Looking back at 2008 and ahead to 2009

 

  • Looking back at 2008 and ahead to 2009

    Posted by Huw, 19 Dec 2008 13:50. Filed under Brickset.

    10069: Tree
    Bulk Bricks/Seasonal, 2002
    More details...
    ©2002 LEGO Group

    Christmas is nearly upon us and it's traditional at this time of year to reflect on the year just passed, so inspired by this post on brothers-brick I thought I'd share some Brickset statistics.

    The site has seen almost exactly a doubling of traffic since 2007. In 2008 there have been 35,173,212 (yes, that's 35 million) page views, 6,258,637 visits and 104,020,606 hits. This compares with 2007's figures of 18,065,605 views, 3,727,744 visits and 52,526,035 hits. (*)

    In 2008 Brickset visitors wrote 7397 reviews, compared to 5491 in 2007.

    Our top referring sites, excluding search engines which account for 90% of them, are:

    I'm rather surprised by the number one site.

    2009 is going to be a great year for LEGO and for Brickset. Over the last few months I have rewritten the entire site from scratch and very early in the New Year I will be launching it. I think you'll like it: It's not vastly different from the existing one but I've added loads of cool features, including the oft-requested ability to record how many of each set you own, which I think will be popular. It'll also be a more programatically robust system on which I can continue to build new features so once you see it, if there anything you think I could add, then I'll be happy to consider doing so.

    I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support for Brickset: using its features, writing reviews and comments and last but not least buying your LEGO from LEGOshop.com via our links.

     

    Huw

     

    * Hits include images, stylesheets etc. visits are user sessions during which a single visitor will usually view more than one page, and page views are the hits on the actual html pages so are a more meaningful measure.


    36 comments, latest one posted 53 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by mvila09 in United States, 19 Dec 2008 14:12

I can't wait for 2009!But I felt that people wrote more reviews than 7397 reviews.Good-Bye 2008,Hello 2009!

Posted by peppermintmecha in United Kingdom, 19 Dec 2008 15:49

2009 is set to be a good year. Great job brickset. Here's to another great year!

Posted by comandercody654 in United States, 19 Dec 2008 17:30

Yahoo 2009 !!!

Posted by water jedi 17 in United States, 19 Dec 2008 18:39

so what other new features arev you adding, huw?

Posted by Kulturkampf in United States, 19 Dec 2008 18:51

I'm way excited for the new brickset. It sounds cool :)

Posted by littlelegoluke in United States, 19 Dec 2008 20:57

I think brickset should add a forum to its features.

Posted by hustla187 in United States, 19 Dec 2008 22:24

I'm excited for the new Brickset! What's going to be new?

Posted by bricklord in United States, 19 Dec 2008 22:57

Thank you for continuing to improve this website. I really enjoy it. I'm looking forward to the update.

Posted by chrisdog121411 in United States, 20 Dec 2008 00:42

i just would like to wish you a very merry christmas to the gust, the brickset
members and huw.

Posted by stu241273 in United Kingdom, 20 Dec 2008 03:35

Thanks for everything Huw!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 20 Dec 2008 03:45

@water jedi 17, you'll just have to wait and see :-)

Posted by fingol in Slovakia, 20 Dec 2008 05:18

great work so far!
those new features (at least the one about set amount recording) are highly appreciated!

Posted by Captin Rex in United States, 20 Dec 2008 08:34

Cool , I can't wait. :P

Posted by littlelegoluke in United States, 20 Dec 2008 10:42

me to cant wait

Posted by dragon_teenager in United States, 20 Dec 2008 11:35

Brickset is one of the best LEGO databases out there. Glad to see it doing so well.

Posted by BionicleBOOM in United States, 20 Dec 2008 11:37

I wonder if the new Brickset will remember all our reviews and recorded sets...? I hope it does; I have over 50 sets in My Sets!

Posted by BionicleBOOM in United States, 20 Dec 2008 11:38

Oh, and I also agree with the forums, lettlelegoluke.

Posted by Loganwan in United States, 20 Dec 2008 15:00

Wow, congrats on the site growth. This really is a great place. Can't wait for 2009.

Posted by drewtheskater in United States, 20 Dec 2008 15:19

I just joined a couple weeks ago, but I have been looking on here for a long time! I can't wait for the new website!
-s1w2i3t4c5h6f7o8o9t0

Posted by daniel c. in United States, 20 Dec 2008 16:19

Brickset is easily one of the best lego related websites ever made, and it's the definitive database for lego sets. Thanks for keeping this site running and giving us all such an awesome resource, Huw.

Can't wait until the new site launches! ;)

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 20 Dec 2008 19:33

@BionicleBOOM: all the data will be the same, everyone's collections and reviews will still be there.

Posted by LEGO 50 in Philippines, 21 Dec 2008 07:15

Hmm a forum? That would be a good idea.

