Forward Momentum (Day 46 of 365)
A key focus of mine this month is the Serial # system.
We recently finished updating it. I am pretty sure it includes 99% of the run's we have produced but I haven't had as much time to double check. We have so much catching up to do with that database. Mainly it took us years to get time to be able to focus on it again.
You can view it here: https://mintdiscs.com/pages/mint-discs-serial
My next "big" project with this database is to get a picture of every stamp we have used on our discs. As well as a list of every color of every disc from each run(not foil color though).
I have been looking into ways on how to collect it. None of them seem super easy for you all to use. Here are some options I've explored and their pros and cons.
- Make a google form to submit disc photos.
- Pros - easy to do
- Cons - can be limited by file size(s).
- Make a public google drive.
- Pros - super easy to use
- Cons - If everyone has view/edit access, we will get some people just uploading dumb or lewd stuff. Also everyone would have to get really good at following image naming conventions in order to do it right.
- New email?
- Pros - Easy to use. Easy to upload multiple images at once. Someone taking the time to write an email will typically have good intentions compared to a form. Easy to track progress and do weekly/monthly batches.
- Cons - Likely to get less traffic than a form. Just takes more effort.
- Find an app
- Pros - It's an app?
- Cons - New app to use...not everyone wants to download or use another app in their life.
Right now I'm leaning toward setting up an email everyone use. This seems like it will be the easiest thing to manage. The only downside being we're likely limiting ourselves to just the hardcore Mint fans. The reality is they most likely will have or at least have access to all of the stamps we have every done.
What do you guys think?
Any other ideas on what we could do?
Until tomorrow.
(writing that now too).
Depending on your email hosting provider, there will be file size limits and a limit on your total inbox size. When these limits are exceeded, your email hosting provider may begin to reject incoming emails. In order to mitigate this risk, I would recommend purchasing a new domain, e.g. mintdiscsdatabase.com and only use that domain for this purpose.
If I were designing this system, I would write a custom Shopify App that presented the user with an html form consisting of upload box, serial number input box, and a comments box. The Shopify App would accept that form and write the uploaded image and meta data to an AWS S3 bucket named incoming. When files are uploaded to the bucket, an AWS Lambda will trigger and use AWS Recognition to verify the image contains a disc. If not, the upload and metadata are discarded. If so, the files are resized and moved to a bucket for verification. A separate Lambda provides Mint with the ability to verify/accept images and metadata.
Pros
+ integrates with the website
+ no risk to existing email systems
+ one-click approvals
+ unlimited low cost storage
+ automated image resizing
Cons
– requires 3 separate, custom Node functions. Off-shore development costs in the $500-$1000 range on the low end, and Austin-local development costs probably in the $2000-$5000 range.
– ongoing storage and computational costs, $0 for 0 images, but costs will be linearly proportional to the number of images uploaded.
– ongoing software maintenance costs, budget 20% of the initial cost annually to updating and maintaining (security updates)
– this is probably a lot of new technology for Mint
you know, e-mail is not that bad. all you need is the e-mail address, and in my experience, it’s easier to e-mail something directly, than look for that specific google address and submit things that way. i think as long as the e-mail address gets posted everywhere so people don’t forget, and new people can always be made aware of its existence for this project, i figure you can get good enough participation.
Love the idea of an email. Hits big keys (no file size issue, less likely to get weird/lewd stuff) and I think most of the community is committed to helping and would be on board.