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An Introduction to the Stash Manager

ipb

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We've got a new tool that'll be released later today - the Stash Manager. It's been something people have been wanting for years (literally! There are posts from 2004 asking for stash tracking), and it's something I've always wanted to do, but with the software I built our feedback off of, I was finally able to give you - I've had planned for a few months, and like feedback, it stalled as I had to wait for a patch to be released.

 

 

What is the Stash Manager?

At this point in time, it's a private tool that will allow you to keep track of what BPAL you've tried, how well you liked it, whether or not you've bought it/kept it/sold or swapped it, and your personal notes about it. It's got a few custom views, with more coming. Eventually, you'll be able to share your wishlist from the stash manager (no more having to constantly update your wishlist post - it's automatically updated from what you've entered in!).

 

Let's talk about the pages it's got!

Your Stash Manager: On this page, you can enter in perfumes and view what you've entered in - the perfume name, whether or not you've tried it, whether or not you've bought it, whether or not you're swapping it away, your rating of it (or a note that you haven't rated it), your notes, and a button to update the scent. With your notes is also a link to your review (or a link to add a review, as applicable). It's a very good idea to rate things (as you'll see later!). Your ratings are private - not shared with the Lab or the public in any way.

 

Your Wishlist: This page displays what BPAL you're wanting. Eventually, I will be adding something to the User Control Panel to allow you to choose to make your wishlist visible by other people. (If you choose to make yours public, there will be two additional filters for people who viewing your wishlist: "show perfumes I have" and "show perfumes I'm swapping" - convenient for people who like to go and add frimps of things the other person likes.)

 

Your Inventory: This page displays your current BPAL inventory, ratings, notes. You can edit or add perfume from this view as well.

 

Your Current Swap, Sale, and Purchase Activity: This page shows what you're getting rid of, what you intend to get rid of, and what you're getting. Your notes are viewable here, so you can note where you're getting it from or where it's going to (and what you're getting in exchange), any pertinent dates, etc. This is just one way to help you manager your swaps outside of PMs. Eventually, I plan on having a "show all things I want to swap or have listed" pop up that will let you copy and paste everything, to easily be added to your swaps page.

 

Your Untried Stash: Want to know what you've got and haven't tried yet, and your cat's knocked into your carefully separated box a few times too many? This is the place to go! It'll show everything you've listed as owning, but haven't tried.

 

Your Unlisted Stash: Analogous to Your Untried Stash, this shows everything you haven't added yet.

 

Your Loves & Dislikes: This is a page that's in the works. I'm in the middle of writing a tagging system for the scent database, for notes. Once that has been completed, this page will tag clouds of notes that show up frequently on scents you dislike (rated 0-1) or on scents you liked (rated 4-5). There won't be any analysis of combinations of notes. It'll be an easy way to track this. (I know we all have a general sense of what we like, but when there's hundreds and thousands of perfumes, things can sneak by you!)

 

Your Recommendations: One of the biggest reasons Netflix took off - or at least, amongst my friends! - is that it'll recommend you things based off of your previous ratings and what other people rate. This is a huge project, but I think in the end, it'll be a super useful tool for new forumites and old alike. This probably won't be out until May or June.

 

The Swap Matchmaker: Tired of going through swap page after swap page (and then their wishlist!) to find someone that's looking for things that you're trying to get rid of and, at the same time, is trying to get rid of something you want? Never fear - this is the page for you! Like the Wishlist, you will have to opt into the Matchmaker to be able to get results beyond "you have matches!". Because members have to opt into it, and it won't give you any results if you're banned from swaps, we do consider this to be part of the swaps section - so feel free to message anyone who pops up! It's still a work in progress (I have to get the configuration part written yet), but once it's up, I'm sure many will find it super useful. Right now, it just shows you how many matches you WOULD have if it was live. (I have two!)

 

 

 

How to enter in perfumes

There are two ways to enter in perfumes: import all of your previous reviews (from a button on the Stash Manager), or individually add them. If you import them, they import that you've tried them, but don't have them, want them, etc, so you'll have to individually edit that information into the database (along with any rating or notes you've got). You can keep importing your reviews as time goes on.

