Virtual Monster

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Posted By: Frank

What is the interest level and practicality of building a "virtual" T206 superset? We would store images of fronts and backs of as many of the 6900 or so possible cards, upgrading as we went along. It would become both the master checklist for the superset and a place to view the finest examples known to exist of each card...

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

I've always thought a visual checklist with the front of each card shown on the left with all possible backs stretching off to the right, grouped by series, would be cool. Like Ted's posts look on some of the current threads.

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Posted By: Scot

This is a superb idea.

I'll be happy to contribute to hosting fees and my 179 scans if someone tech savvy will manage the website.

Might I suggest www.t206superset.com as a domain name?

Scot

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Posted By: leon

If there is anything I can do to help please let me know. Good luck with it guys....Ya'll can count on my few T206 cards if you need/want to.... regards

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Posted By: Robert Dixon

I think it's a cool idea.

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Posted By: Bill Williams

I would be glad to host it on my site

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

Bill,

I assume you would include the site in a subdirectory of your site;

www.billssite.com/t206superset.htm

Keep in mind the amount of bandwidth that would accompany this project once near complete with pictures, front and back..

If someone wants to launch a seperate standalone website, I grabbed the domains; t206superset.com .info .net .org and will gladly transfer them (free) to the admin running the site. Just give me a shout.

I guess we just need to decide if we want a stand alone site which can be run for less $100 per year or a few pages inside someones existing site..

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Posted By: leon

If there is a way to host it on this site I am open to that too...Just a thought.....

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

Leon,

Not sure about bandwidth but it would similar to the way you setup pages for your RULES, LINKS, Atlerered cards pages, Archives... etc.

But, my guess is you will need/want more than 1 page for the T206superset images.

Marty

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Posted By: Bill Williams

I believe I could set it up as a subdomain on the site and the domain you registered could foreward to it. Let me check with Leon on a few things first.

A. If he wants it here, he can have it first.

B. My site may be considered another "Hobby Site" and I don't to be stealing people from here, or to be construed as pimping my site here on Net 54.

~Bill

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Posted By: leon

I am easy on this one. I don't need to be a "ball hog" .....whatever is best for everyone is fine by me...I think we could set it up fairly quickly, here, if that is what is decided....best regards

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Posted By: Scot

I recommend requiring front/back scan verification for each checklisted item.

It's much better in my view to slowly build an accurate superset checklist than to hastily put together one that is error-prone.

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Posted By: Dennis W.

I'll register the domain, build and host the site at no charge. Business is slow right now so it's a good time. Email me if you'd like to see some of my work.

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Posted By: ChiSoxFan

I could possibly help with the web site as I do computer programming and web work for my employer.

Any thought as to how the web pages would look?

Also, I think Scot's remark about having front/back scans is good.

ChiSoxFan

Looking for T206 in Poor to Good condition.

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Posted By: Frank

Thanks to all who replied and e-mailed. I was starting to wonder if you all thought I was crazy as this thread was approaching second page fast with only 1 response ... but now that we have some interest, we can start talking nuts and bolts. As the OP, my only request is to stay close to the project, however it develops, and have some shared input into it's creative elements. Some thoughts...

- Scot's point about building an accurate set with front / back I think is critical. The major point about the superset is the backs, so it's a no-brainer. As for validation, I don't know how we validate the front/back combo before being checklisted, but we should probably have a central 'depot' where the scans go, and that person validates and checklists each card based on the scans, the source of the scans, and any other evidence they have to go on. We'd try to stick to trusted sources whenever possible. Actually, Scot would be an excellent choice for something like this.

- The hosting...Bill W, Dennis W, and Leon have all graciously offered to host the Virtual Monster. It makes sense to host it here but one way or the other we need to take advantage of Marty's domain name t206superset.com. But first and foremost, the layout and visual element need to be top notch and do justice to the set, so our webmaster has to know his stuff. Dennis has e-mailed me and it sounds like he has done quite a bit of this kind of thing- Leon, can you give permission to Dennis to post a couple links here in this thread to a sample of his work?

-ChiSoxFan, I have thought a little about how it would look. I was thinking maybe the main page shows the checklist in a matrix style similar to the main tab of the superset spreadsheet that distributed here on a few occasions, shown below. This shows every combination possible in one compact view and serves as the master checklist. Then, when you click on the cell for a particular subject/back combination it opens up a window with the scans, and maybe any interesting notes about the card, player, etc. Somehow we would need to standardize the scans so they all presented uniformly. And we keep upgrading with better examples as we go. I know better is subjective, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

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Posted By: Don

I think the "assorted" backs should be categorized in their corresponding series, i.e. Ted's analysis.

