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Ballroom Dance Classes Directory
Posted by Anato1iy
1/21/2011  3:26:00 AM
Hi all,

I'm building a nationwide web directory for Ballroom dance classes - www.ballroomdanceclasses.org . To see how listings will look like, please take a look at www.ballroomdanceclasses.org/new-york/new-york/ . Feel free to suggest your URL. I'm also open for your feedback.

Happy dancing
Anatoliy
Sorry to rain on your parade.
Posted by jofjonesboro
1/21/2011  1:18:00 PM
What practical purpose would a national dance-class directory serve?

While such a facility may have some value to some very wealthy individuals, it would be meaningless to 99 per cent of amateur dancers.

In other words, I'm not gonig to book weekly round-trip flights to another city just because of a class that I might like there.

I can imagine flying to Dallas for a class just to have only one woman show up.

jj
Re: Sorry to rain on your parade.
Posted by Telemark
1/22/2011  3:12:00 AM
That's a bit unfair.

A database that would enable anyone to identify opportunities to dance which are local to them, that just happens to have national coverage, could be quite useful.

The difficulty with such undertakings is that over time, most of the information becomes out of date, and they tend to favour a small minority of contributors who think it worth their time (and sometimes money) to participate, so that coverage is therefore self-selecting and not necessarily representative of the dance community as a whole.

Unfair?
Posted by jofjonesboro
1/22/2011  8:04:00 AM
A database that would enable anyone to identify opportunities to dance which are local to them, that just happens to have national coverage, could be quite useful.

Useful to whom?

Let's say that I knew that I was going to travel to Kansas City, for example, for a week. I would want to see if any studios are convenient to my hotel and what their class offerings might be.

In the first place, I can already do so. We have a tool of national coverage - worldwide coverage, in fact - known as the Internet. With only a little effort I can locate studios in Kansas City and pull up THEIR websites for up to date information.

Secondly, as you point out, such aggregative lists are difficult and costly to maintain. BDC has a list of studios which is pretty good but still incomplete and slightly out-of-date. A list of classes at those studios would be much more dynamic and correspondingly more demanding of maintenance. Accordingly, the costs of supporting such a site would have to be passed on to the users. Why would people pay a fee for something when they can do better for free?

So please explain to me how pointing out some obvious truths about this proposal is "unfair."

jj
Re: Unfair?
Posted by quickstep7
1/22/2011  8:12:00 AM
I have to agree with jofjonesboro. I cannot see how a national directory is of any use, when you quickly want to look up a class the internet is easier than just trying to locate something in a database.

A database putting local classes together would work, but a national database seems costly and useless.
Re: Unfair?
Posted by Telemark
1/22/2011  9:21:00 AM
Useful to whom?


To anyone to whom it would be useful.

So please explain to me how pointing out some obvious truths about this proposal is "unfair."


Your opinion that it would be meaningless to 99% is just that: you are seeming to represent it as a statement of fact. That's a bit unfair.

I have made plain my own reservations about the practicality of such a project, and will leave you to argue with your own shadow....
My shadow would not make such silly statements.
Posted by jofjonesboro
1/24/2011  8:01:00 AM
To anyone to whom it would be useful.

Your response is a truism, which is no response at all.

Your opinion that it would be meaningless to 99% is just that: you are seeming to represent it as a statement of fact. That's a bit unfair.

Well, let's see. dance-partner.com claims that it has more than 72,000 members. With no other indicators available, we'll take that number as a measure of the ballroom-dancing population of the US or North America (I suspect that the true number is greater). dance-partner.com lists dancers for all types of social dancing.

1% of 72,000 would be 720 dancers, which one could easily interpret as 360 couples.

No competition in the country draws anywhere near that number of couples, meaning that there are not that many folks willing to travel nationwide for a COMPETITION, let alone a class.

So I stand by my 99%. If you wish to dispute it, please provide some substantiation instead of insults.

jj
Re: Ballroom Dance Classes Directory
Posted by Days&Nights
1/22/2011  7:06:00 AM
A nationwide web directory is quite the undertaking. I've noted that many web pages for a garden variety of ballroom dance classes offered via studios or independents rarely get updated. I suppose this will be (dare I say) similar to "walking the fingers through the yellow pages." It's a great project and kudos to anyone who can keep it updated on a regular basis.
Re: Ballroom Dance Classes Directory
Posted by silver
1/24/2011  10:35:00 AM
If kept updated with current information, a national listing might be of greater use than a generic internet search. I have used search engines in an effort to locate dance studios only to find numerous, outdated listings for the same business. You don't learn the listings are outdated until you call and waste a lot of time. Often, a generic search via the web is one of the worst ways to find a dance studio. You're often better off looking in the local yellow pages. The real problem will be if the site hosting the information will take the steps to keep their data current. There are studios listed here on this site that are outdated or no longer exist. Many of those studios are missing out on a good thing by not staying current. You can't expect the webmaster to keep you up to date when they are giving you free publicity.
Yellow Pages can also be out of date.
Posted by jofjonesboro
1/24/2011  11:32:00 AM
When I first started dancing, I used the Yellow Pages to find studios. At least of third of the listings were for studios that either no longer existed or had relocated.

You use the phrase "kept updated with current information" as though doing so is a simple matter. Even moderately sized corporations require staffs of professionals to keep complex websites current.

Also, maintaining their listings in such a directory would put a real burden on the (usually small) staffs of most dance studios who are already busy with their own sites.

Web searches are certainly not "one of the worst ways to find a dance studio."

jj
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