enough to read this in the first place, thanks for your contributions to and interest in openmikes.org.

* Actually, comments attacking other performers are unwelcome under any circumstances.

Where did openmikes.org go yesterday?

2012-01-19T05:33:53Z

If you visited openmikes.org on March 18, 2012 (just barely yesterday in my time zone, as I write this), you noticed that the site was missing. Unless openmikes.org is the only site you visited that day, you are probably aware that this was not an isolated incident. Wikipedia, Boing Boing and numerous others went “dark” to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills being considered by the US Congress.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but this site reaches more people in a day than my personal blog does in a month. Far more. If I was going to make a point, this was the place.

As a musician, a songwriter, a creator of works I do want protected… SOPA isn’t the way to do it.

I heartily recommend reading this interview with publisher Tim O’Reilly for an excellent explanation of what SOPA is, and why it’s more dangerous than any problem it would allegedly solve.

Anonymous comments may be going away

2011-07-05T20:21:00Z

There's an excellent chance that, very soon, you won't be able to comment anonymously on openmikes.org listings.

"Report a Problem" will still work, as a way to tell me, privately, that something needs to be corrected. But public comments will require you to login; probably via Facebook, to make most people's live easier.

"Comment wars" on a few listings (almost always anonymous), filled with personal attacks, are a prime example of what happens when people don't have to take responsibility for their words. That, and one particular commenter who uses an endless succession of false names (I delete most of that before you folks need to bother with it), are motivating me to eliminate that option.

If you want to speak up against this change, now's the time.

Want to view openmikes.org ad-free?

2010-09-17T02:06:17Z

You may have noticed the "donate" buttons in a few places on the site. They'll probably come down soon, largely because people seem to think they get special privileges, faster posting, etc. if they donate. Nope. Lame. openmikes.org is free, it stays free, all the features, for everybody.

And getting something for nothing seems wrong. OK, not nothing, running the site isn't free. Takes time. Takes Money.

Still, I think a version where:

You get something.
You know what the benefits are.
You still get to use the whole site whether you give or not.

works best. So. You know those ads? From nice people like TheStage and so on? They're here because, frankly, they help keep the lights on. They're not going anywhere, I'll take them as long as they'll let me.

But maybe you've seen them enough. OK, you can help defray the costs another way. But not for nothing -- this is even better, because you're helping out a fellow musician.

Me.

If you either purchase my CD "Acrophobe" ($6), or purchase the instant-download version (for at least $4), and email me to let me know you did so, I'll set your account to the magical "no more ads" status. Forever.

For this to work, you need an account. You may or may not have one yet (see the FAQ). And you'll need to be logged in. The site is not psychic (yet).

You do have the option to download the CD for free; go right ahead, please -- but that won't spare you the ads, sorry.

Let's just see how this goes...

<a href="http://music.paulroub.com/album/acrophobe">Acrophobe by Paul Roub</a>

p.s.: if you've donated in the past and want in on the ad-free list, drop me an email

What I Did With Your Donation, Chapter 7

2010-04-02T13:49:02Z

I gave $7 lunch money to Champaign County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) by visiting Blind Post and clicking two or three buttons.

What is CASA?

What does having a CASA volunteer mean to a child? Imagine what it would be like to lose your parents, not because of something you did, but because they can't - or won't - take care of you. Now, into your life come dozens of strangers: police, foster parents, social workers, judges, lawyers, and more. Having a CASA volunteer means having a trained and committed adult, by your side, who has been appointed by a judge to watch over you and advocate for your best interests. That volunteer will make sure you don't get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They will be there for you until your case is closed. It can make the difference between homelessness and a safe home, between dropping out and completing school, between unemployment and success, between jail and becoming a productive member of society.

Champaign County CASA currently serves nearly 600 children, thanks to our volunteer advocates. The children we serve range in age from newborn to 18 years of age. Last year over 35% were under age 6.

Seven bucks. Two minutes. Go.

What I Did With Your Donation, Chapter 6

2010-03-04T21:10:42Z

I licensed the cover art for my CD-in-progress.

Found the perfect shot at iStockphoto, purchased same. Saved me from having to step in front of a camera myself. Thanks!

Still working on the rest of the CD process — recording is scheduled for later this month. Pre-orders, and bonus reward options, are available at the project's Kickstarter page. For everyone who ever said "I can't thank you enough for openmikes.org", I'd say a $10 CD order is more than sufficient :-)

openmikes.org - mobile version

2009-12-13T20:36:46Z

You may notice a new menu item at the top of the page - "mobile". If you access openmikes.org via your cell phone, you've probably noticed it's not terribly well-designed for that.

The mobile site, m.openmikes.org is designed to be small, fast, and simple. It does one thing - shows you listings within 10 miles of a zip code, city, or address, on any given day.

Click on a club in the resulting list to see the time, address, phone number, web site, and any comments on the night.

