[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing what will be a regular Tuesday update of the 70K Bands stats. I have made some improvements to the analysis and more users have downloaded the app, so the data looks better to me today then last week

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 9 days: 468 at the end of 2020 it was 2069 (but this was right before the cruise...so this is expected)
55.98% Android
44.01% iOS

This is very much inline with 2020, with iOS up slightly

Top Bands by Must See Percentage.

Kreator - 237 votes with 69.20% of those Must See
Insomnium - 323 votes with 68.42% of those Must See
Warbringer - 86 votes with 66.28% of those Must See
Nightwish - 318 votes with 61.64% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 293 votes with 50.51% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 277 votes with 48.47% of those Must See
Kamelot - 276 votes with 45.65% of those Must See
Manegarm - 259 votes with 40.16% of those Must See
Fallujah - 124 votes with 36.29% of those Must See
Novembre - 147 votes with 31.29% of those Must See
Uli Jon Roth - 207 votes with 19.81% of those Must See

These percentages will change as more votes come in, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 45.94%
Germany - 13.89%
Canada - 13.03%
Switzerland - 4.06%
Finland - 2.78
United Kingdom - 1.92%
Netherlands - 1.92%
Mexico - 1.92%
France - 1.92%
Austria - 1.28%

So the top 4 remain the same from 2020 with Finland moving up into number 5. The number of US users wound up being 47.80% right before sail in 2020 for comparison

See you guys on board next year!

[Pellaz]

My app encountered an issue where it HAD been working, but when I brought it up recently it briefly showed bands from a previous 70K and then shut down. Android, on an LG V40 phone. I've since deleted it.

[slayergeek]

My app encountered an issue where it HAD been working, but when I brought it up recently it briefly showed bands from a previous 70K and then shut down. Android, on an LG V40 phone. I've since deleted it.

Reinstall the app and see if things are working. If not, reach out to me via private message. For the most part the app has been working very well this year so far with minimal issues, including Android.

[Pellaz]

My app encountered an issue where it HAD been working, but when I brought it up recently it briefly showed bands from a previous 70K and then shut down. Android, on an LG V40 phone. I've since deleted it.

Reinstall the app and see if things are working. If not, reach out to me via private message. For the most part the app has been working very well this year so far with minimal issues, including Android.

I re-installed it and it's working fine as far as I can tell.
I'll let you know if it starts acting up again.

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday update of the 70K Bands stats. I have tried to improve the results by country, but I am not sure if we are there yet. Hopefully by next week the results should be further improved

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 16 days: 601
55.74% Android
44.26% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage.

Kreator - 322 votes with 71.12% of those Must See
Insomnium - 402 votes with 69.90% of those Must See
Nightwish - 393 votes with 61.58% of those Must See
Warbringer - 240 votes with 60.12% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 350 votes with 51.14% of those Must See
Obscura - 207 votes with 49.28% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 364 votes with 48.18% of those Must See
Melechesh - 167 votes with 49.10% of those Must See
Jungle Rot - 56 votes with 48.21% of those Must See
Kamelot - 348 votes with 44.54% of those Must See


These percentages will change as more votes come in, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 45.14%
Canada - 12.80%
Germany - 10.77%
Finland - 3.66%
Switzerland - 3.05%
Austria - 2.24%
Netherlands - 2.03%
Mexico - 2.03%
Poland - 1.83%
France - 1.83%

The country count is a little bit in flux with the changes being made to how that data is collected. There are still some anomalous data I am trying to figure out and clean up, but I think we should be in better shape in this regard by next week!

See you guys on board next year!

[Devils_sparrow]

Hi, I'm new here. I love the app, normally, but since the last update, it crashes any time I try to open it.
I've deleted and reinstalled, and tried restarting my phone to see if that would fix it. It's still crashing.
Is there anything you can think of to try?

[slayergeek]

Hi, I'm new here. I love the app, normally, but since the last update, it crashes any time I try to open it.
I've deleted and reinstalled, and tried restarting my phone to see if that would fix it. It's still crashing.
Is there anything you can think of to try?

Is his iOS or Android? Reach out to me via private message or on Facebook messages and I can see if I help you out.

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday update of the 70K Bands stats. we are making progress on improving the results by country, but we still have a little bit to go. As users update to the latest version of the app and login these issues should resolve themselves and have start to already

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 695
55.83% Android
44.17% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage. Amorphis shoots to the top of the list this week!

Amorphis - 157 votes with 76.43% of those Must See
Kreator - 359 votes with 72.42% of those Must See
Insomnium - 435 votes with 71.26% of those Must See
Nightwish - 432 votes with 60.43% of those Must See
Warbringer - 287 votes with 58.89% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 393 votes with 51.91% of those Must See
Melechesh - 229 votes with 50.22% of those Must See
Obscura - 261 votes with 50.19% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 402 votes with 49.00% of those Must See
Everygrey - 238 votes with 45.80% of those Must See


These percentages will change as more votes come in, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 41.95%
Canada - 14.09%
Germany - 10.74%
Switzerland - 3.86%
Finland - 3.69%
Netherlands - 2.35%
Poland - 2.01%
Austria - 2.01%
Mexico - 1.85%
Belgium - 1.68%

The country count is still a bit in flux with the changes being made to how that data is collected. There are still some anomalous data that will be cleaned up as users update the app and login in, I think we should be in better shape in this regard by next week!

