Interesting discussion. I personally don’t think there’s much point in simply trying to edit or import more. Discogs has an advantage over MB because there’s a very practical application of the page - buying and selling items. Because of this there’s a comprehensive database, and because of that database, the collections feature, and ‘what is my collection worth’ etc, is also very good.
I came to MB because I heard editing on here was how to improve Last.fm data, which I was using at the time. I’m not sure where or how other users came here, but I imagine something similar? Perhaps via Picard? Google search results (where Google is using MB data)?
Anyway, I think the solution is to have stronger integration. Maybe plugins for other websites or apps that can easily be configured to display discographies or collections, which will then motivate people to fill in the gaps when they see that theirs is incorrect/not complete.
I feel like MB is getting close though, it’s got a pretty broad range of uses, it just has never tipped over the edge - the UI redesign is probably the first step there, a mentoring/tutorial system might be the next. I feel like the true killer app is going to be events - I don’t know of another site that is so well equipped for these, Discogs certainly isn’t. I really want to see event images added, and then integration of that data/peoples event collections into a big site or application, and then that will have a big knock-on effect.
In any case I think trying to brute force the gaps in the database isn’t a sustainable solution. Following new users and being encouraging might do more in the end than a hours of editing. That’s my thinking these days…