Site changes

 

  • Site changes

    Posted by Huw, 30 Jul 2012 06:42. Filed under Brickset.

    I've made a few changes today:

    • One criticism often received is that the list of themes is growing larger every year and there's no easy way to view similar ones, e.g. all girls themes, or all historical themes. As a step towards remedying that, the all themes list on the Browse page (when not viewing the lists as clouds) is now grouped, logically I hope.
    • A number of security vulnerabilities that were pointed out by an AFOL security consultant have been addressed. The changes should not have affected the site from working correctly, but if you do notice anything that's broken, please let me know.
    • There is now a 'reads' count shown next to news articles. Counting stared at 9am GMT+1 this morning. This will enable us to see which articles are 'hot' and once I know what number constitutes a 'hot' articles I may well indicate them as such. It doesn't update immediately, as the data is cached for a while, for performance reasons.
    • I'm often asked to change people's user name which I can do, but only by delving into the database manually. So, I've added an option on the 'Your profile' page so you can now do it yourself. Changes are tracked for auditing purposes.

     


    49 comments, latest one posted 9 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
    2863 views


 
 

Comments

Posted by koponant in Finland, 30 Jul 2012 07:24

Could those "groups" be some kind of Master Themes or Theme Groups, that could be used for searching and data mining? I've often wished for that.

Posted by cool_kid555 in United States, 30 Jul 2012 07:27

whats up with the boxed numbers in the browse section?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 07:30

^^ Eventually yes, possibly.

^ The number of the sets in the theme/year.

Posted by Andhe in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 07:36

Looks good. Some of the numbers/years (eg Alpha Team 32 2001-2005) are getting flagged up as international phone numbers on my browser! Guess it's my skype? When they correspond to international dialling codes.

Posted by legobigbloke in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 07:54

The {not known} section in Browse says 2 sets in the box, but returns no info when clicked on.

Posted by NeilMartin in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 08:37

Huw, I've just changed my user name and Brickset logs me out for the change to take effect. When I log back in I am returned to the Change User Name screen. I would have expected to be returned to the My Profile page or maybe the Home News page. It's great to be able to change my user name; this isn't a big deal, just providing user feedback :-)

Posted by UtarEmpire in United States, 30 Jul 2012 08:42

To be honest, the categories seem a little arbitrary. Would it be possible to keep the default "complete list" of themes and options to make one's own categories?

EDIT: Also, do you think it would be possible to have some kind of feed on the front page for the latest approved reviews? I feel that set reviews form one of the core pieces of user contributions on this site, and it would be nice if they were highlighted as such.

Posted by Graysmith in Sweden, 30 Jul 2012 08:43

I'd like to be able to view all minifigures released in a given year. Right now it seems you're only able to view yearly within a theme, so it'd be nice if there was an "All themes" option for that.

Posted by Bob Clear in United States, 30 Jul 2012 08:52

How do you track the reads? I don't go into the page unless I want to comment

Posted by jonbuddy in United States, 30 Jul 2012 09:12

Will it say what the username was originally? Because people are going to get really confused really fast.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 09:35

@NeilMartin, thanks I've now hopefully corrected that.

@legobigbloke, The two unknown theme sets have been deleted until we know what they are: that entry was showing in the list error so I've removed it.

@UtarEmpire, I am happy to take suggestions. Enabling users to group them individually would be a lot of work for little benefit, IMO.

@Graysmith, I'll add that to the to-do list!

@Bob Clear, it counts reads of this page, so it isn't ideal or 100% accurate but it gives some indication of how interested people are in the article, and in particular, the comments.

@jonbuddy, no, but it's recorded in the database so I can see them in case there are issues later.

Posted by Brickmatic in United States, 30 Jul 2012 10:07

The boxed numbers are sort of distracting. I think it is because they are in black versus the lighter blue used for the theme names. Perhaps the color for the numbers can be muted so it isn't more eye catching than the theme name?

Posted by Gandalf1 in United States, 30 Jul 2012 10:11

^It doesn't seem like that to me. It think that may be a matter of opinion.

Posted by Peter1975 in Netherlands, 30 Jul 2012 10:42

Sorry, but I like the old page. Everything was on alfabet, so easy to find. No I have to think first in what category a particulary set should be...
So if it's possible, I'd like to have the choice to go back to the old way.

Peter.

Posted by augen in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 11:08

In the real time results that drop down from the search box, please could we flag the ones that we own in green.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 11:11

^^ I guess I can't please everyone all the time, but I'll see what I can do.

If you know the theme you're interested in already it's quicker just to type it in the search box, but if you don't, which probably accounts for most of the use of the browse page, then grouping them should make it easier to find.

@Brickmatic, I'll tone the numbers/border down a bit...

Posted by Be-Burger in Israel, 30 Jul 2012 11:26

Looks great! Thanks for all the great work Huw :)

Posted by Yooha in Europe, 30 Jul 2012 12:25

Sarcasm ON
Now everyone, find "Collectable Minifigures" theme in the browse page in 5 seconds!
Good luck!

Posted by meyerc13 in United States, 30 Jul 2012 12:43

The problem I've always had is finding subthemes like Alien Conquest and Kingdoms. Under the old system, I would start looking in the 'A' and not find it, only to remember it is a subtheme and not a theme. For some reason I don't have this problem with City, probably because the box always has "City" on it. It's only the Space and Castle sets that I don't think of as subthemes because of the way LEGO brands them.