See you guys on board next year!

[slayergeek]

For anyone new to 70K one MUST HAVE free accessory to the cruise is the 70K Bands iOS/Android application. This is a free, open source, and community maintained app that is unofficial and separate from the cruise organizers UMC (who does not provide any official app)

The app supports the following features:
* Push notifications when new bands are added
* Detailed descriptions of the bands provided by Aaron Copeland with ability to customize
* Links to research the bands via the bands web page, Wikipedia, Metal-Archives, and YouTube.
* Multi Language support. English, Danish, German, French, Finish, Spanish, Portugese
* Offline mode so the app will work on the ship (minus external web links)
* Share you favorite bands with your friends

After the schedule of bands is made available, a day or so before the cruise, a whole new set of features will become available
* Alert for shows, meet and greets, clinics, and specials event
* Ability to track what shows you attended or will attend so you can share a post cruise report or help organize your shipboard activities
* Alerts will only activate for bands on your Must See or Might See List by default, or you can set to alert for only events you have set as your going to attend.
* The main screen will show only current shows. Shows that are more then an hour after there start time will automatically drop from the list.
* The main screen will sort by time automatically, but you can sort by name as well
* All of the above features will always work offline or on the ships iffy WiFi

To see a video walkthrough of all the features, check out this youtube video.
https://youtu.be/e4QW_vPA6nw

The app is brought to you by the following cruisers
Ron Dorn - Developer, and leader of the team
Robert Jan de Vries - User Interface and Graphic Arts
Aaron Copeland - In charge of the great descriptions provided within the app

[Pellaz]

Let me take this opportunity to acknowledge Aaron C.'s GREAT write-ups about the bands and their styles. He conveys a true sense of what the bands sound like (and WHO they sound like) without ever demeaning the bands or expressing any strong genre bias. Excellent work!

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats. Here are the latest stats.

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 755
56.42% Android
43.58% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Kreator has inched back into the lead and Destruction is now solidly in the top 10

Kreator - 382 votes with 73.30% of those Must See
Amorphis - 237 votes with 72.15% of those Must See
Insomnium - 452 votes with 71.46% of those Must See
Nightwish - 454 votes with 60.35% of those Must See
Warbringer - 308 votes with 58.77% of those Must See
Destruction - 159 votes with 55.35% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 409 votes with 52.57% of those Must See
Obscura - 283 votes with 51.24% of those Must See
Melechesh - 252 votes with 49.60% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 422 votes with 49.05% of those Must See


These percentages will change as more votes come in and more bands are added, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 42.27%
Canada - 13.48%
Germany - 10.45%
Switzerland - 3.64%
Finland - 3.48%
Netherlands - 2.58%
Austria - 2.27%
Poland - 2.12%
Belgium - 2.12%
Mexico - 1.97%


See you guys on board SOON!

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats now that we have some new data to report. Here is the latest data.

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days is down, due to the lull in activity. Also there was an issue with iOS reporting data that has since been fixed. Be sure you have the latest version of the app.

Current numbers are 586 users launched the app in the last 30 days, with the iOS issue it is likely about 4% higher then that, but these are the numbers I have right now
59.8% Android
40.2% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Kreator stays on top, but The Crown places a solid #6 as the new entry, pushing off Jungle Rot

Kreator - 340 votes with 75.29% of those Must See
Amorphis - 291 votes with 71.13% of those Must See
Insomnium - 379 votes with 70.28% of those Must See
Nightwish - 381 votes with 63.62% of those Must See
Warbringer - 271 votes with 57.51% of those Must See
The Crown - 112 votes with 57.14% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 349 votes with 57.02% of those Must See
Destruction - 356 votes with 55.47% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 353 votes with 53.82% of those Must See
Obscura - 275 votes with 50.55% of those Must See

These percentages will change as more votes come in and more bands are added, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users
United States 44.14%
Canada 12.61%
Germany 11.89%
Switzerland 4.86%
Finland 3.42%
Mexico 1.98%
France 1.80%
Poland 1.62%
Netherlands 1.44%
Austria 1.44%

See you guys on board SOON!

[slayergeek]

I have updated the written documentation for the 70K Bands app!

There are a lot of features to this app that you might not be aware of. If you prefer written documentation check out the following that is being re-released today!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pkq ... eti7hkobho

If you prefer a walkthrough video, check this out! Its from the 2020 cruise, but still relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4QW_vPA6nw&t=2s

Either way, what is your favorite feature that you did not previously know about?

Let me know!

See you guys on board

[slayergeek]

There was a delay in sending out the Iron Savior announcement. The UMC folks, after nailing the last 29 announcements, goofed on this one, probably due to a copy/paste error they left the title (that I use for my code) as Insomniam.

