gdead.berkeley.edu/gdead.berkeley.edu.tar/gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/miscellaneous/running_tape_trees

Internet Message Format | 1993-03-03 | 17KB

From: [e-mail] (Charles Wolff)
Subject: Running Tape Trees (long)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Motorola Computer Group, Tempe, Az.
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1993 20:43:37 GMT


    Something I've been meaning to write up for a while, and now
    that almost all the Compton Terrace Tape Tree branches are
    in the mail, I finally got around to it... if the keeper of
    the FAQ wants to incorporate parts of this into the FAQ,
    they have my permission to do so...



    Paolo Galtieri and I have run several "tape trees" on the
    rec.music.gdead newsgroup; each time we run a tree, we've
    tried to do things a little better than the time before.

    This article is a summary of our current procedure for
    running a tree.  It won't work for everybody, but it seems
    to be working for us, and the ideas may be useful to others
    who volunteer to run tape trees.  In honor of the Wharf Rats,
    I've made this a 12-step procedure :-).


    1. ARRANGE FOR "SEED" TAPE

    Paolo and I don't actually tape shows ourselves, so we have to
    make contact with someone who does to get a "seed" tape for the
    tree.  Currently, there is a taper on the newsgroup who has made
    a standing offer to provide a DAT seed to anyone who will run
    a tree.  We've also obtained seeds by posting to the DAT-heads
    mailing list.  Conceivably, we could also use very good (or rare)
    tapes we already have as the seeds (such as my 1st gen reels of the
    FM broadcast of 12/31/78).  If we're getting seeds from someone
    else, we ask whether they would like to be publicly acknowledged
    for providing the seeds, or whether they'd like to keep their
    identity private (some badly overloaded tapers prefer the
    latter...)

    Once we've made arrangements to receive seed tapes, we will
    often post a pre-announcement to rec.music.gdead saying,
    "we will be doing a tape tree for (show); stay tuned for details."

    2. TAPE FORECAST

    While we're waiting for the seed tapes to arrive, we work up a
    "tape forecast."  First, we decide how many top level branches
    we want to have in the tree.  For the '92 Compton Terrace tree,
    we decided we could swing 25 top level branches.  Your mileage
    may vary...

    Once we've decided how many top level branches, we break this
    down into a tape forecast, based on previous tape trees we've
    been involved in.  Currently, our tape forecast for 25 branches
    looks like:

        tape        no    dolby    dolby
        type        dolby    B    C

        XL2S        8    4    1
        XL2        5    3
        TDK SA        4

    If we had a smaller number of branches, we'd probably decide
    to make all the branch tapes on XL2S's or something like that
    (and, of course, we'd state that in the announcement).

    The goal of the forecast is to predict what kinds of tapes we
    will need to produce to supply all of our "branches."  This
    allows us to start making the tapes for the branches BEFORE
    the tree is finalized, and to have almost all the branch tapes
    ready to mail shortly after the final tree is posted.  By
    having lots of top-level branches, we can keep the tree to
    two layers, and everybody gets pretty good copies pretty
    quickly.  Of course, the tradeoff is that we have to MAKE
    those branch tapes.  But then, most "branches" are also willing
    to trade for the tapes they get, so that's nice... :-)

    With two of us making branch tapes, we also decide how we'll
    divide up the tree.  For the '92 Compton tree, Paolo made all
    the copies of the Saturday show; Charles made all the copies
    of the Sunday show.  We made an arbitrary decision that all the
    branches would receive both shows; nobody has complained about
    this.  Anybody who only wanted one show was automatically a
    leaf.

    3. VERIFY SEED TAPES; DETERMINE SPLITS

    When the seed tapes arrive, we listen to them to make sure
    they have the complete show, that the quality is good, and
    what the "splits" will be (what songs will be on what sides
    of the analog copies).  Until we have the seed tapes IN HAND,
    we go no further with the tree.

    4. POST TREE ANNOUNCEMENT

    Once we have the seed tapes IN HAND (that's a big deal with us),
    we develop and post the tree announcement.  The tree announcement
    should include the dates of the shows being distributed, the
    setlists for those shows, the source of the tapes ("audience
    DATs", "3rd gen Betty Board", whatever).

    The tree announcement should also state the closing date for
    the tree; that is, the date after which no more signups will be
    accepted.  Since all our branch tapes will be on particular
    tape brands (because of the tape forecast), we mention this in
    the posting as well.  The announcement should clearly state
    whether there will be a DAT branch (DAT copies of the DAT
    seed).

    Finally, the tree announcement should include instructions for
    signing up: who to send email to to sign up, etc.  We've made
    various attempts at creating an easily parseable "form" for
    signing up, but we have yet to figure out how to get everybody
    to fill out the form the same way.  Our typical signup form might
    look something like the following:

    Name:        _
    Email address:    _
    USMail address:    _

    Do you want the Saturday (12/5/92) show?    _
    Do you want the Sunday (12/6/92) show?        _

    DAT or analog?    _
    Analog:
       Tape type:    _
       Noise Red.:    _

    If you are a branch, will you be sending us trades or blanks? _

    Are you willing to make analog copies for others?    _
    How many copies are you willing to make?        _

    Briefly describe your tape copying setup:
    _


    Users are instructed to answer the questions by searching for
    the underscore characters and replacing them with replies.

