Database Updates
373 Entries

Find out what’s changed on the site! Check back here for information about database additions, reading order placements, error fixes, or new user features.

We’re updated every day, often more than once!

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By | Thursday, December 2, 2010 | 3:21 pm | 8 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

Brraaakoom! A whole mess of updates, redesigns and tweaked features!

This list is gonna be a lot to get through, but here goes!

Removed the HEADER!!??

This is going to strike a lot of you as very strange, but I’m going for it.

I just don’t think branding is very important! Getting to the content quickly matters more, so I’m removing the giant TRADE READING ORDER banner and everything else in the header. The top of the page is now the navigation bar.

This goes against a lot of web design currently in practice, but with so many people finding this site through google results, stumbleupon, and other social media, getting to the content as quickly as possible without a jumble of unrelated text up top – well, that matters! I’m going to try to keep the site identifiable, but in ways that don’t take up that much space.

It’s funny that without a big old banner up top, it feels like a site isn’t really done – but I’ll get over it.

I moved the Search and the Weekly Giveaways from the header to the right sidebar.

There’s at least 40 other changes, minor and major. Click here for the full list!

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By | Thursday, December 2, 2010 | 12:22 am | 8 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

I just finished tagging the main titles from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, along with adding covers and publication information. Here are the books finished as of this update:

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

Sandman: The Doll’s House

Sandman: Dream Country

Absolute Sandman 1

Sandman: Season of Mists

Sandman: A Game of You

Absolute Sandman 2

Sandman: Fables and Reflections

Sandman: Brief Lives

Sandman: Worlds’ End

Absolute Sandman 3

Sandman: The Kindly Ones

Sandman: The Wake

Sandman: Dustcovers

Absolute Sandman 4

Sandman: The Dream Hunters (Original Graphic Novel)

Sandman: The Dream Hunters (Miniseries)

Sandman: Endless Nights

Man there are a lot of characters in these books! The tagging should help other lists as well.

I added header text to The Endless list, which all these books are on. I’ve still got to add a lot more to that one obviously (like all the appearances of Death!)

I also tagged the Books of Magic series tag on any book with Titania in it, for reasons probably obvious to fans of that series.

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By | Tuesday, November 30, 2010 | 7:37 pm | 0 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

Hey guys, just a little note.

I’m moving my office (computer, modem, server, scanner, etc.) into our studio tonight. Previously it’s been in the bedroom, which is pretty unfair to Beth (it’s not very easy for her to sleep with me typing up a storm every night.)

The site isn’t hosted locally, so it will still be up of course, but any replies from me and/or tonight’s review may be a little late, since I’ll be offline until we get the cable modem hooked up again.

I’m hoping I’ll be done with the move by tomorrow morning, but it’s possible it will take longer.

I’ll make up for it by backdating a review for today (so we’ll just get two in one day.)

See ya soon!

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By | Tuesday, November 30, 2010 | 5:21 pm | 0 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

Congrats to the Scarecrow Tales Winner!

First of all, congratulations to Marisa from Westfield, NJ (TRO User ArrowOfApollo) who was the random winner of the Batman: Scarecrow Tales tpb giveaway. Marisa also blogs at Geek Week and has a personal website here.

Sorry for the slow announcement this time, we had to go a couple spots down the list because I didn’t get a response from the original picks. Make sure to watch your email closely after entering in a giveaway, folks!

The book will be going out tomorrow.

Some Upgrades and Tweaks

I’ve upgraded our WP_Minify plugin which may help the site load a tiny bit faster.

We’ve increased the amount of memory allocated by our private server, which should help handle larger loads. Let me know if you run into any 500 errors while browsing!

Updates and Placements:

A few database updates – not my main focus today.

Absolute Sandman 2 (Cover, tags, and publication information).

Batman: Hush (Single Volume Release, placed)

Batman: Hush Unwrapped (Placed)

Absolute Batman: Hush (Moved two spots to allow placements of the other editions)

Marvel List Progress Report:

We’ve currently got 1554 books in our offline database with full publication information complete. We’ve got about an additional 400 with partial information (no isbn numbers or edition information yet.)

I’m assuming there are at least a couple hundred more printings that will show up as we comb through various sources after we’ve finished the ones we’ve got something on now.

Then I’d like to add character tags and creator tags before uploading to the database. Every book has at least one of each of these already, but I’d like to flesh it out  bit more. I’m hoping to get this up by the end of December.

Lastly, bit of a deal alert:

A bunch of half priced DC hardcovers up on ebay plus a lot of Sandman softcovers (1-10) currently at 99 cents. These are from the same guy I buy from all the time (though he changed his seller name to “Barcodescan”) – he packs well and ships quickly. I know a couple of you haven’t read sandman yet, so that’s a good way to get into it.

I got a lot of the books of ebay a few years back myself – never regretted it.

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By | Monday, November 29, 2010 | 3:56 am | 0 Comments | Blog > Database Updates

Just was looking through the DC list tonight and seeing if there’s anything out of place. Fixed a couple books.

JLA: Heaven’s Ladder (was missing JLA Prefix)

Superman: Peace On Earth (fixed placement)

While I was going through I added some books I acquired in the past couple months to “my collection”. I’ve got 1391 books now! Nutto.

That’s just DC though. I know that it’s not really great how the lists in the profile view don’t separate by book type (DC vs Marvel, or Fables or whatever.) It’s something I want to figure out at some point, but it’s a tricky one. For now I’m just using the site to keep track of my DC stuff.

Once I get the marvel list up I’ll probably make a second profile to keep track of my books there, until I’ve figured out a better way to do it. (or somehow get the cash to hire someone to help with the code.)

Doing the daily reviews has been really great, but I’m fear I’m falling behind a little in placing new and upcoming releases on the reading order. I’m going to have to catch up soon. Or maybe I’ll just commit to doing at least a couple new book placements every day.

I know some of this is because I’ve been working on the Marvel list, and that when they are both up just adding new releases on both will be a lot easier, but I still feel a little bad about it. I guess it won’t be really pressing until most of the unplaced books are actually released, though.

On a side note, I’m thinking about removing the character tags from the DC companion volumes. I like having them on the site, but they’re a little awkwardly placed on the end of the reading lists. Well, I should either remove the character tags or place them by date relative to the main reading order, so when they show up in generated lists they are where they were released. I’ll get to it at some point.

It’s 4am! Goodnight guys.

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