Response to survey comments, part 3
Posted by Huw,
Today I will respond to comments received in our recent user survey concerning the news articles we post on the home page.
Before I do so, thank you to everyone who contacted us about contributing set reviews. We had an overwhelming response! I will be getting back to you all in due course.
Also, here is an update on the database action plan:
- Basic information about sets released prior to 1965 has been added and, with the help of a couple of collectors, many images will be added over the next few months.
- I found a bug in the code that's invoked when I upload hi-res images. It appears that for the last few months it has not been working correctly which meant that although hi-res images were on the server, the front-end didn't know so would not display them. This has been resolved now which means we have a high resolution image of every set sold at shop.LEGO.com since 2009 except for about five.
- Atbricks has sent me a collection of over 4000 images that I will be sifting through soon. They should help fill the gaps particularly for alternative images of sets released 2007-2010.
- I now have a comprehensive list of NoStarch books and I will be adding them shortly. If anyone would like to assist with downloading cover images, please get in touch.
- Finally, I scanned a number of polybags yesterday to improve the quality of those in the 30xxx number range. All but one (30036, the only one I don't own) of the 240 released in that series now has a hi-res image available.
Now, onto our news. Here is what you said:
- You want more news
- You want it posted more promptly
- You want us to post leaks and watermarked images
- You think it's too UK focussed
- You think it's too US focussed
- You want more news from [insert your country here]
- You want more coverage of video games
- You don't want articles about 3rd party products, crowdfunding campaigns, etc.
- You want articles posted when new sets are added to the database
- You want more email newsletters
- You don't want our weekly news summary or other automated articles
- You want articles about MOCs and building techniques
- You want articles about storage solutions and LEGO rooms
- You don't like it when staff are away and not many articles are posted
- You want us to tweet every article
So, a lot of good ideas and valid concerns there.
I guess the most important ones are more news, more promptly, from more places, even when we are away.
More news:
To see whether we are lagging behind other news sites in terms of number of articles posted I did a quick survey of some of the other sites that I digest via RSS. Over the last three weeks we have posted 56 articles on the home page, an average of 18 a week or 2.5 a day. Here is what other sites posted:
- The Brick Fan: 44
- Toys N Bricks: 51
- Brick Fanatics: 77
- Hoth Bricks: 25
- Brothers Brick: 53
So, just looking at those numbers, for a period that might not be typical, only Brick Fanatics posted more frequently. On the face of it then, we are not doing too badly compared to our rivals, particularly given many of them give more coverage to video games than we do, which is perhaps something we will cover more of in the future. Other than that, short of making up news or posting about trivial things of interest to a small minority, I don't know how we can post more given that we are reporting on a single company and its products.
More promptly:
There is a perception that Brickset is behind the curve when it comes to posting news. I suspect that if the sites listed above were to each hold a survey, the same comment would be made in them all because no site can be first with every news story. Less so now that there are more sites covering news and more places that people who discover it post it: forums, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and so on. In years gone by people would email us directly; now they post on social media or a forum somewhere so unless we are constantly scouring the 'net someone else will beat us to it.
So, this is not something I'm going to lose sleep over. Of course we will try and post articles in a timely manner but we can't always be first. My advice is to do what I do and read a number of news sources if you have to know about emerging stories immediately.
More places:
We are based in the UK so naturally our news will have a UK bias. However 35% of our traffic is from the USA and 5% from Canada so it makes sense to cover north America too and I hope we do a reasonable job.
We are happy to post news from anywhere if we are told about it, although note that we stopped posting '25% off LEGO at Costco' type articles a while ago because that sort of information is relevant only to a small number and it is better shared in the forum when it can be done so in a more timely manner.
We could do with a US correspondent, which we used to have but don't have anymore, so if that's something you would like to apply for, get in touch. Note however that it's an unremunerated position: our tax affairs would be complicated immeasurably otherwise.
For that matter, we could do with correspondents from all over. Contact us if you would like to be involved.
When we are away:
This is a valid concern and one we do need to be better at, particularly if CapnRex101 and I are both away at the same event. Perhaps with a US correspondent things would improve.
So a lot to be thinking about and taking on board. Thank you for your feedback.
