Status Update 2/20/08
I was able to make some progress with the database and code today. The main page now features the latest blog posts and displays a random patch from the database. I have to get better scans up for Glacier’s Edge Council. There are still some problems in displaying the Council name and other weird quirks that I have to work out. My programming skills are coming coming back slowly but surely as I work on this stuff.
Classification System
I still need to come up with a solution for what I am going to use for the issue numbers. The majority of folks that I have talked to want me to use the “industry standard.” I have two concerns about using the classification scheme that is used in “An Aid to Collecting Selected Council Shoulder Patches, with Valuation Guide.” The first being, possible copyright issues. While I am not going to use the guide to populate my database, I’m sure by using the same classification system I am opening the doors to potential legal issues. The second being, I have never liked the fact that they don’t include all shoulder patches (ie. JSP, RWS, etc.)
At the same time I understand having two classification systems will cause confusion. I also can’t get a group to agree on a potential scheme. Everytime I think I have something that would work, I find a show stopping problem or someone else finds a problem. Its a lot harder than I would have imagined.
Backend (Database Technical Stuff)
Once I get the front end somewhat functionable I have to target the back end to make adding issues to the database easier. Right now I enter every piece of data by hand to the database, which isn’t very friendly. I also have to finalize the structure of the membership system to allow for the “council experts” to be able to edit and approve submissions. I think this is the real key to making this project feasible and scalable.
Price Guide
I’ve started to look at possible solutions to collecting price information. I’ve looked at the program that I believe OAImages.com uses, but I didn’t find it very user friendly. I want to discuss this with John, if he is willing, but with his technical issues I decided I would wait a little bit. I also need to decide how I wish to handle user submitted price data, I want to include private sales but at the same time I don’t want them artificially inflating the “values”.
Marketplace
I’ve done nothing with the market place. This is a feature that I will probably remove until I build up a user base and have the database populated.
I think I would have got more accomplished today, but my power went out. Not too fun when its 6 degrees outside…