    The information we ask for is used to determine who will be
    branches and who will be "leaves".

    In addition to posting to rec.music.gdead, we also send the
    announcement to the DAT-heads and tape-heads mailing lists.
    We also try to re-post the annoucement to rec.music.gdead at
    least once or twice while the tree is open, for those who may
    have missed it the first time.

    5. TAPE INSERT ARTWORK

    Once the announcement has been posted, one of us starts working
    on tape insert artwork.  By coming up with a standard set of
    tape inserts which include the setlists, dates, locations, and
    other significant information, and then xeroxing enough copies
    for all the branch tapes, we cut down on the amount of handwriting
    we have to do.  This also seems to improve the accuracy of the
    lists we send out with the tapes.  If the person who "seeded"
    the tree would like to be acknowledged publicly, you can include
    a "thanks to..." note on the tape inserts.

    The tape insert artwork can be as fancy or as simple as you like;
    xeroxing onto colored paper makes them more attractive, but it's
    not required.  Mainly, it's a way of saving yourself some work.

    6. BEGIN MAKING TAPES

    While people are still signing up for the tape tree, Paolo and I
    start making the tapes, according to the forecast.  On our
    forecast, we identified the tapes as set A through set Y.  As I
    made each tape, I would mark which tape set it's part of.  By
    the time we got together to package up the tapes, Paolo had
    his 25 sets of tapes and I had mine and we just merged them
    together as we dropped them into the envelopes.

    7. HANDLE TREE SIGNUPS

    During the time the tree is open, people email to us asking us
    to be on the tree.  All the incoming email is stored in a
    special mailbox.  If a signup is received that is missing specific
    information, we can write back and try to get the information.

    We normally do NOT send any acknowledgement that signups have
    been received.  About a week before the closing date, we post
    a list of everyone who has signed up so far; anybody who thinks
    they signed up but is not on that list can send another signup.

    One thing we're going to try on our next tree is, for anyone
    who signs up to receive DATs, and who we won't be trading for
    some other show on DAT, we will ask them to send us
    blank DATs right away, so we can make their copies for them.
    With DAT blanks costing $8 and up apiece, we can't afford to
    "front" a lot of blank DATs for the tree.  We'll see how this
    works...

    8. ORGANIZE FINAL TREE

    The tape tree announcement included a closing date; once that
    date arrives, the tree is closed and we're done taking signups.
    We usually wind up accepting things for an extra day or two,
    until we're ready to actually assemble the final tree.

    Once the tree closes, we go through all the people who signed
    up and build the final tree.  What we've done the last couple
    times that has actually worked quite well is to PRINT OUT all
    the incoming email signups, ONE PER PAGE.  We can then shuffle
    pieces of paper, which can sometimes be easier than shuffling
    lines in a mailbox.

    In assembling the final tree, there are several things we look
    at.  All the DAT people get separated out, and we note any DAT
    people who are willing to make analog copies for other people.
    Next, any analog people who are not willing or not able to make
    copies for other people are put to the side; these have to be
    "leaves" on the tree.  Next, we look at the analog people who
    are willing to make copies, and try to identify who might be
    our "best" people to use as branches.  In general, people with
    dubbing decks get put aside; people who want their copies on
    a tape type other than the ones on our forecast get put aside;
    people who can only make one or two copies get put aside.

    What we end up with, then, is a stack of people who are willing
    to make plenty of copies, on one of our forecast tape types, on
    a reasonably good dubbing setup.  We then start fitting these
    people into the tape forecast.  We find eight people who want
    XL2S no dolby, and make them branches A through H.  We find four
    more who want XL2S dolby B and make them branches I through L.
    As we work down the list, we may move some people around;
    somebody who wanted XL2S tapes with either no dolby or dolby B
    might start out as branch C and then get shifted to branch J,
    and then we'd find somebody else willing to take XL2S no dolby
    tapes and make them branch C.  This continues until the tape
    forecast is filled in as far as possible.  For '92 Compton, we
    filled 24 of the 25 forecast tapes.

    We then start assigning "leaves" to each branch.  In general,
    we try to match noise reduction types, so that people who want
    dolby B have dolby B parents.  Each branch is given however
    many children they say they're willing to feed, up to about
    five.  We try to set it up so that each branch has at least
    one or two people who are willing to do a trade for the tapes,
    rather than just providing blanks.

    If the tree was very large, we may find that even 25 branches
    isn't enough to handle all the "leaves."  When this happens,
    we take the remaining people and construct branches, with
    leaves, and assign them to DAT people who are willing to make
    analog copies.  The tapes go through one more layer that way,
    so it may take a little longer for the tapes to get out, but
    the extra layer is a DAT layer, so the copies should be just
    as good.