Posted by bmwlego in United States, 21 Dec 2008 08:36

huw huw huw huw huw huw huw huw huw huw
I love the appearance of this website as it is quite easy on the eyes. This is one of the reasons this site is so easy to navigate.

The one change I would love to see could greatly benefit users such as myself who have logged many pages of set reviews and sets owned. It would be easier to see what sets I have reviewed if my review score was displayed on My Sets page. Maybe each review score can be diagrammed with the 1x1 plates that you use at the top of the page so that the score I gave it and the set's average score can be displayed with 1-5 1x1 plates or the smiley face system that is being used now can just be added to the My Sets section of Brickset.

Also, it takes a while to scroll through my sets pages and review pages because you can only navigate to the next or previous page. Why not set it up so you can click on page #'s like going through results of a search engine?

These are my only 2 suggestions (unless you are willing to add a forum) that I can make. The site is visually appealing and easy to read. Last year at this time you listened to our suggestions and added them to the site. I know this to be fact because last year I suggested color coding the comments so that you could easily see your own comments (pink) and the comments by the admins (yellow) and this has been a part of Brickset for a while now. This suggestion has made it easier for me to see what has been added to the comments since the last time I logged on and I thank you for listening to and implementing this idea.

Happy Christmas and a successful New Year!
bmwlego

Posted by Sam Butcher in New Zealand, 21 Dec 2008 17:36

Just a thought that would help me, not sure about others, but along with the 'how many of each set' could you prehaps add a feature where we can add notes to sets? I for one buy a bit of 2nd hand lego and bits are somtimes missing. So with noteswe could say somthing like '7163 Republic Gunship - missing one clone and one 2x6 plate' Just an idea...

Thanks so much for all your doing guys, this is really a great site, keep it up and THANKYOU

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 21 Dec 2008 18:01

@bmwlego,

> sets I have reviewed if my review score was displayed on My Sets page

I like that idea. It might complicate the database query considerably, though. I don't think it's something I'll get done before launch but I'll certainly look into it afterwards.

> Why not set it up so you can click on page #'s like going through results of a search engine?

That's already done :-)

Posted by chrisdog121411 in United States, 22 Dec 2008 06:47

only 3 more days 2 nights until Christmas going out of controll if i get any lego on Christmas, im going to review them when im done building them/it

Posted by chrisdog121411 in United States, 22 Dec 2008 12:50

whens the launch date for the new site

Posted by legoguysw in United Kingdom, 22 Dec 2008 12:59

A quick question: Where does the overall rating for a set come from, as it can't come from the reviews ratings?

Posted by jakelongdragon in United States, 22 Dec 2008 15:27

Cool! thanks Huw! The site is great (I am one of the new members ince 2008!) and 2009 will be even better! Awesome!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 23 Dec 2008 13:56

@legoguysw,

The overall rating is calculated as the average of all the ratings + a balancing rating of 2.5, so if you rate a set 5/5 and that's the only rating its initial overall rating will be 5 + 2.5 / 2 = 3.75. If you rate it 1/5, it will be 1 + 2.5 / 2 = 1.75.

Doing it that way means that the number of ratings influences the overall rating in addition to the ratings themselves. Otherwise if a set gets a 1 rating of 5/5 and another gets 100 5/5s, they'd both have the same overall rating of 5/5 which clearly is not desirable. Doing it this way means the 1 rating of 5/5 results in an overall rating of 3.75 and 100 5/5s in an overall rating of 4.95.

I hope that's clear!

Posted by jonbuddy in United States, 23 Dec 2008 14:10

sammy1:

That's an interesting idea. It would be cool to put our own notes.

Posted by MatrixQuest in United States, 23 Dec 2008 22:18

Thanks so much and this site always gets my vote as the best Lego site around. I am so happy that we finally get a feature to keep track of how many of each set we have...there are several I have multiples of due to what they came with or for populating a town. Can't wait to dig back through my instructions to re-log those. Thanks again so much for the hard work you do! Happy Holidays one and all!

Posted by legoguysw in United Kingdom, 24 Dec 2008 04:33

Yeah, I get it, thanks!
Why did Doctor Sinister's Dwarves Mine review get deleted? The last time i looked it was gone. I don't think it deserves to be number 1 set.

Posted by bmwlego in United States, 26 Dec 2008 06:22

Huw
Thanks for the response.
What I meant by being able to search your sets like a search engine results I meant being able to click through by page #, not next or previous or first or last. If page #'s were listed you could jump right to page 3 or 8 instead of clicking next 8 times. That would make browsing through your sets or pages tons easier.

Thanks again,
bmwlego

Posted by Dunechaser, 27 Dec 2008 12:42

Wow! Impressive stats indeed, Huw! Congrats on a successful 2008, and here's to an even better 2009.

Posted by Mr. F in Canada, 27 Dec 2008 13:58

bmwlego has a point, Huw.

Commenting has ended on this article.