Luckily I was available to catch this fairly quickly and send out the notification manually.

These things happen. Overall I have been happy to learn about new bands via the automated announcements for all but the first entry and then this one! So for the most part things have been going smoothly from my automated announcement standpoint.

See you guys on board.

[Pellaz]

Either way, what is your favorite feature that you did not previously know about?

Let me know!

See you guys on board

I think I was aware of all of the features before, but the onbroad scheduling and advance-warning alerts for events are great.

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats. Here is the latest data.

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 634
57.10% Android
42.90% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Kreator remains at the top, with God Dethroned and Kamelot now joining them in the top 10

Kreator - 399 votes with 74.94% of those Must See
Amorphis - 347 votes with 70.89% of those Must See
Insomnium - 437 votes with 70.71% of those Must See
Nightwish - 444 votes with 63.51% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 398 votes with 59.05% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 408 votes with 58.00% of those Must See
Destruction - 302 votes with 54.97% of those Must See
Warbringer - 314 votes with 53.82% of those Must See
God Dethroned - 173 votes with 53.18% of those Must See
Kamelot - 388 votes with 50.77% of those Must See

These percentages will change as more votes come in and more bands are added, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users. There have been challenges with this data that I now believe are fully resolved. This round of data is more accurate then it has been. In surprise twist (at least for me) Germany has squeaked ahead of Canada in the stats. Also France, Hungary, Colombia, and Australia have now cracked the top 10 (Add an 11 since the last 3 are tied with the same number of users)

United States - 43.13%
Germany - 13.26%
Canada - 12.62%
Switzerland - 3.99%
Finland - 3.35%
France - 1.92%
Netherlands - 1.76%
Austria - 1.28%
Hungary - 1.12%
Colombia - 1.12%
Australia - 1.12%


See you guys on board SOON!

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats. Here is the latest data with about 3 week until sail!

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 809
55.50% Android
44.50% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Kreator remains at the top along with the top 6 being pretty static for now

Kreator - 501 votes with 75.25% of those Must See
Amorphis - 458 votes with 72.27% of those Must See
Insomnium - 551 votes with 72.23% of those Must See
Nightwish - 556 votes with 64.93% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 500 votes with 58.40% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 508 votes with 55.71% of those Must See
Warbringer - 395 votes with 53.67% of those Must See
Northgard - 209 votes with 53.11% of those Must See
Destruction - 374 votes with 52.94% of those Must See
Kamelot - 489 votes with 51.12% of those Must See

These percentages will change as more votes come in and more bands are added, but this is what we have so far

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 42.89%
Germany - 13.35%
Canada - 12.98%
Switzerland - 4.45%
Finland - 2.97%
Netherlands - 2.10%
Mexico - 1.73%
France - 1.36%
United Kingdom - 1.24%
Columbia - 1.24%


See you guys on board SOON!

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats. Next week will the last Tuesday update before sail! I will likely do a final pre-sail report on morning of sail!

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 975
56.62% Android
43.38% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Kreator remains at the top along with the top 7 being pretty static for now and The Crown being restored to the top 10 by a small margin

Kreator - 600 votes with 74.17% of those Must See
Amorphis - 573 votes with 71.90% of those Must See
Insomnium - 653 votes with 71.52% of those Must See
Nightwish - 659 votes with 65.40% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 610 votes with 59.77% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 508 votes with 55.74% of those Must See
Warbringer - 483 votes with 54.87% of those Must See
Destruction - 480 votes with 53.33% of those Must See
Kamelot - 594 votes with 51.85% of those Must See
The Crown - 383 votes with 51.44% of those Must See

These percentages could change as more votes come in but I suspect the top 5 is pretty settled baring a last min surprise from Andy (alway possible)

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 42.05%
Germany - 13.64%
Canada - 13.33%
Switzerland - 4.72%
Finland - 3.08%
Netherlands - 2.26%
Mexico - 1.74%
United Kingdom - 1.54%
Columbia - 1.54%
France - 1.33%

Download the @70K Bands app from the Apple or Google Play store today if you have not done so already!

See you guys on board SOON!

[toby]

Just updated all my stuff to be more accurate to my current rank bank. This is a weird year for me. No guaranteed 2 setters OR 0 setters. Running order is going to make all my borderline decisions for me.

[slayergeek]

Ok I am continuing the regular Tuesday updates of the 70K Bands stats. The morning of sail will be the last stats update until after the cruise! We are REALLY close guys!

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 1,098
55.83% Android
44.17% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Dark Tranquility races to the very top with lots of room to spare. Dragonforce and Belphegor have join the top 10 as well. A big shakeup this week for sure!

