We need your help - tell us what to change on Miniset.net!

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We need your help - tell us what to change on Miniset.net!

It is very important for us to know what changes/improvements you would like to see on our website. The question is not about which sets or companies to add, the question is about improving and usability of the site.

Maybe it's inconvenient for you to add new thumbnails? Or is it difficult to find the right information? We welcome any ideas and feedback, let\'s discuss it and we will try to change for the better!

You can speak out and discuss your ideas here on the forum or on our new Discord server.

We are not a very large community, but the opinion of each of our participants is important to us!

Thank you a lot.

Site is more than fine to me, so I have no important requests.

One thing I noticed, but it's just nitpicking, when a model belongs to more than one game (i.e. Hordes and Warmachine, or Warmachine and Riot Quest) you cannot associate faction to the game (i.e. a dual faction model that's both Mercenary and Minion has both factions associated to the first game entered, while Minions is a Horde faction and Mercenaries is a Warmachine faction)
Example: https://miniset.net/sets/pip63032
If you click on Mercenaries on the right, it lists it as Hordes Mercenaries, while it should be Hordes-Minion and Warmachine-Mercenaries (and Riot Quest has no factions).

But as I said, it's just nitpicking. Website is fine as is.

Gabbi, i understand what do you mean. But for now - site cms dont have any adequate line's chains. It is not possible to specify a two different chains in one set at the same time, i.e. Company -> Game 1 -> Faction 1 and Company -> Game 2 -> Faction 2. Both Games will have two factions in catalog.

I really don't understand how it can be added and not complicate the life for other members...)

No problem, as I said, it's was just nitpicking.
For models that are Warmachine OR Hordes AND Riot Quest, it's just a matter of entering Warmachine or Hordes first, as the CMS seems to attach factions to the first game (if more than one are submitted). So that's just fine (Riot Quest doesn't have factions).

Thanks for reply!

This is not a problem in this particular situation, but it's just lucky here, in another place it may be an inconvenience that is not yet clear how to solve)

Is it possible to create like 'sets of releases' ? I'm asking mainly for 3d printing, most patrons do release things as monthly sets, which i then download and keep. So it'd be easier for me to mark 'Yes, i have everything 2nd dynasty released in march 2023' rather then having to look through each item they released then and mark them manually.

It's kinda trivial, but it really adds up if you've backed a lot of patreons for a couple years.

Edit: Another option to make this task easier would be a filter for 'release dates' - so even if i can't just select one item for 'All models released as part of ', I could just do a view to 'all models released june 2023' and add those to my collection.

Hi, Ribcage4687.

It would really be convenient to indicate in the company - I have a subscription for such and such a tier of such and such a month and that all sets are automatically added to the collection. And for certain awards on kickstarter, because the same idea.

I understand the idea and how it will be useful. There are problems and difficulties of various kinds. Let's discuss it.

 

The biggest problem is where to get the information that these sets were released this month and were included in this tier?

For completeness of information, such blocks of sets need to be compiled every month, for more than 900 companies, at least 2-3 types of subscription levels for each company. And there are also subscriptions on patreon and on MMF. That is, this is about 5400 blocks of sets that need to be compiled for each month, not counting loyalty rewards and welcomepacks.

 

1. We can collect blocks of sets automatically based on the release of the company, finding sets between gaps. But there are problems here too - the subscription is on Patreon, and the sets are added from the MMF website. The links between them are only the date the set appeared on the MMF. At the same time, not all sets are uploaded to MMF and are distributed simply by download links, which means they will not appear automatically on our site. And many companies do not share all the sets on time, but throw them out a few months later. And there's a lot of this mess.

In patreon there is no such classification as a "set" at all. For the reward, you receive a text with links and pictures, we do not have access to this and will not. Patreon tries to block subscription information as much as possible, and MMF does not give third-party access to Tribes, no matter how much I asked. We won't even consider Kickstarter here, where no automation is possible at all)

 

2. These blocks of sets must be compiled by hands, you need to select the sets and connect them into a block and link them to a certain subscription level. If each user is ready to make such a block for at least one company for one month, it will be convenient for everyone else. Together - it will be convenient for everyone. There is a technical opportunity on the site for such blocks, one click and the user receives all the sets of this month in his collection.

But are users ready for this? Manufacturing companies are definitely not, our site will not bring them money, which means it's an extra fuss. The team of our site also does not have such resources, unfortunately, the site is based on volunteering and there is hardly enough time for current tasks.

There is an opportunity for simplification here - many companies post an "all-in-one" set, which has everything at once for a month. But this is one set, if our user wants to print only 1 set from it and add it to his collection, he will have to add it separately.

