# Reviews: Missing products?



## Krug (Aug 2, 2002)

No sign of Liber Bestiarus or Swords to Plowshares..  Reviewers getting overworked?


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## Morrus (Aug 2, 2002)

Err.... yeah!

I'll add 'em shortly.


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## Krug (Aug 9, 2002)

Still not in yet.. Path of Swords as well..

Yes, sorry for whipping you Morrus..


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## Crothian (Aug 9, 2002)

You might want to bump this after he gets back from Gen Con


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## JoeGKushner (Aug 12, 2002)

Lots of products are going to need to be added.  I wonder what type of time commitment Morrus would need to give others outside of him and Eric access to update the sheets.


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## Darkness (Aug 12, 2002)

JoeGKushner said:
			
		

> *Lots of products are going to need to be added.  I wonder what type of time commitment Morrus would need to give others outside of him and Eric access to update the sheets. *



Don't the staff reviewers have this ability already?

(*shrug* I could be wrong, of course...)


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## EricNoah (Aug 13, 2002)

Actually I have temporarily retired from working on the d20 Guide/Reviews pages.  I just am not able to commit the time to do it.  If you're interested in helping out in any way (say, maybe you're in charge of letters A-C or something) I bet Russ would love the help.


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## JoeGKushner (Aug 13, 2002)

I'd be up for something like that.  I enjoy working on a variety of things and projects.  I'm doing lots of interviews now for OgreCave and reviews for numerous companies so this sounds like something I could do.  When Morrus gets back I'll see what we can set up.


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## EricNoah (Aug 13, 2002)

What would be super ideal is if Russ could get people who were really into companies X, Y and Z to maintain those three companies' entries.  Keep 'em spruced up, keep up with linking to the external reviews, add new products, change release dates, etc.  I think Nightfall, for instance, would love to keep the SSS entry up to date.


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## Krug (Aug 19, 2002)

*casts telekinesis on thread*

There u go.


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## Morrus (Aug 19, 2002)

If anyone wants to volunteer, that's be great.  Keeping that guide updated is probably one of the most difficult parts of running the site, and it would probably be much easier if it were divided amongst people.


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## Krug (Aug 19, 2002)

I wouldn't mind helping. How do we divide the work?


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

Cool - thanks, Krug!

I think the best way to do it would be to wait a couple of days to see how many volunteers we get and then to divide up the alphabet equally between them.

I'll give a free Community Supporter account to anyone who helps!  And if you already have a Community Supporter account then you get my... err... eternal gratitude!


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 20, 2002)

Salutations,

I have done some html work, and would be happy to help where I am able.

FD


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

Furn_Darkside said:
			
		

> *
> I have done some html work, and would be happy to help where I am able.
> *




Cool!

There's no actual html work involved - it's all data entry via an admin system.   It's a lot like making messageboard posts.


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## trancejeremy (Aug 20, 2002)

Well, I've volunteered to help with it in the past, and it still stands.


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

Excellent - that's Joe, Furn, Krug and trancejeremy.  Any more takers?  So far we're down to about 5 letters of the alphabet each, which is much better than 26 letters!


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## JoeGKushner (Aug 20, 2002)

Sounds like you've got some 'staff' Morrus.  Keep it up and you'll turn EN World into a friggin business at this rate.


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

OK, assuming nobody else volunteers, how does this sound:

Joe: A-E
Furn: F-K
Krug: L-P
trancejeremy: Q-U
Me: V-Z

The biggest ones are Mongoose and WotC, which is me and Krug (Krug, let me know if you'd rather switch to an easier group).  

One thing, though - please only volunteer if you know you can keep it up.  At a guess, I'd say it'll be an hour or so per week at the very most, but it is important that that hour be spent.


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

OK, this is what the task entails:

1) Add new products as soon as you hear about them.  Usually that'll be from my news updates.  Make sure you include all the indo you can find.

2) Keep on eye on the websites in your range, and make sure the databse remains up to date.  if a release date changes or a preview is posted, that needs to be entered into the database.  You can also record random info you hear on products (from messageboard posts etc).

3) Add links to external reviews of products as and when you hear of them.  Again, that'll likely be from my news updates.

