It would be REALLY cool if the database let you...

[SpaceGhost2K-XBA]

Yeah. We know. There are already things on paper that are just going to take a while to implement. Still, don't let that stop you. This database is a tool for YOU, and we want it to be able to do anything you need it to be able to do. So tell us what you want, what you really really want. Sometimes, the answer will be "no." Sometimes it will be "wait." And, once in a while it will be "I'll get right on that."

Homing beacons on Swedish Launch plates are out of the question. Sorry. The beeping would keep GameKing and Tacohead up at night. HEY-O!

Anyway, probably want to avoid offering anynew ideas for a week or so, so that we've got time to implement the ideas we already have, first. I'm just sayin'.

[tacohead]

Awesome work guys! I'm sure you are already working on a bunch of filters but for me... It would be very helpful to enable/disable a custom plate filter. Sometimes I want to just see manufactured plates (which is what I personally focus on). Other times I want to check out original creations.
Thanks for all your hard work!

[SpaceGhost2K-XBA]

Awesome work guys! I'm sure you are already working on a bunch of filters but for me... It would be very helpful to enable/disable a custom plate filter. Sometimes I want to just see manufactured plates (which is what I personally focus on). Other times I want to check out original creations.
Thanks for all your hard work!

That's probably the first thing on the list. We actually considered doing that before we turned it on, but we were antsy. :) We were going to do it simply because of the large number of plates.

One problem we have is that customs can only be labeled as "customs" if the person who made it is registered as a member. If they're not, then even though it's a custom, it still goes on the manufactured side. The reson for that is that we want all the customs to link to a person, and if the person isn't here, we can't. UNTIMATELY, what we'd like to do is get all these people to join. Once they're members, they just get moved from one side to the other.

We have fields for:

Preorder y/n
Event y/n
Prototype y/n
pre-order y/n
autographed y/n
custom y/n
- if yes, who made it (member)
- if no, who made it (manufacturer)
Rarity 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

You will be able to sort through all of those.

"Show me all of the event plates with a rarity of 5 that are autographed" and if it fits that criteria, you'll get it.

You'll also be able to enter a keyword and every plate with that keyword in the short description (title) will come up. Kam and I have to discuss that, because I would prefer actually going in and taking the time necessary to add a third description field of keywords to be searched. I can't necessarily fit every keyword into the description that someone might want to look up.

For instance, the MadCatz NFL Insert kit SHOULD have 32 cities, 32 team names, all related states, "NFL", "Football", "MadCatz", "Insert", "paper" and probably a few more words, because I can reasonably see people keying any of those words in to look for plates. "Dallas" should turn up Cowboys, Mavricks and a couple of customs. "Texas" should turn up Cowboys, Rockets, Mavricks, my custom San Antonio plate, and the Mexico/Texas flag plate, and the customizable MadCatz NFL and MLB plates. See what I mean?

Doing that would also allow me to have customizers searchable even if they're not members yet, without having to have their names in the short description.

[SpaceGhost2K-XBA]

Also, you'll be able to search by member, not only by customs (which the number of member/customizers is really pretty small), but by a lot of other things.

A member will be able to scroll down the database, and if they see a particular plate, they will be able to mark it as:

- This plate is in my collection.
- This plate is on my long-term wishlist.
- I am actively looking and ready to buy this plate.
- I have one of these plates available to sell or trade.

So I'm perusing the database and I see a shiny plate. Oh, my! It's the Swedish Launch plate that I SO covet! I click on the plate and see that two XBA members have it: Tacohead and Gameking28. I hover my cursor over Tacohead's... head... and I see those four options that I posted above. I click on "collection" and it brings up all of the plates in Tacohead's collection. Wow, he's got some bytchin' stuff. And he's got a couple of plates that he's looking to buy, aw, but he's not parting with anything. Stingy fart. But I have something on his "ready to buy" list, so I PM him and say I'd take $$ in cash, or since you have two of that other plate, even though you don't have it listed as available to trade, I thought I'd throw it out there and maybe you'd trade it. And you reply as you see fit.

Or I'm looking through autographed plates and I see this really cool Iron Giant plate signed by Brad Bird. I go look at Spacey's other stuff and I see a great custom Halo plate. I click on that and I see a whole bunch of other custom Halo plates. I click on one of them and it's mypainteffects and I see all of the other stuff he did... and on and on.

So the intent is to be able to surf it, but right now it's more like a glacier than a wave if you get my... drift. I hope that tides you over.

[Variation-XBA]

- This plate is in my collection.
- This plate is on my long-term wishlist.
- I am actively looking and ready to buy this plate.
- I have one of these plates available to sell or trade.


YES, this is exactly what I want!

[SpaceGhost2K-XBA]

Kam has a hold on the features thing since there's a baby due any second, and the contest entry thing is being worked on, and the registration activation issues are being worked on.... but I'm going to go ahead and list stuff here so I don't forget.

I think we need a button that you press to take you to a random faceplate. Just click it and see what comes up. Pretty minor thing, and at the bottom of ANYBODY'S "to do" list, but I still think it would be neat. If I go a few days without adding plates, you'll see the same 25 up there day after day. And if I add 50 like I did today, there's 25 plates that never even get seen. They just get stuck in the middle of a deck with 950 cards in it.