Re: Upcoming Feature: Inventory Improvements - Tags (or Labels)
I've thought a lot about tagging lately (and deck tags), and about the new flags that are needed (artist proof, misprint, altered, signed). We also need notes (public and private) and images (for scans).
The more I think about this, the more I feel adding everything will make things confusing in the interface. Filters for tags, saved searches, flags, notes etc.
One way I thought we could simplify everything would be:
- have one field of public notes and one for private notes
- only have 2 flags: foil and modifed. Where modified means any of signed, altered, misprint, etc etc.
- otherwise all tagging and flagging can be done via hashtags in the notes field. E.g. "#misprint - miscut" or "#signed by artist at Worlds 2013"Then users can flexibly tag and untag things without a complicated interface. I feel it would also be understandable, since everybody uses hashtags on social networks nowadays.
Private notes can also be used to tag things freely, like "#borrowed to mike. Otherwise belongs in #blue_box_basement".
What do you think?
I like the idea of replacing the flags with tags. Also replacing the tags with the # is good too. At the end of the day it's the same idea. If you look at one of my previous posts you could simply replace the {}'s with a # and bam same thing.
So combining these things together you might get something that looks like:
2 Thallid, Fallen Empires, Played, English, {Deck:G FE Thallids} {Box 3} {Pic A}
1 Thallid, Fallen Empires Played, English, {Deck:G FE Thallids} {Box 3} {Pic B}
1 Thallid, Fallen Empires, Played, English, {Artist-Proof} {Binder Proofs}
I am assuming you will convert the existing flags into tags before removing them though. I wouldn't be to happy losing that information.
Putting the tags in a notes field via a # marker isn't a bad idea. I've not ever used this # system but it seems intuitive enough to figure out quickly.
As far as the search goes. Can there be a way to search across private and public notes for your cards at the same time? Maybe "Search in Public Comments", "Search in Private Comments", "Search in Public and Private Comments"
I'm taking the idea of additional inventories is right out? That still would be a great use at least to me.
For the deck tagging if the deck tagging is done by adding #deck_### what's stopping me from adding this tag to another card later through the notes interface in lieu of the deck building interface? What would happen in this case? Does that card get marked as being in that the deck? What if that card isn't in that deck list? Does removing that tag from a card remove it from the deck, what about the deck list? What if I manually add two different deck tags to a card is it now magically in two decks at once? What if I manually add a deck tag with a number that isn't in my list of decks?
Un-built deck lists are simply lists of cards and none of your cards in your collection have that tag?
Partially built are deck lists where some but not all the cards have a deck tag?
Does sideboard have to marked in use? I often use the sideboard as a list of potential cards to consider when building a deck. I often leave it when I'm done for the future if I want to modify the deck. I wouldn't want to consider those as being in the deck.
I think if you're going to do the deck tagging like this and put it in a user view-able / editable field you might want to make it friendlier. I am guessing the deck names have to be unique right now. Why not use the deck name instead of deck number? "#deck that blue deck some dude posted" is more understandable then "#deck_329285".
Also a point worth discussing is if you can tag a card as being in 2 decks at the same time... because in my mind that would not make sense. One of the decks has it actually in it, the other one does not... although it is listed in the decklist, the actual specific card is not there, so it should not be tagged I think.
I agree 100% with this. I feel a card can only be added to one deck at a time. Thus the questions of manually messing with the deck tags if they're in a user accessible field. I know others that will disagree with this though because they move cards between decks when they play but I really thing that wouldn't be the right thing to allow in an inventory management system.
In built decks we'd have some sort of smart way for each card to pick something from your inventory that can be used for it.
for ex, you have "2 Mountain" in your deck. You click somewhere and you see a list of all the exact mountains that you own in the inventory, and you can check which 2 of them are actually in this deck.
This will HAVE to be super slick. Right now it takes a decent amount of time for me to add new basic lands to my inventory. Enough that I've considered not tracking them in deckbox. I'm not blaming the program it could be my computer but it's an issue I deal with. I have so many of them it just takes a bit of time for it to load. I haven't even gotten around to splitting out the different pictures and as of right now I won't be doing that because of the time it takes for them to load. I cringe at the thought of being given a screen and waiting for all my mountain entries to load just to add that one extra land I want to add to the deck. Maybe load the first X newest or latest edition owned entries not in a deck and if you want more offer a search? This would probably give you the cards you want to add 99% of the time. Would probably also return all the cards you owned 99% of the time. But in the case of the land cards I always add the newer lands to the deck first and work back toward the older ones.
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