Rob: Oldschool. That’s the word that comes to my mind when I open the Goabase. Visually it looks like a relict of the 90s. Nevertheless it’s up-to-date as it can be – the website is the most important platform for the European party scene, for almost 20 years.
A: I think that’s exactly the point: It’s always been about the parties – the optical appearance has always been secondary. Make the search for parties and festivals as quick and easy as possible, remember these parties, connect with other party freaks, browse through party flyers and photos: The Goabase is all about functionality.
R: So it’s content that matters after all.
A: That’s it, I guess. Everybody can search for parties immediately, everybody can add parties, and there’s various possibilities to implement the Goabase on your website, the connectivity has grown with each and every year. Security is another core feature – even today not every website has SSL encryption. What started as a simple listing became a complex application. The member area became a small community, and last but not least we are an online museum: On Goabase, you can browse through 20 years of Psytrance party history, you can find tens of thousands of reports and flyers, plus half a million photos.
R: And that’s enough to be a match for Facebook?
A: I’m not a party promoter, so I can’t judge Facebook from their point of view. I’m a party-goer, and from this point of view Facebook is tricky. Sure, everybody knows about the major events and finds them easily. But if you just want to know what’s happening next weekend in a particular city or region… Facebook is not a big help at all. I think the reason is because Facebook is a social network and not a party calendar. Everything is based on contacts, event invitations, shares, and advertising. You might discover a small party by chance. But it’s really hard to do some systematic search, to find the answer to the question of all questions: What’s happening next weekend?
R:Obviously that‘s the question that keeps you going. For how long… must be 20 years or something? Did you ever feel like giving up?
A; Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the Goabase.. It‘s been a long time, but no: I never ever wanted to give it up. I still love the music and the parties, and last but not least there’s the nerdy part of me that just loves the technology – which at the same time is the greatest challenge. It‘s just fun to have this project, to implement new ideas. I come up with a new feature, I program it – sometimes I receive great feedback from the community, and sometimes people even join me on the mission, like Foob with the Goabase App.
R: Right, the new Goabase App! Can you tell us some words about it, please?
A: Well, it keeps up to its name: „Goabase Party Finder“. The idea is to simply use your smartphone to find all parties in your local surroundings. The App knows your current location. Then you get a selection of nearby events, and of course you can see the full line up, location, etc. You can use Google Maps and navigation to get to any of these parties, so you won‘t get lost any more… However, we did not implement too many features. Less is more, everything should be as straightforward and easy as possible. The App requires only minimal access rights, and even if you have your GPS switched off you can choose manually from a list of cities. We are currently working with version 0.9 – it‘s still a beta-version, but in five languages German, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch. We would add a list to remember events, and an alert for new events in your region.
Party Finder Perks:
- “ Spontaneously discover parties in your city / region with your smart phone
- “ GPS support or manual list search
- “ Easy-to-use interface
- “ Integrated Google maps navigation
- “ Available for Android (Google Play Store)
- “ iPhone version planned
- “ German, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch