Couple of small tweaks made in response to survey

 

  • Couple of small tweaks made in response to survey

    Posted by Huw, 02 Nov 2010 16:26. Filed under Brickset.

    I've made a few changes to address some comments made in the survey:

    • Where are the links to Peeron and BrickLink that used to be on the menu of the set details pages?
      These were removed a while ago when I rearranged the page and added the tabbed interface for the instructions etc. I've now added a new tab 'Links' which has them all. If you know of any other LEGO resources I should add here, let me know.
       
    • Why are there so many different versions of the instructions listed?
      The instructions tab is populated by scanning LEGO's server. For some reason they publish multiple versions of the same instruction manual: sometimes there are different versions to be printed on A4 or US-sized paper and sometimes, over time, instructions are updated (e.g for this year's Technic digger). To hopefully make it slightly easier for you to identify them I've added LEGO's own description for them. Unfortunately they are often a bit cryptic so they might not be much help...

    While looking for links to add to the tab I searched for LEGO instructions on Google. I couldn't really believe what I saw: loads of copycat sites like 'freelegoinstructions.com' and 'lego-instructions.com' which seem to exist only to make their owners a fast buck and add no value at all. None of them were very comprehensive, you're better off searching here then downloading from LEGO.com or Peeron. I'm surprised the lawyers haven't closed them down yet: they tend to come down heavily on domains with the word LEGO in them.

    I'd like to add links to brickfactory which is well established and comprehensive but unfortunately it's coded in such a way that it's impossible to link to specific instructions, you need to navigate through a tortuous menu system to find what you're after. I've tried contacting the webmaster to see if things can be improved, but no reply yet...


    20 comments, latest one posted 30 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Doctor Leg O'Brick in United Kingdom, 02 Nov 2010 16:57

My friend told me about them two copycat websites.

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 02 Nov 2010 16:57

I think this a nice improvement Huw, so far all the changes have been for the better IMO. Keep up the great work and know that it is very much appreciated!

Posted by legobob in United States, 02 Nov 2010 17:23

thanks Huw!

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 02 Nov 2010 17:30

Yay! New features! Just a suggestion: Can't you make the set tabs a bit bigger? They are pretty aggressive on my eyes...

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 02 Nov 2010 18:10

^ Press ctrl-F5 to refresh things. They are slightly smaller so everything fits in and for future expansion

Posted by Berrybrick in United States, 02 Nov 2010 18:29

Didn't you used to have links for brickfactory? If not what was that website?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 02 Nov 2010 18:52

It used to be http:///www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/

Posted by Berrybrick in United States, 02 Nov 2010 19:05

Is that the same website though (I used to use it, I didn't like picsl's "must be logged" in and "three years after release", policies)?

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 02 Nov 2010 19:12

The "3 years after release" policy isn't Peeron's choice, it was LEGO's condition for allowing them to officially host the instructions at all. I wasn't aware of a "must be logged in" policy; I've just checked & I can readily access old instruction scans without being logged in, so I don't know what you are referring to?

Posted by DrDaveWatford in United Kingdom, 03 Nov 2010 05:16

Thanks, Huw - the site gets better and better !

Just one gripe, though....! My next action after accessing the page for a particular set is generally to click through to the set inventory on Peeron or Bricklink. I therefore thought that the loss of readily accessible hyperlinks to these sites on the set page itself (as opposed to within a tab) was a retrograde step. The previous site update put these links in the Instruction tab, but at least they stood out. Now they're in the Links tab along with tons of other links and take longer to access. Given the importance of Peeron and Bricklink, it'd be lovely if it was once again possible to link through to these sites without having to go into a tab, e.g. via a couple of discreet icons in the right margin ?

No complaints otherwise - Brickset rules !

Posted by RohanBeckett in Australia, 03 Nov 2010 08:32

With Peeron, if you didn't log in, you could only view a certain amount of pages/scans per day before it stopped you
(something like 12 pages), which was pretty annoying if you were building-via-web a 20 page model!

in any case, the site was always SO SLOW.. a few years ago, I bought some bootleg DVD on ebay, that had about 2000 odd instructions.. I think most of them originated from hccamsterdam

Posted by wiwaedu in Spain, 03 Nov 2010 10:39

Huw, I can read one error in your post...

web for Brickfactory is http://www.brickfactory.info/ not .com

Thank's for all

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 03 Nov 2010 11:45

^ thanks, now corrected.

Posted by Berrybrick in United States, 03 Nov 2010 14:38

If you aren't logged in you can't view more than a hundred pages per hour.

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 03 Nov 2010 18:08

Thanks for the clarification. It does raise another question though ... is there a issue with registering? I registered many years ago, and I use Peeron to help keep track of my elements. The ability to track my sets on Brickset, and then export that list to Peeron to update my element collection is useful to me ... but you can only do it if you're registered with both Brickset & Peeron.

Posted by teabox in Sweden, 04 Nov 2010 06:11

Thanks for the direct links to BrickLink's parts lists. I been missing those :)

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 04 Nov 2010 08:20

Huw, a direct link to the Bricklink Price Guide page for each set would be very nice!

Posted by 1265 in United States, 04 Nov 2010 18:36

Why is Brickset so far behind other Lego sites when it comes to the latest and greatest Lego news and/or sales. I love Brickset....however, this site lives in the past than the present and/or future.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 04 Nov 2010 18:59

@1265, can you give us some examples of news you've read elsewhere that you haven't read here?

We will never list as many US 'sales and deals' as Arnold over at ToysNBricks if it is that to which you are referring: there are so many and we can't keep on top of them all, even if we are told about them. Most are short lived and releatively insignificant, in any case.

Rather, our emphasis is on more interesting things that are of interest to a global audience, like new sets, sightings of new sets and so on. I think you'll find that the 2011 police pictures at TRU story and the series 3 minifigs news this week broke here at Brickset first.

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 05 Nov 2010 08:25

Huw, it would also be nice if these links opened in a new browser tab like the the ebay links.

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