Response to survey comments, continued...
Posted by Huw,
In part one, I responded to comments about the news, reviews and the forum. Now I will turn my attention to site's design, the database and functionality.
Design
I love the new design / I preferred the old one -- bring it back!
The vast majority of comments about the design praised the new one although there were still a few people that said they preferred the old. It's not clear whether is the 'look and feel' they preferred or the functionality, probably a bit of both. One thing's for sure: the new design is here to stay...
It's too white, I want the blue background back!
Your wish is my command: go to your profile page, then click on Set general site preferences: time zone, background color etc. in the menu.
It doesn't work on a mobile / I want to pinch and zoom
I must admit being a bit puzzled about comments like this: The site has been designed to be responsive in that it responds to the size of the device you're using and modifies its appearance and function to suit. And, if you don't want it to do that but want the full desktop site instead so that you can, for example, pinch and zoom, there's a link at the bottom of every page enabling you to switch.
Comments about the eBay tab on set details pages taking up too much vertical space are valid and I will either remove it on small screens or limit its size.
The database
Images are not very good or are missing
Since January 2013 some 6,000 set images out of just over 10,000 have been replaced with better quality or larger ones. There is always room for improvement but overall the image repository is in a far better place than it was when we did the last survey.
There are 1184 sets without images. Maybe you can help? There are links at the bottom of the My Sets page that will show lists of sets that you own need images, or better images.
Your parts information is rubbish, can't you copy BrickLink's?
We obtain our information on parts and inventories from LEGO Customer Services consequently we use their colour names and categories. Although their inventories are improving, those for many old sets are incomplete. I do not intend to start collating inventories here, or correcting LEGO's, as it would create far too much work.
BrickLink has excellent inventories that have been collated over time by their community. For valid reasons, they do not want to share them with other sites so we are unable to show or use them here.
Please add all LEGO branded items to the database
Brickset is a database of LEGO *sets*. Some people suggested that we should include anything and everything with a LEGO logo on it, what we call 'Gear' in the database but which many refer to as 'tat' (a British colloquial term for cheap and tasteless trinkets).
Many of these items are made under licence and are of limited interest to LEGO collectors. They are also impossible to catalogue accurately because there is no published list of them. Therefore, we only add them if and when LEGO sell them and give them numbers (usually in the 500xxxx series at the moment), or in other exceptional circumstances. The rationale being that I'd rather have no data about them than incomplete data.
Can you add a community price guide?
This was an interesting idea. Is one needed? How would it work? How would it differ from BrickLink's price guide and BrickPicker's eBay-derived data?
Can you add prices in <insert your currency here>?
Actually, we probably already have. We show three currencies on the set listings but on the Prices tab at the bottom of the set details pages we list prices for all countries that LEGO ship to, some 22 of them. Clearly they would not all fit on the listings, although it might be possible to add your currency (determined from your IP address) to it. I'll see if that's possible.
Can we have a 'soon to be retiring' list please?
That would be great, wouldn't it, but unfortunately that information is not publicly available.
Functionality
I look forward to reading suggestions and comments about the site's functionality because I'm always looking for ideas to improve the site. However in this survey, one particular aspect of the site dominated such comments...
I don't like having to clear a filter before setting another
You know the problem.. you're browsing 2014 sets. You change the theme to Agents. Then, if you want to look at 2014 Chima sets you need to clear the Agents filter before you can select Chima. This is significantly different to how the old site worked and I suspect it's one of the reasons many prefer the old.
Having a side menu showing, for example, themes, like on the old site is not practical on a responsive site because on a small screen the menu would be at the end of the page making it difficult to use.
The current solution works well whatever the size of the screen but has the problem above. Ideally the Agents filter term in the example above would be a drop-down list so that Chima can be selected without needing to clear Agents. However that poses some database issues that, when I last looked at this, were tricky to solve efficiently without slowing searches down.
This is something I will be looking at again soon to try and sort it out once and for all.
I've sold the minifigs from some of my sets, can I remove them from my list?
OK, that's a reasonable request, I will see if it can be done without cluttering up the uder interface too much.
The mobile app needs improving / doesn't work / Why don't you create an official Brickset mobile app?