Finally, remember that we categorise our news so if you don't like some of what we publish you can customise your news feed in your profile.
29 likes
36 comments on this article
I feel your doing a great job for the US. Correct not everyone can be first with news. If everyone posted the same items, that would be boring. I love Brickset as my primary bookmark but also enjoy checking all of the sites out for different topics, videos and such. Everything can't be on the front page. Needs to be spread out, old school like a newspaper. Now with electronic media though, we the consumer can choose what our front page and so on are by bookmarks including setting filters like you feature here.
Also it's fun to search and find new things in different places. Keeps it interesting.
My concern with news was that not all news was reported this past year. My feedback mentioned two things related to Mixels, Toy Fair and Comic Con. 3 series 7 guys were revealed at Comic Con, which was not noticed here. Also, the series 5 and 6 tribe names were announced at Toy Fair in February. The Mixels fan community did't learn of them for months. Otherwise, the news is great.
Something that perhaps I should have mentioned above, but really goes without saying: if you find news that you think we should be reporting, let us know via the contact form. We won't necessarily report it, particularly if it's too regional or niche but at least if we are aware we can make the call.
I really like the idea of a newsletter
^ There is an email newsletter, if you're not in the mailing list you can join here: http://eepurl.com/br9CWj
I agree that the site is a bit too UK focused. However... articles about building techniques, that I would love to see.
So you're putting up a bunch of hi-res pictures from the past 6 years of LEGO sets? NICE. Good job Huw and the team!
did not know about the email newsletter. i just signed up Thanks HUW.!
I am not from the UK or from Nth America, and I find the coverage fine. Of course I would love a more regional perspective, so I go elsewhere for that part, and do the rest of my 'visiting' on this site. Nice to have a varied perspective.
Are there any plans to post articles on storage solutions? I now Bricks was running an article series like that, but I doubt too many here subscribe to that.
^ Yes, I'd love to run a series. Fancy kicking it off?
I respect what you are doing respecting the treatment of leaks, I have my favorite from the last batch, and how you respond to when Lego asks you politely to remove them.
It won't be nearly as fancy as your multi-tiered system, Huw, but I think I could.
Excellent, thank you! Hopefully your article will encourage others to follow suit.
I just wanted to say thanks given there seem to be so many critical comments.
I think the job those involved with this site do is great and I check it almost every day.
A US correspondent position sounds enticing. Too bad I didn't have more information/time to help out. Any free time that isn't spent with the family or with work is spent on LEGO. (odd how time and money are both spent on those same things...maybe time really is money?)
We have a couple of potential US correspondents so watch this space!
Brickset is a very enjoyable website which I use a lot. I believe the biggest need for improvement (at least for me) is the ability to better search the forum and website (in general). I will remember reading something somewhere and have a general idea where, but today's search engine pulls in so many hits that I just give up. The forum probably has 200K-300K comments, and merely providing a simple word search just doesn't cut the mustard.
It would be great to search on a combination of words (of course), user names, exclusion of words, time periods, etc. via boolean logic type searches (AND/OR). In short, Brickset really lacks an advanced search function in both the forum and news areas. I provided this feedback in the survey and really hope that it is addressed. My fingers are crossed.
I really appreciate all the time and effort that goes into maintaining Brickset, Huw. My son and I are eternally grateful. :)
^^ Forum search was upgraded yesterday.
I might've missed this in the other posts, but I'd really like the ability to edit comments (not just within 6 minutes) and to edit forum posts.
Good plan for the site so far. Are we going to get LEGO Room / building technique posts here, Huw? Very pleased with the way the site is working, and I'm very grateful to the admins who run the place. :)
@CM4Sci: I believe you have the ability to edit comments for up to an hour.
Wow, I'm picking my jaw up off the floor with the pre-1965 sets. If you need or want help with some of those images, I can help.
As for the news, you guys do a very good job with it. There room for improvement, but overall these are minor improvements. As for a UK bias, maybe. Lego is a global brand so a global prospective is good even if it does have British accent.
Living in the UK I like Brickset being UK biased. I visited a lot of other LEGO based sites before I discovered Brickset. Too many were US centric and consequently the content was sometimes not relevant to me and where I live. Keep up the good work.
