Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | Pluribus7158  | | Posted: | Jan 27, 2024 08:02 | | Subject: | Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| +1
In Catalog, stevetq2 writes:
| | Many people want to know the difference between tiles with grooves as the ones
without are from older sets and some people want the original part without grooves
and some want them WITH grooves for newer sets (same goes for bricks with X or
+ axle holes. In my opinion this is a RETROGRADE Step for no good reason.
In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:
| | Hello everyone,
As a platform, we have decided to take a hard look at some of the mold variants
that we are currently asking you to recognize. For sellers, more variants means
extra sorting and extra work while pulling orders, plus the issues that arise
from variant misunderstandings.
For buyers, excess variants mean that it's harder to assemble a wanted list,
find stores, and ultimately obtain the parts you are looking for.
I have put together a quick Help page to outline these proposed changes:
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2625
Notice the date on this is coming up quickly (Feb 1), so I'm not giving a
lot of time for discussion. I'm aiming for about 1 week of discussion and
then we'll give sellers 2 weeks to adjust the descriptions on affected items
if they wish to retain the distinctions.
I plan to construct a full FAQ page with answers to all your questions. This
will serve to inform users about what was done here in February 2024, and also
help point the catalog in the right direction in the future.
To get started, I'll list a few here:
1. This sounds like you're dumbing down the BrickLink catalog to make
it easier for new users. Is that what is going on?
Not really. There are many, many other variants we expect people to sort and
care about. These ones don't really seem to matter much, and some of them
(e.g., the minifigure heads) actually cause problems for the catalog that cannot
be corrected otherwise.
2. What if I really care about a certain variant that is going away? Can I
still buy and sell that variant?
Absolutely! You can add notes to your listings to make them as "determined"
as you wish. Buyers can still search within notes for extra details, or they
can simply observe them as they browse listings.
3. How do I know which exact variants will be merged? I only see one example
in each category.
Please ask in this thread and I can be very specific. Usually we are talking
about a handful of parts and the printed versions.
4. Has a merge like this ever been done before?
Yes, there was a precedent - the Headlight Brick with Slot:
https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1016584
It was marked for deletion a few years ago and was finally merged last August.
5. Are these the only parts up for consideration, or are there other variants
that will be merged as well?
This is all for now. Based on how well this goes, we may elect to remove other
entries later. However, we will keep all functional variants and important cosmetic
variants.
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Jan 26, 2024 16:02 | | Subject: | Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| In Catalog, minithings4life writes:
| | I totally agree with hpoort. The database needs to be kept as is, and changes
made to the interface so buyers and sellers who do not care so much for some
variants have a way of filtering their searches and auto-buys.
Removing variants will eventually lead to sellers not bothering to describe the
variant in their product descriptions and buyers who are looking for a specific
variant will start to look at other marketplaces.
In Catalog, hpoort writes:
| | As a database engineer, this is the worst idea ever. To dumb down your core database
rather than solving it on the usage side.
As suggested many times before, why don't you allow sellers to indicate which
variants may have been mixed in a lot and allow buyers to specify which variants
they care about.
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+1
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Jan 26, 2024 15:56 | | Subject: | Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| This is by far the worst idea I've seen on here. The Bricklink catalogue
IS Bricklink. Changing it in such a fundamental way will ruin what many love
about it.
A change this big should be put to a member vote, not just "I'm admin
and this is what I'm doing".
In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:
| | Hello everyone,
As a platform, we have decided to take a hard look at some of the mold variants
that we are currently asking you to recognize. For sellers, more variants means
extra sorting and extra work while pulling orders, plus the issues that arise
from variant misunderstandings.
For buyers, excess variants mean that it's harder to assemble a wanted list,
find stores, and ultimately obtain the parts you are looking for.
I have put together a quick Help page to outline these proposed changes:
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2625
Notice the date on this is coming up quickly (Feb 1), so I'm not giving a
lot of time for discussion. I'm aiming for about 1 week of discussion and
then we'll give sellers 2 weeks to adjust the descriptions on affected items
if they wish to retain the distinctions.
I plan to construct a full FAQ page with answers to all your questions. This
will serve to inform users about what was done here in February 2024, and also
help point the catalog in the right direction in the future.
To get started, I'll list a few here:
1. This sounds like you're dumbing down the BrickLink catalog to make
it easier for new users. Is that what is going on?
Not really. There are many, many other variants we expect people to sort and
care about. These ones don't really seem to matter much, and some of them
(e.g., the minifigure heads) actually cause problems for the catalog that cannot
be corrected otherwise.
2. What if I really care about a certain variant that is going away? Can I
still buy and sell that variant?
