Category Archives: Building Zistle

Zistle Forum now in Beta

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We’ve been asked by many of our members to make it easier to find and connect with other members on Zistle. We’ve had ideas around searching for users, a member directory and even trade recommendations – all of which we plan on building. But when it came right down to it, the easiest tool to implement was a forum. We’re excited to announce a beta release of the Zistle Forum.

Yes, yes, we know there are a lot of sports card forums and we are certainly not trying to replace them. But we can all agree that an easy way to find like minded collectors on Zistle can only be a good thing. We just want everyone on Zistle to be able to connect with each other as quickly as possible.

To start we’ve made a general hobby talk area by sport and a trading area. We’ve also made a general area for discussing the site and making feature suggestions.

We’re going to be in beta for at least a few weeks. We’re looking forward to your feedback. If there are topics that you’d like added or suggestions for ways to improve the forum,  please email us anytime at [email protected]

Drag and Drop back images.

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When we released drag and drop image upload, we saw a huge uptick in the number of front images Zistlers put into the system.  Dragging and dropping was just easier then using the flagging form.  However, as had been pointed out by many, there was no way to upload back images via drag and drop so our back image count did not see the same boost.  Today that changes with the deployment of drag and drop upload for back images!

We have added the ability to “flip” cards in the gallery view when editing your collection by using the link in the screenshot below:


Clicking this button flips over all of the cards in the gallery view and shows you their back images.

When the cards are showing their backs, you can drag and drop back images onto them just as you would the fronts.  So if you want to upload back images, just flip the gallery view and start dragging and dropping.

Some minor downtime

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We are pushing out some changes to get ready for a new, hopefully exciting :) , feature that we have been working on.  We should only be down for a few minutes.  More info to come as we get nearer the release.

UPDATE:  Everything has been resolved.  Sorry for any weirdness that you may have encountered.

Zistle Library is back!

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One of the features that we had to delay releasing in the most recent launch was our library feature. We’re excited to be bringing it back today. This release focused on restoring the original functionality of library – with a few improvements of course. Similar to the rest of the site, you can see library activity on the library homepage as well as each sport page.

You will also be able to see recently added and recently updated sets for those of you who like to see the new images and cards on Zistle. To find sets on Zistle, simply select the sport and search for the sets you are interested in.

Each set page will have a set image, set description and release date. As always, if the information is not included you can add this information. We’ll be adding more fields soon but we’d love to hear from you what information you’d like to see added to the library set and subset pages. What would be helpful to you? What information are you missing?

We are still working on improving the Library – it is far from a finished product. Next up is getting set experts up and running.  Thanks for your patience set experts.

Zistle just hit a million cards

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This is a pretty cool moment for us. Zistle now has over 1 million cards in the database. The best part is that over half of the cards in the database also have an image – we have over  573,005 front images.

The millionth card is  was added by Ringo73 of The Phillies Room. The card is an unnumbered card from the 1986 Tastykakes set. Since joining June 11th, Ringo has been busy adding cards and images to the Zistle library from his Phillies collection and already has over 109,818 contribution points.

Thanks to all of our contributing members for being a part of helping the Zistle library grow. Now on to two million! The race is on!

Zistle Feedback: Help us…help you!

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What an exciting week for Zistle. Not only was it a successful launch, we’ve also had record signups and logins since the relaunch. We’re really happy to be making some traction for all of the members who have kept the faith over the last few years.

We’ve also been really thrilled about the level of feedback so far. We’ve been able to fix issues quickly and we’ve had more questions and interaction from the Zistle community than we have had in a long time. One of the things we learned this week is that the Zistle concept can be a little confusing when you are first starting out. We sometimes forget this because most of our members have been with us for so long that we take for granted that new users will know how to use the site.

This week, we are going to be working on creating some getting started guides, help text and knowledge base articles to help new and old members better utilize the new Zistle. We’ll be combing through your questions over the past few weeks and you’ll start to see help text within the application. If you’re already a pro, you will be able to remove these alerts and tips but hey, you may learn something new.

As always, we’d love your help to make Zistle better. If there is anything that initially confused you when you first joined Zistle, please let us know in the comments or send us a note with the feedback tool and we will add it to our guides and help text. Help us help you make it easier to use Zistle.

Collection Sneak Peak – Upgraded List View

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Some of the most exciting updates for our next release are in the collection section of Zistle. We are hoping that this will help some of your power users save some time while organizing your collection. For those of you who spend hours on our site every day, these updates are for you.

Collection New Look and Feel

Similar to the rest of the site, the collections tab is getting a new look and feel that makes it easier to use. This includes inline pricing, a fixed sidebar for easy scrolling, multi-select and a detail pane.

Multi-Select and Bulk Actions

We want it to be as easy as possible for collectors to add their collection to Zistle. Now you’ll be able to select all cards, a group of cards or one by one and bulk add or remove them to your collection.

The controls will be very similar to selecting multiple files on your computer’s file system.

  • Hold CTRL to select multiple cards
  • Hold SHIFT to select multiple cards in a row
  • Select ALL selects all cards on that page

Once those files are selected, you can add or remove them from your collection using our bulk edit feature. We also plan to add a way for you to add cards to your tradelist and wantlist if not in this release, in the near future.

Detail Pane

We have replaced our detail view with a detail pane that is completely integrated within both list and gallery view. Clicking on each card name will show a closable pane at the bottom of the page that will display all of the details that you used to see in the detail view and more.

In addition to the card image, team, card attributes, pricing and information about who added the card and images, you will be able to see trading information including who wants the card and has the card up for trade. There are also links to see that card and set in the library (more details soon on library). In addition to being able to show more content about the card, you will be able to click through cards one by one and get information without losing your context.

