The larger screen layouts aren’t as good as the phone layout but I don’t really see a way around it as there’s a lot of data people want to see. I wouldn’t honestly worry about the layouts and functions, I don’t have issues with these and never really have, over the organization of titles. I have a pretty big collection and some titles have multiple volumes and those can be a nightmare to find exactly which series is the correct one. Captain Marvel (the Marvel Comics character) has a ton of series and I think that CLZ has different numbering for the various volumes which doesn’t match the Overstreet guide, for example. Collected editions, which has been my growing focus, are even worse and I have ended out with duplicates as a result lol. It would be so much easier if the various database/price guide folks could decide upon a naming standard and stick with it.
Have you tried the Issue tab in the Add Comics screen?
That makes it much easier to find the comic you want, as you can just search for “Captain Marvel 13”, and it will show you big cover images of all issues 13 of all matching series. And you can justs pick visually.
examples:
Maybe you can post some examples and see if our content managers can help with that?
Well, yes I do usually find it but it doesn’t change that naming standards, not just here, should adjust with the times. If restarting series is going to to be the standard with publishers and restarting collect editions when the creative teams change I can see more and more issues cropping up with services like CLZ. The Dynamite Red Sonja ongoing series are a real mess for example. After Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword ended we have Red Sonja (Dynamite Entertainment), vol.3, vol. 4, two vol.5, two vol. 6, vol.7. The one with no volume isn’t the first.
You’ll get some collected editions in with the individual issue others in their own listing. There’s a slew of Disney collected editions from Fantagraphic that are pretty much in three or four different areas despite being from two series only. (Specifically I am talking about the Carl Barks and Don Rosa libraries here.
When I was collecting World of Betty and Veronica I couldn’t enter it by barcode as it was giving me a Sonic digest and not all the issues from the start were in there.
To be clear I don’t blame your team solely for such messes but some standardized naming conventions would help. I don’t know how you would handle collected edition restarts within a ongoing series but single issue series could be better handled by skipping the vol.x convention and moving to series title with the year it started in parentheses, like Amazing Spider-Man (1963). This seems to becoming more common and is infinitely easier to deal with.
Just some thoughts. I have no problem with improving or adding features but organization of the database should always be looked at on occasion too. Publishing practices these days have made this almost a necessity. When I was reorganizing my collection after I sold off about a third or more of it and this is where such disorganization in the DB really frustrated me. Searching is not too bad.
We try to standardize as much as possible, but we also try to stick the titles that publishers use.
Red Sonja is a mess indeed, but how do you suggest WE fix that?
I mean, we decide on our own naming for the series, to make them more consistent, but wouldn’t that make them even harder to find? I mean, if our title doesn’t match that of the publisher…
I feel like you are blaming us for:
- the mess that publishers make
- other sites not using the exact same series name that we use
I really understand your frustration, but I don’t think we are to blame here.
There IS a reason for this.
For small series, with few issues and just one TPB, we put it INSIDE the series.
For bigger series, with multiple TPBs and HCs, we split those off into their own series.
That way the database doesn’t get cluttered with way too many separate series with just one TPB in them.
I must suggest again: use the Issue tab. That will help a LOT.
The Carl Barks Library is just hardcovers and is probably up to 15 books. The Rosa Library is probably around 10. The Mickey Mouse HC series was put all in the two series.
Red Sonja is easy. Red Sonja (20xx) with the xx replaced with the year it started. It’s not rocket science.
It is clear though that despite your claims that you want to work on making CLZ better you really aren’t. Yes, I am blaming your team because they’re the ones who create the entries. Even Marvel and DC have moved to Title (year started).
Clearly, my years of using CLZ and recommending it has been misplaced. I regret expressing my issues and will do what I should have long ago when I wanted to catalogue my collection, do it on my own with Excel and save myself some money. Don’t worry I am not going to go online and condemn CLZ its a decent app but I don’t need a vast majority of the features and it’s just time to move on.
Oh wow, that is quite harsh. This entire forum is about people reporting Core problems to us, so that we can fix them.
We really want to improve the things you see. Just tell us what’s wrong.
Why do you regret expressing your issues? I don’t get it.
If you see inconsistencies here, just tell us about them and we’ll see if we can fix them.