Version 2 Beta soft launches this week

[ecNate]

In case you missed the Facebook post yesterday. There's a number of great new features that have been in the works for a while included here. The newsletter mentioned is the one found at the bottom of the current P52 site.

Version 2 Beta soft launches this week. An e-mail will be sent out to our newsletter when migration to the new site will occur. It'll be a timed night migration to minimize inconvenience. Not going to lie, after all the delays on this thing I thought it would never breathe again. We are so excited to see this go into the world.

[tonyricciardi]

I'm sure I speak for many others. I've been waiting for this day for a long time!

[IAmTheChin]

Nothing blew up.

I. am. so. happy.

There's some last minute changes still shifting and I'm trying to migrate the old points to the new point system. But other than that it seems to work well. Filter will take some time to start spitting out the results I'm looking for but over time with contributions the filter will get better. Going to try to make the Learn section a bit more visually informative as well but just trying to let this thing go without training wheels to see if it'll ride.

*popping a hypothetical bottle of champagne*. Now to get back to working on the Kickstarter. It's a busy 2 weeks...

[flashcards]

I'm unable to log in. It wants my email address rather than my alias. The password is the same for both but it won't accept it. Do I need to register again? I don't want to lose my collection.

[4.of.Clubs]

I'm unable to log in. It wants my email address rather than my alias. The password is the same for both but it won't accept it. Do I need to register again? I don't want to lose my collection.

Click on "Forgot my password" and you can reset it.

[4.of.Clubs]

Nothing blew up.

I. am. so. happy.

There's some last minute changes still shifting and I'm trying to migrate the old points to the new point system. But other than that it seems to work well. Filter will take some time to start spitting out the results I'm looking for but over time with contributions the filter will get better. Going to try to make the Learn section a bit more visually informative as well but just trying to let this thing go without training wheels to see if it'll ride.

*popping a hypothetical bottle of champagne*. Now to get back to working on the Kickstarter. It's a busy 2 weeks...

Thanks for all the work Alex!

I did notice my collection count went down about 8 decks and I haven't changed the collection in a few weeks. Haven't yet figured out which decks went missing though. What cut of the data was converted over?

Also, it seems that the old "order" for custom ordering was lost, is there a way to restore that?

[flashcards]

D'uh. Thanks 4.of.Clubs. That took care of it. Wasn't thinking.

[ecNate]

FYI - All users will probably have to reset their passwords if you don't use the Facebook option since they apparently properly stored passwords encrypted so there was not a way to migrate those. Also all contributors should have edit access without needing to have their submissions approved so be careful and don't screw up this open access! Suggested guidelines for content (not yet updated for new fields/options). Also, there is a new FAQ directly on the site which we will work to update and eventually replace the now outdated one here.

[Azid]

Don't know where to start,... but there are some things that should be fixed.
I'm not trying to be negative but the old site was better, and i write this only as a feedback to fix and improve things.


Negative:
I also had to reset password (minor thing)

1. Search Function:
Doesn't really work. Just try to search for "Rider Back" and see what you get.
I get Tally-Ho decks, Ask Alexander and many more.
Type it again and you will get differnt decks like Artifice, Monarchs, Crown decks
Other Example: Search "Nugget" and you get Tenebre, Whispering Imps, Dapper Deck


2. Discover Function:
Old Version: we were able to select "Company" , "Artist", "Printer" and 1 other option i forgot
Now: Quantity, Color, Tuck , Stock, Style
The new selections are good as expansions but i miss especially the "Artist" and "Company" function

3. Deck name doesn't show up anymore if you move the mouse cursor to a picture.

4. Decks got lost from collection:
Still trying to find out which are missing..... right now Gentleman Black, Inception Inceptus, Intellectus, Illustratum were missing from my collection

5.Trade Function is missing.
Aswell if you are on the "Full Page Info" you can't click on "Wishlist" or "Tradelists" to see who wants or who trades this deck.


Positive:
1. "Add new Deck" , didn't test it right now (will try this weekend) but i like opportunity to add a deck.

2. Design of the new page: I like it more then the old

3. "Pop Up" if you click an a deck


Regards , Azid

[rorschach]

search appears to be somewhat broken/not useful in the Beta. when searching for a specific deck i find alot of decks come up before the deck i'm looking for, that have less to do with the deck i'm after.

e.g, i searched for Jackson Robinson's Crazy 8's (typing in 'Crazy 8's' into the search box) and it was the 40th or so result from the top. even Delirium and Cultura decks showed up before it.

