Is PianoWorld site down?

pianoloverus · 2026-08-06T21:22:54+00:00

Is the PianoWorld site down? I get this error message: You don't have permission to access this resource.Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe

twocats

navindra it definitely seems like the layout is easier to read in desktop mode!

Simonb

Hi navindra

So tasteful I hadn't even noticed them!

Cheers

HeartKeys

Changes in interface, inevitably create initial resistance.

But I gotta say— purely aesthetically speaking, and usability-wise, yeah, I gotta say the PW of today seems awful. Even if I get used to it eventually.

I still think there’s many great reasons to continue going there. But that would be in spite of the look and feel of PW now.

One can support PW, and hope for its best, find lots of good, while also having the opinion, that the current state of the UI is garbage.

ShiroKuro

HeartKeys One can support PW, and hope for its best, find lots of good, while also having the opinion, that the current state of the UI is garbage

This.

pianoloverus

I am 100% pleased with the new PW. Zero issues for me now and zero issues before. Most of the of the posters on PW feel the same once a few initial bugs were quickly fixed. Except for posting pictures and ads(which were really a non issue), there was very little complaint on the piano world site about any issues even before the most recent iteration. And the new look of the site I find very attractive.

As I stated in an earlier post on this thread, I think several posters on this thread are far too critical of the Pianoworld site for no really good reason which is really too bad.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus I don’t get why it troubles you so much that not everyone agrees with your view. And there are certainly a fair number of posters on PW complaining as well.

Oops hit post too soon.

What I wanted to say is just to repeat what @HeartKeys said,

One can support PW, and hope for its best, find lots of good, while also having the opinion, that the current state of the UI is garbage.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus for no really good reason

I think this is highly subjective. If someone doesn’t like the UI and finds some aspect of it hard to use or read or otherwise objectionable, that is a good reason for that person. It’s ok if you feel differently, but that doesn’t make someone else’s view “no good reason.”

Simonb

pianoloverus

People wouldn't complain about the state of the site before the change, as I think they feared being banned by the owners. The adverts pre-change certainly weren't a non issue for me. They were very annoying.

My attempt to remove them worked for a while, but after a few days the new owners clearly realised that people were blocking them by any means possible, and my solution then suddenly resulted in me seeing nothing; all I got was a blank screens where posts should appear.

I think the new look and functionality is good, and for what I do with the site, a vast improvement.

BartK

Simonb I think the new look and functionality is good, and for what I do with the site, a vast improvement.

The thing is that the actual functionality is exactly the same, barring a few minor details and bugs. The only difference is the presentation, which to me is inferior. There is too much empty space and irrelevant additional details to quickly see an overview of the topics. I much prefered the more compact forum view. Just because something has a trendy modern look and feel does not in itself make it better. Also, I am not the only person complaining about that.

That being said, I am in favor of the change if merely for security reasons. I can't even imagine how many vulnerabilities the old software had. If any of you had any important private info in your profile (or <gasp!> reused passwords from other sites) then be assured that the hackers already have all of it. 😉

navindra

BartK That being said, I am in favor of the change if merely for security reasons. I can't even imagine how many vulnerabilities the old software had. If any of you had any important private info in your profile (or <gasp!> reused passwords from other sites) then be assured that the hackers already have all of it.

Wow. But what has changed now? The software is exactly the same UBB.threads 7.7.5 that it was before, isn't it?

Like you said, the only difference is presentation.

pianoloverus

Simonb People wouldn't complain about the state of the site before the change, as I think they feared being banned by the owners. The adverts pre-change certainly weren't a non issue for me. They were very annoying.

Your first sentence may be true but except for the ads the site was the same as it had been for 25 years under Frank Baxter. And during that period there were very few complaints except about the difficulty of posting pictures. When the new owners took over after Frank, all the ads were certainly annoying but there were an incredible number of posts indicating multiple ways how one could get rid of the ads in five minutes. That's why this constant mention by some about the ad problem is not IMO a valid complaint.

pianoloverus

BartK That being said, I am in favor of the change if merely for security reasons. I can't even imagine how many vulnerabilities the old software had. If any of you had any important private info in your profile (or <gasp!> reused passwords from other sites) then be assured that the hackers already have all of it

This is a valid criticism of the present site and also of the Pianoworld site as it was run by Frank Baxter for 25 years. I hope the new owners will consider whatever changes would improve the security.

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro pianoloverus I don’t get why it troubles you so much that not everyone agrees with your view. And there are certainly a fair number of posters on PW complaining as well

From what I see only a small number of PW members, after some glitches were removed, find fault with the revised site by the new owners.

What troubles me is not the fact that, not surprisingly, many of the people on this site don't agree with my view about the present Pianoworld site. What troubles me is that I think the whole idea of breaking off from Pianoworld and creating a competing site was a big mistake. Before Frank Baxter sold the site there were a relatively small number of people, maybe around 10 to 35, who did the huge majority of the posting. Same thing is true for Piano Tell although I think that the number of members doing most of the regular posting would be more like 10 to 20. Decreasing the number of members who do the regular posting is not good for PW.

