2015 – Page 23 – Adaptistration

Another Major Newspaper Critic Position Enters Limbo

Wednesday, July 29th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Continuing the decade-long trend of traditional newspapers eliminating cultural reporters, the Dallas Morning News may eliminate the full time music critic position following the departure of the current professional occupying that spot, Scott Cantrell. Cantrell recently accepted a buyout from the paper and ArtAndSeek.net published an article on 7/28/2015 by Jerome Weeks that details the transition along with examining where the field of cultural criticism is headed. Cantrell’s articles have been …

New Feature: Comment Rating

Tuesday, July 28th, 2015 by Drew McManus

The title says it all today, there’s a new reader feature in the form of comment ratings; meaning, you’ll be able to up/down vote individual comments. It’s super simple to use, at the bottom of each respective comment, you’ll find a thumbs up and thumbs down icons along with a total count for each. Now don’t get any ideas about vote-spamming any particular comment you love or hate, the system has …

Activate Search Tracking: Another Change To Google Analytics Anyone Can Do (and everyone should)

Monday, July 27th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Knowing what visitors are searching for at your site is one of the most useful metrics you have to tweak content, adjust navigation architecture, and improve conversion but by default, Google Analytics (GA) does not track visitor searches. So even though you may notice the default menu item for Site Search via your Reporting admin panel, don’t be surprised if you pop in and see a metrics big goose egg staring …

Automate Your Audition Scheduling

Friday, July 24th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Not long ago, I began offering Venture Platform users a reservation function via our e-commerce platform that also serves as an ideal tool for arts orgs to use for automating much of the audition scheduling process (including notifications, confirmations, and even changes). Even though it’s designed as an e-commerce function, it can be used in a non-transactional way or even gathering payment info but not processing a charge, which is handy …

Knowing When You Shouldn’t Get Involved

Thursday, July 23rd, 2015 by Drew McManus

One of the most frequent reader questions coming in from musicians is “do you ever write about [insert musician oriented topic here]?” By and large, although the topic may be fascinating it really doesn’t have much impact from an administrator’s point of view and unless its byproduct becomes something to be attended to administratively (such as the equal pay for equal work topic) we tend to steer clear of those issues. …