Users can create or modify public Dance Gypsy information — your own information: the way you will be found by and appear to users of the Dance Gypsy, or information about your band(s) or festivals and events, or even venues. To do that, use the “Update Information” menu, which allows you to update (create or modify):

Why would you want to edit your own information?

Yes, the Dance Gypsy will still enter the information for you. However there are a great many reasons for doing it yourself:

• The most important reason is speed. the Dance Gypsy now lists about 5000 events a year. This does take time. The delay of course varies considerably, but two weeks (or even longer) is a good estimate of the average. On occasion it may be over a month. Sometimes this delay means that your event has passed by the time we get to it (worse yet, if there is time to update two event, one is tomorrow and one is in two weeks, priority necessarily goes to the one that will be seen by more people. Every month several events do not get updated for this reason. In contrast. if you update your own information, it is instant — literally instant. As soon as you are done editing you can see how the new display looks.
• Last minute updates. Suppose your band cancels for tomorrow night. Update it immediately. The Dance Gypsy does not normally handle such changes.
• Fix mistakes: yes it is true, sometimes the Dance Gypsy makes mistakes! Unfortunately, you will not even know there is an error until the first time you look your listing after the Dance Gypsy updates it for you. You then can notify us, and the process starts all over again(and if you do the arithmetic here: the delay is now between one and two months from first submission!). Most likely that mistake will last until your event is well past.
• Having it your way: often the way we write your description is not the same way you would write the same information. You probably prefer your own way. Updating it yourself means that you can specify it that way. For example, the Dance Gypsy typically lists the price; some people prefer to call it a donation.
• More complete information. There are many things which can now be included in your listings, that the Dance Gypsy does not normally do, but you can do them, including
  • pictures (a picture of you or your group that will appear with your listing (right now available only for performers, but someday for events too)
  • sound-bites (a sample of your music (again, currently available only for performers, but someday for events too)
  • Aliases: other names people call you, either to make your name appear correctly (e.g., your name is Ølaf and you are tired of being called Olaf) or because dance bookers misspell it and you don't get listed.
  • descriptions (a free form description of you, your band, or your events)
  • extended entries (the Dance Gypsy will not write out elaborate descriptions of things like your pricing policy or cancellation policy, but you can.
  • Data mining: even when the DG has a description of your event (e.g., we look at your website) we may not be able to find some detail that you happen to know right off the top of your head.
  • and coming soon: social network address. Since many performers and even events have Facebook entries or distribute info via Twitter, these will be available soon.
  • and more

Why else register with the Dance Gypsy?

The truthful answer: At present, for the vast majority of visitors to the Dance Gypsy there is very little reason to register — the only useful tools so far are for musicians and callers, and others whose name or organizations are referenced on Dance Gypsy pages, such as representatives of bands, organizers for dances and festivals and representatives of dance organizations: in general, anyone who has information viewable on Dance Gypsy pages.

This will become progressively useful as more Dance Gypsy services are added. For example, the Dance Gypsy forum will be re-established and use the same IDs as the user pages, users will be allowed to set their default settings, and contributors can bypass the fund drives.

Who can or should register?

Any user of the Dance Gypsy is invited to register and/or login. Login is still not required to access the Dance Gypsy data bases or other services, but being a registered user does provide additional options. This is most important for persons who are referenced in the Dance Gypsy data bases: musicians, dance leaders band representatives, and contact persons for dance organizations and events. Once registered and identified, such people can update their own descriptions as well as those of their bands or events with which they are associated. All such users may update their own pages. users who serve as contacts for bands or events may also update the pages for those bands or events.

What do you need to do?

For most visitors: On the first visit, just follow the menu bar to the registration page where you can provide a user name, password and email address. On subsequent visits you will simply go to the page you wish to visit. At that point you will be asked to login.

Those who wish to update their own data will obviously have to provide their names and additional contact information. Some performers have been given pre-approved accounts and were sent an email with the specifics .