Posted by Mageamooney in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 12:54

I don't know if this is just my browser, but a lot of the themes on the Browse section have the years broken: instead of being normal text, they appear as skype numbers, giving me the option to add the number to my skype. It's not on all themes, just some, so it is kinda distracting. Other than that, the update is pretty useful. Thanks.

Posted by toon10001 in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 12:56

Glad i can change my username now.

Posted by ShatteredGnome in United States, 30 Jul 2012 12:58

I like the changes for the most part, and to me the grouping of themes is helpful and more organized in my opinion.

I was having one issue when browsing minifigs in my collection: they were opening the picture in a new tab from the link (to bricklink) instead of only opening a pop-up image when you click on them. Not sure if this is related to the new changes or not.

Posted by MCLegoboy in United States, 30 Jul 2012 13:22

The browser looks fantastic. I also like the dates for the theme's lifespan. Marvelous work.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 13:27

^^ thats related to a change I made a while ago. I hadn't noticed it myself but I should be able to fix it.

@yooha, just type 'collectable' in the search box, or click on the statue of liberty image at the top of the browse page...

Posted by mo123567 in United States, 30 Jul 2012 13:59

As opposed to catagories, I would prefer the ability for each user to create a list of favorate themes so they can have an option to only view favorates when browsing.

Not sure if that's reasonably possible or not, though, since I know very little on website design.

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 14:02

All good updates it seems to me, thank you very much for you continuing hard work Huw (and the other moderators too) to improve this wonderful website!

Posted by yellowcastle in United States, 30 Jul 2012 14:24

I'll second Peter1975 in that I liked the option to just choose any subtheme from the Browse list without having to dig. :o)

Posted by jengafett in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 14:35

I looked on the licsenced themes and I couldnt find speed racer!
hopefully it will be fixed...

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 15:12

^ It's considered a subtheme of Racers, rightly or wrongly, at the moment:

http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Racers&subtheme=Speed%20Racer

@mo123567, not easy, but do-able.

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 30 Jul 2012 15:59

I do have one suggestion actually, would it be possible to change the review writing system so that one can save your progress through composing a review and be able to come back to it later? I know I would find this useful and I am sure many other writers of longer reviews would as well. Thank you.

Posted by Dash Justice in United States, 30 Jul 2012 16:53

@CapnRex101 Yes, a 'Save as Draft' feature could be usefull.

Posted by LEGOSLUG in New Zealand, 30 Jul 2012 17:17

Awesome Changes Huw!

Although I'll never change my name.......

XD

Posted by Skywalker1966 in United States, 30 Jul 2012 17:34

Thanks for the name change option, Huw. I've been looking to try and, oh, "connect" all my LEGO accounts. It's just nice to have all my accounts with the same name.

@CapnRex101: That would be rather nice, especially for those who would prefer not sitting in front of a computer screen for hours on end... :P

Posted by Stacy in Australia, 30 Jul 2012 19:29

I'm seconding UtarEmpire's Edited post,

"EDIT: Also, do you think it would be possible to have some kind of feed on the front page for the latest approved reviews? I feel that set reviews form one of the core pieces of user contributions on this site, and it would be nice if they were highlighted as such."

I like that idea, would allow us users to see which sets are ones we should maybe look into picking up.

Posted by Rloisel in United States, 30 Jul 2012 22:23

Great job HUW

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 04:54

^^ An activity feed is planned for the future, to capture new reviews and everything else that goes on on the site.

Posted by ambo100 in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 07:26

Why 'reads', why not 'views'? It looks quite strange.

Posted by ChicoCheco in Norway, 31 Jul 2012 07:44

Many thanks for the possibility of changing the name. I wasnt happy about the nickname I choose earlier. So now the former nickname is replaced by my real nickname I got from my friends :-). Thanks again.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 08:36

^^ I did debate with myself about that. I visit http://www.pocket-lint.com and that uses 'reads', which felt somewhat 'cooler' than views for some reason.

Posted by just2good in United States, 31 Jul 2012 09:14

I know this is an old update, but I don't like the new theme/subtheme/year finder on the 'my Sets' page. I like the old one way better.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 11:24

It was taking too much room, that was the problem with old version.

Posted by Brickmatic in United States, 31 Jul 2012 15:11

@Huw I like the toned down boxes (as well as the new organization in general). Thanks!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 15:21

^ You're welcome...

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 31 Jul 2012 15:24

Might you be able to do anything about being able to have a 'save draft' function on a review Huw?

Posted by TooMuchLEGO in United States, 31 Jul 2012 19:12

^Couldn't you just save it in Notepad or something?

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 01 Aug 2012 03:50

^No, when you re-paste it back in to the review it looks fine when you are writing it, but the font changes when you click submit so it looks all wrong.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 01 Aug 2012 04:29

^^^ Probably yes, but it won't be a 5 minute job.

^ Notepad will be fine, but other editors (Word etc.) will introuce unwanted formatting as you suggest.

Posted by CharlieTheFunEngine in Australia, 02 Aug 2012 03:37

I second Skywalker1966. I too have been changing my username across the board the unify my accounts and it's great to have finally done it here.

Posted by Plasmodium in United Kingdom, 02 Aug 2012 06:20

How difficult would it be to put different themes under more than one category in the 'Browse' list? That way it might be easier to find ones which are ambiguous. For example, I was surprised to find Adventurers under 'Historical', thinking they would fit better under 'Action/Adventure'.

Commenting has ended on this article.