 

As a result of all the above, I propose to proceed as follows.

1. We have the ability to synchronize sets of users from the MMF collection with our site. Perhaps this will be a partial exit, but this is only helps if a person receives all the sets to his collection on MMF. This will not help in any way in compiling blocks of sets, but it will make it easier to replenish the collection on our website. Who is ready to help with testing?

2. To complete the ability for users to create blocks of sets tied to certain levels at different sites/kickstarters. If there is an opportunity, someone will do it, and it will become more convenient for everyone else. Maybe this option will get a domino effect?) Who is ready to help with testing this?

What do you think about it?

I wasn't aware we had that level of automation to gather data already, I assumed everything here had been entered manually/ some one time scraping, so i realize it would be more work, but getting the option in would be step 1.

I also didn't think about multiple tiers- all of the Patreons i back at this time are effectively one tier for STL files. Another potential issue is a model may be in multiple blocks of sets- IE, a set is released as part of june 2023 month pack, but then put in a welcome pack, and sold individually. I conceptualize this where we have something like related sets- so you can put in a set 'related to <> june2023 pack, <> Welcome pack, ' we'd just need some way to maybe mark that the monthly and welcome packs are containers of other sets, so maybe if you mark you own the month it can mark that you own everything inside it, or at the least you could look at the month set to see all the related sets contained inside it.

I think the simpliest part would be what I put in my edit on the original post, if we can get a filter to our searches for release dates. This is data we already have a field for, and then if we create the ability to make this monthly /kickstarter/etc packs, it would make it easier for users to go back and create them, only looking at sets from companies created within a given time.

I am willing to look at the MMF syncronization, i wasn't aware that was something we could do (i am very new here myself).

As for 2, i am also willing to get started. My digital library is not very tidy, i joined here to work on organizing and searching through them better. I am one person, and doing this in my free time, but it can see how feasible this is, and we can see if anyone else is willing to help out in adding this information.

I wasn't aware we had that level of automation to gather data already, I assumed everything here had been entered manually/ some one time scraping, so i realize it would be more work, but getting the option in would be step 1.

A lot of things are automated on the site, but there is a lot of manual work that automation and bots cannot easily do. A lot of sets and information can be added and specified only by members.

I also didn't think about multiple tiers- all of the Patreons i back at this time are effectively one tier for STL files. Another potential issue is a model may be in multiple blocks of sets- IE, a set is released as part of june 2023 month pack, but then put in a welcome pack, and sold individually. I conceptualize this where we have something like related sets- so you can put in a set 'related to <> june2023 pack, <> Welcome pack, ' we'd just need some way to maybe mark that the monthly and welcome packs are containers of other sets, so maybe if you mark you own the month it can mark that you own everything inside it, or at the least you could look at the month set to see all the related sets contained inside it.

As for the related sets, there is everything for this on the website. You can manually specify the relationship of the sets when edit it, or you can do it in a more convenient way.

To do this, we have two tools - Separator and Semichooser)

Separator is suitable for a situation where the company create only a general set with all miniatures, without separate miniatures-sets. A convenient tool for creating one miniature into a separate set with the selected pictures and with all the relationships.

For example, in the same 2Moronic - this link https://miniset.net/sets/2mm-mmf307807#separate it will show where to run the separator on the page of any set (this set is is for example, all its miniatures are available separately).

Semichooser - exactly for the reverse action. When you need to associate a common set with all miniatures with each miniature separately, when they are already on the site. It has a convenient time filter to show only sets for a certain period of time. The main set is selected, the secondary ones are selected and hooray - they become interconnected, their relationships are shown on the page of each of these sets.

You can find a link to Semichooser in the Tools section on the company page or on the page of a specific set. For example here - https://miniset.net/companies/2moronic-miniatures#semichooser

Someday I will write a normal help for these tools) But one way or another, these tools only help to build relationships between sets, but they do not help to link sets to a certain level of support on the patreon.

I think the simpliest part would be what I put in my edit on the original post, if we can get a filter to our searches for release dates. This is data we already have a field for, and then if we create the ability to make this monthly /kickstarter/etc packs, it would make it easier for users to go back and create them, only looking at sets from companies created within a given time.

I need to think about how to organize it better. Perhaps a filter in the catalog will be the best option. Or maybe something different, like date settings in Semichooser. Not all users need a similar filter when simply browsing the catalog of sets.

I am willing to look at the MMF syncronization, i wasn't aware that was something we could do (i am very new here myself).

