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Subject: 
Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.database
Date: 
Thu, 7 Jan 1999 21:53:53 GMT
Viewed: 
1114 times
  
A lot of what you guys are talking about goes right over my head as I'm not
as familiar with set numbers vs. content as you all seem to be, but I've got
some input "from a lowly user":

I am an avid boater and SCUBA diver, I also like LEGO and collect a lot of
sets that have to do with boats and diving.  I don't really care what
"Theme" or "Sub Theme" they are from.  I've got a bunch of Pirates, most of
Town/Divers, some Town/ResQ, some Town/Nautica, some AquaZone (the more
"realistic" ones or the ones with aquatic life), etc.

Here's some of my "pet peeves" about the way things are now:

*  "Accessories" don't show up with the sets they "go" with.  For example,
the Diver's Accessories, are listed under "Accessories"/"Town" instead of
(what I think is logical) "Town"/"Divers".  I (personally) don't care that
their set number doesn't fall into the appropriate range for Town.  I know
that this also applies to the Pirates and AquaZone accessories as well (and
probably others).

* There are "boat" sets in both "Boat"/"General" and "Town"/"General" which
is confusing to say the least.  This may be a TLG fault, but like someone
else said, there's no reason LUGNET can't correct that.

* I LIKE being able to search by "Theme" / "SubTheme" but if it only shows
the "TLG designated" sets instead of the "obviously a part of this group"
sets it stops being useful (see the Accessories suggestion above).

* A way to search for "objects".  For example, if a set contains multiple
"vehicles" or "buildings" those should be part of the database some how, so
that I could (using my personal desire as an example) find all sets that
include a "boat" regardless of "Theme", "SubTheme", etc.  Or, to search for
a particular Minifig (by picture would be best, but by description would
work).  I'm sure you get the picture.

* I'd like the "Intro" date but would like to see a "Discontinued" date as
well.  Since TLG doesn't "announce" this it's obviously going to be a "best
guess" or SWAG but it would still be nice to know that if I want to find a
specific set I can pretty much give up looking on shelves and concentrate on
auctions, sales, yard sales, etc. if I want to have a snowballs chance of
finding it.

* I've been reading the posts on "promo" and "holiday" sets.  Again, I'm not
the most informed, but wouldn't it be most logical to put them in the
"group" that the objects inside the "box" belong with and then have a note
that says "Limited avialability, only available at XXX during blah blah
blah" instead of trying to come up with "groups" just for the limited
availability sets?  For example, the Target Halloween Special Bucket would
be a part of Freestyle (by it's contents) with a note saying "Only available
at Target during Fall '98".

That said, I'm willing to help provide data by going through the sets,
catalogs, etc. and help enter data or provide data to be entered.  Just
point me and I'll fetch.

If you are going to make it "truly" usefull, have a way to download a CSV
version of the database.  My personal desire would be to take a "complete"
database and "outer join" a couple of columns -- Own X copies, Want X copies
and Want Rank would be the ones off of the top of my head.  I've been doing
this on my own using the last Pause CSV that was available.  It's a pain to
keep up to date (espeically now that I can't get new CSV's), but it allows
me to create and print a "10 most wanted" list that I can carry with me so
that I can always "drop by" the LEGO section and see if they have anything I
want without having to have a better memory that I do.

Oh yeah, and there would (obviously, to me at least) have to be a disclaimer
to the effect of "data is as accurate as possible up to <date last
updated>".

Mike
-----
Mike Faunce - mfaunce@earthlink.net

Larry Pieniazek wrote in message <369524B9.D61CD304@ctp.IWANTNOSPAM.com>...
Huw Millington wrote:

Something like 2188 would probably
go in as 100% "Colorline", 0% "ferry", and 100% "FreeStyle" (100% rather
than 80% or 90% because it actually says "FreeStyle" on the • instructions).


But given that 2188 is available only on ferries, doesn't that count for
something? Its not a ferry per se, but in some way it is related to • 'ferry',
taking 'ferry' to be a generic term for a group of co-promoting • companies.

This is an attribute of availability, just as (US only), or (Shell
Stations in Holland) or (Worldwide) are. It has nothing to do with the
subject matter of the model. So I would not like to see the
categorization muddied up with it.

I suspect I am in a minority on this but I feel strongly about it. We
must use multiple dimensions in this area. Subject matter, official LEGO
categorisation, and availability are all different dimensions of
understanding about a set.


--
Larry Pieniazek    http://my.voyager.net/lar
For me: No voyager e-mail please. All snail-mail to Ada, please.
- Posting Binaries to RTL causes flamage... Don't do it, please.
- Stick to the facts when posting about others, please.
- This is a family newsgroup, thanks.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
 
(...) This is great input, Mike! (...) Would you like it if there were alternative views such as this?-- : | \-- aquatic (33% sub-set of terra-world) | |-- under-water (100% sub-set of water) | | | |-- Aquazone (100% sub-set of under-water) | | | (...) (26 years ago, 8-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.database)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
 
(...) This is an attribute of availability, just as (US only), or (Shell Stations in Holland) or (Worldwide) are. It has nothing to do with the subject matter of the model. So I would not like to see the categorization muddied up with it. I suspect (...) (26 years ago, 7-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.database)

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