Brickshelf is good but...

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albero78
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Brickshelf is good but...

Post by albero78 »

I like Brickshelf website but... I don't find it so user-friendly for the following reasons:
- sometimes it is not so easy to surf through the directories. For example if you search a certain keyword and than you click on a photo and then you click "up" you'll find yourself in the user's directory and not in your search page;
- it is not possible to comment the photos and that's very bad!
- it is not possible to save our favourites photos or contacts and that's bad as well!
- sometimes the website is not so fast.

I am not an expert of web-design and the best think of that site is that it is free, but it could be improved. Don't you think?

Andrea
Andrea Albertazzi
[url=http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=albero78]MY BRICKSHELF GALLERY[/url] | [img]http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9002/itarp2.jpg[/img]
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Morgan19
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Re: Brickshelf is good but...

Post by Morgan19 »

My thoughts...
albero78 wrote:- sometimes it is not so easy to surf through the directories. For example if you search a certain keyword and than you click on a photo and then you click "up" you'll find yourself in the user's directory and not in your search page;
Yeah, that's exactly what's supposed to happen. I think you're confusing "up" with "back" on your browser– they're not the same thing.
- it is not possible to comment the photos and that's very bad!
I'd say that's subjective... ;)
- it is not possible to save our favourites photos or contacts and that's bad as well!
I keep a Brickshelf folder in Firefox's Bookmarks. It's not global on every computer then, no, but it works fine for me.
- sometimes the website is not so fast.
If you mean loading speed, I heartily differ: I can usually open up a BS link and a flickr link at the same time and 99% of the time the BS page will be done loading before flickr's even started to display. It's gotten to the point where I won't bother looking at MOCs if the user only has a flickr gallery, because it's such a pain to have to wait so long for the site to load first.

It seems like Brickshelf has always been about simply displaying photos, period. To that end it might seem a little bare-bones or boring compared to sites like flickr, yeah, but to me that's exactly what makes it great: it works well for what it's meant to do. I don't want to deal with the load of bloat that flickr forces users to deal with, which is why I don't use it.

To each his/her own, but that's my take. ;)

m19
Last edited by Morgan19 on Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Donut
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Post by Donut »

Yes, I think it can be improved as well though it will require frequent maintenance by a commited staff, which is a problem as you mentioned about the site being free. You could explore other photo sharing sites such as Flickr or maj and see how you like them.
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Post by Jojo »

Hello!

Donut wrote:You could explore other photo sharing sites such as Flickr or maj and see how you like them.
maj.com = brickshelf.com

And I'm totally with Morgan19.


Bye
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SavaTheAggie
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Post by SavaTheAggie »

www.flickr.com is a great alternative to Brickshelf. However, I use both.

I use Brickshelf to store all of my photos, the masses of pictures from all my MOCs in every detail.

I use Flickr to store the 'best' photos of my MOCs, those photos that really give a sense of the overall nature of my MOCs, so people can comment on my MOC and ask questions in context. Flickr allows for notes which are little boxes that float (and disappear when the mouse is not hovering over the photo) so that people can comment on specific parts of a MOC. This is an invaluable tool for me for work in progress pictures. It gives people a chance to not only give feedback but really pinpoint places they like or places they feel need improvement.

Here's a good example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/savatheaggie/454825424/

Flickr is free so long as you don't care about not having any more than 200 photos (you can upload more, but each photo over 200 you upload causes the ones you first uploaded to become hidden until you upgrade). For $25 a year you can have unlimited storage space and Flickr guarantees that your photos will be backed up forever, which Brickshelf does not do.

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albero78
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Post by albero78 »

Actually I know flickr, and i use fotothing.com and ringo.com for my personal photos adopting the same Sava's philosophy.

But since brickshelf is especially dedicated to LEGO, and it is the meeting point for LEGO fans all over the world, I would like to have it "better".

I see the free philosophy behind crickshelf and I admire it, but due to the big amount of web-design experts around, I think there should be some available to do some small improvements for free.

Thanks for the welcome!
Andrea Albertazzi
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E of Alshire
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Re: Brickshelf is good but...

Post by E of Alshire »

I agree with everything Morgan said, and one elaboration.
- it is not possible to comment the photos and that's very bad!
I personally don't want comments over all of my photos. I delete a ton of the more stupid, pointless comments on my Flickr page.
- it is not possible to save our favourites photos or contacts and that's bad as well!
Just make a folder in your 'favorites' menu. I use internet Explorer, and it's really simple.

The one problem I have with BShelf is the lack of ability to move or rename pictures or folders.
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Post by Bluesecrets »

I have both. And I happen to agree with Sava. I keep all my pics in my brickshelf account. And put just the highlights in my Flickr. But then I have MOCpages page too, which links from brickshelf. I don't put all my MOC's on MOCpages either.

I think they all have advantages and disadvantages. I like that brickshelf doesn't allow for making comments. Because MOCpages has proven that people can just be plain mean about their comments or they are irrelevant to the MOC. I think that if you are looking for feedback than you should post a link to your creation on a forum and let people in that community give you constructive comments.
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Post by Count Blacktron »

It's free, so I just use what's there and thank the pavement they walk on for keeping it free. If they had an upgrade package I would expect to pay something to use it for more features.
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Post by Mike Viper »

THat why, once your done with brickshelf, you should move the pics to mocpages. It's free as well, although, as of late, has been overrun by multi-colored ships made of five pieces. :(
I ow it to wunztwice for directing me here.
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Post by Jojo »

Hello!

Mike Viper wrote:THat why, once your done with brickshelf, you should move the pics to mocpages. It's free as well, although, as of late, has been overrun by multi-colored ships made of five pieces. :(
MOCpages is overrun by stupid kiddies. I regularly recieve silly comments there, because the kids are too dumb to understand what the MOCs are about.


Bye
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Anubisconq
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Post by Anubisconq »

[quote=albero78]Brikshelf is good, but...[/quote]
But Flickr is better.

As to MOC pages, I made an account a year ago, and I have all the correct passwords and all that jazz, but it won't let me log in. So MOC pages is pretty dumpy in my opinion. Just don't let Josh Wedin know I said that.
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Post by kelderic »

Anubisconq wrote:
albero78 wrote:Brikshelf is good, but...
But Flickr is better.
Ahh he jests. Fickr is way to slow to be better than Brickshelf. The pages take forever to load.

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Post by Tanotrooper »

on brickshelf, you should be able to contact someone, because they havethings on sale, and you don't see any email adress...

And how come some members have feedback scores on bricklink?

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Post by stuifzand »

Tanotrooper wrote:on brickshelf, you should be able to contact someone, because they havethings on sale, and you don't see any email adress...
Why would people post their sales on brickshelf? It's not a selling site...
I know people do, but I think it's stupid
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