Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

[Henry Andrews]

From Mike, who wasn't on this list.  Although I've now added him for the duration of this discussion.

BTW I'm working with Lionel on how to get the earlier discussions wrapped up since I've been rather overloaded recently and that doesn't look like it's going to let up.

thanks,

-henry

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Mike Nielsen <rasta...@yahoo.com>
To: gcd-membersh...@googlegroups.com; gcd-finan...@googlegroups.com; gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, August 18, 2010 4:24:49 PM
Subject: Re: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

Well, as you know, this is the ONE thing that XOW does that we don't.  And I played with it a bit on their site.  And honestly, I couldn't see myself spending 100's of hours putting in what books I have.  For what reason that my local list doesn't give me?  So I can see it on the web?  So if I'm at some show/shop and I don't have my list but do have my laptop I can check if I already have something?  (Which I can do anyway cause I keep my list on a wiki) I know everybody says they want it but I have yet to see one thing that I would fine usefull for doing it.  And I'm open to reasons why it would be usefull.  I'd be a lot more likely to use something on the GCD than on some site that has no track record of longevity and could be gone in six months. But if you are going to do it, I think you should somehow allow each user to share their collection "info" with other users.  For instance, I know that Lou collects certain titles, and if I can quickly see what he's missing I might know if I have some of them.  But it would have to be an opt-in by both parties kind of system, similar to "friends" on facebook.  I wouldn't want just anybody to see that data. Mike Nielsen     Atom: "They are replicating." Aquaman: "Yes, and they are making more of themselves too!"  - Batman Brave and the Bold Cartoon episode "Journey to the center of the Bat"  --- On Wed, 8/18/10, Lionel English <lio...@beanmar.net> wrote: From: Lionel English <lio...@beanmar.net> Subject: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org To: gcd-membersh...@googlegroups.com, gcd-finan...@googlegroups.com, gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 6:13 PM I'm passing this along as food for thought.   This idea has been brought up several times in different contexts both from within and without the GCD.  It came up a couple of times during Henry's dog and pony show at the San Diego con.  And I'm pretty sure it came up during earlier discussions on both the membership and software committees (which is why I'm cross posting the idea--and my reasons for including the financial committe will soon become obvious).   The idea is extending the GCD to allow tracking of people's comic collections--i.e., haves and wants.  This is a feature that seems to be very popular and very much in demand.  My initial reaction to the idea was always "that's not really what we're about".  And to a certain extent I still feel this way--that's not what the GCD proper is about.   However, after thinking about if for a bit after the San Diego Con, Henry, Jochen, Ralf and I (and I hope I'm not forgetting someone else's contribution) starting discussing the idea again.  I think it was Henry who came up with the idea for "my.comics.org", which is such a great name I had trouble resisting.  But the idea would be for a sister site, within the comics.org family, that piggybacked off of www.comics.org, but was also separate.  So the main database would still operate as before, with no evidence of my.comics.org, but we'd also have the sister site that would use the data in www.comics.org as its backend, and would have the collection management tools layered on top.   The primary advantages of this idea, from our perspective are two fold, and related:  more users, and more traffic.   If the feature were popular, it could drive more traffic to the comics.org sites, meaning more ad revenue.  And more traffic also means more potential users, which in turn also means a potential increase in indexers and possibly also programmers.   So, while I continue to believe that this idea does not directly support our mission statement, I also now believe that it has the potential to indirectly feed back to the main project.   Talk amongst yourselves. -- Lionel English lio...@beanmar.net

[Jochen Garcke]

Am 19.08.2010 01:37, schrieb Henry Andrews:
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> *From:* Mike Nielsen <rasta...@yahoo.com>
> *To:* gcd-membersh...@googlegroups.com;
> gcd-finan...@googlegroups.com;
> gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
> *Sent:* Wed, August 18, 2010 4:24:49 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

>
> Well, as you know, this is the ONE thing that XOW does that we don't.
> And I played with it a bit on their site. And honestly, I couldn't see
> myself spending 100's of hours putting in what books I have. For what
> reason that my local list doesn't give me? So I can see it on the web?
> So if I'm at some show/shop and I don't have my list but do have my
> laptop I can check if I already have something? (Which I can do anyway
> cause I keep my list on a wiki)

Because you wouldn't need to keep your list on a wiki anymore ? Because
you can export the list from my.comics.org ?