Card Notes

You may have noticed that card notes are no longer in the detail view.We’ve moved card notes to a new column in list view. When a card is in your collection and you hover over it in list view, a pencil icon will appear in the note column. If you click on the icon, a pop-up will appear that will allow you to add a new note.

When your note is saved, a note icon will appear that you can hover over and see your note anytime you are in list view. Pretty fancy, huh? This way, you can easily see which cards have a note and read it instantly.

We’d love to hear your feedback about any of these new features and improvements at http://feedback.zistle.com or in the comments. Our target is to roll out the next release in early June and we are making great progress toward that goal. We’ll be asking for some of you to be beta testers before we roll it out in full production. If you’re interested in helping us test the new version, email me at ashley@zistle .com or just add a comment below.

 

Zistle Sneak Peak: Getting Social with Alerts and Activity

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Zistle Activity – See what other members are doing

Zistle needs to be more social. One of the ways that we can do that is by making member activity on the site more visible. So we’ve added activity streams to the dashboard throughout the new site that will highlight member activity.

 

The above example only shows new members but you will see recent activity including box breaks, new sets being added to the library, new images being added and more.

Alerts – See what you need to do

We’ve also added alerts on your dashboard to make it easier to see changes and new items that require your attention. This will include trade proposal updates, new Zistle features, contact updates, library updates and more.

Alerts tell you information that you need to know or items that require your attention. You can delete them when you are finished with that item or keep them up as long as you’d like as a reminder.

Remember, if you have feedback go to our feedback page and let us know: http://feedback.zistle.com

New Zistle Feedback Tool

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We are really excited to announce that we have a new feedback and help tool. Why a new tool you ask? Didn’t you already have one that worked? Why do you keep switching tools? We picked UserVoice which offers many of the same benefits that our previous tool offered: integrated single sign-on, a suggestions forum and a help library as well as some additional benefits including better response times and community voting.

Vote for New Features

One of the features that we are most excited about is the ability for Zistle members to suggest and vote on new feature ideas. All Zistle members will have 15 votes that you can use to vote for features that you or other members suggest. You will only get 15 votes however, when an idea which you voted for is either closed or implemented, you will receive those votes back. You can also choose how many votes (1-3) you want to cast for each feature. So if you REALLY want one particular feature, you can cast 3 votes.

See what we’re working on

Since Zistle started, our members have given some awesome ideas and suggestions. With our new system, you will actually be able to see what features we are working on, which ones we have planned and which user submitted ideas we have implemented.

 

Better Response Times

There are a few reasons why we needed to make a switch. The first was that we needed a better admin interface for answering your questions and resolving your problems. We want to be more responsive in answering your questions. Our new tool will quite literally hunt us down if we aren’t doing our job.

 

Get Started

If you want to get started suggesting and voting for new ideas, go to our new Feedback Site. We have seeded the new feature forum with some suggestions that were already mentioned in the previous forum but we know that there are more out there.

We are working on launching some new features soon and we would love to add some more user suggested voted. Get voting!

 

 

Adventures in Collecting – Lessons Learned for Zistle

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Josh and I spent the last few months in San Francisco for work. It was a nice way to avoid the freezing temperatures in Minnesota and as an extra bonus, I got to spend some time with my sister and nephew who live in the area.

My nephew is 8 years old and is just getting into the hobby. The Giants winning the pennant last year has accelerated his interest in all things Giants including baseball cards. I was particularly excited to take him on his first trip to a real card shop. I got to experience first-hand all of the excitement and sense of wonder that a card shop contains for a young collector. It also reminded me how simple card collecting is when you are a kid. As we were looking through the Giants singles, the card shop owner found an autographed Buster Posey rookie. It was fairly priced and I was excited at our good fortune. While I was excited to buy the card for him, my nephew simply wasn’t interested. He looked at me “No, Auntie Ashley. I already have a Buster Posey card”.

Despite my best efforts to convince him of its value, my nephew didn’t care about the value of the card or the fact that it was autographed. He simply wanted to collect one of each of his favorite players. It was all about his love of baseball and the Giants. The 2010 Topps base card was just as valuable to him as a rookie auto and there was nothing that anyone could say to convince him otherwise.

Later that week, I introduced him to Zistle. We have had some great times since Zistle launched but watching my nephew play on the site and say “Zistle is awesome” was a pretty cool moment for me. Not only was it really rewarding to have someone in my family think that the site was awesome, but I learned so much about our site by looking over his shoulder while he tried to figure it out.

Lesson 1: Collectors (at least 8 year old collectors) love pricing

Josh and I have always been slightly hesitant to introduce more advanced pricing features on Zistle. We wanted to focus on collectors and the joy of the hobby rather than focusing on price and the book or even auction value of each card. However, ironically enough, my nephew who didn’t care at all about the pricing in the card shop, clicked every single Giants card he could find to try and figure out the price. I watched him click through our site for hours, one by one, clicking on the card to see if there was pricing info for that card. It may have been the excitement of the hunt or the attention span of an 8 year old but he was obsessed with pricing. In a new release of Zistle, we are going to be adding pricing to the list view in the collection tab. We don’t want to focus on pricing as the most important aspect of our site, but we want to make it more accessible.

Lesson 2: Cards without images don’t exist

This again may have something to do with being 8, but my nephew played on Zistle for  total of 10 hours in a few days and he did not once click on a card without an image. We know how important images are to the Zistle experience and this completely reinforced that point. So how do we get more images on Zistle? Josh is working on building a mass image importing tool to help both our users in uploading their images and to help us add more stock images. This is something that you have all asked for many times and we are excited that we are getting closer to offering this feature.

Stay tuned later this week for some additional updates on some new features that will be coming out in the next month or so. We’ll be including some previews as well as our new product roadmap.