Hopefully this is helpful to improving the Beta!

side note - when hovering over a deck in search, it could be helpful to display the decks name below it, as i find their are a lot of instances where you discover a new deck, by searching for another. i know you can easily click and get a small pop-up window, but this would be a nice addition.

[Tayranno]

Site is looking good but I agree the search function is a bit broken. The site is also pretty difficult to use on a mobile device. Any on screen windows that pop up are huge and you have scroll around to use buttons/close the window.

I also have a bunch of random deck ratings that I didn't place (I haven't even logged in for a few months), including on decks that I don't even own. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove a rating, either.

Lastly, my custom ordering has been completely defenestrated. When moving decks around there doesn't seem to be any "save changes" button now (hopefully I'm not blind), nor does it automatically save.

I like this XP feature, though! Way to suck in the gamers.

[IAmTheChin]

Hey Guys,

I know we all like some of the safety of the old and want the shiny of the new. Going to try to address a few things quick inbetween running around everywhere haha.

1) Search - It's a tricky thing. Ask Alexander is finite text and is a basic global search. I've modified the site so that it will only search our manual search fields now and Titles and removed the "Description Field" which was what was throwing off so many results. You should be getting better results now. Also this site is based on fleshing out the deck data. Right now we have all the old decks in there without "search terms" tagged to them yet. As we fill out missing fields of decks like "Company" or "Stock" or "Finish" hypothetically speaking we will start to get stronger search results that will begin to make sense. Right now we're in a new frontier and things will be a little messy lol.

2) Discover - You can still search by Artist, Printer, and Company. Those fields never disappeared. You would just use the search bar instead of an icon to filter them out specifically. Having a large list of companies is something we can do in the future but the fact that it was ever growing was a problem on the old site that got things a bit messy. If requested enough we can figure out a new UX that would accommodate that kind of browsing.

3) Deck name was purposefully removed to show full back design. You can click the decks for a lightbox that will allow you to do all the old features plus include personal notes and larger images of the decks themselves without browsing out of the feed.

4) Missing decks should be added back now.

5) That one is a real one. We used to do that but now that the site is starting to scale there was the issue of privacy that came up that I never even thought of before. This is why we don't have user names discoverable in the search bar either. You can only view with direct links right now. I'll consider opening this one back up though. It was definitely a fun one.

I also have a bunch of random deck ratings that I didn't place (I haven't even logged in for a few months), including on decks that I don't even own. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove a rating, either.

Lastly, my custom ordering has been completely defenestrated. When moving decks around there doesn't seem to be any "save changes" button now (hopefully I'm not blind), nor does it automatically save.

I like this XP feature, though! Way to suck in the gamers.

The "ratings" were a way to transfer the old points of the old site to the new one through the new XP system. We had to put them in somehow and used the unused "ratings" column to log points in.

I sincerely apologize for the custom ordering. I made countless requests to ensure that they would be saved. It did not make it for whatever reason. I am truly sorry about that.

The XP feature is hopefully to help people get interested in contributing information to the site. It's not even fully up now with badges but it was a long build and it'll be nice to let the site grow into its own for a little bit before going for another round

-Alex

[Azid]

1) Search - It's a tricky thing. Ask Alexander is finite text and is a basic global search. I've modified the site so that it will only search our manual search fields now and Titles and removed the "Description Field" which was what was throwing off so many results. You should be getting better results now. Also this site is based on fleshing out the deck data. Right now we have all the old decks in there without "search terms" tagged to them yet. As we fill out missing fields of decks like "Company" or "Stock" or "Finish" hypothetically speaking we will start to get stronger search results that will begin to make sense. Right now we're in a new frontier and things will be a little messy lol.

Ok, Thanks for explaining. So there is a lot of work to do. Right now i can search for "ellusionist" and get 5 decks.
So we have to edit all Ellusionist decks by typing "Ellusionist" in the company field to get this working right ?

2) Discover - You can still search by Artist, Printer, and Company. Those fields never disappeared. You would just use the search bar instead of an icon to filter them out specifically. Having a large list of companies is something we can do in the future but the fact that it was ever growing was a problem on the old site that got things a bit messy. If requested enough we can figure out a new UX that would accommodate that kind of browsing.

It was just an easy way to search for something by clicking a button, but not necessary

3) Deck name was purposefully removed to show full back design. You can click the decks for a lightbox that will allow you to do all the old features plus include personal notes and larger images of the decks themselves without browsing out of the feed.

Yep, nice feature to see the back design now, it's a good thing But in some cases the decks look exact the same on front and back (prototypes, stripper, invisible, gaff.... ) so you have to click on every deck to see what it's exactly. Anyways not a big deal

4) Missing decks should be added back now.

