Informationator's big ugly to-do list

[informationator]

Matt and I talked about some of these last night, but I figured I'd throw them out there both to have them documented in a nice place and so the community can chime in.  ...here goes!

Website:
- Login page could benefit from a "remember me" checkbox
- For exporting, have an option to merge the user's collection data with game data, that way they can have release dates, serial numbers, etc. in their spreadsheet and they won't have to maintain two spreadsheets
- I think it's more intuitive to have the Export within the My Collection area rather than on the menu bar.
- When searching for a game that has multiple versions, such as "Super R-Type", add a button to add to collection with details so that users won't have to drill down into the game.
- Add a "quantity" field to the details section of the game, since some users might have duplicates of a game.
- Add a "quality" field to the details section of a game so users aren't relegated to using the notes section to record if the game is in excellent or poor condition
- Option to add a game to one's collection when submitting a new one
- Have a Trophy Case where users can select games they want to display that they're most proud of owning.  It will display the front box art of the games.
- Searching for "The Lion King" does not bring up the game, "Lion King, The"
- Add more advance search filters (System, Genre, Developer, etc).  Ex: "Wheel of Fortune" brings up many entries, but perhaps I only want to add the SNES versions.  That'd narrow the list down to 2.
- When you go to a game details page, it will say, for example that 26 users have Donkey Kong Country.  It'd be nice to be able to click the number as a link to bring up a page linking me to all of the users that have the game.  That way, if someone is looking for one last rare game, they might be able to track down someone willing to trade or sell it.  Users can have the option to hide their name from the list with a privacy options setting.
- Options for games-per-page on the My Collection area.  Currently it's limited to 50.  I'd probably prefer it set to 100, 200, etc.  I'm sure other users have different preferences.
- PNG submissions fail.  I'm able to submit them on the game form, but of all of the updates I did to games last night, the only two titles not to have their front box images accepted were the ones that were PNG.  It needs a message saying "JPGs only" or something
- The 'cool vizualization' pie chart would benefit from some additional filters/categories.  I currently have only SNES games added to my collection, so all I see is a large circle.  Being able to split by developer or release date could be interesting.
- The PM inbox for the forum is too buried.  A small notification icon just left of My Collection could remedy the problem.
- The Browse page's formatting is a little wonky; there is a massive gap between 3DO and Atari and for other categories.  It looks like a table is being used.  Perhaps there is some way to use dual columns instead, or putting each subsystem in its own cell so there isn't such a massive gap beneath the adjacent system category.
- http://vgcollect.com/android is a bit out of date (only contains info up to 0.5.5 and we're up to 0.5.7)

Android Application:
- On my Droid 2, I have a flip-out keyboard.  The login page of the app need to flip to horizontal mode when I flip my phone.
- Login page needs a "remember me" feature.  I have a rather long username and an even longer password!
- Submit and Go Back buttons are partially cut off when clicking "Add to Collection"
- The Settings and Browse buttons are unresponsive (probably intentional at this point, but I figured I'd include it.)
- Android badge isn't working (I know you know that, but I figured I'd be comprehensive)

I'm no developer, but I'm always happy to test or query!  Let me know ^_^.  I'm sure I'll be producing many more horrific idea lists into the future haha

[matt]

- Login page could benefit from a "remember me" checkbox Noted.


- For exporting, have an option to merge the user's collection data with game data, that way they can have release dates, serial numbers, etc. in their spreadsheet and they won't have to maintain two spreadsheets Noted. Worried about giving away too much info. The purpose is to list collection info and not really game info but I'm open to opinions.

- I think it's more intuitive to have the Export within the My Collection area rather than on the menu bar. I was thinking of moving this to settings but there isn't really a good place for it there yet. Open to any suggestions.

- When searching for a game that has multiple versions, such as "Super R-Type", add a button to add to collection with details so that users won't have to drill down into the game. Noted.

- Add a "quantity" field to the details section of the game, since some users might have duplicates of a game. The decision was made early that each game would have it's own listing. If you have duplicate, just list it twice.

