The 'No RPG left behind' act.

[scribe]

Well, here we go. This forum and the corresponding research areas all eschew the Schick/Afterglo 'nonTSR' rubric in favor of covering all RPGs that are not featured in the TSR portion of this site. The good problem we have is the enormity of materials. Would it be safe to say that Schick's Heroic Worlds likely is only carrying 50% of the material that this section of the site would want to cover?

How do we go about organizing this? Clearly, the major publishers in alphabetical order and minor one's in alpha 'chapters' is the most ideal way to assemble the information. This is the principle structure of the research forums that Kynan has so diligently assembled and I thank him for all of that hard work. The archive areas of the site will simply have to be a patient work-in-progress so that we might adopt this new strategy, there.

In the shorter term, we will need to figure out how to assemble the auction databanks to preserve some auction records. Many of those items have NEVER gotten any representation online regarding the recording of values. This work is highest on my priority list.
_________________

[Mars]

50% might be a high estimate considering that Heroic Worlds cuts off at 1990-91. There is a lot of stuff missed in the earlier years and so much more that comes after as well.

As for storing auction results data, I'll put it out there that one possibility is to tack it on to the thread were the item is listed. This would make it easy to find the item when more than one auction price is being listed. There is definitely a case for keeping it separate too.

[scribe]

The problem looming over the horizon with these auction data results is there are hundreds of items that might be eligible for tracking. As it stands now, there will be many dozens of pages of unique item threads that currently serve as the means of organization. It is already spread across a couple of pages with nary a dent into what we might like to feature auction results for.

What I am trying to do now is make a single summary post (see rpg data forum summary) with all of the publishers listed alphabetically. Under each publisher, I am grouping the unique items in alphabetical order. NOW, I think it would be great if visitors who enjoy watching this list grow, will make 'submissions' to the list in the same thread. That way, us moderators can step into my original post and edit in the following results. I think this could be the most successful way to present results so that everyone can easily locate a concise list of values more conveniently.

It is my hope that as this list grows, we can divide these groupings into numerous threads. Perhaps major publishers will get their own threads and lesser publishers can be grouped into manageable alphabetical threads. Ideal would be 50 threads or less so that they all fit onto the 1st page of the forum. Clearly, this community is the most challenging given the breadth of material covered. If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere.

The end goal here is that we develop an actual program that does all this transferring of data automatically. Sure visitors will still be needed to actually enter the data. I don't think bots will ever be able to successfully gather auction data. But the purpose of the program is making it easier for the visitor to 'find' our lists of results in a convenient way that interacts with the archive areas of the site. For example, these lists will appear automatically on corresponding archive pages sitewide on the tome; ie. Wee Warriors Misty Isles page will automatically have auction results updated once entered into the system. Once this program is in place, we can dump this system we are working on. Of course we will transfer the stored data. But until then, an archive of prices is invaluable and would be a great tool for the visitor.
_________________

[Mars]

That's a good idea. My worry was the hundreds messages, one for each item. But the single editable message I think will work nicely.