Subject:
|
Re: Peeron inventories
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.inv
|
Date:
|
Thu, 8 Mar 2007 21:23:14 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
5506 times
|
| |
|
|
In lugnet.inv, David Eaton wrote:
> In lugnet.inv, John Patterson wrote:
> > I have collected Lego for more years than most of the users of Lugnet have
> > been alive.
>
> See, now, again, this has nothing to do with anything. Yeah, you're older than I
> am. You're older than most AFOLs. Ok. But I don't think being older gives you a
> free pass to be condescending. That's the sort of thing I mean. You can say what
> you want to say while still being polite. You don't have to call "white" "black"
> or "grey" "white" or anything. But you can say it in a way that will make people
> WANT to help versus NOT want to help.
>
> Inundating people with complaints is one way of making them want to ignore you.
>
> > As to 95% errors, it does not matter if it is one part or 100, an incorrect
> > inventory is an incorrect inventory.
>
> I beg to differ, but I still agree that a 100% accurate inventory is valuable.
> If you gave me two inventories, one was 99% accurate and one was 12% accurate,
> it's pretty clear which one's better.
>
> > If you were counting a million dollars at a bank and you were off by 500
> > someone would want the error corrected.
>
> The difference is that when I go to a bank, I'm paying them for their service.
> And they're dealing with my property (my money) that I entrusted them with. They
> have an *obligation* to be accurate. Peeron's a free service. They don't have an
> obligation to be accurate.
>
> > the problem is with them not correcting the errors. 2 years ago I sent a
> > part correction, three different types of large hinge plates. To this date
> > they have not fixed that.
>
> Maybe this is part of the problem: how are you defining inaccuracy? You state
> that you were trying to correct three different types of hinge plates? As in the
> fact that Peeron doesn't distinguish the type of plate hinge, or that they used
> the wrong part variation? That is to say, Lego changed the mold one year, and
> Peeron has the wrong hinge variation on a particular set?
>
> A better example might be 2x3 inverse slopes (part 3747). Now, in the past
> couple years, Lego actually changed the mold. And Peeron doesn't yet
> differentiate between the old mold and the new mold. They just don't. Part (but
> not all) of why they don't is because Peeron attempts to match the LDraw
> convention. Another part is because people who inventory sets don't bother to
> check to see which variation the part is.
>
> Is that an inaccuracy? Well, you could call it that. You could also try and
> distinguish the however-many-bunch of 2x4 brick molds that exist, and claim that
> Peeron is wrong for stating that the 725 Town Plan came with any 2x4 bricks,
> because technically, the 2x4 bricks it came with aren't the same type of molds
> that are used in 2x4 bricks today thanks to the font on the studs, the sidewall
> supports, plastic material, tube slots, and whatever else has changed since
> 1961.
>
> Inaccuracies also come in varying levels of difficulty to fix. Saying "set X is
> missing part Y" is easy. You can verify it pretty quickly, and it's probably a
> quick thing to repair. Saying "set X should have 47 of part Y instead of 45" is
> a bit trickier, because the onus is on Peeron to verify that you're a
> trustworthy source, or that your correction is accurate.
>
> But saying "set X should have part variation Y rather than part variation Z" is
> even harder, because it's been proven that even if you ARE a trustworthy source,
> your data might be wrong, because Lego sometimes releases sets that differ from
> each other. I'm sure Clark could name you off bunches of these, no doubt. Also,
> it's not an easy fix to make, even if it IS verified data. And probably the
> hardest thing to verify is bizarre colors. If someone says a piece is
> "FabuBrown" and someone else says it's "DkNougat", it's ridiculously hard or
> impossible to tell who's right.
>
> There's also incompleteness in the way that Peeron handles its data, which Dan
> has been interested in changing for some time. Things like sub-parts (minifig
> hands, turntables, etc) which have conventions that people might misinterpret.
> Minifigs are one of the more common ones-- if I have a "hips and legs assembly",
> should its color be denoted by the hip color or the leg color? And it's
> generally not possible for the Peeron admins to double-check that people
> followed the conventions correctly.
>
> I guess my point is that if you're saying any inaccuracy is equally inaccurate
> as any other inaccuracy, it's actually not true for most people. Most people
> don't particularly care if you don't distinguish your 2x4 brick molds. Some
> might. Even though "inaccurate" is technically a black and white term, the
> reality is that it's a grey term.
>
> > I have another 6000 or so sets to inventory so my time is dear to me.
> > Hopefully you will see my point, I just would like them to use the stuff I am
> > sending in.
>
> Hey, so would I. But I find that complaining loudly can be counterproductive.
> Luckily, Dan's a nice guy. But I can imagine a lesser person just saying "Oh
> yeah? Tough. Now we won't accept your data." I hope neither you nor the Peeron
> admins fall to that level of childishness, but if you don't treat each other
> respectfully, it's a risk you might run.
>
> > For some I have waited a half year and it has not been changed,
> > please define patience in this context.
>
> Note that I said both patient and persistant. These guys are volunteering their
> time, so it's not at the uber-top of their list of things to do. Sometimes, it
> takes a few friendly reminder emails to get things moving. And not reminder
> emails in terms of "I waited 24 hours, and it's not done yet!"
>
> Part of this is working within a framework. It's an on-demand world, but you
> can't expect people to follow your schedule. And if a Peeron admin who normally
> gets corrections at a rate of 1 per week suddenly gets thwocked with 100 of them
> at once, it may actually *decrease* their desire to get cracking on them,
> because it can be overwhelming-- particularly for volunteer work.
>
> But mostly, I just want to see a bit more respect and gratitude from you for
> what Peeron offers the community. You'll see a lot of people come forward to
> defend Peeron because it's a great service. If you go knocking it, be prepared
> to take some flak in return.
>
> DaveE
Flak isn't so bad, might get them to listen. I offered to volunteer since I am
retired. I have a lot of gratitude as their data base for parts is great. It
took a lot of work to set up and I am amazed at the effort to get it going.
They just do not want to correct it that it is established. I could not have
done the original work so my hat is off to them. But that was then and now is
now. It is not size that counts, al least to me, but correctness. You are
right about the amount of corrections. But why ask for them if you cannot
handle the load? This is my way of being persistnt. I realize Dan is a nice
guy, no argument there, he would be nicer if he would get the corrections done,
or don't ask. He has always been very nice in his emails to me.
For all the defenders of Peeron. I agree, great site, one of a kind, easy to
access and Dan is ok. I never said Dan was not. I just would like to see that
it is correct. Sorry to have offended any of Peeron's defenders, I am trying to
point something out.
John P
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Peeron inventories
|
| (...) John- Please don't say we don't "want" to correct the inventory system. In 2007 so far we have made 3827 changes and additions (this does not include the instruction or catalog scan library). In 2006: 16071. Jennifer Boger (18 years ago, 10-Mar-07, to lugnet.inv)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Peeron inventories
|
| (...) See, now, again, this has nothing to do with anything. Yeah, you're older than I am. You're older than most AFOLs. Ok. But I don't think being older gives you a free pass to be condescending. That's the sort of thing I mean. You can say what (...) (18 years ago, 8-Mar-07, to lugnet.inv)
|
58 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