That's it. Just what you want, 90% of the time. Let me know what else you'd really like it to do.

Follow openmikes.org on Twitter

2009-12-13T20:23:02Z

I've added a Twitter account for openmikes.org, @openmikesdotorg.

No, you won't hear about what the site had for breakfast, nor will it show you pictures of its cat.

What it will do is tweet each time a new open mike listing is added. Each listing will be tagged with its city and state, so a search for #Los_Angeles_CA will let you watch for new LA listings. Each post is also geotagged based on the club's address, so you can do a location search near you if you'd prefer.

What I did with your donation, chapter 5

2009-10-01T16:04:36Z

OK, actually, there haven't been any donations since the last update, but what I did anyway was to contribute to the Gordon Withers solo Cello album project. And so should you.

Magazine looking for women reinventing themselves

2009-09-19T12:37:41Z

This is from Dana Hudepohl, a writer for MORE magazine:

Do you know a woman in her 40s or 50s who wants to reinvent herself into a singer/songwriter or comedian? To feature in a national women's magazine, I'm looking for women ages 40-59 who want to seriously pursue singing/songwriting or comedy for the first time in their lives. The ideal candidate will have only recently gotten her feet wet in her desired field (maybe she's tried out her talents at an open mic here or there), but should not have achieved too much success yet. She should have a compelling back story of why she wants to make this drastic life change-- more than just "I've always wanted to do it." If chosen to be in the article, we'll hook her up with a celebrity in her fantasy field to review her work and provide some guidance. Please note: We will not be able to consider women who are not in this age range, who are already making a full-time living in one of these fields or who have been pursuing singing/comedy for many years.

Interested candidates should contact Dana at magazinewriter@yahoo.com. Deadline: Monday Sept 28. Thank you!

Call for poets in northern Virginia

2009-09-19T03:11:10Z

A visitor named Neal Warren was less than thrilled with a couple of open mikes he found on the site (once again, let me recommend calling to confirm a night is still going on) — finding them particularly less-than-wonderful for poets.

He's looking to get something together in his vicinity, poetry-focused and -friendly. Check out his Craigslist ad to that effect.

(More) Power to the People

2009-09-13T22:01:41Z

Just rolled out some new editing capabilities for owners of open mike listings. If you've submitted one of the listings on the site, and you've registered an account, this means you.

Previously, you could edit the day of the week, the host's name, start time, and whether or not a night was still active. All that is still there, but now you can change a listing from "every week" to "1st and 3rd Sunday of the month", "every two weeks starting...", etc. In the past, this required my intervention.

Please let me know if you have any trouble with this feature, and of course tell me if there's anything else you'd like to see added.

FAQ: Why isn't my listing up yet?

2009-07-22T19:20:35Z

I received this question today, as happens once a week or so. Often enough that I keep thinking it's in the FAQ list, but no. So now it is.

The primary excuse / explanation / underlying misunderstanding is: this is a one-man shop. Hi, I'm Paul, and I'm that man. A man with a full-time job that has nothing to do with this site, a wife, two kids, and some free time, at erratic intervals. It's during some of those intervals that submissions get seen, read, reviewed, corrected, published.

So usually, the answer is a simple "I haven't looked at submissions in a couple of days. When I do, you're in." It's almost always within a day or two, but sometimes the rest of the world doesn't cooperate. This has been one of those months.

So what can you do to speed the process along? Hint: the less touch-up I have to do, the fewer clicks needed to publish your listing, the sooner you'll go live.

Want to make sure things take a while? Here's how:

Leave out the address, or give vague directions in lieu of an address: Now I have to look it up, make sure it's the same "Casa del Java" as yours, etc.
Submit a listing that's already here.: This one's easy — it will never be published. Add a comment to the existing night instead, if you have something to say about it.
Forget to mention the day(s) of the week: More often than seems sensible, I get submissions listed only as "weekly". I'll email and ask for clarification, and about 1/3 of the time I never hear back. Use your real email address, please, for both our sakes.
Include 10 pages of all-caps, unpunctuated, whitespace-deprived description.: I need to clean this up, at least a little, to keep the site from looking overly insane. Takes much more time than clicking "Publish", and gets deferred.
Forward a 3rd-person email with vague details about an open mike: Now I get to deduce what state Someplacetown might be in; find the address; hopefully find a phone number; try and guess if that's just one Friday, every Friday, the third Friday of the month... There's a form. Please, please use it. Thanks.

And finally, while emailing to see what's up with your listing may prompt me to check the backlog (generally 5-10 submissions per day), it won't necessarily move you to the top of the list. But politeness helps. And rudeness really, really hurts.

What I did with your donation, chapter... 4, I think?

2009-06-21T14:26:04Z

Yeah, #4.

Selfish this time; grabbed a new switch to go along with the new pickups I'm putting in my Tele.