This opportunity never became public, I made it and postponed it until future times. Now I'm resuscitating it and then it will be possible to conduct beta testing, there may be many pitfalls.

As for 2, i am also willing to get started. My digital library is not very tidy, i joined here to work on organizing and searching through them better. I am one person, and doing this in my free time, but it can see how feasible this is, and we can see if anyone else is willing to help out in adding this information.

Sooner or later there will be those who want to participate, there would be an opportunity! Thank you for agreeing to the testing, it is very important. I need time to prepare and then I will definitely inform everyone who wants to participate.

I checked the readiness of synchronization with MMF - everything works fine! But there is a nuance.

After looking carefully, I remembered why the possibility of synchronization never became public on our site. Their API does not allow you to get a list of objects from the user's library. Just a list of likes of objects, and that's a bit pointless.

I wrote to MyMiniFactory with a request to add the ability to get a list of object IDs from the library during synchronization, without access to downloads or other important information.

I would not hope for a quick response, after all, they have a business, and our requests are not a priority) But maybe sometime.

So I turn to the study of the next question - convenient and fast compilation of lists of sets!

I've been adding stuff for a while now and I actually really like most of the abilities and I find adding product very easy, provided I own it. I am trying to fill in some backlogs of stuff I know exists though. However, I do have a couple features I wish you had:

1. Merging products. This is kind of a problem in the Warhammer 40k universe (and other Games Workshop major titles). I'd love to see a single product for a release, instead of seeing every single different language as a separate entry. I know I mentioned this in a private message, but figured I'd throw this out here.

2. Batch Edit for the fields in the "Product Lines" tab. This will make sorting the "unsorted" product in Games Workshop go much faster. While I don't own every product, I can still figure out if it belongs in Warhammer 40k or not. This will make it easier to do more detailed editing later. (Sorry if this is available, I just couldn't really find it.)

A couple other things I noticed, and I'm not sure what to be done with this. In the Warhammer 40k realm you have quite a few entries for products that seem to be pulled from the Warhammer Community web site. When they made announcements for new miniatures coming out they would do a "new releases this week" kind of thing. However, I don't believe this was ever a product, it's an advertisement. It's similar to some entries in Forge World, you have products as if they were grouped together, but I don't think Forge World ever did anything like this. I'm talking for some of their titanic models. The only thing I vaguely remember being sold together was that Aphelion terrain kit from many years ago. Is there a way to take these off the site? (Note: I am not talking about boxed sets, I'm talking about unusual cases of bundles that don't seem to have ever existed.)

Great ideas, thank you! I comment below on each item.

1. Merging products. This is kind of a problem in the Warhammer 40k universe (and other Games Workshop major titles). I'd love to see a single product for a release, instead of seeing every single different language as a separate entry. I know I mentioned this in a private message, but figured I'd throw this out here.

Yes, I have already added the language field to the sets. And I found a way to bypass all the sets and put them in the correct language automatically, this information is in the id of the sets. After that, it remains to add a filter to the catalog of sets, limiting the display of sets only to a specific/universal language.

2. Batch Edit for the fields in the "Product Lines" tab. This will make sorting the "unsorted" product in Games Workshop go much faster. While I don't own every product, I can still figure out if it belongs in Warhammer 40k or not. This will make it easier to do more detailed editing later. (Sorry if this is available, I just couldn't really find it.)

There is a bulk updates. To do this, go to the necessary section of the sets catalog and in the right column, in the tools section, select Bulk Updates. This link https://miniset.net/sets/games-workshop/unsorted#bulkupdates it will highlight with a red flashing circle the place where to look for a link to go to mass editing. This is available to users with Advanced rights, including you!

There you need to select sets from one game / faction, mark them and specify the desired faction / game. In this case, you cannot select different games for each set, only the same changes are applied in all selected sets at once. I.e., for example, you need to visually select all 40k sets from the list and mark them for all 40k at once.

There is another option - there is also a link in the tools (https://miniset.net/sets/games-workshop/unsorted#bulkmini ) to change several specific fields in each set. There is both a game and a faction and several additional useful fields.

Please be careful with mass changes, so as not to confuse something)

A couple other things I noticed, and I'm not sure what to be done with this. In the Warhammer 40k realm you have quite a few entries for products that seem to be pulled from the Warhammer Community web site. When they made announcements for new miniatures coming out they would do a "new releases this week" kind of thing. However, I don't believe this was ever a product, it's an advertisement. It's similar to some entries in Forge World, you have products as if they were grouped together, but I don't think Forge World ever did anything like this. I'm talking for some of their titanic models. The only thing I vaguely remember being sold together was that Aphelion terrain kit from many years ago. Is there a way to take these off the site? (Note: I am not talking about boxed sets, I'm talking about unusual cases of bundles that don't seem to have ever existed.)