Please contact the authors of the apps directly to resolve any issues or to make suggestions.
I have no plans to create an 'official' Brickset app, sorry.
The RSS feed only contains one image and no links
The RSS feed's purpose is to enable you to find out what's been published on the site but not to avoid you having to visit it.
Please bring back the random set on the home page
OK -- I'll see if it can be added without cluttering up the page.
The ACM is difficult to use
Yes, I think it could be better but to be honest it's used by so few people that improving it hasn't been a priority.
The featured BrickList list needs some attention
It has been rather neglected hasn't it. I'll remove some of the obsolete ones and pick some other useful ones.
Add postage to Amazon prices / remove Marketplace items
Amazon does not expose postage costs in their API so it has proven to be tricky to factor them in. We do have a method which prevents marketplace items with low prices but high postage costs from appearing in the alerts but some items like this do still appear on the product listings. I could remove marketplace items altogether if the consensus was that it would be preferable. LMKWYT.
Show prices for Tesco/John Lewis/Asda etc. / Show products available in my country
We can only show prices when vendors operate an affiliate scheme, have a product feed, and accept us onto their programme. In the case of John Lewis we were not accepted so can't show their prices. I did look into showing Tesco but couldn't do so for some reason.
From a selfish point of view, adding prices for other vendors requires quite a lot of work and is not really cost-effective. For example, we show Play.com, the Entertainer and Smyths Toys links but the income generated by them is miniscule, maybe 0.5% of total revenue so for that reason I am not in a hurry to add more.
Can I have email alerts when items in my wanted list are reduced at Amazon?
That's something I hope to add soon.
Other topics
Can you write articles about MOCs / can we have a MOC database?
No, sorry, our focus is on retail sets and there are plenty of other sites that do an excellent job of covering MOCs.
Finally...
As a lesson to others that are thinking of soliciting feedback on their site, make sure you are sufficiently thick-skinned to take the inevitable personal comments, like these:
"As an adult Lego collector, I am ashamed to consider myself a hobbyist, when the majority of the people claiming to be adults on the forums act so childishly. This includes HUW, so I guess if the administrator is going to act that way, I can't expect the rest of the normal contributors to the forums to act any differently. After all, why should they if they aren't policed on it?"
"Huw is a whiny little baby"
"Huw and his stupid English attitude"
"The news is easily the worst part, courtesy of Huw. Pretentious and self-righteous bull in its most distilled form! The worst part is Huw's behaviour when questioned or called out on doing something less than ideal, whereupon he merely bans people and puts on a smug "go run your OWN website because obviously without one you have no idea what you're talking about" act. This is extremely shameful form and is not behaviour befitting someone in charge of a significant Lego website."
"I'm going to have to say it - I used to be a big user of this site, but Huw's constant negative attitude/bragging/holier than thou posts drive me insane. A little more humility please Huw, not everyone that uses your site is capable of spending as much money on LEGO as you do."
Remember, if you don't like me, or the site, go right ahead and find one that you do. Nobody's forcing you to visit!
--
Thank you all (well, all except the authors of the comments above) for your feedback. Expect to see changes to the site and the way its operated as a direct result of your feedback in the coming months.
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48 comments on this article
I love that you have enough of a sense of humour about yourself to host the negative comments.
Regarding the extra affiliates I know that it's more work for you but I think the more options you have on there the better payout, the reason I suspect you get so little from the Entertainer compared to Amazon is the fact that they don't reduce stuff very often so rarely give visitors the incentive to click through. John Lewis regularly have the best price (normally match from Amazon) and Tesco do regular reductions so it's almost certainly still worth retrying to qualify for their affiliate programs any time you are able - I assume once they say no to you there is some sort of waiting period before you can reapply.
Personally, I'm shocked at some of the above negative comments attacking Huw. People, Huw runs this site for the benefit of the Lego community in general, and he provides this service for us free of charge. It's his website and he can do what he wants and we should be thankful that he does such a good job of it. The fact the he even runs this survey is a sign that he's trying to improve the site for our use, not his so let's us just take a deep breath before criticising him for it. And really, Huw's right, if you don't like the site, don't use it. There's no need to get personal.