Also, what about T213-1? For someone with limited knowledge about the set, with no vested interest either way, I thought the arguments for including them in T-206 were compelling.

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Posted By: Tim

My 2 cents.

It should be put together slowly to insure thought, input, and a better finished product.

There should be scan standards for graded and nongraded cards. dpi, size, etc.

I think this will be a major undertaking, but if finished possibly the greatest virtual gallery of one set ever put together given the depth of this board.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

There's something I don't understand here in this thread ?

Bill Brown has done a magnificent job with his Super-Set excel spreadsheet.
It has been in existence for 3 years, now.

To date he has 4758 inputs......why are we duplicating his effort ?

What am I missing here....clue me in, guys ! !


TED Z

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Posted By: Rob D.

I think people would like to see images of the actual cards (super set), Ted, as opposed to a checklist.

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Posted By: Tim

Ted I could be wrong, but I believe the idea to be to add viewable scans to the work that Bill has done. An actual representative scan for each card on the spreadsheet.

In essence bring all of Bill's work to life with a Super Set virtual gallery of cards.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I just bumped my three T206 Series threads that illustrate and explain the different Series
and their associated backs.

I have done a lot of research on this and I can tell you that my info is very accurate.

If people want FRONT images, don't you think that the T206 Museum site is sufficient.

TED Z

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Posted By: Tim

Ted-

I completely understand what you are saying and yes there are many places where one can find all of the available front images and a good representative example of each back.

I think what this thread and the intent of the virtual gallery would be is more of an electronic collective as a group to create something.

I think it is more aesthetic with an underlying informative quality.

I don't think the intent is to overshadow the work that you, Bill, Scot, and many others have done. Ultimately your work made it possible.

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Posted By: Dennis W.

I certainly don't mean to step on any toes, but if the data was in a database (mysql for example) the data could reside on a web server and be viewable online. Not only that but it could be sortable and provide user specific queries (i.e. entering a player name or selecting a player from a dropdown list and viewing all known back combo's for that player). Many other options are available. Just some thoughts and as I said if I'm stepping on some toes consider myself "reeled in".

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Posted By: Frank

Ted, Actually your 3 series threads, Bill's spreadsheet, and Scot's collector's guide are precisely what triggered the idea.
To build the superset in a visual gallery is a catharsis for completists like myself who will never see it by any other means. It will promote the work and knowledge accumulated by yourself and others and hopefully inspire others to further it. The idea isn't to replace what has been done, but to shine the light on it and bring it to a new level.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

It would be useful to show all T cards that use T206 fronts as an extra feature.

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

Dennis,

right on.. some type of database back end is the way to go vs building single pages and since the superset is already in a spreadsheet, you can easily import the data into mySQL or Access depending on your hosting server.. then its just a matter of adding picture fields to each record that point to the location of the picture. I do this on all my baseball card related web sites.. you can create one page (asp or php) link to a database and that one page can display thousands of different cards.

Marty

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Posted By: Frank

Just wanted to post an update. We have a team assembled and work has begun on the construction of t206superset.com as described in the original post. We are in the process of finalizing the database structure and data and have a draft conceptual web layout. Completion may take a couple months. When ready, we will post an invitation for scan submittals via the website. It is likely that we will initially accept scans for a very small subset, such as 150 only subjects, so that we can get our processes in order before accepting a larger group. We think we have some pretty good ideas for this and it should be of value to the T206 community. Thanks to the many who have contributed advice, ideas, elements for the web site, etc. We're always looking for more...

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Posted By: Tim

I'm really looking forward to see how this T206 project unfolds......sounds great!!!

[Mikehealer]

Are there any updates to this project?

[teetwoohsix]

Wanted to bump this up-I too would love to know how this project was coming along,or has it been thrown to the wayside?Anyone know?

[cfc1909]

I would say it has been a couple months-I'm interested and have a huge amount of scans.

[fmcjfc]

Unfortunately, after doing some preliminary work, the virtual monster project lost traction and fell apart. I would still love to see this happen, but I don't really have the time or web-hosting saavy necessary to lead it to completion. I hope someone else will pick this up and make it happen. I would like to be a contributor in any way possible. If someone is interested, let me know, I have some documents I can try to dig up - database table layouts, general website layout, etc., that might be of some help to someone getting things started.

Frank