Decks itself weren't missing, they just dropped out of personal collections (in my case it were just 5 decks )

5) That one is a real one. We used to do that but now that the site is starting to scale there was the issue of privacy that came up that I never even thought of before. This is why we don't have user names discoverable in the search bar either. You can only view with direct links right now. I'll consider opening this one back up though. It was definitely a fun one.

Maybe open this just for Wish & Tradelist not for collections, by agreeing the terms for signing up at portfolio52.
On the main page, below "Recently Colleted" you can see who added the last 4 decks to his/her collection on portfolio52. I can click at the user and see his/her whole collection. Not so for "recently added".


Thanks for explaining all that things.

Another thing... i added 18 decks in the last 5 days, i can see them in my collection but if i search for it by "Discovery" + "Newest" or just typing the name of one in the search bar they don't show up. So a contributor needs to check them and add it then ?

Thanks, Azid

[rorschach]

Hi,

Glad to hear Alex is on the thread, I wasn't sure where we should be posting any bugs we found, and this was the only thread referencing the new Beta.

Having a bit more time with the website, it's beginning to grow on me. I do like some of the changes, but the problem with search is troublesome.

I added a couple of decks a few days ago(Jackson's Crazy 8's) and just did a search for them. I typed in 'Crazy 8's' and it was the 2nd last result out of the 20 decks shown. Not only that, but only one of the two Crazy 8's was even there. This is not an outlier either. Most decks I search for by deck name are nowhere near the top, and instead i'm getting search results that seem to have little to nothing to do with my query. Furthermore, I have a couple of decks that I knew have been added in the past but that I can no longer find at all.

I am concerned, as the current state of search could potentially lead to multiple people adding the same deck and the whole of P52 becoming bloated and confusing mess.

As it stands right now, I would suggest reverting back to the original search until it can be fixed (is that even possible?) I know this is a public beta, but search at the moment feels more like an early alpha at this stage.

I mean no disrespect as I know how hard these problems can be, and I love P52, but at it's current state the search is almost unusable.


I was also wondering if messaging will be coming back? I had a few conversations going with users about decks i'm after that are now just gone.

Thanks.

[flyers3003]

My guess is this is due to the number of search parameters. By typing in "Crazy 8's" you are doing a search on 'Crazy' as well as a search on '8' (I'm not sure how the search handles the apostrophe s). So all of the 8-Bit decks show up in the search and since numbers usually come before letters, the 8-bit decks are shown 1st. Just doing a search on 'Crazy' only shows 4 decks - all having Crazy in the name - including the two Crazy 8's decks. The search needs the ability to do an AND search not just an OR, so that a search on 'Crazy' AND '8' would only show Jacskon's two decks.

Edit: Actually the search is set to Random, so my guess is the list being returned is actually the order in which they were entered into the database. That is why the Crazy 8 decks are at the end.

[rorschach]

I noticed search has gotten a bit better, but hardly noticeable. I love P52, but since the overhaul i've all but given up on it, outside of the UI I can't see any improvement. Since this thread doesn't seem to be very active, it feels like not alot of people care too much, and that the site will just eventually fade away.

That would be a waste, since (outside of some messaging issues) the original P52 was so great.

Anyone else have any opinions on the matter?

[4.of.Clubs]

I noticed search has gotten a bit better, but hardly noticeable. I love P52, but since the overhaul i've all but given up on it, outside of the UI I can't see any improvement. Since this thread doesn't seem to be very active, it feels like not alot of people care too much, and that the site will just eventually fade away.

That would be a waste, since (outside of some messaging issues) the original P52 was so great.

Anyone else have any opinions on the matter?

I've always tried to keep in my mind that the site is free and we should all appreciate what it's providing! But yeah I agree after the new version came out I barely use it anymore (before I'd go on it a few times everyday).

For me the main reasons are:
1. Some decks were lost during the data conversion from my collection and to find out which ones I need to go over my whole collection (1200+) and I haven't found the time to do that.
2. I spent hours (literally hours) of making sure my custom order matches exactly how I stored my decks and that's pretty much gone too. Again, I need to find time to re-do that.
3. Too many people are adding new decks uncontrolled (duplicates, bad image quality, etc.).

I plan on re-doing my collection after the new years when I find some time though! I think it'll actually be kind of fun to look at all the decks I have put away and not touched in years!