Dark Tranquility - 464 votes with 80.39% of those Must See
Kreator - 703 votes with 75.25% of those Must See
Amorphis - 678 votes with 74.48% of those Must See
Insomnium - 751 votes with 72.17% of those Must See
Dragonforce - 234 votes with 66.24% of those Must See
Nightwish - 772 votes with 66.19% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 690 votes with 60.00% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 724 votes with 57.18% of those Must See
Belphegor - 392 votes with 57.14% of those Must See
Warbringer - 574 votes with 54.70% of those Must See

These percentages could change as more votes come in and there are still 5 or 6 more bands to go, and 3 of the top bands have only been introduced over the last 7 days.

Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 41.13%
Germany - 13.83%
Canada - 13.28%
Switzerland - 4.37%
Finland - 3.37%
Netherlands - 2.37%
Mexico - 2.18%
Columbia - 1.91%
United Kingdom - 1.82%
France - 1.36%

Download the 70K Bands app from the Apple or Google Play store today if you have not done so already!

See you guys on board SOON!

[slayergeek]

So with the the cruise coming up VERY quickly now, I have noticed that about 25% of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days are NOT running the latest version of 70K Bands

Important fixes for smooth shipboard operation have been released in the last month, so be sure you are running the latest version of the app.

The latest version is always available in the Apple or Google app stores!

See you guys onboard SOON!

[slayergeek]

Thanks you Andy and team for making the extra effort to get the schedule out early!

The running order is in the app!

[Wraith61636]

Yes, It is greatly appreciated. That app really comes through, im pretty sure ive got the updated version because the schedule is up there, unless there's something else I don't know. Plus I know its difficult work to keep it going with your own things going on as well so thank you very much for the dedication and I too shall owe a drink at the end of the day because it truly helps for someone like me who doesn't know what the hells really going on.
So soon now.
Until then....

[slayergeek]

Ok here are the final stats before boarding today. I will be making post cruise stats available including show attendance estimates, but for pre-cruise these are the final numbers

Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 1,349
57.60% Android
42.40% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Dark Tranquility stays on top, but only my a slim margin as Hypocrisy comes in a VERY close second

Dark Tranquility - 677 votes with 77.70% of those Must See
Hypocrisy - 392 votes with 76.79% of those Must See
Kreator - 847 votes with 74.14% of those Must See
Amorphis - 815 votes with 73.74% of those Must See
Insomnium - 887 votes with 71.93% of those Must See
Nightwish - 912 votes with 67.43% of those Must See
Dragonforce - 556 votes with 63.49% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 814 votes with 60.44% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 840 votes with 57.98% of those Must See
Belphegor - 567 votes with 55.20% of those Must See


Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 43.07%
Germany - 12.90%
Canada - 12.45%
Switzerland - 4.23%
Finland - 3.19%
Netherlands - 2.30%
Mexico - 2.08%
United Kingdom - 1.85%
Columbia - 1.78%
France - 1.41%

A hint of the top 5 events on the boat that people said they were going to attend

Kreator in the Theater
Kamelot in the Theater
Insomnium in the Theater
Evergrey in the Theater
Nightwish in the Theater

Download the 70K Bands app from the Apple or Google Play store today if you have not done so already!

See you guys on board!

[slayergeek]

I’ll kick this off. Here is my post cruise summary.

You can use the Eye icon to identify which specific shows you attended, and keep a record for yourself of everything you did on the cruise. There’s also a way to filter it for only those shows, and share a post summary report.

If you did not identify what events you wanted to attend before, you will need to go into preferences and uncheck the “Hide Expired
Events” checkbox in order to view everything if you haven’t marked stuff as intended.

These are the events I attended on the 70,000 Tons Of Metal Cruise
Saw 3 Special Events
Saw 4 Cruiser Organized
Saw 1 Meet and Greet
Saw 35 Shows
Saw part of 4 Shows

For Special Event
Closing Karaoke
Karaoke Day 3
Skipper's Thank You
For Cruiser Organized
Sat Roof-Top Party
Sun Beach Party
Sun Group Photo
Sun Live Band Karaoke
For Shows
Abysmal Dawn 1 time
Amorphis 1 time
Atrocity 1 time
Batushka 1 time
Belphegor 1 time
Bodyfarm 1 time
Cancer 2 times
Cryptosis 1 time
Dark Tranquillity 2 times
Destruction 2 times
Eshtadur 1 time
Fallujah 1 time
Fractal Universe 1 time
God Dethroned 2 times
Hideous Divinity 1 time
Hypocrisy 1 time
Insomnium 2 times
Jungle Rot 1 time
Keep of Kalessin 1 time
Kreator 2 times
Melechesh 2 times
Nothgard 1 time
Nuclear 1 time
Obscura 2 times
Rotting Christ 1 time
Sight Of Emptiness 1 time
The Crown 2 times
Vreid 1 time
Warbringer 1 time
Wormed 1 time
4 of those were partial shows
For Meet and Greet
The Crown

http://www.facebook.com/70kBands

[Hvymtl]

My 1st 70K achievements were: (sleep is overrated and body struggling to move but that’s what the weekend is for)

