One of the challenges to buyers on BrickLink, especially new members and one-time
buyers, is navigating the nuances of the catalog. I know there are pros and
cons to how the catalog is organized, and this thread is not intended to rehash
that debate.
My suggestion is simply that search results return exact AND near matches.
This should apply to search functions across the site and wanted lists. It
should be an OPTION that users can disable when desired, but by default
should be ON for new members.
have similar functions, but completely different mold numbers.
4730 is the "old" mold, but most new buyers would not know this. If a buyer
sees that part and tries to search stores for it, they will find about 1300 lots.
But if they searched 6232, they would find 4200 lots for sale. And if both
sets were returned by the search engine, they would have 5500 lots to browse.
So I would like to see the results of direct searches and wanted list searches
display something like how set inventories use the header bars to divide regular
parts, alternate parts, minifigs, etc.
The first result set should be "Your search matched exactly the following
items:"
The second result set should be "Here are similar items that may also meet
your needs:"
The linkage in the catalog database already exists - parts with similar mold
relationship. So the search engine could just follow that linkage to display
the second set of results for the user.
I chose for my example what I thought was a "safe" part variation. But personally,
I would find this very helpful with dealing with the a/b/c mold variations, which
for the most part I don't care about. As I said this would be an OPTION, and
anyone who is looking for a specific mold type (advanced buyers) could disable
this function for themselves.
Does the site already have a data table with these near matches stored?
If they do, what you ask for is easy.
If not, creating the actual data, will be more work than the functionality to
use it.
In Suggestions, DadsAFOL writes:
One of the challenges to buyers on BrickLink, especially new members and one-time
buyers, is navigating the nuances of the catalog. I know there are pros and
cons to how the catalog is organized, and this thread is not intended to rehash
that debate.
My suggestion is simply that search results return exact AND near matches.
This should apply to search functions across the site and wanted lists. It
should be an OPTION that users can disable when desired, but by default
should be ON for new members.
have similar functions, but completely different mold numbers.
4730 is the "old" mold, but most new buyers would not know this. If a buyer
sees that part and tries to search stores for it, they will find about 1300 lots.
But if they searched 6232, they would find 4200 lots for sale. And if both
sets were returned by the search engine, they would have 5500 lots to browse.
So I would like to see the results of direct searches and wanted list searches
display something like how set inventories use the header bars to divide regular
parts, alternate parts, minifigs, etc.
The first result set should be "Your search matched exactly the following
items:"
The second result set should be "Here are similar items that may also meet
your needs:"
The linkage in the catalog database already exists - parts with similar mold
relationship. So the search engine could just follow that linkage to display
the second set of results for the user.
I chose for my example what I thought was a "safe" part variation. But personally,
I would find this very helpful with dealing with the a/b/c mold variations, which
for the most part I don't care about. As I said this would be an OPTION, and
anyone who is looking for a specific mold type (advanced buyers) could disable
this function for themselves.
Does the site already have a data table with these near matches stored?
If they do, what you ask for is easy.
If not, creating the actual data, will be more work than the functionality to
use it.
USA