Absolutely! You can add notes to your listings to make them as "determined"
as you wish. Buyers can still search within notes for extra details, or they
can simply observe them as they browse listings.
3. How do I know which exact variants will be merged? I only see one example
in each category.
Please ask in this thread and I can be very specific. Usually we are talking
about a handful of parts and the printed versions.
4. Has a merge like this ever been done before?
Yes, there was a precedent - the Headlight Brick with Slot:
https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1016584
It was marked for deletion a few years ago and was finally merged last August.
5. Are these the only parts up for consideration, or are there other variants
that will be merged as well?
This is all for now. Based on how well this goes, we may elect to remove other
entries later. However, we will keep all functional variants and important cosmetic
variants.
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Aug 13, 2022 05:40 | | Subject: | Re: "Only one item/color combination is allowed" | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
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| In Technical Issues, hpoort writes:
| | In Technical Issues, JasterMereel11 writes:
| | All morning I have noticed that I cannot edit any wanted list that I have anymore
and constantly get an error saying "Only one item/color combination is allowed
per Wanted List" Has anyone else run into this or know of a fix?
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There is a duplicate entry in ONE of your wanted lists, not necessarily the one
you are trying to edit. Find and remove the duplicate (same part, same color)
and you are good to go again.
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Surely I'm not the only one that thinks this is ridiculous?
Almost all of us use wanted lists for separate builds. Why should we stop doing
that when that's obviously what wanted lists were designed for originally?
This needs to be re-done - quickly. It's been broken like this since the
v2 redesign. I used to be able to edit any piece on any wanted list - as long
as there were no duplicates on that particular list, all was golden.
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Oct 19, 2021 12:55 | | Subject: | New LUG for Lego fans in Kent, UK! | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| Hi Everyone
(Admin, please delete if not allowed)
We only have one Lego shop in Kent, but loads of Bricklink sellers, and even
more AFOLs, so I thought why not have a LUG just for us?
Do you want discounted Lego sets, money off Bricklink purchases and free entry
to Legoland? We have none of that!
Do you want stickers, t-shirts and custom printed minifigs? I wouldn't know
where to begin!
If you're in Kent, and interested in joining a brand new group with zero
members, zero content and zero clue about its' future, click the link below
and say hi!
Ian (Pluribus7158)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kentlegousergroup/
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Feb 22, 2020 08:55 | | Subject: | Re: Add to Community Experts group | | Viewed: | 80 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | Suggestions over the past 6 years have not been very successful, however we now
have a new 'kid on the block' in charge. Let's see what happens with
this one.
We are all aware of the new Community Expert program that has been introduced
aimed at the technical side of the site e.g. catalogue, inventories etc.
How about adding to that group with a community advisory panel, whose members
could help with the usability testing of new features as well as offering advice
on both direction and functionality for the site.
These would also be volunteers and a method for rotation could be put in place
to ensure no one individual dominated that side.
You could even have regional representation say USA, UK, Europe (or Germany,
France Netherlands, etc). This would help enormously on the variations that are
both desirable and needed for the site, as well as the legal requirements, postal
systems, etc.
It would, of course also help communications and community spirit.
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I second this, and would love to be involved.
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Mar 1, 2019 06:56 | | Subject: | Re: Folders in Wanted List | | Viewed: | 34 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, WindyCity writes:
| | For what purpose?
In Suggestions, oldgruplego writes:
| | Is it possible to add a folder feature to the Wanted List?
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I think this is a good idea. I know I can add as many lists as I want to already,
but having a way to sort them would be great. I have a lot of lists for architecture,
space, mocs I've found on other sites etc. Putting wanted lists inside it's
appropriate folder means I don't have to search a long list, I just open
the space folder to find a rocket, or the architecture folder to find the Eiffel
Tower etc...
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Jul 1, 2017 13:33 | | Subject: | Re: Classic Wanted List Unavailable on June 5th | | Viewed: | 104 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| Hi Admin/Jaclyn,
Let me first start by saying I am an award winning web designer. I have over
160 awards for various websites created for multi-million dollar companies, and
mom & pop stores over a career spanning more than 25 years in website design.
I'm not saying this to "big myself up", I'm saying that so you understand
that I know what I'm talking about.
I have taken literally thousands of websites through major design and functionality
changes as you have done here. In all that time I have learned one over-riding
thing:
Just because it works for you, does not mean it works for your users
When you redesign a website, you should never, ever do it for yourself. You
only ever redesign a website to make it better for your users. There have been
countless threads on here about the badly designed v2.0 site and you really need
to take a step back and look at them.
