Author Topic: It's time we create a notification system for when items are modified or deleted  (Read 1126 times)

leonefamily

PRO Supporter

Often we have items in the database that are created with missing information. x item is created and everyone assumes it's the only variant. But sometimes, much later afterwards, someone realises that two or more variants of that item exists and it becomes necessary to create a second item to differenciate the two. In this instance, the original item gets changed to one of the two variants. But if I'm unlucky enough to own the second variant, since the original item now becomes the first variant, it creates an error in my collection database, because now it says I own an item which I don't actually own.

It happened to me once with item #1521 when it was found out there was a second variant of it, which was created as item #163912. One day I'm just browsing the PS2 section for fun and I notice the two, and realise the item I had added to my collection initially is now incorrect.

And now it just happened again with item #175417 and #211404. I own the latter, and thank god I logged on at the perfect moment to notice the new item in the Latest Items bar, because otherwise I would have been stuck with yet again an item rendered incorrect due to changes in its description.

We seriously need to implement a notification system for when items in your collection are modified, to avoid added items becoming retroactively incorrect. I'll have to go back and double check all of my 1000+ items in my collection now, because I'm starting to notice that at least a good amount of them have become incorrect over the years. Just imagine those with 10000+ items in their collection already!
Freeze iou imperialist pig! Zat is ze propertay of ze Gouvernement Français. Hand eet over!

dhaabi

We seriously need to implement a notification system for when items in your collection are modified, to avoid added items becoming retroactively incorrect.

This has been a feature I personally suggested among other staff. How such a feature is introduced and implemented is an issue, though. There is a considerable backlog of site issues that need to be addressed both on user side and mod side, and other features may need to be addressed before solving this issue. Just know that you're not alone in having this opinion. It's not uncommon for me to discover new items in my collection that warrant new entries being made, for myself or for others.

leonefamily

PRO Supporter

This has been a feature I personally suggested among other staff. How such a feature is introduced and implemented is an issue, though. There is a considerable backlog of site issues that need to be addressed both on user side and mod side, and other features may need to be addressed before solving this issue. Just know that you're not alone in having this opinion. It's not uncommon for me to discover new items in my collection that warrant new entries being made, for myself or for others.

There's already a notification system for accepted/rejected edits, so I suggest it could be implemented in the same way? But anyways, in my situation, it is the biggest issue that I'm facing on the site right now. I suppose many others agree with us aswell. I wonder how long it will take until this is implemented, because the day it will be implemented I will have to review my entire collection and make sure everything is accurate. Until then, my collection will just continue to grow and it will get even worse for me the longer we wait.
Freeze iou imperialist pig! Zat is ze propertay of ze Gouvernement Français. Hand eet over!

dhaabi

I wonder how long it will take until this is implemented, because the day it will be implemented I will have to review my entire collection and make sure everything is accurate. Until then, my collection will just continue to grow and it will get even worse for me the longer we wait.

Personally, I believe the most successful way to implement the proposed feature would be reliant on having items with variants and multiple regional versions be connected to another. It is similar to what jason had published recently, and it would solve other problems beyond the scope of the topic at hand too. However, it would require overhauling a lot, if not all, of our current system.

It doesn't solve the problem, but the next best action to do under our current system is to provide as many details to entries that lack crucial information so that an entry's identity can be certain. That being said, this requires ensuring that the information being supplied is appropriate to the entry or if a new entry needs to be submitted entirely.

My concern with such a system (notifications on item edits) is that it could get very spammy for users which have a lot of items in specific categories. A lot of the time a specific category seems to be the focus of an overhaul by users and I don't foresee users getting 30 or more notifications about edits.

I like the idea of an overhaul in the way items are listed so that their language variants and possibly versions are essentially just a part of one item when listed. It would make the website a lot easier to use. The main issue obviously being the amount of work needed to make such a change.

For now, I think it'd be better to have each category have its own "Latest Items" and "Recently Edited" area. While it isn't ideal, it would enable users to have a much better idea of what's been changing in each category.

dhaabi

A lot of the time a specific category seems to be the focus of an overhaul by users and I don't foresee users getting 30 or more notifications about edits.

This is definitely not the case. Less than a handful of users like you and I contribute to the database like this. Most edit submissions are for an assortment of entries—generally for newly-released items or for items a user has recently added to their collection. That being said, your comment on edits resulting in spamming notifications is a possibility for those amassing many items, but, if such a feature were to be implemented, I'm sure that it would be designed with settings that users may adjust to their preference.

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For now, I think it'd be better to have each category have its own "Latest Items" and "Recently Edited" area. While it isn't ideal, it would enable users to have a much better idea of what's been changing in each category.

Personally, I don't think that's a worthy solution, and especially so for the "Recently Edited" section you're proposing as hundreds of edit submissions are dealt with daily. At the same time, implementing these changes that don't fully address the problem simply takes time and effort away from work that could be made toward a better system that can handle these issues properly. And, just so it's clear, this is only my opinion on the matter.

I love the idea of varients being tied together.  Would be cool to see all of the different copies of something I have and to pick the right one when I log it.