It's all pretty easy.  If any of you don't have an account on the review system, make sure you register one asap and post the username here so that I can give you admin status.  You'll then have access to the various product adding/editing functions.

Thanks for offering to do this, guys - I really do appreciate it!


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 20, 2002)

Morrus said:
			
		

> *
> Furn: F-K *




Salutations,

That works for me. 

Furn_Darkside is my review logon.

FD


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## Krug (Aug 20, 2002)

Will do! L-P sounds all right! Lots of Mongoose stuff for sure!

Where do I put in the new item though?


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

OK, guys - I've given you all "moderator" status.

Here's some instructions on how to use the system:

On the left, you can now see the admin options.  

Now, first things first - NEVER USE APOSTOPHES.  I know it sounds silly, but the system doesn't like them.  Just miss them out - "doesnt" instead of "doesn't".  You'll find the worst bit is if you copy/paste info from somewhere.  What I do is paste it into Notepad first and do a find/replace to remove all the apostrophes, because you're always bound to miss one.

OK, there are 3 things you're likely to do:

*Add new publisher
*Add new product
*Edit product/publisher

The options are fairly self-evident.  

**Add New Publisher**

Just add the company name, URL and a sentence or so describing them.  Don't use any crappy marketing speak - selling stuff is their job, not ours.

**Add new product**

Don't use the left handmenu for this.  Go to the publisher on the reviews page and click the "Add" button.  The products are sorted into "Product Lines" and there's a button for each line.

When you have a new product line, don't use the "New product line" option.  Add it to an existing product line, and then go into the product to edit it, changing it to a new one.

When adding a product EVERY SINGLE FIELD MUST BE COMPLETED or you'll get an error.  This means that sometimes you'll be entering "none" or "unknown" or whatever.

There is a box for errata/previews/misc info, and a box for external reviews.  Check the FAQ on the left for how to format lists using tags - it's very easy.

**Edit product**

This is pretty easy.  Go to the product and click "Edit".  You'll get a screen with all the info for that product.  Use the dropdown box to select which info you want and enter the new info.  This will REPLACE the current info, not add to it, so if you're just adding something, copy/paste the info from the list above first.

**Other things**

-Check the website URLs of the companies in your section.  Sometimes you'll find it's in the database but not showing on the system. Just enter it again, and it'll show up.  

-For product covers, the image will need to be uploaded to the server.  For the moment, just send me the covers and I'll upload them and tell you what thefilename is.  Then you can edit the product info to reflect the image filename.  I'll set up FTP access for you when I get chance.

I suggest you look around for a bit, and then post back here.  If you have any quesitons, let me know.  If in doubt, it's better to ask first in case you break something!

Thanks again, guys!


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## Morrus (Aug 20, 2002)

Where to find info:

1) Check the daily news for new products, more info on products, previews, enhancements, errata, reviews etc.

2) Check the d20 Publishers forum for announcements and offhand comments.

Other sources, if you have the time:

-Check company website forums for comments from staff.  In general, publisher websites aren't actually a very good source for info about their products.  
-AEG can be difficult as their website is, to put it simply, crap.  Most of what you get will be from random messageboard posts.
-Whoever is doing Mongoose will find it a pain in the ass keeping their stuff up to date as they don't exactly help out there.  Sorry about that, but there's not much I can do!  If it becomes too much, let me know, because it can be tedious searching for that info across the web at times.  They sometimes post info at GamingReport.com, altough they have started putting some release schedules in the D20 Publishers forum of late.
-Whoever is doing Necromancer Games will need to visit their website periodically - they don't tend to announce stuff elsewhere, so it's easy to miss.
-Small PDF companies - this is a tricky one.  Just keep an eye on RPGNow, I guess, unless they email you.  The PDF companies are usually pretty good about keeping you informed. 
-Sending a quick email to a company can help, but some of them just won't reply.  If they can't be bothered to reply, don't worry too much about being accurate about their stuff, but try and make it as useful as you can for the fans, at least.


Any other questions, just yell!  Don't feel compelled to run around after companies - remember, this is to their benefit not yours.


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## Krug (Aug 21, 2002)

Hmm.. still having member status right now...