 

 

Have questions or comments about the Stash Manager? Found a bug? This topic is the place to go to let us know!



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It is looking awesome. I have started to load some perfumes into my stash, but there comes the occasional perfume that I didn't see that was previously loaded. Now there are some duplicates. Will it be possible in the future to delete errors?

 

Once again, awesome and thanks.

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Second that. Love it so far, though have stumbled over some bugs (misspelled perfumes, the duplicate problem, etc). Do you want us to report those, and if so, what method's best?

 

Amazing feature: I've been desperate for something like it for YEARS. Thank you!

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@Sparkley: I'm going to try to add a delete function. It's hard for me to debug that one, because I don't know how much of my magical admin powers allow me to do things that others can't.

 

@quik: The perfume listing comes from the database that runs the price caps & Lab search (the scent database). If you see an error, click the name of the scent and it'll bring up the scent page, and you can report problems that way (typos, wrong prices/review link, etc). For bugs / desired features, I was planning on starting a topic for the stash manager in Forum Questions when I add it to the forum navigation bar and announce it, but you're more than welcome to beat me to the punch :)

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This is such an awesome wonderful feature. Thank you for implementing it - I know my entire collection is going to be put on there. :)

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Oh my god.

This... this is.... I'm speechless. No more xls that is super out of date! I just imported all my reviews, and I am flipping out with joy.

 

My first listed scent is Annabel Lee, which I had not worn in at least a year if not more, but felt compelled to slather on today. Somehow, it knew.....

 

Awesome job, QS, thanks a millions times over for it!

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I was just hunting down my bottle list yesterday; I don't have it linked in my signature anymore, and I am thrilled to see this feature! It's also a great incentive for those (like me) who don't write many reviews to get off their duffs and do so.

 

And I think the Swapmatcher is full of win. I predict it will be highly popular.

 

Thanks for all your hard work and making things accessible here, my home away from home.

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Wow, this is amazing! thank you so much for creating such a sweet new feature! Now I've just got to figure out how I'm going to integrate the My Stash feature with my current spreadsheet and swap/sales page.

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Amazeballs - seriously. Thanks QS!

 

I am envisioning a 'Randomizer' that will give you a random scent from your stash so you don't have to decide what to wear anymore.. heh.. and what if you could set it up to run everyday at a certain time and the result could be texted to your phone... oooooo

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I am envisioning a "Randomizer" that will give you a random scent from your stash so you don't have to decide what to wear anymore.. heh.. and what if you could set it up to run everyday at a certain time and the result could be texted to your phone... oooooo

I could probably do the random selection part, on the front page of the stash, if enough people want it. Though, I'm evil enough that if you have untried scents, I'd probably make it prefer untried scents to tried scents, and unreviewed scents to reviewed scents ;)

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I'm amazed. Not only does this sound like an impossibly futuristic tool, but I didn't even know the blog was here...

 

/is bad bpal-er

 

QS, truly, this is beyond everything. You are such an unbelievable blessing to this community.

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I am envisioning a "Randomizer" that will give you a random scent from your stash so you don't have to decide what to wear anymore.. heh.. and what if you could set it up to run everyday at a certain time and the result could be texted to your phone... oooooo
I could probably do the random selection part, on the front page of the stash, if enough people want it. Though, I'm evil enough that if you have untried scents, I'd probably make it prefer untried scents to tried scents, and unreviewed scents to reviewed scents ;)

 

 

Ohmigosh, please do this!

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I'm really loving this. Already have my entire collection/tried scents up there, and I'll be working on my wishlist later. Just curious: there's currently no option for sharing our lists, right? Will there be one in the future?

 

Thank you for all your hard work, this is awesome! I had such a fansquee when I saw this <3

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Uuuuuhhh.... this is amazing!! This is like my dream come true. It's the ultimate in list making!! Can you tell by all the exclamation points that I love this?

 

I spent all night last night entering all my bottles and decants (yes, I'm a nerd with no life at the moment). So much fun!

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