    Once in a while, we pull somebody out and say we'll handle
    them as a special.  On the '92 Compton Terrace tree, there
    was one person who has some rare '84 shows, and Charles is
    trying to collect all of '84.  So we decided to handle her
    as a "special", so we could trade with her for one of her
    shows that Charles wanted.

    Once the tree is organized, we staple together the printouts
    for each branch - the branch leader at the top, with the email
    from the leaves below.  These will be used again later.

    9. POST FINAL TREE

    Once the branches are chosen, the final tree is posted to
    rec.music.gdead, DAT-heads and tape-heads.  Usually, this
    list includes the names and email addresses of each person
    on the tree, and is formatted to make it clear who is each
    person's parent.  We usually re-post the tree to rec.music.gdead
    a couple times over the next week, for those who missed it.

    As soon as the tree has been posted, we try to get the branch
    tapes (which we've already made based on the forecast) in the
    mail as soon as possible - usually within a week or less.

    10. PREPARE COVER LETTER, ENVELOPES, ETC.

    A number of the pieces of the branch packages can be prepared
    during the time the tree is open for signups.  You can't
    address the envelopes until you know who the branches are,
    but you can go out and buy the padded envelopes; you can put
    the tape inserts into the tapes as you make them; if you know
    your packages will be fairly heavy, you could even go to the
    post office and buy sufficient $2.90 stamps for priority mail.

    For the branch packages, we write a standard "cover letter"
    that we send in each package.  This letter gives our USMail
    address and email addresses; it says what to do if there are
    problems with the tapes; it mentions that we are including the
    printouts of the original email from this person's children,
    and it tells how we're handling "Max Points" for this particular
    tree.  (Currently, we take the Max Points off the tapes as we
    make them for the branches, and we tell the branches that they
    can keep the Max Points from trade tapes they send to us.)  Our
    standard cover letter also includes some excerpts from the
    rec.music.gdead FAQ regarding tape trees.  We also mention that
    if the person has not yet sent us their tape list to set up a
    trade, they should do so as soon as possible.

    11. ASSEMBLE BRANCH PACKAGES

    As soon as possible after assembling and posting the final tree,
    we get together and assemble the "branch packages."  Each branch
    is identified with a particular entry on the tape forecast, and
    their tapes should be ready to go.

    Each branch gets a cover letter, the printouts of email from
    their children, their tapes, and any other "goodies" we might
    be sending out.

    If we have a tapelist from the branch, we go through the list
    and pick out the trades we'd like at this point in time, and
    enclose a note in the package saying what we'd like.  Any
    trades we request at this time get put on our joint electronic
    tape list, marked as "incoming".

    The packages are assembled and sealed, and one of us gets to
    make the Post Office run to mail them all.  After the tapes are
    mailed, we work out how much postage costs were for the tree
    and divide them up.

    Usually, there will be one or two branch packages which don't
    get mailed at this time, for one reason or another.  One of us
    takes responsibility for completing and mailing each of these
    packages.

    Once the branch packages are in the mail, we usually post to
    rec.music.gdead to indicate that most/all the top level branches
    have been sent out.

    12. FOLLOW-UP

    Most of our work is finished at this point; the rest of it is
    follow-up.  If any of the branches found a problem with one of
    their tapes, we need to work out how to get them a replacement
    quickly so they can make copies for their children.

    It seems like every time we've posted a finalized tape tree,
    there are a few people who write to us at that point and say,
    "Can I still get on the tree?"  We're going to work on a
    standard, polite response which says, "Sorry, the tree is
    closed and we can't add anybody else.  Lots of people will be
    receiving copies, and you should be able to set up a trade for
    this show fairly easily..."  After organizing the tree, making
    25 branch copies and getting them mailed out, we would just as
    soon not have to make any special copies for people who missed
    the tree...

    Some tree administrators do not send out branch tapes until they
    have received blanks or trades from the branches; we have
    decided it's more important to get the tapes to the branches so
    the tree gets moving.  What this does mean is that we now have
    25 people who owe us tapes (some of which we haven't even picked
    out yet).  We have to maintain a list of who owes what, what's
    been received, what's still out, etc.  After three or four
    weeks, we start sending out friendly reminders to people who
    still owe us lists or tapes.  This goes on until we have either
    received tapes or given up on all the branches.  One of these
    days, we'll even work out a procedure for "receiving" tapes
    to ensure that we at least listen to enough of each tape when we
    get it that we know it's complete, the right stuff, and
    listenable.  We don't want to discover three years from now
    that one of these tapes is blank on side two...

    Finally, you may want to follow-up on the tree just to make sure
    it's propagating.  This could be done by email to all the
    branches - "have you shipped your tapes to your children yet?"
    or by a posting to rec.music.gdead - "anybody who hasn't received
    their tapes from this tree yet, please let me know."  Be careful
    with this latter approach - you don't want to annoy any of your
    branch people; make it clear you just want to make sure there
    aren't any problems.

    The degree to which you follow up a tree is up to you; some
    tree administrators feel like once they've shipped the branch
    tapes, they're done.  Others may want to offer to make copies
    for anyone whose tree branch collapsed.  As tree administrator,
    it's your call.