Piano Tell likes to pride itself on encouraging a "nice tone" in their posts, but I think there are quite a few posts disparaging Pianoworld that certainly don't fit that description.

Simonb

pianoloverus

I got rid of the adverts in 5 mins as well. And they came back a few days later.
It's a valid complaint.

Fear of being banned was a critical factor in the break away from PW.
The creation of PT was certainly not a mistake.

I'm so grateful that @navindra created this site.

pianoloverus

Simonb I got rid of the adverts in 5 mins as well. And they came back a few days later.
It's a valid complaint.

Try another way of getting rid of the ads? Many different approaches were given. If you tried some other approaches and they didn't work then I would agree with you that the ads are a valid complaint. I don't remember reading any other posts on Pianoworld where people said they tried to get rid of the ads and were unable to.

Sophia

@pianoloverus your passion for PW is clear and praiseworthy 🙂 That said, I don't actually agree that splitting off one community from another is necessarily a bad thing. I'm not just talking about two piano sites, but anything in life. As long as mankind has existed, groups have existed. Countries have split off from each other. So have companies. So have families. And so have Internet sites.

There could be many reasons, sometimes for practical reasons, sometimes because of differences of opinion, sometimes because there is no other choice. I think PT could arguably fit into all of those reasons. Practical, because the software was (is?) so outdated on PW. Difference of opinion, because some people didn't agree with the direction PW had gone into, whether excessive ads, or aggressive moderation. No other choice, because some people were banned from PW and found refuge in another forum. Some like yourself remain active on both, but others made a clear choice which forum to make their home.

Speaking strictly for myself, I only had one year of active membership of PW, the rest here. Personally I moved across because I'm sorry to say that some of the attitudes in that forum kept rubbing me wrong. I'm not saying those people were wrong, I'm saying that I personally did not appreciate some of the things that were said, which might be on me. But one can't change one's character. Perhaps you might not consider that valid criticism, but that is my perception and I stand by it. If PT hadn't come into existence, I doubt very much that I'd still be active in any forum. Heck I might not even be playing piano any longer, because it wouldn't be the first time that I gave up on that.

So personally I am grateful that PT exists, because it gives me a place to discuss a hobby I enjoy with fellow enthusiasts. If others find PW such a place, or if they are happy to hop between two places, then that is entirely their choice. I have seen people on PW mocking PT, saying this forum has nothing but a bunch of beginners mouthing off about piano without any actual knowledge. And here people might feel the need to blow off some steam about PW on occasion. I don't think there is a need to get into vigilante mode either way. But, again, that is my personal opinion 🙂

navindra

pianoloverus What troubles me is that I think the whole idea of breaking off from Pianoworld and creating a competing site was a big mistake. Before Frank Baxter sold the site there were a relatively small number of people, maybe around 10 to 35, who did the huge majority of the posting. Same thing is true for Piano Tell although I think that the number of members doing most of the regular posting would be more like 10 to 20. Decreasing the number of members who do the regular posting is not good for PW.

PianoTell will be continue to be around and will continue to accommodate as many PianoWorld members as possible. This discussion will not change that.

Incidentally, Frank had identified the Digital Pianos forum to be the most important one. Almost all of that traffic is neither on PW nor PT, but gone to PianoClack instead.

Other than that, the recitals on PianoWorld are still broken and have been breaking on and off for months now. A lot of people care about that and PianoTell will continue to serve that audience as well.

It is fundamentally wrong to trust VS as they have shown themselves to be quite untrustworthy. If you looked at exactly what they were injecting into the PW payload, you probably wouldn't trust them either. It will be a nice surprise if VS doesn't start injecting obnoxious video ads into PW again, but I doubt it. They are in the high pressure business of making money from ads.

pianoloverus

navindra PianoTell will be continue to be around and will continue to accommodate as many PianoWorld members as possible. This discussion will not change that.

Of course not. I never had such expectations. And I wouldn't want that to happen since I post on PianoTell as well as PW.

BartK

navindra Wow. But what has changed now? The software is exactly the same UBB.threads 7.7.5 that it was before, isn't it?

Well, the back end might be but I assume whatever libraries they are using in the front end to get input from users are more modern and have all the industry best practices. I noticed a while ago that they removed the plain-text http version of the site and I assumed security was one of the reasons. Maybe I'm assuming too much.

KevinM

Sophia like you Sophia for me pianotell is my home for piano discussion.

I drop in occasionally to piano world to look around and there is new useful info there but in the end it never is enough to bother engaging. The data behind all the recital recordings was useful but finding recordings by composer etc. now for me is just broken.

The community here is the community I enjoy. The respect for one another is for the most part a lovely thing to see.

I don’t want to get into pointless arguments that was for me such a common experience on PW. I would hardly miss it if it was gone along with my couple of thousand posts.

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