Could you provide some links to such sets for better understanding?

I've tried to use those batch updates before and maybe I'm doing it wrong?

I go into the bulk update, I select all the things that will have the bulk change and click edit. I then go to the field I want to change and it only saves the changes on one of them? I'm not sure how to use this.

The entries that look like advertisements are things like this:

https://miniset.net/sets/gw-99020108259

I've tried to use those batch updates before and maybe I'm doing it wrong?

I go into the bulk update, I select all the things that will have the bulk change and click edit. I then go to the field I want to change and it only saves the changes on one of them? I'm not sure how to use this.

Do you use Telegram? I can send a video of the mass update process. But I can also try to describe it in words.

Bulk update - you need to select the checkboxes of the sets that you want to change and then click the "Modify entity values" button at the top of the page. Next, activate only those fields that you want to change, insert new values and run the changes.

If you use "edit" link near every set - you will edit only this set, maybe this was a problem)

In second bulk updating - you changing fields in big table with sets. Change what you want and then click save button on the bottom of the page.

The entries that look like advertisements are things like this:

https://miniset.net/sets/gw-99020108259

It's really looks like ad. But this set was released, have a price id, offlink and etc. But with strange name) I found this set in news on sites - https://spikeybits.com/2018/01/gws-golden-legion-releases-revealed.html So it's not just an ad, maybe something like bundle of sets.

In order to identify the language from the id sets of GW, I made a useful tool that allows us to find patterns in the sku id sets. Part has already been found, if someone can find more - let us know, we will definitely add them! Id's contain the game, the faction, the language, the type of sets and much more. This will allow us to automatically sort new and unordered sets.

Okay, I've clearly figured out batch edits. I have gone through the Games Workshop unsorted section and I've exhausted my knowledge on that stuff. I got the 1700+ unsorted entries down to about 300. So, I think someone else will have to clean up the rest of those and other more minute details will have to be added in the sorted files I'm sure. I'll continue going through my collection and adding details.

It's really looks like ad. But this set was released, have a price id, offlink and etc. But with strange name) I found this set in news on sites - https://spikeybits.com/2018/01/gws-golden-legion-releases-revealed.html So it's not just an ad, maybe something like bundle of sets.

I think the problem if you pull off spikey bits as well as the GW website you are assuredly going to get duplicate entries. That set was released, but I've also found entries in the database like "new this week!" of bundled products, that I don't think were ever bundled. Stuff Forge World has put out that was a stand alone product etc.

There are other strange items in the database as well. Like, is this even a product? It looks like an advertisement for a livestream where they are going to discuss some battles/products.

https://miniset.net/sets/gw-1020036

Okay, I've clearly figured out batch edits. I have gone through the Games Workshop unsorted section and I've exhausted my knowledge on that stuff. I got the 1700+ unsorted entries down to about 300. So, I think someone else will have to clean up the rest of those and other more minute details will have to be added in the sorted files I'm sure. I'll continue going through my collection and adding details.

Thank you so much for the work done on sorting the sets! This is very important and useful for the whole community. I think that sooner or later we will get to all possible sets and finally sort everything out and put it on the shelves.

I think the problem if you pull off spikey bits as well as the GW website you are assuredly going to get duplicate entries. That set was released, but I've also found entries in the database like "new this week!" of bundled products, that I don't think were ever bundled. Stuff Forge World has put out that was a stand alone product etc.

There are other strange items in the database as well. Like, is this even a product? It looks like an advertisement for a livestream where they are going to discuss some battles/products.

https://miniset.net/sets/gw-1020036

Yes, indeed, this is not a set at all. I ask you to mark with the flag "Mark this page for deletion" at the bottom of the page such sets and we will definitely delete the extra ones. In particular, it will be necessary to delete pseudo sets bundles that were created by GW only for discounts and are not in one box.

I have completed the system with languages. Added a language field for each set (only if it is necessary and there are important texts in the set). A field of related sets in other languages has been added, links to these sets are displayed on the set's page and their number and language are indicated when viewing the catalog of sets in a detailed view.

Also, a language filter has been added to the catalog, allowing you to filter sets by a specific language, "without language" or "English + without language", as the most common in GW sets.

A special bot now bypasses all GW sets and determines its language for each set by ID and searches for copies of this set in other languages, putting right relationships. In each new set of GW, these relationships will be determined automatically. Mistakes are possible, we will have to look. The bot has already bypassed half of the sets and should finish within a day.

