Author:  _Nadiki_  Posted:  Jan 25, 2024 18:03  Subject:  Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants  Viewed:  66 times  Topic:  Catalog Cancel Reply

BrickLink ID Card _Nadiki_ (99) Location:  USA, Oregon Member Since Contact Type Status Apr 5, 2020 Buyer

Well since a lot of BrickLink users are talking about this I feel I should throw my two cents in as well. I primarily use BrickLink for buying and research and consider the catalogue to be invaluable. I'll go point by point over each group planned to be consolidated, state what I understand to be happening based on your statements/community interpretation/etc and give my thoughts on it. 1. Frosted Bricks I'm guessing these are being merged with regular bricks with bottom tubes. This might be a good change, bricks with tubes and bricks without (newer transparent bricks) already have separate entries and frosted pieces have always been a variant thing that causes confusion. However if this is something that people are really passionate about, maybe a "frosted transparent clear" color could be added for these parts. 2. Smooth Slopes As I understand it, smooth slopes will be merged with their rough counterparts. This is a bad merging, as smooth slopes are completely different aesthetically and are typically more rare. Consolidating them with rough slopes would make it much harder for buyers to search for seller listings that sell specifically smooth slopes and be an annoyance to buyers that might receive a mix of smooth and rough slopes. 3. Connections Between Studs I'm not entirely sure which way these parts are being merged. If 3747b and 2752 are being merged, this is okay. However merging 3747b and 3747a is not a good idea because they have different angles due to the thickness of the top ridge being different. (3747a has a thicker ridge and a shallower slope than both the other variants.) I don't know what the other 2 entries being affected are, but presumably it's fine. 4. Sprue Marks This one's really easy to understand thankfully: the chair with sprue mark and chair without are being merged. Which is not a good merging. Many people seek out the chairs without sprues specifically, and having to check for seller descriptions (which they do not often provide) or hoping they get lucky with their order is highly inconvenient. 5. Torsos with Ribs Presumably the classic torsos without ribs are being merged with the reissues that have them. This a very, very bad merging. Old torsos from Classic Space, Castle, Pirates, etc. should be kept distinct from their modern reissues due to the major difference in print quality/durability and the old torsos' extreme value to collectors, particularly when in mint condition. 6. Inside Supports There's a lot of entries for this one but not many parts with side supports, so I'm guessing 1x2 axle bricks and panels with inside supports are getting merged with their non-support counterparts. This is a good change for the axle bricks, as there's almost no difference with the non-support version, but this is a bad change for the panels, as they are completely different inside due to the support jutting out. You can't make a smooth inner wall nor can you put old stickers inside of the panels with inside supports. 7. X-Shaped Axle Holes All bricks with x-shaped axle holes will be merged with their + shaped counterparts. While technically interchangeable, this is not a good merging due to the clear aesthetic differences and color exclusives. 8. Hinges with Teeth There was some misinformation about this one, the 7 teeth and 9 teeth variants have the same range of motion due to the special bump on the 7 tooth joint. So functionally identical parts will be merged. Considering the number of entries and the tiny teeth this is probably a good change honestly. However it might be good to add a footnote to these entries that the 9 teeth variant is the older one used up until around 2020. 9. Duplo Bricks with Bottom Tubes It's Duplo. It's probably fine. 10. Blocked and Vented Studs Presumably all blocked and vented variants of parts and minifigure heads will be merged together. This is an excellent and understandable change when it comes to the printed minifigure heads, as the catalogue was getting very bloated with all the variants of minifigure heads and it made it extremely hard to search the database for face prints when certain ones would show up several times. However, this is NOT a good change when it comes to parts like the 2x2 dome piece or blank minifigure heads. The vented studs and blocked studs look very different aesthetically and when those studs aren't covered up they do not look good next to each other. Differentiating these as a buyer would be awful. 11. Determined Entries for Very Common Parts There was a lot of confusion surrounding this one, many people thought the old and rare ungrooved parts were going to be merged with grooved parts. But instead the "with groove" addendum is being removed from modern parts and the "without groove" moniker will remain on its respective entries. This is an excellent change! Please do not disregard your users' fears simply because they are misinformed about a few of these mergings. It's not easily apparent from the Help post which entries are merging with what. These people are passionate about Lego and treasure BOTH the excellent database and fantastic marketplace you provide. If I may offer a suggestion: it would be immensely helpful to everyone if you guys created a variant dropdown menu for parts similar to how it currently works with color. It would streamline things so much for everyone - buyers, sellers, and database users alike - and not lead to such extreme database bloat as Lego creates more and more variants in the future.

Message is in Reply To:

Important proposal regarding catalog variants - Admin_Russell

Hello everyone, As a platform, we have decided to take a hard look at some of the mold variants that we are currently asking you to recognize. For sellers, more variants means [...] (5 months ago, Jan 9, 2024, to Catalog)

Message Has 1 Reply:

Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants - Admin_Russell

[...] Thanks for the detailed post! (4 months ago, Jan 25, 2024, to Catalog)

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