Abysmal Dawn 1x
Amberian Dawn 2x
Amorphis 1x
Atrocity 1x
Batushka 1x
Belphegor. 1x
Bodyfarm .5x
Cancer 1x
Cryptosis 1x
Cynic 1x
Dark Tranquillity 2x
Dear Mother 1x
Deathless legacy 1x
Destruction 1x
Edge of Paradise 1x
Eleine 1x
Elvenking 1x
Empress 1x
Eshtadur 1x
Evergrey 1.5-2x (not sure when the stopped on day 3 because the started late and I left at the scheduled stop time)
Feuershwanz 1x
Fractal Universe 1x
Freedom Call 4songs
God Dethroned 1x
Hei’An 1x
Hideous Divinity 1x
Insomnium 1x
Internal Bleeding .75x
Iron savior 1x
Isole 1x
Jungle Rot 1x
Keep of Kalessin 1.5x
Korpiklaani 1x
Kreator .75set
Manegarm 1x
Melechesh 1x
Nightmare .5x
Nightwish 2x
Nothgard 1x
Novembre 1x
Nuclear 1x
Obscura 1x
Oceans of Slumber .75x
Osyron 1x
Rotting Christ 1x
Sight of Emptiness 1x
Skiltron 1x
The Crown 1x
Visions of Atlantis 2x
Vreid 1x

3 meet and greets (Evergrey, Nightwish, Kamelot)

[slayergeek]

Thanks to everyone for your support. A lot of people came up to us and thanked us for making the app, and that means a lot to us!

There were a few minor bugs this year, and all but 1 was very superficial and all will be fixed soon.

Here are the bugs we know about, if you found anything else, let us know.

The lounge was listed on the wrong floor (oops)
On Android there was an extra 0 in the 70,000 Tons header name
On iOS if you changed an events attended status, it would often revert back to an old state (The iCloud backup was doing something unexpected)

These 3 issues will be fixed very soon.

We have made improvements to the app every year and 2024 will be no exception. There are some more ambitious features being discussed involving the sharing of must/might/wont and event data among users. This ‘may’ not happen as our backend system is NOT setup to support this and keeping the app free might prevent us from doing that, but we are brain storming ideas.

What is more likely to be done for 2024 is to find a way to more easily discover and use the ‘Attended’ feature with the Eye Icon. Right now only a small percentage of users used this feature and that’s a shame, as it can be VERY useful both on board and post cruise.

At any rate we were glad to hear that people find the app useful and that what we are doing is appreciated!

Your 70K Bands team

Ron Dorn - Lead Developer and Team Leader
Aaron Copeland - In charge of all the great descriptions
Robert Jan de Vries - In charge of all the graphic design work and icons (And also the Metal Yoga event)

[Hvymtl]

Thanks to everyone who worked on the app. It was extremely helpful especially with all the links and info on the bands that helped me learn about them beforehand. I’m sure it will continue to improve but for a free app made by a few in a short time to add updates, I have nothing to complain about. Extremely informative and helpful and definitely a must for anyone going.

[aleyeahed]

Thanks to everyone for your support. A lot of people came up to us and thanked us for making the app, and that means a lot to us!

There were a few minor bugs this year, and all but 1 was very superficial and all will be fixed soon.

Here are the bugs we know about, if you found anything else, let us know.

The lounge was listed on the wrong floor (oops)
On Android there was an extra 0 in the 70,000 Tons header name
On iOS if you changed an events attended status, it would often revert back to an old state (The iCloud backup was doing something unexpected)

These 3 issues will be fixed very soon.

We have made improvements to the app every year and 2024 will be no exception. There are some more ambitious features being discussed involving the sharing of must/might/wont and event data among users. This ‘may’ not happen as our backend system is NOT setup to support this and keeping the app free might prevent us from doing that, but we are brain storming ideas.

What is more likely to be done for 2024 is to find a way to more easily discover and use the ‘Attended’ feature with the Eye Icon. Right now only a small percentage of users used this feature and that’s a shame, as it can be VERY useful both on board and post cruise.

At any rate we were glad to hear that people find the app useful and that what we are doing is appreciated!

Your 70K Bands team

Ron Dorn - Lead Developer and Team Leader
Aaron Copeland - In charge of all the great descriptions
Robert Jan de Vries - In charge of all the graphic design work and icons (And also the Metal Yoga event)

Said it onbroad to your handsome face this year and will say it again, "thanks" for all the hard work on the app. It is indeed very handy.

RE: the 'Attended' feature, the all-seeing Eye, are you saying that we can denote that we actually ATTENDED the set? I still read it as 'Will/Won't Attend All/Some" of the event. I didn't know or wasn't sure how to denote that I actually made All/Some of the set without going through each event individually and altering the status, which I DID do. Either way, that sounds confusing and I'm the dingus who wrote it, so if it's confusing, mission accomplished. Haha.

[slayergeek]

RE: the 'Attended' feature, the all-seeing Eye, are you saying that we can denote that we actually ATTENDED the set? I still read it as 'Will/Won't Attend All/Some" of the event. I didn't know or wasn't sure how to denote that I actually made All/Some of the set without going through each event individually and altering the status, which I DID do. Either way, that sounds confusing and I'm the dingus who wrote it, so if it's confusing, mission accomplished. Haha.