- Add a "quality" field to the details section of a game so users aren't relegated to using the notes section to record if the game is in excellent or poor condition We originally had a condition/quality field but decided to remove it due to inconsistency and the fact that most users didn't use it. The notes field can be used to take care of this.

- Option to add a game to one's collection when submitting a new one Noted

- Have a Trophy Case where users can select games they want to display that they're most proud of owning.  It will display the front box art of the games. Noted, but down low on the list

- Searching for "The Lion King" does not bring up the game, "Lion King, The" All searches do a LIKE search, I attempted to ignore generic words but couldn't get the coding right. I'll revisit this someday

- Add more advance search filters (System, Genre, Developer, etc).  Ex: "Wheel of Fortune" brings up many entries, but perhaps I only want to add the SNES versions.  That'd narrow the list down to 2. There is an advanced search page here. I broke it but will fix it up soon.

- When you go to a game details page, it will say, for example that 26 users have Donkey Kong Country.  It'd be nice to be able to click the number as a link to bring up a page linking me to all of the users that have the game.  That way, if someone is looking for one last rare game, they might be able to track down someone willing to trade or sell it.  Users can have the option to hide their name from the list with a privacy options setting. Thought about this before as well. Will add it.

- Options for games-per-page on the My Collection area.  Currently it's limited to 50.  I'd probably prefer it set to 100, 200, etc.  I'm sure other users have different preferences. Noted

- PNG submissions fail.  I'm able to submit them on the game form, but of all of the updates I did to games last night, the only two titles not to have their front box images accepted were the ones that were PNG.  It needs a message saying "JPGs only" or something. Noted

- The 'cool vizualization' pie chart would benefit from some additional filters/categories.  I currently have only SNES games added to my collection, so all I see is a large circle.  Being able to split by developer or release date could be interesting. Noted

- The PM inbox for the forum is too buried.  A small notification icon just left of My Collection could remedy the problem. Noted. I'm working constantly to improve the forums.

- The Browse page's formatting is a little wonky; there is a massive gap between 3DO and Atari and for other categories.  It looks like a table is being used.  Perhaps there is some way to use dual columns instead, or putting each subsystem in its own cell so there isn't such a massive gap beneath the adjacent system category. Yeah we were struggling with this. The arcade section really fucked everything up. Open to design suggestions.

- http://vgcollect.com/android is a bit out of date (only contains info up to 0.5.5 and we're up to 0.5.7) Noted. I'll update this to reflect the latest version and to apologize for the lack of updates. ha

[scott]

- Login page could benefit from a "remember me" checkbox Noted.

Seconded.

- For exporting, have an option to merge the user's collection data with game data, that way they can have release dates, serial numbers, etc. in their spreadsheet and they won't have to maintain two spreadsheets Noted. Worried about giving away too much info. The purpose is to list collection info and not really game info but I'm open to opinions.

I don't see the reason we'd need to export all the info for collection data.

- Add a "quantity" field to the details section of the game, since some users might have duplicates of a game. The decision was made early that each game would have it's own listing. If you have duplicate, just list it twice.

I, for one, have multiples of some games. And I think adding a quantity field would take away from my ability to track each copy. Especially since I have copies in varying condition/ completeness.

- Add a "quality" field to the details section of a game so users aren't relegated to using the notes section to record if the game is in excellent or poor condition We originally had a condition/quality field but decided to remove it due to inconsistency and the fact that most users didn't use it. The notes field can be used to take care of this.

The point of the notes section is for users to note condition, missing parts/ pack-ins etc. A Mint/Near-Mint/etc listing doesn't fit the bill, and I think that an extra field for listing quality seems redundant. Of course, maybe adding more characters to the Notes field may be helpful.

[tpugmire]

- Searching for "The Lion King" does not bring up the game, "Lion King, The"

I see this becoming a huge problem with the new item submission procedure, since it will be searching to see if a listing exists already.  You might want to consider bumping this up on the priority list.

[informationator]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  To be clear, these aren't complaints, just discussion points/areas of improvement : ).

