Playlist management

hotmaska · September 4, 2017, 8:41am

I try to refresh this topic because imho this is a great limit of this great watch2gether. As a lot of online tabletop rpg gamers, I also use watch2gether to sync music and sound effect with my rpg group. Please watch this video https://youtu.be/S3RuOx5xWQ0 in order to understand the importance the tool has started to acquire.

I have about 20 playlist but unfortunately I cannot manage the playlist order. I would also propose a different way to select the playlist: unfortunately the actual dropdown list box is quite uncomfortable with a lot of playlists.

A good work around idea would be:

Allow to sort playlists in alphabetical order.
Allow to rename playlist.

Thanks!

user_95f53b7185f71fb · September 4, 2017, 12:34pm

Thank your very much for your post and the link to the video! It’s a great insight for me to better understand how Watch2Gether is used in the rpg community. There is going to be a change in the playlist code soon and i will keep your ideas and recommendations in mind when working on it!

magisternesuke · January 3, 2019, 6:17am

I second this notion. It would be a great boon to be able to reorganize the playlists and rename them. At this time I have already had to re-craft entire playlists just to get some semblance or organization.

user_95f53b7185f71fb · January 4, 2019, 2:01pm

Thanks for your input as well. Sorry for being a bit behind with the playlist changes. I’m still thinking about a way to have playlists that belong to a user and can be imported into rooms when needed. These playlists should only be editable by the owner so that other users of a room can not mess around with them. Alternatively they could be cloned into a room which makes them editable just as any other playlist in a room. I’m open to suggestions to improve this concept!

user_fc58f45fb9307ed · January 10, 2019, 6:40am

Would playlist sharing be possible if a Watch2Gether user were able own a playlist like a room then be able to export a link directly tied to that playlist that Watch2Gether is able to decipher and any edits by the owner. In my head this works like putting a YouTube playlist in a room as it comes in a certain order.
To tie this in with the more user control aspect, perhaps a system similar to Google Drive’s sharing system can be implemented, in which separate links can be created back the same host with each link allowing for different privileges. Maybe one link allowing for editing the playlist while another only for viewing.
Or perhaps it’d be just easier, or more plausible, to have one user own a playlist with the ability to export it into a W2G room’s playlist that is subsequently synced to whatever changes are made by the owner in the ‘master’ playlist.

user_95f53b7185f71fb · January 10, 2019, 4:08pm

Yes that would be one possible way. The playlists of a user have to be somehow protected when he/she brings them to a room. On the other side the system has to be easy to understand and the collaborative experience should not get lost. Let’s keep brainstorming…

user_fc58f45fb9307ed · January 11, 2019, 10:14am

Do you have an idea on how you’d like user specific playlists to work? I know earlier you said you were planning a change in the playlist code, so I’m curious if you’d like some playlists to be created completely independently of being made within a W2G room like they are now and can be edited independently also. If this was the case I suppose that a user importing a user playlist into a room would cause it to essentially duplicate the playlist so that it could be edited independently as the room’s playlist and not the user playlist, and exported into another user’s playlist as such.
I imagine this being implemented with another category added to the My Profile page under the My Rooms section, such as My Playlists, that can lead to an editor page for whatever playlist is selected.
I’m not too keen on the technical aspects of how this would all work, however, so I can’t be much help in the how department.

user_95f53b7185f71fb · January 11, 2019, 3:01pm

Yes right now i’m thinking of two types of playlists. Room playlists and private playlists. Private lists could either be linked read only into a room and used for playback or they could be duplicated and turned into a room playlist. In return room playlists could be duplicated into private lists as well. These are my thoughts so far…

user_fc58f45fb9307ed · January 12, 2019, 12:22am

I like the idea of the playlist being duplicated into a room as any changes can be made on the spot. Besides that I think those are perfectly solid foundations to the system as I cannot imagine needing much more in getting playlists between users and rooms. Perhaps also a button to get a list of all of the video links within a playlist to allow for easy exporting outside of the website.

user_95f53b7185f71fb · January 12, 2019, 2:44pm

Thanks a lot for your input. I think i’ll start working on the new system within the next two weeks.

happyfir3 · February 12, 2019, 2:34pm

Hiya, not sure if this is necroing, but just thought I’d ask if there is any update on QoL improvements around playlists / playlist management?

user_95f53b7185f71fb · February 12, 2019, 5:52pm

Shame on me. but there where some other things that needed to be addressed first. But the playlist functionality is on top of the todo list.

user_122d3ff30b0e837 · June 30, 2019, 1:23pm

I would also love to see this function come into play!

My housemate and I run d&d very regularly for lots of groups both online and offline, but as it’s one of the best places to have a gathered collection of music we both use Watch2Gether to keep all our music in one place.
We have a playlist like “Forest Music” and a selection we’ve put in there, or “suspenseful music” or “Asian themed city” it’s really useful in a pinch and helps our music not get repetitive.

Because it started small and we’ve been expanding the number of playlists, it is getting harder to navigate since we can’t change the order or rename them at all. these would be incredibly valuable features.

Being able to duplicate playlists or a room would be amazing too, as we decided to gather all our music together; and that means we can’t both use it at the same time if we’re running two groups simultaneously.

I really hope these features, or atleast renaming and organizing playlists gets added soon, because I really like this website and the stuff it offers!1

user_95f53b7185f71fb · July 1, 2019, 4:29pm

Thanks a lot for your input! I understand that playlists are an important feature of Watch2Gether and i’m planing to make this feature more versatile and useful. In order to do that in a future prove way i need to change some things on how playlists are stored on the server side first. I’ll try to raise the priority for this