Thanks man. We tried to make it as clear as possible, but it’s hard when a feature is only really used for six days a year. Here is the documentation that explains it very clearly. It is available in both written, and video form. I did make this available before the cruise, but this is a fuck the documentation type of crowd :-)

One of our goals for 2024 is to find a way to either better educate or make the feature much easier. I describe it like this before the schedule is released everything is about the bands, and the must might, and won’t is focused on the bands. For a very short time, the schedule becomes the most important thing and the Attended feature is show specific and only available with the schedule.

One thing that I do is filter out the wonts on the schedule, and then mark the events I plan to see.
——

There are a lot of features to this app that you might not be aware of. If you prefer written documentation check out the following that is being re-released today!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pkq ... nDtgE/edit

If you prefer a walkthrough video, check this out! Its from the 2020 cruise, but still relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4QW_vPA6nw&t=2s

[MuzakMaker]

Kreator in the Theater
Kamelot in the Theater
Insomnium in the Theater
Evergrey in the Theater
Nightwish in the Theater

See you guys on board!

It was so weird to see the theater being more in demand than the pool deck sets both in app and in real life.

I can catch theater style sets back on land but a pool deck set is unique (and also NW and Kamelot had much better pool deck sets IMO)

[slayergeek]

Kreator in the Theater
Kamelot in the Theater
Insomnium in the Theater
Evergrey in the Theater
Nightwish in the Theater

See you guys on board!

It was so weird to see the theater being more in demand than the pool deck sets both in app and in real life.

I can catch theater style sets back on land but a pool deck set is unique (and also NW and Kamelot had much better pool deck sets IMO)

I just looked at the most recent numbers and there is a pool deck set in the top five and that was the Nightwish pool deck set at number 4. I will publish full numbers probably this Tuesday but I have to ensure that I have statistically significant numbers and that may take longer.

[toby]

Kreator in the Theater
Kamelot in the Theater
Insomnium in the Theater
Evergrey in the Theater
Nightwish in the Theater

See you guys on board!

It was so weird to see the theater being more in demand than the pool deck sets both in app and in real life.

I can catch theater style sets back on land but a pool deck set is unique (and also NW and Kamelot had much better pool deck sets IMO)

I can tell you from my perspective that I'll pick a theater set 8 days a week because I am getting a lot of ink these days, so I avoid the sun where possible. I view most of my pool deck sets under the shade of Deck 12. lol

[slayergeek]

So some 'interesting' data is coming out of this years cruise. So interesting I am a little puzzled by it, but that's how data goes some times.

Here is a summary and I may make more data available later.

So at the end of the cruise we had 1,475 users launch the app within 30 days ending on 2/5/2023

Andy's official guest count was 2,761. So the app was installed by approximately 53% of the cruise.

Comparing to last year where that number was 68% of the cruise. I strongly suspect that Andy's passenger count is inflated...but let's set that aside. This was a strange year for 70K as far as attendance and the lead up.

So now lets move onto shows attended. I was really hoping to get strong engagement on the 'Attended' feature with the eyeball icon, but that did not happen. I strong suspect that 6 days with a new interface was not enough time for people learn about this great feature. Who knew :) At any rate of the 1,475 users only 185 users filled out attendance data for 10 or more events. So for the purposes of percentages I am viewing the 185 number as the 100% mark.

Give this, the top 10 event where as follows

Show Attended Percentage Crowd Estimate
Kamelot-Theater 128 68.82% 1900
Kreator-Theater 124 66.67% 1841
Nightwish-Theater 116 62.37% 1722
Insomnium-Theater 114 61.29% 1692
Evergrey-Theater 111 59.68% 1648
Nightwish-Pool 104 55.91% 1544
Amorphis-Pool 99 53.23% 1470
Dragonforce-Pool 91 48.92% 1351
Elvenking-Theater 89 47.85% 1321

Now I find this interesting because there is a BIG disconnect with the top 10 Must Might Wont bands. The band ranking feature is a MUCH more utilized feature with a vast majority of users using this feature over the 4 months it was available, as apposed to the 7 days that the schedule was available for use with the Attended feature.

Band Must Might Wont Total Must% Might% Wont%
Dark Tranquillity 588 143 30 761 77.27% 18.79% 3.94%
Hypocrisy 351 86 26 463 75.81% 18.57% 5.62%
Kreator 682 154 69 905 75.36% 17.02% 7.62%
Amorphis 636 188 43 867 73.36% 21.68% 4.96%
Insomnium 679 208 47 934 72.70% 22.27% 5.03%
Nightwish 666 185 117 968 68.80% 19.11% 12.09%
Dragonforce 395 147 85 627 63.00% 23.44% 13.56%
Rotting Christ 529 201 134 864 61.23% 23.26% 15.51%
Korpiklaani 518 232 138 888 58.33% 26.13% 15.54%
Kamelot 490 223 177 890 55.06% 25.06% 19.89%

So for the top 2 bands Dark Tranquility and Hypocrisy, there most popular shows came in at 14, and 27 for Hypocrisy and 40 and 45 for Dark Tranquility.

