New feature: Set notes

 

  • New feature: Set notes

    Posted by Huw, 16 May 2009 04:53. Filed under Brickset.

    It's been a quiet week for news so I thought I'd launch a new feature to give you something to play with: set notes. When you're logged in you'll see a small icon in the 'collection' column of search results. Click on it to add a note about the set. It's as simple as that! You can also view and edit your note on the set detail pages and notes are included when you export your collection. Notes are saved independently to your collection so you can record notes about any set whether you own or want it, or not.

    There're a couple of notes-related tweaks and features I still intend to add but hopefully you'll find what's there aready of use.

    As usual, LMKWYT. Thanks to Jeff M for the idea!


    29 comments, latest one posted 48 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by MayTheBricksBeWithYou in Netherlands, 16 May 2009 05:59

Great feature! Who knows when it comes in handy! Keep up the good work!

And I see you fixed the spelling errors on the lists page ;)

Posted by mvila09 in United States, 16 May 2009 07:53

Thanks Huw it's really cool.

Posted by BionicleBOOM in United States, 16 May 2009 08:15

AWESOME, Huw! I'm already using it like nobody's business!

Posted by guybrush threepwood in United States, 16 May 2009 09:10

thank you very much, Huw. we all appreciate your work to keep the site up and running.

Posted by andy0002 in United States, 16 May 2009 09:37

will it be seen by everyone? or just a note to yourself like "use august allowance to buy castle set" cuz if everyone saw that it would b a bit weird..o.o

Posted by Gus263 in Brazil, 16 May 2009 11:06

Great addition, Huw. Thanks!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 May 2009 11:27

@andy0002: no, it's seen only by you. I am thinking of adding the ability for you to add public notes to sets which will be useful to others like "currently available in Walmart for 50% off" but they'd need moderating to prevent comments like "I want this set", which might take more time to do than is worth.

Posted by Trandoshan in Canada, 16 May 2009 13:00

Couldn't you make so when viewing someone's profile there is a "View set notes." option?

Posted by sidneyleejohnson in United States, 16 May 2009 13:15

I would like to see a feature where we could record how much we spent on the set. The by product of this is that you could display a graph collecting the data from all the owners buy$ data showing the values changing over time. You may also want to add a condition drop down list such that you could graph the values given a certain condition(Mint, Very Good, Good, No Box) etc.
I would like to see an average value indicator(per year?) for each set such that I could see an estimate of my collections current worth given the auction market prices other folks are paying and be able to use that amount quickly with my insurance company.

Posted by sidneyleejohnson in United States, 16 May 2009 13:22

If you were really nice you could take the portfolio management approach and compare the person's cost of the set and the current average value(at the appropriate quality condition) and show how much % up or % down the set has fallen. Perhaps I ask too much.
Next up would be to allow a person to submit a bid or ask price for the set such that you could indicate how much you would be willing to sell the set if you own it or buy the set if you don't own it.
Then you could let others see the bid/ask prices of each set... sort of like Nasdaq LVL 2 quotes. You don't just see the best bid and ask you see all of them. Or you could just simplify it and show the person with the lowest asking price and highest bid...

Posted by ARC170Dinofighter in Canada, 16 May 2009 14:12

Nice job! You continue to astound me!
By the way, how's the non-set minifig collection stuff working out?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 May 2009 15:10

> how's the non-set minifig collection stuff working out?

That's next on the agenda...

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 May 2009 15:16

@sidneyleejohnson, those are great ideas, condition in particular is something I have been toying with. It's complicated slightly by the fact you can own more than one of a set so I'd need to make it possible to record the condition of each.

Posted by exo-man in Canada, 16 May 2009 18:24

sounds cool I'll go try it out!

Posted by ShatteredGnome in United States, 16 May 2009 18:43

Thanks for the new features. This website's getting a lot of 'em lately.

Huw, there is one thing that could be updated in regards to minifig collection: I checked a magnet set that I got, and updated my minifig collection, and the minifigs in the magnet set didn't show up. Are they not listed as having minifigures?

Once again, thanks for the updates!

Posted by mars4life in United States, 16 May 2009 20:27

The box could be a bit bigger, especially wider. The words all get cut off.

Posted by liner737 in United States, 16 May 2009 20:33

i dont think publicity will solve anything!

Posted by Mr.Dunlop in Australia, 16 May 2009 22:25

I like Trandoshan's idea - just include the option of not sharing your notes (just like how members can choose to share their lists).

Posted by phazonix in United States, 16 May 2009 22:33

Very nice Addition, Huw. The one thing I'd like to possibly see is the ability to, when reviewing a set, add pictures of said set, so you can see how it looks when its finished (you know what lego can do with CGI....) so people can really decide if it's cool enough to buy. But I'm just throwing out ideas. Again, nice work!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 17 May 2009 03:48

@ShatteredGnome7675, there are a few issues at the moment with sets like magnets and chess with matching up the data from BrickLink with that here. I'll get round to sorting them out one day...

@phazonix, I have thought about accepting user-contributed images of sets but I'm sure you can imagine what a moderation nightmare that would be!

Posted by GameOn99 in United States, 17 May 2009 06:52

Huw, I think that you should add a feature so that you can add mini-figs seperate from sets. I have an army of figs that have no set now and at least half of these figs are customized so it would be cool if you could do somthing like a custom mini-figure adder.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 17 May 2009 11:18

@GameOn99, I hope to add that feature real soon...

Posted by sidneyleejohnson in United States, 17 May 2009 12:44

Huw, recording the condition of more than 1 set does change the database structure from a simple int on one table to potentially a many to one relationship with your setid/name/desc/etc on one table and another table to record each instance of the set, condition, purchase price and notes.
The application would then need to support a datagrid for each set if you have more than one set allowing you to create/retrieve/update/delete(CRUD). However, I think the benefits would warrant the work. If you want dba contributions let me know. If this is a dot.net/sql appliication I would be happy to design rdlc's (report viewer embedded reports) as well as design tables, indexes, and stored procs to make this puppy shine.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 17 May 2009 14:26

@sidneyleejohnson, yes it does complicate the database schema somewhat although it's nothing I can't handle technically, I just need to find the time to do it. It is a .net/SQL app.; thanks for your offer of help, I might take you up on it one day :-)

Posted by gratefulnat in Switzerland, 18 May 2009 15:26

For all of us hopeless LEGO addicts - another great addition. Now I get to spend hours adding my notes to my setlist here at brickset - so let those rainy days come, because I'll have something to do (until I get a hold of the new SW sets).

Posted by ShatteredGnome in United States, 18 May 2009 18:36

Oh, just got an idea. For minifigs owned without the set, or if you don't remember, you can just click an 'own' box like you can with the sets listed when you browse. Although then you would have to create a minifig browser too. Or just have a link page, 'view minifigs in this category/ year/ subtheme' from the set browser. Tell me what you think, Huw.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 19 May 2009 10:14

@ShatteredGnome7675, it will probably be an extension of this page http://www.brickset.com/minifigs/myCollection/?category=Indiana+Jones&all=1 with a means of adjusting the qty of the minifigs you own.

The notes feature seems popular: 118 people have made 562 notes so far...

Posted by jonbuddy in United States, 21 May 2009 09:27

Good feature. I've only made one note so far.

Posted by jakelongdragon in United States, 22 May 2009 21:11

Cool stuff! You the man!

Commenting has ended on this article.