Great job Huw. Keep up the good work. And for those who may be wondering, no I don't know Huw personally and have never met him.
Thanks Huw for all the work it really is a great site and all the work is appreciated.
I have met Huw in person - he is not whiny and most definitely not a baby. He is quite little though ;-)
Keep up the good work, Huw! And be proud of your "stupid" English attitude - I know I am! ;-D
I think you and your site are great Huw :)
Huw, speaking of functionality, is it possible to separate the Star Wars IV-VI theme into individual groups? Like you did with the prequel trilogy sets. I think it would be much better.
If we could have an option to choose between the old and the new theme? I really liked using the old theme better, it was faster, easier to use, and had better features in my opinion.
Thanks Huw, for a great website. Keep up the good work.
"Remember, if you don't like me, or the site, go right ahead and find one that you do. Nobody's forcing you to visit!"
Do you think there's any room for improvement in your behavior?
^ Please could you explain what you consider to be unreasonable about the statement you have quoted?
As someone who hosts several community sites I can wholeheartedly agree that you need a thick skin in order to be the public face of such a thing. What many people often don't understand is that use of a community resource such as this is a privilege and not a right. As a user you have absolutely no rights and the site's owner has no obligations to you beyond those they set for themselves (and those enshrined in UK law which are few). Huw might make his living from this site and that alone comes with obligations, but they're ultimately set by himself for himself and he can walk away tomorrow if he so chooses.
If you genuinely feel that he's acting in a way that upsets you or that works against the overall community, the best thing you can do is remove Brickset from your favourites and walk away. If enough people do it then perhaps things might change, or more likely, another community hub more suited to your needs will emerge that people migrate to over time. I wouldn't count on it though, most people seem content with BS as it is, and I include myself in that (apart from the archaic forum tech and the sometimes toxic behaviour of some users).
Don't worry, Huw, anyone dealing with the public gets a fair bit of this. Can't please all the people all the time etc. It brings to mind the recent case of Stella Creasy MP and the twitter troll.
@aleydita, With respect, the Vanilla forums system that Brickset uses is considerably more modern than any other mainstream alternative.
Keep up the good work Huw! Thank you for sharing the feedback, your take on it, and for clarifying a few things. As for the folks who take offense as to how you operate and communicate, well, offense can only be taken - not given... I may not always agree with something you state on the site, but I feel that you've done a great job of managing BS and sharing our passion for LEGO. Thanks again.
Just to Add - It appears that the functionality to change the background color may not be working. I have selected the option "When viewing Brickset on a wide screen, show a dark background", but it still shows white background in IE, FF, and Chrome.
Just because Vanilla themselves say they provide the "best, most powerful community solution in the world" doesn't make it true :) As a developer it ranks just above phpbb in my opinion, and as a user it ranks as one of the worst. It's subjective I suppose, different things for different people.
I was going to reply to @woodwardiocom but @aleydita has covered the salient points and done so fare more eloquently than I could.
Of course it's in my interests to 'behave' in a way that doesn't upset site visitors but ultimately I don't answer to anybody. Nobody pays to use the site, or is forced to, as I keep saying.
Also, consider yourselves lucky that I am even allowing this two-way conversation. The excellent TheBrickFan site run by Allen Tran does not allow commenting on articles because I believe he was fed up with, or didn't want the possibility of, negativity or criticism.
Feedback is healthy and good for the site, and if anyone has constructive suggestions on how I should alter my 'behaviour' I will be happy to listen and take on board. Please email me huw @brickset.com
@lovaquero, working fine here. Take a look at the source code of the page and on line c.31 you should see, wrapped in style tags:
div.outerwrap{max-width:1180px;margin:auto;background-color:white;}body{background-color: 4667 A4;}
This is what overrides styles in the main stylesheet to give the blue background.
Rule Britannia! As a relatively new user to the site, I can honestly say that there has never been a problem.
I guess some of the negativity is coming from the US&A? If so, just think how much diecast collectors are sick to the back teeth then of US Centric discussions on forums!!
Keep going and don't look back - those that no longer wish to participate will go and find something else less boring instead.