Here are some additional thoughts about some of the categories you all have been discussing:
1) Regarding the merging of game data with collection data, I can see how it could be scary publicizing that information, but in my mind, as long as the community is strong and the functionality of the site is good, people will keep coming here.  If users want to see the data for their games in full, they'll have to manually go into each game and record the categories in a spreadsheet, which isn't practical.  From a personal standpoint, it would be nice to have the game data included, because sometimes I want to do in-depth sorting to see how many game I have from a given developer, or the release dates, or some other trend that I'm just curious about.  Knowing I can't get it from here means I have to maintain my own personal spreadsheets, which creates double work for me if I want to use the site.  I see a detailed export as a feature that would make this place more of a "one-stop-shop" for people who want to really dig into their game data and maintain a robust, detailed log of their games.  Otherwise, I imagine some users would tire from having to do double-work because the website can't satisfy the level of detail accessibility they're looking for in a database.

2) The reason I think quality should have its own section, is because you can't sort by notes, because it's inconsistent.  I'm thinking more from a database standpoint here, but well, real life situation: I have a lot of "excellents", a number of "very goods", a few "fairs" and a couple of "poors" in my collection.  At some point in the future I hope to have a complete collection of SNES games.  At that point I intend to go back and revisit the quality of my games, replacing goods, fairs, and poors with very goods and excellents.  With my personal spreadsheets as they are, I can sort the data easily and produce a list of games to replace.  By using the notes feature of the website, I'd have to manually go into each game to see what I put.  I'd argue that it'd be better to have an option that not everyone will use, or that not everyone will use CORRECTLY over none at all, because user data is distinct from game data and won't negatively impact the quality of the public game information.  That way, we could have a sortable column for game quality as well as the notes section where people will have the option to dig into why the quality is what it is e.g. "Small tear in top-left quadrant of label" or "Significant yellowing on back half of game cartridge."

3) Regarding quantity, I can see what you mean about having two copies in one's collection to note the differences.  So, perhaps there is a solution that can be the best of both worlds.  My thought is that users might not want to see the same game 6 times if they have tons of copies of Super Mario Bros. or something.  Perhaps there could be something in options to collapse duplicates into a single line that gets expanded when you click onto the game.  This could be a hassle to implement, though, and I don't see this as a priority.

[scott]

Perhaps there could be something in options to collapse duplicates into a single line that gets expanded when you click onto the game.  This could be a hassle to implement, though, and I don't see this as a priority.

Oooh I like this idea. But I can totally see it being a hassle to code properly, but that's what @matt is for... he's our code-bitch.

[informationator]

Scott and Info: We're idea people!
Matt: KILL ME NOW

[scott]

- Searching for "The Lion King" does not bring up the game, "Lion King, The"

I see this becoming a huge problem with the new item submission procedure, since it will be searching to see if a listing exists already.  You might want to consider bumping this up on the priority list.

I agree. This is potentially a very annoying and time consuming issue. While we are already watching for dupes, imagine if someone like @pceslayer was brand new and adding their collection to the database... that's over 1000 potential dupe items... ha

[informationator]

Take a look at my post in the new dupes thread.  I don't know how much of a strain the logic I mentioned there would put on the database when tons of people are searching, but it seems like it'd be a rather simple solution.  Then again, I'd have to see the query to know  What seems simple conceptually can sometimes end up being a nightmare to code.

[g4m3f4c3]

If the decision was to indicate quantity by multiple additions, that's fine, so long as the expandable/collapsible idea is implemented. My main beef with each item having it's own listing is that it really mucks up the detail view when viewing by "all consoles". I don't really care if I'm looking at my hardware page and have to wade through 6 controllers and 13 controller paks, but it's kind-of a turn-off when I'm trying masturbate my ego by looking at my whole collection.

Edit: forgot to mention item count. I also get a stiffy from my item count. Because of the quantity issues I've had to resort to listing each item only once for aesthetic purposes, and I don't like knowing that my item count isn't accurate.

[scott]

Ya I totally see where you're coming from. Hopefully we can get it all sorted out soon. Please bear with us though.

[matt]

As soon as I get out from under the current pile of updates I'll be reviewing this. I'll try to throw in my $.02 later today.