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Time for new sets to appear in Catologue
Does anyone know how long it takes new sets to appear in the Catologue. I assumed that all new sets are downloaded from TLG complete with pictures and inventory ( though I might be wrong )
I bought 40124 last weekend and was given the promotional 40139 - Ginger Bread House 2015 but neither of these are showing in the Catologue yet
Paul
I bought 40124 last weekend and was given the promotional 40139 - Ginger Bread House 2015 but neither of these are showing in the Catologue yet
Paul
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@paul'sbricks
What stops you from adding them ;-)
The site IS partially build by contributors, you know:
http://www.brickowl.com/points
:P
Updating the catalogue manually can be extremely frustrating. I once spent 30 mins adding the Exo-Suit inventory only to be told, after asking why approval was taking so long, that it was being ignored because it would be added automatically at some point. It would have been nice to know beforehand! I occasionally add and amend some very old inventories, whenever I break the seal of an old set for some reason I try and set aside a few minutes to ensure the inventory is on BO, and if not, to add it. These usually get approved very quickly.
Sometimes though approvals can take days if not weeks. I added the Doctor Who figure from Dimensions several days ago and I'm still waiting for it to be approved (or not). I have some BLIDs that have been sat there for months - I still add those at are missing to help when importing .bsx files but seems these are purposely not being approved. Again, it would be nice to know if this is wasted effort or not.
Adding or amending a category can itself take up to 5 minutes. And I'm not joking. I still do it but I have to do it with gritted teeth. I'm sure issues like this stop some people from doing their bit.
Some things need doing differently in my opinion as well. Take minifigure heads for example, I had an order not long back with about 10 differently printed hollow stud heads. Pretty much every single one had a different weight value. How is this even possible? Surely the printed elements should take the weight of the unprinted element? I realise ink has weight, but surely not enough to justify making keeping the catalogue up-to-date more work than it needs to be? Perhaps these heads were missing some relationship data or something, but there's very little information to help guide people who are willing to edit the catalogue to weed out issues like this.
I'm not for one minute suggesting that Admin isn't taking these issues seriously, I'm sure he is, but BO will live or die on the strength of its catalogue and the speed it is updated. It can sometimes feel like it isn't given the priority it deserves, and I think many sellers in particular are guilty of this.
@DagsBricks
@Lawrence
I know what Lawrence has done so far, I know what I've done so far, I can see and tell what the top 10 contributors have done so far, the simple facts are: BL has a few dozen 'active' contributors, and 5 Cadmins/IA's, and it has a hard time to 'keep up'. Bottom line: a few avid contributors and an extremely avid admin simply can't keep up with things, for the obvious reason it has more then a decade of backlogs compared to BL, and more then 57 years of LEGO to handle with. Is BO doing good? Sure, on the new stuff, whenever possible, but the keystuff (=more valuable), it is missing out on right now (and I do notice a certain increase in sales when I add old stuff data/pictures). Fact is, the 'handling' of the catalog requires a 'full time' IMO.
Pretty please?
And we are still in the same position.
*sigh*
I even received BrickSync "bug reports" that 40139s weren't being uploaded to BrickOwl, it's not really acceptable for the Gingerbread House to still be absent from the catalog at this point.
Once again, if we had catalog administrators, one of them could create the item right away, with pictures and everything all at once.
I understand what you're saying and have had attempts in the past to add items to the inventory but find the process time consuming, confusing and often unsuccessful due to not completely knowing the intricacies of the approval process. At present due to my normal work committments anything I can't find when cataloguing goes into the box or unsorted ready for my next attempt. I have even raised a few discussions about the process in the past :
http://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/2443/item-creation
http://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/4069/catologue-editing-and-item-creation
@Hoddie
@DagsBricks
Completely agree with everything you've said, I also have spent time submitting information to then wait weeks before its approved / rejected by which time I've completely lost track of where and what I've sent through
@Stragus
I've not submitted a manual item creation for 40139 or 40124 as I thought the items would come through automatically.
@ Lawrence
Is there any chance we can have at least some more detailed instructions on the help pages for item creation and cataloue editing etc maybe including information on where you look to check against item creation ( In the past I have created some items that are already in the catologue but under very obscure names to a point that I can only assume you cross referenced back into Brickowl from another website )and more feedback: a personal submission history would be helpful that lists all submissions made with pending/approved/rejected
Paul
If there is ever a set/range of sets that you think should have been added to the catalogue by now, you're welcome to contact me using the address in the contact page at the bottom of the page.