VAPS Upgrades.

[mclemore]

We spent a lot of time working on VAPS this week.

SHORT: VAPS is open for for editing your entries. VAPS statistics pages are not yet back online.

Lot of Work

First...some record clean up. For quite some time VAPS was based upon people's real names. Then a lot of people started putting in aliases in their listed name field and usernames in the first or last name fields, and often these usernames didn't match what an existing system/forum username. Then there was still data that wasn't properly synced between VAPS and the main membership system, and of course the people that put their first and their last name into the first name field...

We hand-edited almost 1000 VAPS records. We also greatly improved the data sharing between KLOV/IAM and VAPS.

We also added a lot more choices.

Name Choices

We have moved from an official policy of people using their real names to one where people have a choice between:

1) real name
2) real name and username
3) real name and company name
4) company name (ie: american arcade museum)
5) username
6) anonymous281038

Auto VAPS link in your forum postings

You now have an option in VAPS as to whether or not you want a link to your VAPS record to appear in your forum postings. I've tried to include as much information as possible in as small amount of space as possible. The link includes:

1) your number of games (includes video and pinball at this time)
2) your number of games for sale (FS)
3) your number of games wanted (W)
4) your number of board sets
5) your number of board sets for sale (FS)

Many of you discovered this yesterday, though at that time the link just included games for sale and games wanted, and now it includes a lot more info.

XBox Live Gamertags

Your VAPS record now includes the ability to list your Xbox Live Gamertag. Additionally, you have the ability to have this information ported over to your forum profile automatically. (if you take a look at my profile, you will see an example gamertag, though not my real one since I'm not on xbox live anymore).

Any xbox live gamertags entered into vaps are like email addresses. They are only visible on the VAPS pages when you are logged in. Once logged in they will appear on profiles where people have entered them and there will be a special stats page that will list all listed entries on a single page.

Stats Pages

The stats pages are down for another day or two for a few reasons (1) I want to give people a chance to update their profiles, especially their naming preferences, and (2) I haven't finished them yet. Compared to fixing the messy VAPS data, the stats pages should be a breeze.

Longer Term

A number of VAPS modifications are still forthcoming. These include (1) splitting up the edit entry page into separate 'user settings' and 'game list' pages, and (2) opening up VAPS to other machine types, ie: EM, jukeboxes, etc., and (3) creating a statistics and reports system where people can view as little or as much as they want, ie: view everything from the perspective of all games, or just videogames

Another thread

I'm going to post a thread in the Admin Initiated Topics section for more detailed discussion about VAPS. Some people may have duplicate entries still (each from one side of the fence when klov and vaps were independent. If you fit in this category, please send me a PM and include both links (of course, you might not be able to search for them into the search and stats pages come back up probably tomorrow).

Questions I'm getting already via private message

How do I sign up for a vaps account? Go to the main site, click on VAPS/census on the menu bar. You log in with your email address instead of your username (same password). That should get you started. If you get stuck, send me a pm.

Thanks,

Greg

 

[mclemore]

More VAPS upgrades

A couple more VAPS changes came online this morning:

First of all, by request, we added Playstation Network ID support. It works just like the Xbox Gamertag option. If you enter your ID it will appear on the Xbox/PSN gamertag report in the VAPS statistics section (only visible to logged in members). Additionally, if you select, it will be added to your About Me section of your user profile here on the forums. Note: Neither ID will currently show up on your public vaps page, but will in a future upgrade (again, visible to logged in members only).

Additionally, some (but not all) of the VAPS Statistics and Reports are back online. Some are the same as previous reports, and some are new. The ones currently online:

Reports Now Online

Main Member Statistics Page (first half of it at least)
Member Countries (list of all countries and stats)
Member States (list of all states and stats)
Location Report (shows all users for a particular city or country, now sortable by either name or specific location, ie: city)
100 Most Collected Videogames
100 Most Collected Pinballs
100 Most Wanted Videogames
100 Most Wanted Pinballs
Top 100 Rare Videogame Preservationists
Xbox Live and Playstation Network Gamertags (only for logged in members)

Still Coming:
Some additional 'Top Collector' Reports
Reporting on 'Rare Games'
Some support for EM, Slots and other machines

 

[mclemore]

Today's VAPS changes

Today's VAPS changes:

- The 'Your Entry' page has been split into two pieces. The game entry and management process now has its own page.

- The public web site address (URL) line now accepts a few more characters, including '~'

- The KLOV/IAM site search results page now accepts '*' as a literally character in a search string, making it easier to find games like 'Q*bert'. Previously asterisks were stripped entirely.

- A couple other minor fixes and improvements were implemented.

 

[mclemore]

Today brought a bunch of VAPS improvements.

1. A bunch of very minor edits, bug fixes, and cosmetic touchups not worth mentioning.

2. We changed the VAPS home page to make it more clear that if you already have a forum or KLOV/IAM or WebMagic account that you do NOT need to create a new account for VAPS

3. The location page (which shows all the collectors for a particular state or country) now includes stats on games and boards for sale, in addition to the existing stats for original, conversions and boards owned by members. The idea is that you might want to get a quick list of who in your area is selling items. The page for California is:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/location.php?location=California

4. On the KLOV/IAM game detail pages, the section entitled "Scarcity in Collections (VAPS.ORG)" has been renamed "VAPS Arcade Census" with a sub-title of "Games Owned, Wanted, or For Sale by Members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society."

5. The last item was probably a big clue, but the KLOV/IAM game detail pages now show how many games and board sets VAPS members have for sale.

6. Along the same lines, the KLOV/IAM pages now break out statistics for Game wanted by Members. It did this before, but it created one number for games wanted and board sets wanted. It now breaks them out. The Wanted links have also been changed to be a tad more search engine friendly, and the For Sale links have been designed the same way.

For #4-6 above, here is a sample page (Galaga):
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7881

7. VAPS entries now allow you to enter a price on a game entry if you have set the item to be 'For Sale'. If you enter a price for a game for which 'For Sale' is set to 'N', the system gives you a message and zero's out the price.

8. VAPS entries are now limited to no more than 20 games and 20 boards for sale at any one time. Anyone wishing to enter more that than are encouraged to contact me. This was one of the changes on the 'Roadmap' I posted, and just happened to come into being today instead of next week.

9. The 'My Games' VAPS section has always had a few extra features that are available only to a member looking at their own page (like the customized eBay report for items for sale matching their Want List). Some really nice features were added today for members looking at their own games profile.

Most obvious is that for every item on your 'have' list that is listed For Sale, your list shows you under the 'Y' in the For Sale column how many VAPS members have listed that they want machines or board sets matching the same game name as the one you are selling.

Along the same lines is my personal favorite change for the day: Your Want List now includes a column showing how many people in VAPS have listed that game as being for sale (separate counts for games and board sets).

---

I hope you find the changes increasingly useful to you...

Greg

 

[mclemore]

1. Update. -- Um... I made another change to VAPS last night, but already forgot what it was.

2. VAPS Game detail pages (pages that show who has the game and who wants the game), now includes a link for 'Add This Game To Your VAPS Profile' if you are logged in.

Example:
http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/game_detail.php?klov_id=7814

(being logged into the forums isn't sufficient, you have to be logged onto VAPS or www.arcade-museum.com.)