Brickset is the only LEGO site I visit, and I have never felt that I was not "in the know" about LEGO news.
And my two cents: when you are on vacation, enjoy your vacation.
Thanks for all the work you and your crew do, Huw. (That's a good bit of unintentional rhyming.)
I don't know of any other site that has a forthcoming event summary for so many countries... every fan will surely find something for her- or himself.
Thank you and all the best for the future!
Oh, also, I'm having trouble changing my avatar and my email address. Email won't save and my avatar doesn't appear on here.
I think you're doing a fantastic job, Huw. Surely you are getting PAID for all this work, yes?
I don't see where you may have addressed the leak/watermark desires, but I strongly oppose posting such materials if for no more reason than to respect the desires of TLG. I understand the desire for news about new stuff, but being the first to know/report isn't worth incurring the wrath of TLG.
Don't worry, we won't be posting anything we shouldn't. My guess it was kids that made the comment that they wanted us to.
I love the site just as it is! You're doing a great job.
I think its a great site and visit it most days just to see what's 'in the news'. PS If you put a click-through to the Swiss LEGO.com site i'll use it :)
I love Brickset but I think there's far too much reliance on automated content and maintaining the goodwill of TLG. Many things are automated and offer very little value - for instance, the Sunday post "this week's most popular articles" offers what exactly? Add a little commentary, a round-up of the week, why did article X generate more clicks than article Y, it's surprising that article Z was comparatively ignored while article A was clicked and shared 1,000 times more than you expected. The US audience seem drawn to Bionicle but nobody in Europe gives a toss. That's interesting, that might generate debate, as opposed to a list of articles drawn up and posted by a cron job.
A couple of us have asked for you to include a link to LEGO.com Belgium when you include the US/UK/etc links, but you refused saying it was too much work and not worth it because you don't get commission. Seriously? Even a simple copy and paste is measured in how much it might earn? Nice way to stick two-fingers up to your Belgian readers!
Brickset brings a lot of value to the AFOL community and I'm grateful you're here. I'm sure it takes a lot of work and a not insignificant amount of cash to keep it alive, which makes bellyaching like mine all the harder to deal with I suppose. It's great that you do the survey and ask for feedback, I can't think of many sites that do that. Overall if BS stays exactly as it is I'd remain very happy - but it would be nice to be surprised now and again :)
A couple of things that might be straight-forward to achieve - stop (certain) users policing the forum on your behalf, this must surely be putting new users off when they get jumped on by a half-a-dozen judge-and-jury nutters for making a simple etiquette error. Secondly, more Brick Owl integration would be great, even if just a link to the site on each product's 'Links' tab.
Oh, the comment time-out issue that makes comments disappear into the ether is seriously annoying.
^ Actually, that's a good idea about providing some analysis of the most read articles.
As they are I feel they add value to those that don't visit the site every day, perhaps only come at the weekend, but you're right, I could add a paragraph or two to them.
Another reason it and the other automated articles are posted at the weekend is that they help keep the site fresh when we admins are spending time with our families. Although we all love LEGO, we do have other interests and commitments so can't be updating the site 24/7.
I also take your point about providing links to shop.LEGO.com/fr-BE and it has nothing to do with 'two-fingers up' to Belgians, more the practicality of it. Yes, it is a simple copy and paste, takes 30 seconds. For Belgium. Then I'd also have to do it for...
Australia
Austria
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
and...
Switzerland
So what starts out as a 5 minute job becomes a 30 minute one and bloats the articles to an unreasonable size.
I've never noticed comments timing out, although your session will time out after 20 minutes, that's just the way the website code works, to conserve resources.
Please use the following links: UK | USA | FR | BE | PL | ES | CH, etc... It can be stored in a Notepad file and copied and pasted across as needed. It's not an issue, more a suggestion I suppose.
That's OK unless tailoring the links for specific products.
@Huw - Is it now possible to search a discussion based on a combination of the poster's user ID and key words? I saw the new link for searching for key words, but the search failed when a poster's ID was added. Thanks in advance.
^^ indeed, but is that strictly necessary? A link to the home page would be welcome I'm sure, and if they start paying commission for a particular territory then you already have users accustomed to using the links on BS.