Site Forum

Let me start by saying this isn't a complaint-filled post. Rather it's a "how to manage what we have" post.

So, over the last year and a half or so, the membership here has skyrocketed. This is great! As this site is crowd-sourced, the more members we have who are active and helping, the quicker a lot of information can be shared amongst the members. What could possibly be bad about this? Nothing, really. But there are some growing pains. The first step is to understand what they are, and then we can figure out how to deal with them.

I have found 2 major areas that have (only somewhat) hurt the site from the fast growth.

1 - A lack of understanding of how the site "works". I put works in quotes here because this is actually a multiple meaning. First, there's the understanding of the site's rules and guidelines. Second, there's the understanding of a database, and how records get added, moved around, and how the information stays with a card or a set, and how it doesn't. And third, how the site gets its information. There are some solutions to these....

1.1 - Rules & Guidelines - Most of this lack of understanding stems directly from not looking at the FAQ. It's big and daunting, but it has been broken down into digestible bites. Even reading 1 or 2 each week would help all members.
1.2 - Database inner workings - This one is a little tougher because everyone learns and thinks differently. (For example, I can take apart a PC and rebuild it but I doubt I could do the same with a bicycle. Meanwhile, we have doctors who can rebuild humans but may not get databases. Having worked with doctors and nurses for a year, I saw some of the most brilliant people in the world struggle with technology.) That said, I honestly think you get it or you don't, and there may be no way of truly helping you get it if you don't. No worries. There are enough of us who do - please allow us to handle that part of things and it will go smoothly. (Seriously, everyone has their talents, some are in computers and some aren't. Always keep that in mind [life lesson, not just TCDB lesson].)
1.3 - Site information - As I already mentioned, the site is crowd-sourced. We do not have a "research team" who goes and looks up stuff to add to the site. Well, we do, but it's everyone, not just 1, 10-20, or 40-50 people who do this. Everyone can (and should) help in this regard. Have a card from a set not listed yet? Great - tell us the info about the entire set so we can get the whole set added (this aspect has been discussed at length in other threads, which I encourage newer members to read, and will be linked at the bottom of this post). But the point on this one is that every member of the site is part of the research team and should be helping in that regard (if they want something added or changed).

2 - Duplicated entries. This can be sets and simply individual cards. And this is not a new phenomenon, it has been amplified in the last year. I think part of the reason is the lack of understanding (as mentioned above) and the inability to find what one is looking for, and then subsequently adding it yourself. While the "self-help" model is a great one and one we actually welcome, it too has its pitfalls. Sometimes 2 people are working on the same thing at the same time, they enter the sets with slightly different names, and all of a sudden, we have two identical checklists for what is the same set (with usually slightly different names). Solutions:

Understanding the naming convention of the various types of sets helps. As an example, if there is an autograph set in a product and it has a Blue parallel, Black parallel and Red parallel, and the same set has a "Superstars" insert set with the same three color parallels, we name them this way:
Autographs
Autographs Black
Autographs Blue
Autographs Red
Superstars
Superstars Black
Superstars Blue
Superstars Red

We do not name them with the color first as that would group the colors together and not the types of sets together. In some releases, when there are literally 20-30 insert sets before taking into consideration the color parallels, it would be difficult to find the various colors of a single insert type, like the Autographs.

This said, this isn't how some people name the sets they add, and why some sets aren't found in the system until it's too late and a duplicate has been added. You may be asking, "But why is this a problem? Just remove the duplicate, and all is well." To a certain extent, this is true. If the duplicate is caught soon enough, and no images and/or collection info had been added, it is a simple deletion. It's when these sets have been there for days, or weeks, or months. Many of our members collect specific players and/or teams. Every few days, they check for new additions to the database for those players and teams, and they add those to their want lists. Or, they see it's a card they already have and they add it to their collection list. Sometimes, images will be added as well. When any of this occurs, we can no longer simply remove the duplicated set. Transfer of images, or outright removal of the images needs to take place. And then moving of the collection data needs to occur as well. And this is where I want everyone to read and understand.

When sets have been duplicated, and collection data exists in both sets, most of the time, collection data is going to get duplicated for some members.

Sometimes it's one member, sometimes it's 1,000 members. In either case, it's not feasible for those who have already spent hours remediating the duplicate set and each of the cards to contact the members affected. And in an effort to not have anyone lose their collection data, we will move collection data from a single card to the properly listed card even if it duplicates data for 1,000 members if it saves the collection data for 1 member.

This means, if all of a sudden you're finding some duplicated want list or collection data (that you didn't intentionally enter yourself), you added something to your collection and/or wantlist that was actually a duplicated entry. (This is why I often caution people about blindly adding all missing cards of a player or team to their want lists as when you do that, you truly do not know what you're adding to your list!)

