How to solve the versions problem?

Personally I don't think it's a bad thing for there to be more than one version of a song - sometimes the oher versions are in a different key or somewhere else on the fretboard for ease of playing etc. The problem comes when there are 20 versions that are all pretty much the same. A solution for that could be to remove any that are under 3 stars (although maybe completely unrated tabs should be left and given a chance to be rated), because the community obviously doesn't think they're very good, and for the tabs to appear on the page in order of their ratings.

I also don't think a primary tab should be chosen based on how new the submission is or who writes it - new doesn't mean better and a brand new user might write a better tab than one of our regular authors.

As for new versions of existing songs, I think that when you want to submit a new version of the same song, you should be shown the current top rated version of it, or in some way be made aware that the current version exists. Maybe you should have to submit a reason you want to submit your version (eg. It's in a new key, it's for a different number of strings, the current one isn't that good, it's written differently for ease of playing).

I don't think all new versions should be mashed together to make the ‘best’ tab - the formatting alone would be a nightmare (and personally, I'm not around enough to monitor new updates to my tabs).

TL;DR I think you should display the tabs in order of rank, delete bad tabs and make it obvious to submitters that they are putting up a tab that already exists. One tab to rule them all is not the answer.

I'm with blue on Problem 2: to submit a tab where one already exists you should need to put in a reason for the additional tab. That reason would display as a Comment on the tab, and adding it to the original would also be helpful. That way there is a documented reason for the additional tab (and possibly a pointer to it from the other tab).

Short of doing a full audit of the site, I still like my method for chipping away at the duplicates:
1. Add an attribute to the tab where users can vote the tab as “redundant” or “unnecessary”. Functionally similar to Like. A comment should also be added explaining why they feel it is redundant/unnecessary.
1a. The comment will send a message to the submitter, so they would have a chance to respond in another comment.
2. When the count hits 5 (or 2, or 4, or whatever value seems to work - it can be tweaked), the tab shows up on a list to be checked for redundancy/non-necessity.
3. Site ‘SuperUsers’ can see the list and perform the check on the tab. If they determine it can be deleted they do so. This has a subjective element to it, so the SuperUsers should be trusted members of the community who have the reputation for being good at tabbing. There would be to timeline for this to have to happen, just as they are able to do it. Ratings can be used in their judgement, but does have a subjective element to it.
3a. If the submitter is still active on the site, an email can be sent saying that the tab is being removed and the reasoning - the string of comments, plus any notes from the SuperUser. Again, doing this is based on the judgement of the SuperUser.
3b. The SuperUser should also be able to reset the redundant/unnecessary count, as they may find the tab is not redundant/unnecessary. This would get it back off the list.
4. SuperUsers could also proactively check tabs to see if they are redundant/unnecessary. Seeing “(Ver 7)” on the New Tabs list could trigger action, or they can let it go and let the community work out the relative values of the different versions.

There can be good reasons for multiple versions of tabs. Speaking of/for myself, not everyone is at the skill level to play all of the tabs available here, so a different/simplified version of a song would have value to them.

Johnny - this site is already awesome as it is. As far as I'm concerned cleaning up extra versions of tabs falls into the “nit-picking” category (and yes, I've brought it up…. Thank you for all the work you have put into it.

Oh, also, there's the notion that in order to cut the work this is going to take down, maybe we just go ahead and remove anything rated 3-stars or less (except for unrated tabs). It might upset the tabber, but if it's for the betterment of the site, y'know? And it'd take a huge chunk of work out of the equation.

That would work, too. Just give me a day to copy all my tabs so I can re-submit them after.

Personally I like the variety, I dont try to learn a song note for note, that level of pedanticism is positively anal, we are creative humans not robots