Why the disconnect...not sure. Maybe the schedule? Maybe my small sample size? Not sure.

Anyway I will likely release more data tomorrow, but wanted to get everyones thoughts on the data. I standby all numbers presented here as these are REAL numbers, though with some acknowledgement that the small number of users using the Attending feature could be skewing things.

[MetalScienceMerWitch]

@slayergeek

First and foremost, I came here to say THANK YOU for the awesome app. I am a prior survivor but hadn't been on the boat since 2018 (had babies and then COVID happened) so this was my first time using the app. It was AWESOME. The various settings (e.g. nuanced selection of which events prompt alerts) was so useful and frankly better than a lot of commercial apps I use, which seem to annoyingly discount the value of customizable settings. All around, I thought it was a fabulous and easy-to-use tool.

... of the 1,475 users only 185 users filled out attendance data for 10 or more events. So for the purposes of percentages I am viewing the 185 number as the 100% mark.

...

Why the disconnect...not sure. Maybe the schedule? Maybe my small sample size? Not sure.

...

I standby all numbers presented here as these are REAL numbers, though with some acknowledgement that the small number of users using the Attending feature could be skewing things.

As a stats nerd I can definitely say that with your schedule-completing sample comprising only 12.5% of your app-using population, there is very little chance that your sample adequately represented your population, especially given that this was a non-random sample and may have been biased in a whole variety of ways. Maybe Kamelot fans are just more neurotypical and/or tech savvy than Dark Tranquility fans and actually got their shit together to make a schedule! Or maybe the DT fans were so excited about the those two unfathomably awesome old-school sets that they got WAY too intoxicated, sleep deprived, and gleefully pit-battered and are maybe just now emerging from the haze and updating their schedules to reflect what actually happened. (I am *definitely* not speaking from personal experience. )

Just out of curiosity, can you pull the preference vs. seen data for just those 185 folks? That certainly won't represent the band preferences of everyone on the boat, but it might give you a better sense of whether people's pre-boat plans aligned with their actual activity on the boat. (It might also help you sort out how much of it was schedule-related.) But that's just me thinking out loud.

Next year you might think about adding a way to mark bands as must-see-once vs. must-see-twice (in addition to maybe-see and won't see), since that might also explain some of the discrepancy. I know in my case, there were a lot of bands I wanted to make sure to see at least once (Kamelot and Nightwish because they were "gateway metal" for me, Hypocrisy because I appreciate their history, etc.) and only a few that I NEEDED to see twice at any cost (Melechesh, Dark Tranquility, Manegarm, Obscura) and even then I wasn't always able to see both shows because of schedule conflicts ... or just because I am old and decrepit and unable to perpetually party, even in the sacred name of metal. If both shows for a particular band were at relatively well attended times/stages, the see-oncers might have evenly split the attendance, whereas see-oncers might have all flocked to the better time/space for bands that had an afternoon show in the theater vs. a 4am show in the lounge, making that show look especially popular. Again, just thinking out loud.

Also, maybe give those of us who partied a little too hard and/or have executive function deficits (you know, hypothetically) a "deadline" to update our schedule info to reflect reality and then see if anything changes...

Lastly, YOU ARE AWESOME. Thanks again for all of your hard work and also for being a nerd. Metal nerds are the best.

[slayergeek]

@slayergeek

First and foremost, I came here to say THANK YOU for the awesome app. I am a prior survivor but hadn't been on the boat since 2018 (had babies and then COVID happened) so this was my first time using the app. It was AWESOME. The various settings (e.g. nuanced selection of which events prompt alerts) was so useful and frankly better than a lot of commercial apps I use, which seem to annoyingly discount the value of customizable settings. All around, I thought it was a fabulous and easy-to-use tool.

Just out of curiosity, can you pull the preference vs. seen data for just those 185 folks? That certainly won't represent the band preferences of everyone on the boat, but it might give you a better sense of whether people's pre-boat plans aligned with their actual activity on the boat. (It might also help you sort out how much of it was schedule-related.) But that's just me thinking out loud.

Lastly, YOU ARE AWESOME. Thanks again for all of your hard work and also for being a nerd. Metal nerds are the best.

Thanks for the compliments.

Regarding any feature changes, the stats are a side effect of making a compelling, and easy to use app. The stats are a fun side effect and in no way the primary purpose of this tool. So making changes to try and improve the user experience and maybe get better stats is fine. Making changes to get better stats at the cost of the user experience will not happen.

Comparing the Must/Might/Wont to the attended for the 185 might be an interesting experience. You are correct the sample size is much smaller than it should be.

I tried to advertise the feature more and make people aware, but the feature is ONLY front and center and useful for 6 to 7 days of the year. That is WAY too short a time period for people to naturally discover it and learn to make effective use of it (though some people did). I think more people will use it next year that heard about it or found about it this year. Also there are people who will never use a feature like this, and that is fine too. The app is to enhance the experience on the ship.

