ShelfLife Beta Test Announcement: Very Exciting Stuff

[faustx]

Originally Posted by TMIIWonkoNemises

Hey James,

I wondered if there was a certain number of people who were allowed to Beta Test this...cause I sent you an e-mail about entering ages ago.

Nope beta test is still open for cybertron.ca members and we definitely want to get even more bodies in the system.

Wonko, your invite was sent to your provided email last week, maybe check your spam or inbox? If you can't find it, pm me privately and I'll send your access.

James

[Ozrein]

Any chance of getting an option to skip filling out the details of the 'have' pop-up window?

[Sureshot22]

dont know if its a glitch or not but you use to be able to click have or want from the screen with all the pics in a cataog. today you had to actually click on an item and go into it to be able to have or want.

please put it back the way it was if its not a glitch.

[nickh]

Originally Posted by Ozrein

Any chance of getting an option to skip filling out the details of the 'have' pop-up window?

We decided against that because it's so beneficial if everyone fills in the details.

By filling in the details, your profile page will be customized to show photos that correspond exactly to what you have. Also, we'll be able to match up items that you're missing with items that other people have.

There're lots of other benefits, but those're 2 major ones.

[nickh]

Originally Posted by Sureshot22

dont know if its a glitch or not but you use to be able to click have or want from the screen with all the pics in a cataog. today you had to actually click on an item and go into it to be able to have or want.

please put it back the way it was if its not a glitch.

Hey Sureshot22. The Have/Want buttons should show up if you move your mouse near the bottom of each product photo. Let me know if that's not happening for you.

[Ozrein]

Originally Posted by nickh

We decided against that because it's so beneficial if everyone fills in the details.

By filling in the details, your profile page will be customized to show photos that correspond exactly to what you have. Also, we'll be able to match up items that you're missing with items that other people have.

There're lots of other benefits, but those're 2 major ones.

What about those that want this purely as a resource to track their own collections with no desire to sell and/or no need to fill in missing items? Or those that would prefer to input their collections, then at a later date fill in the specific details when time is more plentiful?

[faustx]

Originally Posted by Ozrein

What about those that want this purely as a resource to track their own collections with no desire to sell and/or no need to fill in missing items? Or those that would prefer to input their collections, then at a later date fill in the specific details when time is more plentiful?

Valid point, but think about how messy the tracking of our collections gets if we have some with details on price, nature of condition and packaging and some without. For the system to work hyper-efficiently as both a collection management system and marketplace for everyone involved, it's pretty key we have detail.

That being said, I think we can add a feature in your profile preferences down the road to let you skip those steps if you really don't care to participate in other ways. However, it will be a while until we get that in place and I think you may change your mind once you see everything ShelfLife will have to offer.

Thanks for the feedback!

James

[Ozrein]

Originally Posted by faustx

Valid point, but think about how messy the tracking of our collections gets if we have some with details on price, nature of condition and packaging and some without. For the system to work hyper-efficiently as both a collection management system and marketplace for everyone involved, it's pretty key we have detail.

That being said, I think we can add a feature in your profile preferences down the road to let you skip those steps if you really don't care to participate in other ways. However, it will be a while until we get that in place and I think you may change your mind once you see everything ShelfLife will have to offer.

Thanks for the feedback!

James

Well as far as price goes, I think that's going to be a big problem. I dont remember what I paid for most of my 500 figures. So far almost everything has been left at $0 unless it was something I bought very recently. If that is going to be part of your system (using the info from everyone's collection), you're going to have some majorly skewed data. There should be an option for 'unknown' or something similar (at the very least for pricing, if you are using it in that way).

The other issue here is, alot of folks dont have ready access to every piece of their collections. I would think there is large percentage of people that have parts of their collections in storage or at the very least not readily on hand to review the condition or accessories or what-have-you. An option to fill in the details later would give those people a chance to input their known collection and then when they can actually go through their stored items, they can then update the info to reflect actual condition, etc.


One other seperate issue is: can we have another option for removing an item from our collection? Can you add "mistake" or something similar to the options when removing? I added a 2nd figure to see how it would be displayed, but I dont actually have that figure. So it wasnt exactly "lost" nor have I sold it or gifted it (since there was no figure to begin with). I also dont know what series most of my G1 collection is until I can get it out of storage and check dates. So I can either add my best guess right now and change it later (again with the issues as stated above) or I just wont bother inputing my G1 collection until I move and can get it out of storage.

[faustx]

Originally Posted by Ozrein

Well as far as price goes, I think that's going to be a big problem. I dont remember what I paid for most of my 500 figures. So far almost everything has been left at $0 unless it was something I bought very recently. If that is going to be part of your system (using the info from everyone's collection), you're going to have some majorly skewed data. There should be an option for 'unknown' or something similar (at the very least for pricing, if you are using it in that way).

The other issue here is, alot of folks dont have ready access to every piece of their collections. I would think there is large percentage of people that have parts of their collections in storage or at the very least not readily on hand to review the condition or accessories or what-have-you. An option to fill in the details later would give those people a chance to input their known collection and then when they can actually go through their stored items, they can then update the info to reflect actual condition, etc.


One other seperate issue is: can we have another option for removing an item from our collection? Can you add "mistake" or something similar to the options when removing? I added a 2nd figure to see how it would be displayed, but I dont actually have that figure. So it wasnt exactly "lost" nor have I sold it or gifted it (since there was no figure to begin with). I also dont know what series most of my G1 collection is until I can get it out of storage and check dates. So I can either add my best guess right now and change it later (again with the issues as stated above) or I just wont bother inputing my G1 collection until I move and can get it out of storage.

1) You're right, data will be better if we let you guys say unknown for price. We'll get on that.

2) Condition data being wrong is fine so long as you fix it before you sell it. It may however result in you being notified about matches that don't actually exist, but you'll have control over that and the ability to ignore matches.

3) We will indeed be adding additional fine tuning controls for adjusting what you Have, but much of what you need is already in place. If you already "Have" something, click the Have button denoting this and then click the link to that product. This will take you back to the Have screen and let you adjust the details for it again. If you have two, you can still do the same thing.

Have a great weekend everyone!

p.s. Weekend bonus contest announcement: Whoever reaches out to a friend here on Cybertron.ca and gets them to sign up for the beta test before Sunday at midnight (have them drop your name to launch@shelflifex.com along with their own) will be entered in a bonus draw for $50 ($25 for each of you) good for my sales thread or site credit, your choice. This is on top of the random draw for the $50 credit that is up for grabs just for being on the site this weekend doing things.

James

[Ozrein]

OK thanks for that. I'll remain patient.

Oh and I just signed into the site and I dont see any difference between Buy and Collect portions of the website (clicking on either yields no visual cue that or in one mode or the other). (I'm on Win Vista w/ Explorer 9, I know it's not the best out there but it's all I got).

Also the have/want buttons will only flicker on if I have my cursor at the exact right spot on the side of the picture, then if I time it right, I can click on them but if I scroll over to a different item, they'll flicker off again and I have to rinse and repeat.

And sorry one last thing, not all the options from the left or side menu are shown on the browse menu (near the top middle), I was looking specifically for the Animated and Energon lines.

Again, sorry for my posts sounding like I'm being negative. I'm hoping this site becomes the site to use for easy and convenient recording of collections with easy access to the market to expand (or sell). I guess I'm just hoping that easy and convenient part gives me the tools to keep track of my collection the way I'd like to keep track of it.