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

Krug said:
			
		

> *Hmm.. still having member status right now... *




Same here- I don't see the admin options, but I bookmarked all the websites of the companies in my group. Judges Guild was an interesting hunt 

FD


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## Morrus (Aug 21, 2002)

Hmm... well Liquide just went to bed, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get it working.


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

Morrus said:
			
		

> *
> -AEG can be difficult as their website is, to put it simply, crap.  Most of what you get will be from random messageboard posts. *




From my own pesterings, I have found them to be quite good about responding to email with information about products.

FD


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## Morrus (Aug 21, 2002)

If anyone wants to get started before we get the admin thingummy working, I don't mind emailing you my login details for the moment.  Let me know!


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## Krug (Aug 21, 2002)

Well I'm not having much luck. Keep getting errors when I did *Frost and Fur* for Monkey God Enterprises. When I tried to edit the text it barfed:


Update d20 Set [Short]='BRRRRRR! Everyone knows the arctic can be an unforgiving terrain. But there's much more to the wintry land than cold damage and snowstorms. In Frost & Fur, players and Game Masters alike will find a wealth of information about what the arctic has to offer...and how to survive it. Inside you will find new rules for environmental hazards, survival equipment, and the effects of cold on skills and spells. Discover a variety of cultures, both magical and mundane, and the prestige classes, races, creatures, and spells that are an integral part of their mythology. Frost & Fur: the cure for the common cold! ' WHERE [Abbr] LIKE 'monkfnf'

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14' 

[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression ''BRRRRRR! Everyone knows the arctic can be an unforgiving terrain. But there's much more to the wintry land than cold damage and snowstorms. In Frost & Fur'. 

/newedit.asp, line 172 

Ouch.


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## The It's Man (Aug 21, 2002)

Krug, Morrus said


> Now, first things first - NEVER USE APOSTOPHES. I know it sounds silly, but the system doesn't like them. Just miss them out - "doesnt" instead of "doesn't". You'll find the worst bit is if you copy/paste info from somewhere. What I do is paste it into Notepad first and do a find/replace to remove all the apostrophes, because you're always bound to miss one.



I see a lot of apostrophes in the text, maybe that had something to do with it.


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

Salutations,

I will not have a chance to go through everything until later today, but I was able to update some of the www addies.

Things look ok so far.

FD


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

The It's Man said:
			
		

> *Krug, Morrus said
> 
> I see a lot of apostrophes in the text, maybe that had something to do with it. *




Hmm, yeah, it looks like the apost from *there's* might be causing a problem. It looks like the program uses the apostrophes to determine where the messages begin and end. 

Just a guess.

FD


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## Krug (Aug 21, 2002)

Furn_Darkside said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Hmm, yeah, it looks like the apost from there's might be causing a problem. It looks like the program uses the apostrophes to determine where the messages begin and end.
> 
> ...




Ok will try again later...
Whoever put in the stuff for Malhavoc and Mongoose.. thanks!


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

Morrus said:
			
		

> *
> I suggest you look around for a bit, and then post back here.  If you have any quesitons, let me know.  If in doubt, it's better to ask first in case you break something!
> *




This may be a silly question, but when adding products- is it left to our better judgement under what product line it falls under?

I ask because I notice some of the entries have pretty well defined product lines, but others are not as clear.

For example-

Fantasy Flight Games has a new campeign book for CoC d20 coming out: Nocturnum d20 

FFG's has three product lines on the review site:
*D20 System Rulebooks 
*Dragonstar 
*Miscellaneous (Which contains their pamphlet adventures)

I intend to write them to see if this is a stand alone product (which it looks like it is). 

I hesitate to put in in the Misc line due to it being lost in with other products of that line, but it is not quite a rule book.

I swear I won't be this annoying about adding future products.  
I just want to be clear on how much freedom to take on these kind of decisions- I don't want to accidently cause any angry emails from d20 companies. haha.

FD

edit: fixed some bad spelling


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 21, 2002)

Krug said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Ok will try again later...
> *




Another thing you may want to be careful with is cut&paste from word processers- I was reading the FAQ and it said that was known to cause problems as well.

FD


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## Morrus (Aug 21, 2002)

Furn_Darkside said:
			
		

> *
> 
> This may be a silly question, but when adding products- is it left to our better judgement under what product line it falls under?
> 
> ...



