BrickLink Discussion Forum

So, Catalog admins, will this get updated?
At the moment you have 18938 and 88738 as alternate numbers for the same part,
and 48168 as a mold variant. How anyone could have entered a 60 tooth gear as
mold variant of a 56 tooth gear is a question for another day...

From what I can see the mold variant link should be removed - Z56 and Z60 are
different.
The alternate number link should also be removed, and the descriptions of the
part should be updated to reflect the bevel teeth on one of them.

Or does all this fall in your recent program of dumbing down the database...

Author:

Duq

Posted:

Feb 4, 2024 07:16

Subject:

Re: Variants Thread - January 31

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

So here's where trouble starts.
You said for the tiles it would be a name change only. Instead you've changed
and removed part numbers. An import into BrickStore no longer recognises 3070b
as a 1x1 Tile because that's now 3070. 3070b is apparently no longer a valid
part number.

So bye bye backwards compatibility. Thanks a lot.

As I said before, the correct solution would have been parent parts. Backwards
compatible, solves the problem for newbies without f***ing things up for experienced
users and collectors.

Author:

Duq

Posted:

Jan 29, 2024 16:07

Subject:

Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants

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96 times

Topic:

In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:

Hello everyone,

Notice the date on this is coming up quickly (Feb 1), so I'm not giving a
lot of time for discussion. I'm aiming for about 1 week of discussion and
then we'll give sellers 2 weeks to adjust the descriptions on affected items
if they wish to retain the distinctions.

...

This is all for now. Based on how well this goes, we may elect to remove other
entries later. However, we will keep all functional variants and important cosmetic
variants.

So after week of discussion in which hundreds of users told you what a stupid
idea this is, I assume you're going ahead anyway?

If you want to make some useful updates to the database, how about renaming liftarms
to beams? Or making sure "Plate, Modified 1 x 4 with 2 Studs" (41740)
and "Tile, Modified 2 x 2 with Studs on Edge" (33909) are in the same
category?

Author:

Duq

Posted:

Jan 25, 2024 03:58

Subject:

Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants

Viewed:

39 times

Topic:

In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:

2. What if I really care about a certain variant that is going away? Can I
still buy and sell that variant?

Absolutely! You can add notes to your listings to make them as "determined"
as you wish. Buyers can still search within notes for extra details, or they
can simply observe them as they browse listings.

How exactly do you see that working? Sellers are going to have different ways
to describe variants so it's going to be hell for buyers looking for specific
variants, having to search through notes from tens or hundreds of sellers.

For buyers, excess variants mean that it's harder to assemble a wanted list,
find stores, and ultimately obtain the parts you are looking for.

So how do you imagine wanted lists for specific variants working after this merge?
Does the wanted list include the option to specify "Notes contains the words..."?
Nope.

1. This sounds like you're dumbing down the BrickLink catalog to make
it easier for new users. Is that what is going on?

Despite what you say, that's exactly what's going on. You're not
just going to erase the hard work that many volunteers put in, you are now going
to make the site less useful for those dedicated users.
I guess we should have seen this coming when the mothership took over.

I recently needed a variation that's been merged or never recorded. The 2x2
flag has a clip variant that infringes on the 2x2 part of the flag, if that makes
sense. It took posting on the forum, waiting for sellers to reply, then comparing
the stores of those sellers for the rest of my wanted list to eventually buy
what I wanted.

As others have suggested, the proper solution is parent or umbrella parts in
the catalog.
As a seller, if I don't distinguish between variants I list them as the parent.
If I do distinguish I list the individual variants.
As a buyer, if I don't care about the version I put the parent part on my
wanted list, and it will return entries of the parent (by sellers who don't
distinguish) as well as all the variants under that parent. If I'm looking
for a specific variant I can still search for that easily.
Doing this will still make it easy for new users who don't care about exact
variants, without making it extremely hard for collectors to find exactly what
they want.

Author:

Duq

Posted:

Aug 2, 2023 09:29

Subject:

Looking for old yellow flags

Viewed:

109 times

Topic:

Wanted

Part 2335 Flag 2x2 Square has different molds. The BL catalog simply says:
"Additional Notes: This part comes in at least three variations, with the
earlier variations having thin clips."
This difference is not just cosmetic as you can see, there is a difference when
building with these flags. I need the older type, with the thin clips, but I
can't search for those.
Are there any sellers out there, preferably in Europe, that have this version
in yellow? I need 40-50 of them.

Author:

Duq

Posted:

Jan 7, 2020 19:47

Subject:

Element 6286835 wrong colour

Viewed:

114 times

Topic:

Status:

Open