Museum of the Game® & International Arcade Museum® Forums
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
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