I may make changes for 24 to try and make it more obvious, someone had the idea of creating a dedicated attended button, though that is not a great use of UI space, it might be worth it. I did provide 3 different ways to set this data to make it easily discoverable, but here we are :)

I am looking forward to 24 and 70K Bands will be there and there will be improvements to the app like there are every year, though exactly what is still being debated.

See you guys on board!

[slayergeek]

Ok here are the final stats for 2023. With the attention I drew to the 'Attended' feature some people did provide more data. The sample size is still too small to take to the bank...but the numbers do appear 'slightly' better. These will be the final 2023 stats posted. Do keep in mind that these stats are a side effect of the app, not the main purpose. The main purpose of the app is to help people navigate all that goes on at this awesome event.



Number of users who have launched the app in the last 30 days: 1,456 out of 2,761 guests on board (as provided by Andy) so 52%
57.42% Android
42.58% iOS

Top Bands by Must See Percentage
Dark Tranquility ends on top while Kreator moves to #2

Dark Tranquility - 775 votes with 77.42% of those Must See
Kreator - 903 votes with 75.08% of those Must See
Hypocrisy - 481 votes with 75.05% of those Must See
Amorphis - 870 votes with 73.56% of those Must See
Insomnium - 930 votes with 72.90% of those Must See
Nightwish - 968 votes with 69.11% of those Must See
Dragonforce - 645 votes with 63.57% of those Must See
Rotting Christ - 867 votes with 61.71% of those Must See
Korpiklaani - 891 votes with 58.25% of those Must See
Kamelot - 896 votes with 55.36% of those Must See


Top 10 Countries based on Percentage of Total Users

United States - 45.02%
Germany - 12.01%
Canada - 11.81%
Switzerland - 4.19%
Finland - 3.23%
Netherlands - 2.20%
Mexico - 2.06%
United Kingdom - 1.85%
Columbia - 1.72%
France - 1.37%

Top 30 events on the boat that people said they attended. *Only 192 users filled in enough show data to qualify for their numbers to counted (marked 10 or more events as attending)

Band-Venue % Estimated Size
Kamelot-Theater 71.88% 1984
Kreator-Theater 68.75% 1898
Nightwish-Theater 65.10% 1798
Insomnium-Theater 62.50% 1726
Nightwish-Pool 61.98% 1711
Evergrey-Theater 60.42% 1668
Amorphis-Pool 56.77% 1567
Dragonforce-Pool 53.13% 1467
Amorphis-Theater 50.00% 1381
Elvenking-Theater 50.00% 1381
Insomnium-Pool 48.44% 1337
Batushka-Rink 47.92% 1323
Kreator-Pool 46.88% 1294
Hypocrisy-Pool 44.79% 1237
Feuerschwanz-Pool 44.79% 1237
Feuerschwanz-Rink 43.75% 1208
Korpiklaani-Theater 43.23% 1194
Korpiklaani-Pool 42.71% 1179
Kamelot-Pool 42.19% 1165
Cynic-Rink 39.58% 1093
Hypocrisy-Theater 38.54% 1064
Dragonforce-Theater 38.54% 1064
Evergrey-Pool 38.02% 1050
Batushka-Pool 35.42% 978
Dark Tranquillity-Pool 33.33% 920
Sirenia-Rink 33.33% 920
Destruction-Pool 32.81% 906
Wolfchant-Lounge 32.81% 906
Manegarm-Rink 31.77% 877
Destruction-Theater 31.77% 877

Download the @70K Bands app from the Apple or Google Play store today if you have not done so already!

See you guys on board in 2024!

[toby]

Wolfchant-Lounge 32.81% 906

This is why you're justified doubting the status of the Attended function. lol This show didn't happen. I'm guilty also of not updating my attended status. I was in the lounge, but the band had to cancel because their drummer was sick.

[slayergeek]

Wolfchant-Lounge 32.81% 906

This is why you're justified doubting the status of the Attended function. lol This show didn't happen. I'm guilty also of not updating my attended status. I was in the lounge, but the band had to cancel because their drummer was sick.

That’s funny. The stats are what they are though. All I know for sure if that 63 of 192 users indicated they attended or planned to attend that show. Everything after that is assumptions based on that fact. I find the stats interesting and entertaining and they do provide ‘some’ insight, but are in no way the be all end all :)

[toby]

Wolfchant-Lounge 32.81% 906

This is why you're justified doubting the status of the Attended function. lol This show didn't happen. I'm guilty also of not updating my attended status. I was in the lounge, but the band had to cancel because their drummer was sick.

That’s funny. The stats are what they are though. All I know for sure if that 63 of 192 users indicated they attended or planned to attend that show. Everything after that is assumptions based on that fact. I find the stats interesting and entertaining and they do provide ‘some’ insight, but are in no way the be all end all :)

Yeah, can't wait to see what 2024 will bring now that (hopefully) more people realize the feature is there.