Stashmatic Blog

Add a SIMILAR item

Thanks to tengumaster89 for the suggestion ... why didn't we think of this ourselves? At the top of every item page, you've always had the ability to "Create a New Item" in that Category. Now you can create a "similar" item, so when the form comes up to create the item, all the blank fields are filled in with the information of the item you were currently viewing.

So, if you're entering a bunch of items at once, and they are similar to each other (all of the same series, subseries, manufacturer, etc.), try using "Create a SIMILAR Item."  Things should go much faster and result in much database joy.

Categories ... now organized!

Now that we've got hundreds of user-created categories for collections, it was past time to present them in a more organized fashion. Now if you visit our category page, you'll see that we've organized our categories into, um categories. As we started putting this taxonomy together, it definitely pointed out some opportunities to create categories that don't yet exist.  We'll get on that and will be more closely examining our initial take at categories and subcategories over the next few weeks, so if you have any taxonomy/category suggestions, please let me know!

Now Riding the Rails ... 2.0

OK, we're coming to terms with the fact that we're just not blogging types. We'll endeavor to improve and post more often to keep you better informed of our progress! We've been busy working behind the scenes for the last few weeks; you see, Stashmatic runs on the Ruby on Rails framework (stop yawning). Well, we had been working with the redesign and other matters and had not updated Rails in a while.  But now that 2.0 is out there, we figured we better catch up.

The best part? We spent half of our upgrade time changing some uppercase letters to lowercase ... one of the many pleasures of dealing with an ever-evolving framework. We went live yesterday and have been relatively problem-free, though tengumaster89 helped discover a problem when he created the Phone Straps category last night. quote in our code should now be quote_value ... see how fun this is?

2.0 is a great foundation for the future of the site, so we're excited to move forward. In the meantime, if you see anything funky, let us know.  Otherwise we're ready to take a break from infrastructure work and get back to some features!

Site Facelift (!)

Someday things will take as long as we think they will and no longer. But that day hasn't come yet.  We finally got stage 1 of our site facelift complete and launched! Let our former look be the last time we try to launch with a background other than white.  Or off-white.

Got to admit, I'm not wild about our new logo ... but there's time to work on it. As Karen said to me - "I don't like to think of my stuff buried in a cardboard box.  I want to see it!" So the box may not be hear to stay for long; enjoy it while it lasts?

Printable Reports

We snuck in our reporting feature a week or two ago, and I wanted to make sure that everybody saw it! When you're on My Home, look below your Stash list ... you'll see a Quick Reports header. There are two choices - Inventory and Wishlist. You may choose whether you want images to appear on your reports, and on the Inventory report you can also display your Inventory details (condition, location, cost) if you choose. You can view them on screen or print them to take with you when you're out in the real world tracking down that next item for your collection.

Galleries and Widgets

We've launched a couple of new features. The first gives you a better way to show off your collection -- with an online gallery. To view your gallery, click on your username in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen to get to your account page. If you're already logged in, click here. On your account page, click the "view public stash" button. You'll see all the images of your items displayed together, and there's a link to email the gallery link to a friend. Or to someone you want to make jealous. Send the link far and wide ...

We've also created shiny new blog widgets ... you can see a couple examples on the right-hand sidebar of this blog. Place these widgets in your blog to show off ... errr ... display random items from your stash, recently stashed items, or an overview of your tag cloud or category list. Again, visit your account page by clicking on your username, select "tools" from the account menu, and design your widget.

New Groups Appearing

We've had a bunch of activity in the past week or so as the word about Stashmatic is spreading. Users have created groups for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly (that's two down in the Jossverse), Battlestar Galactica, and the NBC-TV show Heroes.  The merchandising madness for Galactica and Heroes is just beginning, so now's the time to start tracking.

We quietly launched the site to Bruce Springsteen fans back in late December and had a bunch of Springsteen information, but leave it to major collector and fan Premcity to add in a bunch of stuff we were missing.  Many thanks.

On the features front, Stashmatic members can now send messages to each other and view a listing of who has and wants each item. Just go to an item page and click on the "others have this" and "others want this" links. It's a great way to get in touch with members who share your specific interests.

Thanks for all the great feedback on the site so far -- we're working furiously on your suggestions -- and keep them coming!

Thanks!
Jon

Signed Space Covers!

The thing with collecting and cataloging ... I've got my obsessions that I know well, but there's so much more out there. Anyone who's been to an antique or collector's fair can tell you that. I'm always fascinated about the stuff I don't yet know about, so it was great fun to see Covers' creation of a new category: Signed Space Covers. Very cool.

And that's the thing to keep in mind about Stashmatic; we made it so that you can create your own categories of items quickly and easily. Yes, we started the site based around some things that we knew pretty well (music collecting, particularly Music Recordings and, of course, Springsteen), but we want to move beyond that quickly. Think of music as "proof of concept" ... and then our community can build the database from there in any direction each member chooses.

The Signed Space Covers category also brings up a question of how to track autographed items ... more on that in a future post. Happy New Year stashers!

Jon

And on the Second Day ...

So, how did day one go?  We had, literally, thousands of people visit the site within the first 20 hours (that's all it's been so far) ... that's a real thrill for us. Thanks to everyone who took the time to check us out and to register.

It's funny how you can work on something for months, but you don't notice some details until you've got "real people" on the site.  What do you mean we can't edit discussion posts?!?!? So we scrambled a bit yesterday to fix the little things we overlooked.

Thanks to the magic of the web, we can tell what people did, but we can't tell how they felt about it! We have received a bunch of positive feedback, but we're always hungry for more opinions. So if you have thoughts, suggestions, or complaints (we like those ... they help us get better), please let us know. I'll keep you posted here as to what people are saying.

It's Alive!

Well, just in time for the holidays, we've quietly opened the doors to Stashmatic. My brother Chris heads up the www.backstreets.com website and Backstreets magazine, so we're letting his visitors  know about Stashmatic today. In the meantime we've pulled together a bunch of Springsteen information ... enough, I hope, to give people a foundation on which to start building.

So while others are drinking their egg nog and wrapping their presents, Dave and I will be compulsively checking server logs, item lists, and email. If you're reading this, we'd love to get your feedback on the site -- let us know what you think, and we'll keep you posted on what's happening.