I'm sure that there exist a multitude of other "problems" that the site encounters when facing the uptick in many new memberships, however, these 2 are the most prominent that I see (and that I have solutions and workarounds for).

None of this was meant to discourage anyone from doing anything they currently do, have done, or want to continue to do here. In fact, I'm hopeful that this can help everyone move forward with helping out. The more you know, the more you understand, and the better equipped you are to assist.

As for really new members (if you go this far or skipped down here), here are some other threads we have started and added to that are beneficial to you:

https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=25878&C=33
https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=23880&C=4
https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=14641&C=7
https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=11143
https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/I/ID/0/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=12446

Thank you to all who take part in this site, in any aspect, no matter what aspect it is!

Thank you Dan for making this post for new members like myself. I think that all of the main admins like yourself deserve a huge round of applause for all you guys do on this site. Whether it be correcting mistakes that people have made making a set or adding notes (Guilty here), or how you guys keep the site up to date at all times. This also includes people that help with this site you don't hear from on the forums. This site is a amazing masterpiece that thousands have worked on to make look this great.  

Excellent read Dan, good work. Please tke the time people, please. And Thank you. =D

Great post, thanks for taking the time to compose this. This site is phenomenal, and we are all lucky to have it. Thanks to all you guys who maintain it!

I would like to add, as someone who inputs a LOT of ebay prices, please use some common sense when doing this.  

1st-make sure they are real prices.  I add them almost daily, and sometimes from my phone, so it makes it hard to put in a link, but everything I put in is either verified through eBay or 130pt.com.

2nd-Example I will use is a 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn #482.  There were 5 prices entered that were in the $150.00 plus range.  I did some checking, and they were indeed sales seen on eBay.  However, they fall so far out of the normal rise and fall that it skewed everything wayyyyy up.  Raw 482s are NOT selling for 150+.  Common sense would solve a lot of that.

Minor gripes.  Overall this site has been a godesnd for me and had really helped me organize my collection.  Thanks to those that built and host this site.  Keep up the good work!!

Please don't refer to 130point.com as "130pt.com" because while the former is a legitimate web site to view recent sales prices for cards, typing in the latter address will take you to a scammer web site.

Gmoney, I appreciate the time and effort you are putting in with regard to prices, but unfortunately despite your (and others) best efforts, pricing is still an ungodly mess.  People may be entering in prices they actually paid for something, but I am curious why these people are over-paying for some of these cards.  I can't tell you how many times I've encountered prices for 2021 Topps insert cards which someone has apparently paid $3 or $4 or more to purchase.  And then I look at Sportlots.com and see I can pick up that card for $0.35 + free Box shipping.

These crazy prices are skewing TCDB trader's perception of the value of their cards when composing or responding to trades.  It's very frustrating to fail to fulfill a trade on this site because the trade partner has an inflated view of their card's value simply because one person input a highly inflated value for that card on this site.

This thread is definitive proof that the top two features that need to be added is "Tour" and "Complete User Manual For The Site".  While other features will help the site and improve it, until there is a complete or at least near complete manual for new members (or even those with questions) many problems will continue to arise.  It will also (hopefully) cut down on heated arguments on the forums (which admittedly has cooled down in recent months) where a manual will lay out precisely what is and isn't proper procedure.

I know for a fact that work is being done on a User Guide/Manual. I don't know about the Site Tour.

And this thread wasn't supposed to be gripes. It was solutions and/or workarounds to the problems that a crowd-sourced site encounters when faced with a sharp rise in newer membership.

Besides, we all KNOW that no matter how much time and effort is put into a Tour or User Guides, there will be a certain percentage of people who will never touch those areas and simply come to the forums and ask the questions that are answered there - just like we have now with the FAQ (which already lays out a lot of the proper procedures, but people have either not read or chosen to ignore). So we can document the snot out of everything, but until every user reads it, technically, it's useless. And let's face it, if we're bombarded with a giant document that you must read before being able to do anything on the site, really now, who's going to stick around to read it? That's how you scare away new members. We don't want that. (Some might, but Admin doesn't.)

Having the documentation available can and will definitely help, but I honestly believe that doesn't help enough.

I do not claim to be a UI (user interface) expert, however, perhaps moving/duplicating the FAQ link to the header bar (top of webpage) would catch more eyes. I know the "More" option currently adjusts the webpage to the bottom so you can see all of the quick links, but even then it might be easy to miss. Although the difference might be little to none, there is plenty of real estate there and would not hurt.

I also think that certain Forum discussions should be a must read every time a member logs on or on a minimum of every 24 hours, before a member can do anything on the site.  There iare some very good discussions about correcting things, adding things, and other issues but only the regular Forum readers see these things and most of the time, we already know of it.