I freely admit there are a handful of users praising the newer design, but again,
you never redesign a site to cater for new users, you do it to cater to your
core userbase. Those core users have unequivocally told you there are fundamental
things wrong with the new wanted list and other features, so just blindly turning
off the current "classic" - aka working - version is extremely shortsighted of
you.
Many, many people are requesting you leave the classic version online for them
to use if they so desire (and I'm inclined to agree with them). There is
no valid business reason to delete that code and it would not cost you any extra
to keep it online.
As a web designer and host, I know it will not cost you any extra money to host
the - at most - 4 extra pages which make up the classic wanted list so I see
no harm in keeping those pages alive if your users wish to use them - and they
definitely do.
I know you are proud of the new design and functionality, I would be too. But
please listen to your core users. I have redesigned many sites and made them
look absolutely fantastic and also been incredibly proud of the new designs I
have come up with, but users have hated some of them. It's a bitter pill
to swallow when people don't like your hard work - and I know how long it
takes to design and programme a website like Bricklink. You need to understand
that criticism is not a bad thing. It should be used constructively to build
a site core users and new users alike love to use. If that means a mix of old
and new features, so be it.
We know that ultimately the decision is in your hands, but we hope you can see
that the need to cater for core users is in your best interests.
All the best
Ian
In Administrative, Admin_Jaclyn writes:
| | Hello Everyone,
In June of last year, we introduced a new Wanted List upgrade. This upgrade came
with a newly-designed buying experience which focused on the necessity to compare
and plan out multiple carts at once, as well as make it easier to manage multiple
lists.
Since BrickLink's Wanted List is a core feature for most users, we currently
provide the classic version for members to use as a backup in case there are
glitches with the new version. This is intended to be a temporary solution.
The classic version of the Wanted List feature will become unavailable on
June 5, 2017. At this point, we have ensured that the new version of the
Wanted List covers all desired functionality (plus more) from the classic version.
If you have any issues with the new version, please let us know as soon as possible.
Thank you for the continued support, bug reports, and helpful feedback as we
continue to roll out important changes.
Sincerely,
Jaclyn
BrickLink Customer Support
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| Author: | Pluribus7158 | | Posted: | Jun 19, 2016 10:29 | | Subject: | Re: Shopping by Wanted List Bug | | Viewed: | 34 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| Hi
Admin are aware of this as I reported it several days ago. They told me they
were aware of it already and were working on a solution.
Until then you have to manually adjust the number of items. Its a pain as I
have several mocs with over 2000 pieces each meaning that searching a particular
brick in one, of which there is only one brick, gives me over 400 as they are
also in the other lists.
We just have to wait until its fixed I'm afraid.
Regards
Ian
In Suggestions, Zelgazra writes:
| | Hey there,
First post on these boards. Love the new update, great work modernizing the site.
Quite happy with many of the changes, albeit a little learning curve!
I'm (thusfar) exclusively a buyer on Bricklink. Primarily I've been using
it over the last year to order missing parts for sets I've acquired in bulk
lots, for resale locally or on the ebay marketplace.
More recently I've been working on some MOCs though, and generating some
fairly large (250+ lots, 3k parts) wanted lists. The recent feature to generate
a Wanted list directly from an LXF file was an excellent addition... it was a
bit of a pain to rinse it through rebrickable before.... I digress...
In many cases this 'bug' would probably in fact be helpful, however,
the way the functionality is implied to work leads me to believe it's a bug.
Here's my example. I have this new MOC. I imported it and created what I've
called the Master List. I then imported a second instance to actually work off
of. As parts are acquired I simply delete them or reduce the wanted quantity
(haven't climbed the Wanted / Have learning curve yet).
So I'm shopping in a store, and sort by Wanted List. I deselect all, then
go down and select my MOC. I proceed to click Auto-fill Min Quantity and Add
to Cart. Repeat on page 2 and 3. When I go to view the cart I've got nearly
3k parts in 180 lots. The whole model is 292 lots and 3.5k parts... the math
wasn't adding up. So I emptied the cart and tried again, paying closer attention
this time.
As I browsed the list of parts it was adding to my cart, I noticed the quantities
it was adding with notes saying "Wanted on 2x Wanted Lists"... if you click the
"View" link, you can see that it was counting my quantities from both lists,
despite only the one MOC list being selected to pull from. I had to manually
go through one by one and adjust the quantity. It's great that the note is
there telling me the part is one 2x Wanted Lists, but it should only be adding
the combined quantity if I have both of them selected in the list-filter tab.
I couldn't find any way to omit the second list from being calculated into
the min wanted quantity.
Figured it was worth a mention!
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United Kingdom, England