Sure, if you have such a list than you wouldn't need it. I don't have a
list because I was too lazy starting one. If I could do it with
my.comics.org I would start doing it since I am starting to have trouble
having the overview.

When adding collections I would see which issues aren't indexed or are
missing information, the GCD would get more data out of it.

> But if you are going to do it, I think you should somehow allow each
> user to share their collection "info" with other users. For instance, I
> know that Lou collects certain titles, and if I can quickly see what
> he's missing I might know if I have some of them. But it would have to
> be an opt-in by both parties kind of system, similar to "friends" on
> facebook. I wouldn't want just anybody to see that data.

Some kind of social features ? As in I you can see who else of your
friends has or wants the issue you are looking at ? Or you can browse
the want/have lists of your friends ?

Jochen

[Philip Rutledge]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 10:59 PM, Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de> wrote:

Am 19.08.2010 01:37, schrieb Henry Andrews:

> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> *From:* Mike Nielsen <rasta...@yahoo.com>
> *To:* gcd-membersh...@googlegroups.com;
> gcd-finan...@googlegroups.com;
> gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
> *Sent:* Wed, August 18, 2010 4:24:49 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org
>
> Well, as you know, this is the ONE thing that XOW does that we don't.
>  And I played with it a bit on their site.  And honestly, I couldn't see
> myself spending 100's of hours putting in what books I have.  For what
> reason that my local list doesn't give me?  So I can see it on the web?
>  So if I'm at some show/shop and I don't have my list but do have my
> laptop I can check if I already have something?  (Which I can do anyway
> cause I keep my list on a wiki)

Because you wouldn't need to keep your list on a wiki anymore ? Because
you can export the list from my.comics.org ?

Sure, if you have such a list than you wouldn't need it. I don't have a
list because I was too lazy starting one. If I could do it with
my.comics.org I would start doing it since I am starting to have trouble
having the overview.

When adding collections I would see which issues aren't indexed or are
missing information, the GCD would get more data out of it.

I also have my own off line lists that I've maintained in a variety of database programs since starting it back in the 80's.  I have scripts that output html reports that I store on dropbox and can access them from my android phone.  So I have a system that works for me. 

However I'd seriously consider using an online GCD system since my system is still very manual in terms of data entry, the biggest value I would get is just entering the very basic info and then using GCD for all of the story/credit/pub info - so it would speed up the entry of my new purchases.  The other value I see is the automatic generation of "wants".  I actually spent a bunch of time last Christmas creating a parallel database to determine the full list of issues in series so that I could automatically determine my "holes".  A feature of an online system would be that you could easily generate a checklist of all issues of a series, a character, a creator and see which issues you are missing.  Again this depends on the GCD data being correct and would be a driver for people to maintain the data (I'd hope)  There would have to be a great import system for me to be able to import all of my current data.

For all the other people out there that don't already have a computerized inventory then I would see the GCD service as a great way for them to get organized.

> But if you are going to do it, I think you should somehow allow each
> user to share their collection "info" with other users.  For instance, I
> know that Lou collects certain titles, and if I can quickly see what
> he's missing I might know if I have some of them.  But it would have to
> be an opt-in by both parties kind of system, similar to "friends" on
> facebook.  I wouldn't want just anybody to see that data.

Some kind of social features ? As in I you can see who else of your
friends has or wants the issue you are looking at ? Or you can browse
the want/have lists of your friends ?

I remember a mail server setup back on RAC.Misc in the 90's where you would publish a text list of your wants/sales and it would match up people.  I would think that this would be a fairly straight forward system to setup since everything would be linked to a common base database.  I do also see value in the social aspect of find like minded collectors as well.
 

Jochen

[Jochen Garcke]

Am 19.08.2010 14:49, schrieb Philip Rutledge:
> Some kind of social features ? As in I you can see who else of your
> friends has or wants the issue you are looking at ? Or you can browse
> the want/have lists of your friends ?
>
>
> I remember a mail server setup back on RAC.Misc in the 90's where you
> would publish a text list of your wants/sales and it would match up
> people. I would think that this would be a fairly straight forward
> system to setup since everything would be linked to a common base
> database. I do also see value in the social aspect of find like minded
> collectors as well.

Sounds interesting but would depend on a reasonably large userbase to be
worthwhile. I would think for starters basic have/want tracking is the
way to go. Easy to implement. If it attracts people the way we think we
can think about extensions, but here especially hoping for further
people for the tech side being interested in workong on that part.

