Hi Shmax. My hat goes off to your effort here. Making this database large enough to serve as a useful tool for the Transformers fan community is a monumental undertaking, which naturally only becomes possible if everyone starts adding the toys they have or would like to have. I think a direct question is in order: what kind of commitment do you have to keeping this database up and running? Just keeping an eye out for double entries is going to take a lot of work. You'll need a very stable server and have all the concerns of running a website with (hopefully) major traffic. Building the database to a comprehensive level will take a lot of time from a lot of people. What's the plan for keeping it up and running for the long term? Would you hand it over to Seibertron if you end up without enough time to take care of it, and would they want it?
I'm asking tough questions because I see the value in what you're doing, and I'm hoping it can stick around!
These are all great questions, almost too great, really--who sent you? You're not a cop, are you?
But yes, the enormity of the task is quite crushing, and though I've done my best to get things up and running by doing a ton of data entry myself, my long-term goal is to make the database friendly enough for the community itself to fill it in. Admittedly, it's not quite friendly enough, yet. There are flaws in the presentation that confuse folks. For example, no single user--including yourself--has quite "gotten" that you're supposed to browse your way to the appropriate sub-category before adding a figure or package (I'm in working on a solution for that, as we speak).
On the other hand, there are some safeguards in place. You mentioned double entries--well, in theory the database prevents this, though there will definitely be issues with some of our grammatically-challenged users forcing typo's and other mistakes through. But even then, all new additions are flagged as "pending", and must be approved by an administrator before they become publicly available.
As for my commitment, well, I've already spent a few years slaving away on this, so I'd be nuts to abandon all the work I've already done, but ultimately all work I do on this project is geared toward making it self-sufficient. There's no way I can personally take on the data entry AND handle support and new features, so the plan all along has been to open it up to the users. A little further down the line, I'll even be awarding one or more administrator flags to the user or users that seem the most capable, and they will take on data verification and other duties.
So, that's the general idea. I'm working at full capacity to beef things up to the point where I can start publicizing the site in earnest and welcome in the hordes, but in the meantime I'm still accepting any and all thoughtful input, suggestions, criticisms, and even wisecracks.
I thank you for your cogent post, and look forward to more!
- shmax
p.s. Thanks for Grimlock, he's been approved!
