Over 1000 entries in KlezmerShack musicians database
In the run up to the new year, I passed a small milestone. There are now over 1000 entries in the database that stores email addresses for people doing Jewish music. The database was created about five years ago to combat spam attacks against any listings on the web that include email addresses. By storing email addresses outside the website, we made it safe for bands, organizations, and individuals to provide working email addresses without fear of them being harvested by the "spam 'bots"—our small contribution to sanity in helping the people who make and support the music we love with the rest of the world.
Some of those addresses, of course, are now inactive. Many were entered for one-time events. And, the form used to send email is showing its age--it doesn't yet understand from Unicode or characters not in the simplest "ASCII" character set. Change is on the way, however. In a web 2.0 world, there are better services that the KlezmerShack can offer, and it will soon be possible for me to get out of the way between people, their listings, and keeping them current. Look for a new "calendar" in the next few months, followed by a very new KlezmerShack.
I so love this secular New Year—a bit of time off from work, and no cultural or religious or family obligations in the way! Okay, back to catching up on those listings I've been bragging about. I'm up to September 2008….