Jochen

[Henry Andrews]

My biggest request?  Being able to mark whether you've read a story in a given issue or not (and also track it across reprint links in both directions).  The reason I have a spreadsheet (downloaded and adapted from Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) is that I at some point bought so many back issues I totally lost track of what I had and hadn't read (often, I couldn't read stuff immediately because I needed to find more obscure issues first).

thanks,

-henry

---

From: Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de>
To: gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thu, August 19, 2010 1:06:32 PM
Subject: Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

[Jochen Garcke]

Mark read per story or per issue ?

Per issue is surely easy. Per story would need a whole additional layer
of functionality (both as a db-table and in the user interface).

Jochen

Am 19.08.2010 22:13, schrieb Henry Andrews:
> My biggest request? Being able to mark whether you've read a story in a
> given issue or not (and also track it across reprint links in both
> directions). The reason I have a spreadsheet (downloaded and adapted
> from Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) is that I at some point bought
> so many back issues I totally lost track of what I had and hadn't read
> (often, I couldn't read stuff immediately because I needed to find more
> obscure issues first).
>
> thanks,
> -henry
>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de>
> *To:* gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
> *Sent:* Thu, August 19, 2010 1:06:32 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

[Henry Andrews]

Per story.  I lose track of where I am in Golden or Silver Age archive collections all the time, as those stories often don't read well in bulk and in some cases have a certain sameness.  Also for anthologies like Batman Family, I first went through and read all of the Batgirl and Robin features, and some of the reprints, and then later had to figure out which of the other features I had or hadn't read.  A per-issue flag is of very limited use for much of what I read.  I'm not saying it has to be immediate, but I also don't think it would be that hard.  It's the kind of feature that I'd happily tack on later.

thanks,

-henry

---

From: Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de>
To: gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Thu, August 19, 2010 1:44:49 PM
Subject: Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

[Jochen Garcke]

It wouldn't be very hard, but it would need a different level of
functionality and UI design since also stories are involved.
I see the use, but like other suggestions which came up in the different
threads on my.comics.org it is a more limited user base which would use
this.

I would work on a first release which has the basic have/want structure
for issues, with some additional fields attached to each have (purchase
price, purchase date, note, want to sell, unread,...) and want (note).

Further functionality would then depend on willing existing or new
developers. Or high demand.

Jochen

Am 19.08.2010 22:53, schrieb Henry Andrews:
> Per story. I lose track of where I am in Golden or Silver Age archive
> collections all the time, as those stories often don't read well in bulk
> and in some cases have a certain sameness. Also for anthologies like
> Batman Family, I first went through and read all of the Batgirl and
> Robin features, and some of the reprints, and then later had to figure
> out which of the other features I had or hadn't read. A per-issue flag
> is of very limited use for much of what I read. I'm not saying it has
> to be immediate, but I also don't think it would be that hard. It's the
> kind of feature that I'd happily tack on later.
>
> thanks,
> -henry
>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de>
> *To:* gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com

> *Sent:* Thu, August 19, 2010 1:44:49 PM

> *Subject:* Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org
>

> Mark read per story or per issue ?
>
> Per issue is surely easy. Per story would need a whole additional layer
> of functionality (both as a db-table and in the user interface).
>
> Jochen
>
> Am 19.08.2010 22:13, schrieb Henry Andrews:
>> My biggest request? Being able to mark whether you've read a story in a
>> given issue or not (and also track it across reprint links in both
>> directions). The reason I have a spreadsheet (downloaded and adapted
>> from Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) is that I at some point bought
>> so many back issues I totally lost track of what I had and hadn't read
>> (often, I couldn't read stuff immediately because I needed to find more
>> obscure issues first).
>>
>> thanks,
>> -henry
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> *From:* Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de <mailto:gcd...@garcke.de>>
>> *To:* gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com>

>> *Sent:* Thu, August 19, 2010 1:06:32 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org

> <http://my.comics.org>

[Henry Andrews]

I agree with that approach.  I just wanted to put it out there :-)

thanks,

-henry

---

From: Jochen Garcke <gcd...@garcke.de>
To: gcd-softwar...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Fri, August 20, 2010 12:13:43 AM
Subject: Re: [gcd-software] Fw: [gcd-membership] my.comics.org