[Azid]

3. Too many people are adding new decks uncontrolled (duplicates, bad image quality, etc.).

Sorry, but i have to disagree on that one. I added like 40+ decks over the last 3 months without contributor status.
What i noticed here, i can add a deck but it doesn't show up if i search for it, aswell if i look at "discover" + "sort by newest". After 2-7 days it shows up on P52, so someone with contributor status has to approve the deck i added. Thats the process like it is and also shown here: http://www.portfolio52.com/become-contributor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The reason why there are many duplicates around in the last few months is simply that people adding new decks which wait to be approved while a contributor adds the same deck in this time. Later on another contributor approves the decks -> duplicates.

But there is at least 1 guy with contributor status that adds a lot of decks with very low quality (like 8-Bit )
examples:
http://www.portfolio52.com/deck/4350/view" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.portfolio52.com/deck/4358/view" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.portfolio52.com/deck/4365/view" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This should be stopped, as it says "Upload high quality images of front and backs of the deck box. Avoid cellophane if possible to avoid misrepresenting the deck design."

[rorschach]

Since this thread doesn't seem to be that popular, is it safe to assume this is the beginning of the end of P52? It doesn't seem to be getting any better.

[montecarlojoe]

Be patient... Alex and all the contributers have real lives and its been a busy time of year!

As long as we continue to build the site up things will continue to develop.

I certain still use it, though I don't contribute as much as I might like to. I suspect it's the same for many.

I've no doubt that Alex has plans that he'll get to when he can

[ecNate]

I updated Alex on this, perhaps when he has time, and money ($$$) to pay developer for fixes, he'll take a look at some of the concerns. I've stepped back quite a bit from the project lately since Alex took over from Rhu, but still help out when I can. That combined with being less aggressive in collecting means I'm not in there as much.

However, I did finally figure out how to get to the admin panel today after Alex upgraded me back to admin a few months ago. I might have a chance to figure out who is creating all the duplicates when I do another round of cleanup.

Please also note that it should still work that general users who submit decks must have them approved, but Azid's experience tells otherwise. My own testing with a new general user did require approval so somebody must be approving Azid's and unfortunately a lot of the garbage entries and duplicates as well. Be aware that those with access will see the list of decks to be approved under the top right menu with 'Unapproved Decks' link (http://www.portfolio52.com/decks/unapproved). To approve or reject a deck, just access it from the entry in that link and then use the edit button - from there add/correct any details and save it to approve or delete it to reject. BE SURE TO PROPERLY CHECK FOR DUPLICATES AND ACCURACY!!! I'm not sure who actually has the ability to approve submitted decks, but if they are not actually looking for duplicates first then that too will lead to bad submissions. I actually didn't know how that was done myself until today as I was expecting something more obvious when I logged in. Has anybody here been approving submitted decks up to this point?

Alex did previously mention that "Right now contributor's are pretty rare so I actually let their changes go live if they want to add something immediately or edit something.", but of the 2,500 users this is just a small group of mostly people on this forum that were previously editors. So I think the junk that is being added must be from people who should no longer be contributors or somebody approving garbage.

EDIT - I think I see the main problem here with testing with my general user account. When a general user creates a new deck it is held for approval, but they can add to their collection. It also shows up in the recently collected list which I think allows others to add it, but does not get added to the searchable database or the recently added until approved. In addition, I think new users may not understand how to add a new deck to their collection so they add a new deck (which waits for approval) and then when they can't find it in a search (since it wasn't approved yet) they create another copy...and another...and another. Then, somebody (individually or a group) must just be approving them without review.

[Azid]

(http://www.portfolio52.com/decks/unapproved)

Didn't know about that but this helps a lot so i'll take a look here before i will add a new deck in future.

Thanks for explaining all that things and how it works.

[ecNate]

So Azid was kind enough to work with me and we confirmed that the access roles are working correctly and the access listed for Azid is working correctly - new decks submitted have to be approved first so prior submissions made by Azid were approved by somebody, perhaps quickly. It would be great if there could be an edit log added to see who submitted and who approved, as well as a full list of edits as listed in feature requests, but the priority and simplest to implement would be tracking initial creation and initial approval (if applicable). As an admin I am able to manually lookup a deck on the admin panel to see who originally submitted it, but it's not built in and it also does not list who approved.

One strange thing though is the unapproved list can not be seen if you are a general user and logged in. HOWEVER, Azid found that if you logout it can be seen. I'm not sure if that's an undocumented feature or a bug, but certainly it's a bug on one end or the other! I would say allowing general users to access it and users not logged in is fine and may help bring awareness to the process, but it should be consistent.

[4.of.Clubs]

Haven't approved any decks since the new version. Just took a look and saw this but I can't find a place to delete it after entering "Edit/Add".

[ecNate]

Haven't approved any decks since the new version. Just took a look and saw this but I can't find a place to delete it after entering "Edit/Add".