Now you can view the catalog without endless repetitions of sets in different languages!
Keep this in mind when editing a set in one language - information in others does not change automatically.

I spot checked some of the Necromunda language reference materials and for the most part it seems to be working. I found a couple instances where it was pulling other products. I checked on some of the cards and in one of the language references it was pulling dice. The Necromunda cards are especially confusing because of their release titles. For example, the main gangs such as the Goliaths had an initial run of cards just called "Goliath Gang Cards". After a gang expansion was released they released new cards and titled them "Goliath Gang Tactics Cards". They are not a repress and totally different products. So, some of the language reference was pulling in the "tactics" cards in the reference.

I deleted the references that were in error, for what I found anyway.

The language filter is amazing by the way! I try to remember to add a language in when I add sets though, to make filtering more accurate.

The automatic language determinant for GW sets works based on the GW id Decoder. Almost all necessary information about the game, language, faction, type of sets, etc. is encrypted in the id of the sets. For example, bot takes a set of gw-60xxxxxxxxx and searches for sets with other digits of the language (the first two digits). If there is a complete match, he puts the language and connects the sets together. It only uses the id for the definition, not the title, it would be too complicated.

Everything would be fine if it were that simple) GW has quite a few errors among the IDs. And therefore, in rare cases, a set with an erroneous id falls into the language variants. This will have to be corrected by hands, it seems that there are not so many mistakes.

I have long wanted to make an automatic binder of sets for magazines and the like, so that everybody can easily switch to the next or previous issue. I'll do it somehow.

Now the autodetector is on adding new sets, after editing it will not work, so as not to replace the corrections.

Thanks for the good idea with languages and filters)

Oh I totally agree! Any level of automation using their code structure is never going to be perfect. I think this is going to be problematic across all game companies though. When I was entering the BattleTech material I couldn't believe how many duplicate codes Catalyst has for different products. I don't even know what to do at that point? I just added a -1 at the end of the duplicate code and moved on... It's their product code error and some of this stuff was never reprinted.

I did unlock the secret to the Games Workshop codes when I was entering products. That long form code you referenced above is the code for the box packaging. The code for what's inside the box is their short code like 300-xx for lot of WH40k stuff. So when they repress an item, they change the box design a lot, which means it gets a new long code. But the short code stays the same, because it's the same model/sprues inside the box etc.

At some point they stopped putting short codes on their game books (at least in the Necromunda setting so far, haven't gotten a modern WH40k book recently, waiting for them to rebalance 10th and maybe repress? Dunno). I don't think they ever repress books, new editions get entirely new designs and updates, thus new ISBN's. This is what BattleTech does with their "reprint" runs.

Oh I totally agree! Any level of automation using their code structure is never going to be perfect. I think this is going to be problematic across all game companies though. When I was entering the BattleTech material I couldn't believe how many duplicate codes Catalyst has for different products. I don't even know what to do at that point? I just added a -1 at the end of the duplicate code and moved on... It's their product code error and some of this stuff was never reprinted.

GW has a lot of different interesting jokes with id! For example, the reissue of sets with the same number, but with a round base instead of a square one. A change in the design of the box, but the number is the same. Miniatures made of a different material, but under the same number. And from one set you can collect up to 8 completely different heroes and all this under one id) And each such change must be saved, because these are different sets for collectors. In any case, after the eleven-digit number, add -1, -2, etc.

It is very frustrating that they have crammed all the factions of Space Marines (including BT, DA, BA and SW) into one gw-xxxx0101xxx. But maybe we just haven't found the patterns yet and there is such a division.

And even earlier they had 5 and 7-digit codes....

I did unlock the secret to the Games Workshop codes when I was entering products. That long form code you referenced above is the code for the box packaging. The code for what's inside the box is their short code like 300-xx for lot of WH40k stuff. So when they repress an item, they change the box design a lot, which means it gets a new long code. But the short code stays the same, because it's the same model/sprues inside the box etc.

Yes, that's right. In the decoder, you can view all the found code's variants and search for new matches. Incorrectly specified types for sets are also easily detected there. For 40k, these are the codes gw-xxxx01xxxxx.

There are still 4-digit "short" codes xx-xx for stores. They contain a minimum of information, in fact only the size and price, they are repeated in a huge number of sets.

As for 2, i am also willing to get started. My digital library is not very tidy, i joined here to work on organizing and searching through them better. I am one person, and doing this in my free time, but it can see how feasible this is, and we can see if anyone else is willing to help out in adding this information.

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