Thank you for providing the resource. I am learning a lot.
@Anak, I think the problem with that is that some are hard to define exactly, like X-Wings for example. But if you want to give it a go, by all means do and I'll be happy to change the database.
@keefyd, thanks for your email, I will reply (positively) in due course!
Huw what about the toppless reviews from British Call girls for AFOL. Someone on here said you could get money from views on Youtube. Plus they have a simple age restriction tool you could use. I think it would be tops
^ Funnily enough you are not the first to suggest that :-)
Well that shows demand. You could do it two ways. Ask for donations for a Call girl review fund. If enough funds aren't raised for that months review then it rolls over for next month. Or put a competition spin on it. Promote it has like "submit your hot wife/girlfriend lego review. Then just apply the good old "Competition open only to 18 and older" rule.
@Huw: I think the simplest way to define a star wars set place in the database is when the actual vehicle / building can be first seen in the movies. Or if it has some key minifigure that relates to an episode.
E.g: the 9493 X-wing is A New Hope spacecraft, but 4502 is definately related to The Empire Strikes Back.
If I remember correctly in the old database had it this way also.
@Huw: Thank you for the kind words. I do actually have a commenting system on my site. It's just that people might not see it after the article but I still get some comments. I actually encourage conversation on my posts but people seem to not like to comment much on it for whatever reason although they are pretty active on other platforms.
I think many, including me, would be lost without Brickset. I could understand some of the criticism if we had to pay for Brickset, but it is completely free to use for us and we should be greatful for all the work Huw does.
As for the female topless YouTube videos... even as a AFFOL I'd say GO FOR IT! Start selling a calendar with naked girls holding LEGO sets. That would be a awesome idea. ;-)
^ The Living Brick announced a calendar (On April 1st!) a couple of years ago :-) - (NSFW) http://www.thelivingbrick.com/2012/04/brickchicks-2013-calendar-sneak-peek.html
I actually am glad the database uses LEGO Customer Services inventories - I vastly prefer these inventories to the Bricklink ones and for me is one of the parts of Brickset I use most frequently.
I can't believe there are negative comments about Huw's attitude of all things! Huw runs the forum in a very tolerant and laissez-faire way, and always seems willing to engage with dialogue about questions or contentious issues.
I think Brickset is one of the more professionally run of the various Lego fan-sites, and I respect their decisions to not publish leaked images and so on.
And talking about his nationality and the amount of money he spends on his hobby?! That's just ad hominem, pure and simple, and I hope you don't take any notice of these people, Huw!
Keep running this site in a respectable, professional manner, and you will always have my custom (such as it is)!
@Tormentalous, thank you for the correction. What I said used to be the case, though, didn't it?
I've just taken a look at a couple of your articles and failed to see any means of commenting. Then, on one it said 'Disqus has taken longer than usual to load'. I haven't seen it load properly yet, so if it's causing me problems maybe it does others and perhaps that explains a lack of comments.
I didn't fill out the survey but I'm enjoying going through the feedback.
I'd throw my vote in for removing "marketplace" discounts from Amazon. I'll never order them because as third-party vendors, "marketplace" items don't qualify for free shipping.
I miss having an amazon.ca discount RSS feed. Or have I missed where it is on the new design? The RSS feed alerts led me to getting Jabba's Palace for 33% off!
Not a fan of the forum system. Very user-unfriendly and odd, and strange to really get into discussions on.
The recent issues regarding just2good's youtube reveals show that at times, site admin can cause controversy or approach issues in a negative fashion, which could be detrimental to the site. To the admin's credit, he engaged the conversation and gave due credit.
There are also users who bring in their own levels of negativity or toxicity.
There is a lot of positivity and good. BrickSet reviews and opinions do tend to skew into the positive, and I APPRECIATE that. There are other sites where the reviews... I'm not sure why the individuals continue to collect LEGO, because it seems that only one in ten sets ever make them happy. Of course I think it's fair to criticize LEGO sets, but at the same time, take that step back, remember that LEGO ultimately designs 90% of the sets for children.
it's not really something i want to 'stop visiting' the site for. There isn't exactly a database like this anywhere else on the net.