*

Yep, just use your best judgement.  Don't create a product line unless you think there's going to be a line there; otherwise do whatever seems right.  Feel free to "invent" product lines if there are clear divisions of product type, even if the company doesn't do that.




			I don't want to accidently cause any angry emails from d20 companies. haha.
		
Click to expand...



Just worry about the visitors - it's designed for them, not for the companies.  In general- do what's necessary to make it clear, even if that means ignoring a company's system of product lines etc.*


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## Morrus (Aug 21, 2002)

Krug said:
			
		

> *Well I'm not having much luck. Keep getting errors when I did Frost and Fur for Monkey God Enterprises. When I tried to edit the text it barfed:
> 
> 
> Update d20 Set [Short]='BRRRRRR! Everyone knows the arctic can be an unforgiving terrain. But there's much more to the wintry land than cold damage and snowstorms. In Frost & Fur, players and Game Masters alike will find a wealth of information about what the arctic has to offer...and how to survive it. Inside you will find new rules for environmental hazards, survival equipment, and the effects of cold on skills and spells. Discover a variety of cultures, both magical and mundane, and the prestige classes, races, creatures, and spells that are an integral part of their mythology. Frost & Fur: the cure for the common cold! ' WHERE [Abbr] LIKE 'monkfnf'
> ...




The short field has a max character length - it's designed for a brief sentence or so to appear on each company's "summary" page.


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## Krug (Aug 24, 2002)

Ok I'm overwhelmed by the Ms. There's Monkey God, Mystic Eye, Mongoose and Malhavoc... Ouch.


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## JoeGKushner (Aug 24, 2002)

Are you saying that you want AEG?  How about... Affinity, Ambient, Anubium, Auran, Avalanche, Bad Axe, Bards, Bastion, Chainmail, Citizen Games, Dark Nebulae, Dark Quest Trading?  Oh wait, that's not too many...  now if only I could get rid of AEG...


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## Krug (Aug 24, 2002)

I think AEG is pretty bad, but not as bad as Mongoose! And Mystic Eye, Monkey God and Malhavoc are ramping up. And so is Privateer! And Paradigm Concepts!

Right now, priority is getting the data in for Author, ISDN, Release, Page count etc. I could spend days searching for reviews of some of the products.

Thankfully I resolved my _page has expired_ issue so it's a lot easier to enter stuff now.


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 24, 2002)

Salutations,

I just wanted to thank you guys for hitting the first pot holes.

As I sit here now, it has helped me avoid them same ones.

FD


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 24, 2002)

JoeGKushner said:
			
		

> *Oh wait, that's not too many...  now if only I could get rid of AEG...  *




I am not sure if Morrus would approve of us trading companies to look after, but if you really don't feel comfortable with AEG- I would be happy enough to take it.

I know the company rather well and check their website out a few times a day (ok, for the spycraft forum, but I peak at the other pages- haha).

Any chance you would want Fiery Dragon and/or Kenzer in return? I am not too familiar with either and they might be better served with someone else.

FD


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 25, 2002)

Salutations,

I went through my list and updated the general and product information for the lot. Fast Forward Games needed the most work, heh. 

I am getting a bit burnt out- so I will do a review hunt later.

FD


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## JoeGKushner (Aug 25, 2002)

Nah, I'll keep AEG.  It'll give me something to razz them about.  "Gee, I'd love to update the products page but since you haven't bothered to update the corporate page you must not feel that the internet is worth the time to invest in properly..."  Nah, I'll post when I can find info but I've e-mailed a few AEG people with no response so they'll get updated when the info is there.


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## Furn_Darkside (Aug 25, 2002)

JoeGKushner said:
			
		

> *Nah, I'll keep AEG.  It'll give me something to razz them about. *




*chuckle* Ok. I would not want to deprive you of your fun. 

They updated their 7thSeas page recently- so, maybe they are rethinking their stance on their web page.

Good luck!
FD


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## Morrus (Aug 26, 2002)

Question - Trancejeremy, are you still interested in doing this?  Haven't heard from you since you volunteered!


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## Morrus (Aug 27, 2002)

OK, trancejeremy doesn't seem to have shown up, but ENrious has volunteered, so I'm giving ENrious Q-U.


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