The Discogs way of alphabetizing by first name is not all that crazy. That’s how everything was alphabetized when I was growing up in Brazil (it may still be).
That being said, for the most part I don’t use any kind of alphabetical order to organize. Instead, my +/- 900 records are separated into sections: rock/pop, soul/funk/R&B/hip hop, jazz, blues, classical, plus a crate of Brazilian music and two crates of prog/hard rock/metal (i.e. the stuff my wife doesn’t want to hear so I have it stashed in the basement to listen to while playing with my son). Out of all of those sections, only jazz is alphabetized (by last name).
The other sections are in a rough chronological/musicological order that only makes sense in my head. I came up with this method when I used to have two turntables as my main listening set up, at which time I found useful to have artists I associate with each other close together in case I wanted to stick to a certain vibe for DJ sets. Within each artist, I follow chronological order of release (with some flexibility allowed for live albums, compilations, or “lost albums”).
I have reorganized my records multiple times over the past few years and this is the system that works best for me, which ultimately is what each of us wants.