The Save/Delete are at the very bottom after editing, or at least are for me. I did go and confirm that you have 'Contributor' access BTW.

I went through all existing entries and deleted most since the majority were the same deck added by a single user and some duplicates. This last one I wasn't sure what to do with since it's not a proper scan, but more importantly I think it's just a tuck change, as in a special case. I've added some in the past like Arcana expansion case since it's meant to include the original deck, plus related expansion cards making a new deck. This is really just a special case and not really anything new, but I wasn't sure so left it to think about it or see what others thought.

[flyers3003]

The Save/Delete are at the very bottom after editing

Only seeing Save at the bottom for those of us with Contributor access.

[4.of.Clubs]

Haven't approved any decks since the new version. Just took a look and saw this but I can't find a place to delete it after entering "Edit/Add".

The Save/Delete are at the very bottom after editing, or at least are for me. I did go and confirm that you have 'Contributor' access BTW.

I went through all existing entries and deleted most since the majority were the same deck added by a single user and some duplicates. This last one I wasn't sure what to do with since it's not a proper scan, but more importantly I think it's just a tuck change, as in a special case. I've added some in the past like Arcana expansion case since it's meant to include the original deck, plus related expansion cards making a new deck. This is really just a special case and not really anything new, but I wasn't sure so left it to think about it or see what others thought.

Be around here?

Untitled.jpg (10.66 KiB) Viewed 4646 times

[ecNate]

Pretty much, further to the right for me. Could be you only have the option to approve, but not reject. That would suck since it really means I'm the only one who can delete or in this case reject. Meaning they either are approved or sit there waiting. Maybe when Alex stops in he can confirm if this is working correctly or not.

I guess for the moment we can make the process be either:
Approve - Update the submitted entry as needed to make it meet our guidelines, then save it to approve
OR
Reject - Update the submitted entry with a prefix of 'REJECTED' in the deck name with optional any reasons in the description/about deck field. I or somebody can later delete, but in the meantime others out to review for approval will immediately know it's already been reviewed and rejected, ideally with a reason listed. I also update the FAQ pagewith this information.

[IAmTheChin]

Hi guys,

I apologize for not being as responsive here. Admittedly I had assumed people would be using the Contact on the site to directly e-mail me. This thread had been out of mind. Thanks to Nate to bringing me back. I'll be sure to be more diligent here. But again we do have a contact form which I'll definitely see.

SEARCH:
When people upload a lot of times they won't flesh out the fields. A deck will only show up if the search term is in the TITLE of the deck or the FIELD. There were way too many uncontrolled searches when we included descriptions earlier.

VIDEOS:
Having been so involved in the creation of this I hadn't really thought about the learning curve of the site. I'll be trying to make some tutorials for the Learning Section in the future, hopefully sooner than later. This will cover image quality, how search works, etc.

DELETE:
I think right now only Admin has this power. I could stretch this to Contributors but I wanted to make sure the average person couldn't go around deleting everything if they had a bad day or an angry customer attacking a specific set of decks of a company.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS:
Also addressed by the very wise Nate earlier is our two bottle necks. TIME and MONEY. I'm still unsure how to monetize the site. The deck this year was AWESOME and definitely helps for hosting but didn't cover all the building costs unfortunately. Eventually we'll figure that out. Until then, without being able to pay for people the best thing are the amazing and wonderful VOLUNTEERS! It'll save everyone a bunch of time if we get a bit more volunteers. Email me directly at alex@seasonsplayingcards.com if you're interested!

SUGGESTIONS:
I understand that some people are less interested in the site on the conversion. But let me know with the contact form or this forum what you have in terms of feedback or suggestions so we can try to fix it. Search is a big one and I think it performed so well previously because we had NO infromation except the title. The added fields make each deck have extra levels of complexity for the search we have to address and we're continuing to work on it.

USAGE:
The site is actually growing quite a bit. Right now the site runs at over 2500 members. For better or worse there are new people joining in that are new to collecting and using the site to discover new decks. I think that's exciting and how I pictured P52! But that does mean that I need to get a better teaching structure up ASAP to keep everyone on the same understanding on how to use the site.

If you have any other suggestions just let me know. I'm doing my best to try to run this and Seasons. If there is a real deal breaker e-mail me. I'll try to get it addressed. Otherwise just post in this thread and we can have open discussions of what we like and what we don't and hopefully grow P52 into something better for 2017.

[4.of.Clubs]

Still a bit unsure how the search is working...? Was looking for the old black tiger decks but "tiger" didn't return the ones I was looking for. Searching "black tiger" did but a bunch of random decks were listed first, had to scroll down a lot to find them. Any idea peeps?