As far as the new design, I think it's great, readable, useable, and modern.
^ http://brickset.com/feed/amazon/ca
They are listed at http://brickset.com/tools/rssindex
Huw, Like rnsrobot above I too missed the survey but am enjoying the discussion. Being an older user of the site (started somewhere around 2004ish) I've seen it go through many changes and grow exponentially.
Some changes I liked. Others I didn't, and did express it through other surveys. But some of the negative comments you received are just mind boggling.
Keep up the great work. Your site is a very valuable resource for the come-and-go collector like myself, and it will only get bigger and better.
Oh, and as for the negative commenters: Come move to Canada - things are a bit more relaxed here and we don't take things as serious eh?
I would definitely support a "remove marketplace items from Amazon price tracker" option. Then, users can turn it on/off as they like.
I would be stunned that people feel obligated to poo on Huw, but I've been on the Internet FAR too long. I'd like some pointers toward this alleged 'negative attitude' stuff. As for 'bragging', I suspect there's more than a hint of jealousy behind that.
Also: yes please on the Adult LEGO calendar. :)
Site rocks, and you rock, Huw! I discovered Brickset several years ago when I was looking for a way to organize my collection. I figured, someone must have created some form of online database to track your Lego collection, and sure enough, they had.
I love having instant access to my collection along with all the off-site links (mainly instructions and inventory) a single click away for each set. Filtering works great and is easy to use. I also use the wish list a lot, too. I don't know what site those complainers are going to, but I would chalk them up to internet background noise.
Since becoming a member on this site earlier this year, I have always been impressed by it's quality and have enjoyed reading the news and reviews pages.
I agree with all the positive comments of support given to Huw and lets not forget the rest of the Brickset team who also deserve some credit for the success of this site.
I would like to see some review function tools. There is already a Top Reviewers page but perhaps some filters could be added here to help find top reviewers by theme or recently posted reviews by top reviewers.
@Huw: I've always had ways for people to comment, whether it be the default Wordpress system or Disqus. It is my main commenting system now and I'm not sure why it doesn't work for you. I'll check on it a little later. Thanks for double checking and telling me the issues you had with it. Really appreciate it.
@HUW: Keep on doing what you're doing. The vast majority of people here are supportive of you (otherwise why would we be here?)
I will second (third, 99th) the idea to bring back the random set of the day feature.
Huw - I read this site daily on the lunch breaks. I have no idea what your negative commenters are referring to. Thank you for your hard work making this site what it is today.
I, for one, like to use the ACM. Good way to keep track of all the sets I have. Have you considered an "average savings" metric on the "My sets" page using the information that we provide in the ACM? Not sure about the interface between the ACM and your site, but you have the retail prices and you have our purchase price from the ACM and may be able to script a quick calculation.
Why do I ask? Because it would be nice to show the wife how I'm "saving $$$" while feeding my LEGO addiction... :)
It's hard to put myself in the shoes of someone who visits this website, then takes the time to do the survey, and then makes some of those negative comments. I love visiting this site, and come here just about daily, and while I'm from "across the pond" I understand that the admins are mostly British and I've learned some idioms and other things along the way as a result. If I was visiting a site that I didn't like, I wouldn't bother to make the comment because I wouldn't bother to have done the survey because I wouldn't bother to be coming back to the site. As we say here in the USA, "duh".
I was going to write a long comment defending Huw's right, blah blah blah. But I am quite simply lost for words ...
@huw - thanks! Subscribed to the amazon.ca rss feed. I've never really explored the 'more' tab of the menu...
These responses helped me a lot. Keep up the good work and I'm following upcoming Lego Star Wars reviews. Is there going to be a review about UCS Slave 1 when it comes out?
@Sonic_Raptor I agree about your ACM suggestions. That would be great!
I don't read the forums so can't comment on that, but I have to say that Huw has done an excellent job developing this site. It's my go-to site for set information; the content is timely, accurate, and relevant.
I develop web applications professionally, and though I can't speak to the code that runs it, it's a very strong user experience and Huw should be proud of what he's done here.
^ Thank you :-)
Huw -- what software did you use for the site design? Is it WordPress?
Bespoke, Microsoft technology stack.