The 2011 Brickset user survey: Responses from Under 18s

Question:
What ONE thing do you think should be done to improve Brickset?

I dont like the fact most reviews on sets are by 5 year olds and provide no useful details on the set.

Under 18, United States

Just keep adding new features, updating things, etc. I would love to see a section for MOCs, and the friends system is basically useless, though it could be used to track friends' comments in the forum, on news items, and when they get a new set.

Under 18, United States

I think that you guys should simply upload the potos faaster

Under 18, United States

Brickset is awsome, there is no improvments.

Under 18, United States

i dont think there is anything wrong with the lego website other than being slow

Under 18, Canada

I would like polybags to have their own subsection, as they are very difficult to search for otherwise. This would also make it easier for polybag completionists to keep track of what they have at any particular time.

Under 18, United States

I would like to have more specific news, like on The Brothers Brick or Eurobricks...
The design is not very sophisticated (a good and a bad point) : it would be cool to have some animations and photos on the left and right, article about fun blogs you found...

Under 18, France

YOU NEED TO LET UNDER-EIGHTEENS INTO THE FORUM.

Hopeless.

It's all hopeless.

Under 18, Poland

Personally I don't like searching - there must be responds to some tags for sets, such as years, set types, etc., not only to sets and themes names.

Under 18, Russian Federation

Some things that I would like to see added are:
- That you could hit enter to search a set instead of having to press the "GO" button
- A rating system for just rating the sets instead of having to review them completly, for people who don't have time to write a full review
- I would like the "New at Shop@Home" banner back instead of the eBay banner at the top of the homepage
That's all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for such a great site!

Under 18, United States

For some strange reason, all the things which are supposed to be in the new to database bar is in a vertical way, going through the news and because of that I can't see or click what set that was :/

Under 18, United Arab Emirates

I think the site keeps improving, and there is little more I can conjure up at this point. Perhaps the home page could be more customizable for individuals so that one could see greater or fewer features depending on their preference and relevance to the user.

Under 18, United States

One of the only dislikes of this site is that the instructions page is always updated with set instructions that were uploaded almost a year ago. Also the booklets could be labeled (example book1, book2 etc.) so you dont have to "guess" which booklet the link is for.

Under 18, United States

I don't like that if you misspell a name, etc. there should be something like: 'did you mean "..."?' Everything else is good.

Under 18, United States

What parts are in a set that would be good

Under 18, United Kingdom

I think nothing.

Under 18, Hungary

vehicle index should be added

Under 18, United States

I dont like the amozon updates and I think that a links page should be put up.

Under 18, Canada

The fact that users under 18 cannot use the forums. I understand the reasoning, but it's just my opinion.

Under 18, United States

MORE hi-res minifig pictures!!!!!

Under 18, United States

I am disappointed that, since I am under 18, or whatever the age limit is, I am not allowed to post in the forums. I understand that you do not want kids "tat spel lik ths", and spam and things, but some of us are a little older and more mature. I feel that the age limit should be turned down to 13 -15.

Under 18, United States

You really need to work on getting set info faster.

Under 18, United States

Well Nothing is really wrong with the site.

Under 18, United States

nothing

Under 18, United States

I must say there are not a lot of cons to this site, but some things are a bit dissapointing. I have noticed in some set info photos, the wrong thing will be standing in for the set. Such is the case with 8630 Gold Hunt. This Agents themed set was to come with Agent Fuse, Gold tooth and a Henchman. The lattter two were to come with fire - nossel style pistols in gold metallic, black and black. The latter two of these were to have a black technic pin on the end to serve as anti - aircraft guns, but insetead, the set picture shows Agent Charge, a Joker style gun in gold, and two completely different anti - aircraft guns.
Now must I say this isn't a big deal at all. I have the set, so I actually don't need the set info anyway. And who am I to point out any mistakes? This isn't a real problem, just it is something I see sometimes, where the picture is a little off. Just something to be aware of.

As for new features, I would be estatic to see more Minifig shots..Those are so amazing! Even if I had the minifig in my hand under a magnifying lens, I wouldn't be able to see it that well. Complete awesomness on Brickset's behalf!

Thanks so much for putting out this survey. I am a very happy user that I can finally do something for all of you!

Thanks!

Under 18, United States

I think that under sixteens should at least be allowed to get a trial run on the forum, I think that there should be private messaging between mutual friends, and I wish it the admins were just a little more lenient.

Under 18, United States

I wish there were some links for YouTube channels on profile pages.
I find it hard to upload pictures. It would be so much easier if they could be uploaded from a destination on the computer. After all, we do have moderators at Brickset that help us with checking that the pictures are all right...
I wish that under 18s could participate in the forums, but the restriction is all right.
I also wish that Brickset had a similar commenting system to YouTube, where users will be notified when replies are posted to their comments. And a 'Reply' button might help.
Also, I wish that there were some more support for different currencies, or a handy currency converter.

Under 18, Italy

I feel that the search needs to be improved because quite often, I'll type in something very similar to what I actually want to find and it comes up with no results at all. I think the results need to be less specific. I do like the drop down of suggestions as you tyoe something in though.

Under 18, United Kingdom

I don't like all of the updates in the news feed about sales... I wish I could turn them off. Especially the ones that aren't about my country.

Under 18, United States

The Ebay chart on the homepage. I prefered the LEGO.com Database one more.

Under 18, United States

I think that a lot of the set images that were added long before the set was released should be replaced with more high-quality images.

Under 18

I just joined a month or so ago, so I'm still figuring things out. From what I have seen though, I wouldn't change anything.

Under 18, Canada

The site should have a "News" Section

Under 18, United States

it should include a minifigure and gear trade function, because I have tons of spares that I am willing to trade

Under 18, United States

Nothing... The most difficult now is to keep the same quality ! Well done and congratulations !!!

Under 18, France

I wish the forum had more topics to explore and was just generally larger. The set reviews I also wish where more indepth with user pictures included.

Under 18, United States

new lego insructions

Under 18, United States

Set reviews are ok but most of them seem to be low quality. Also the home page I like a lot, but the Right Now on eBay bar seems to be more in the way than helpful. Also the updates for Amazon sales seems to be spammy and I tend to ignore them.

Under 18, United States

I don't like how "New at shop.lego.com" was replaced with the Ebay stuff on the homepage.

Under 18, United States

Most news on lego is not related to where I live and if there was a way of addressing this news it would be highly appreciated!

Under 18, Ireland

Get rid of the eBay thing. I preferred the new at Lego shop.com, as most of the eBay things are irrelevant and not many people will want to buy them.

Under 18, United Kingdom

The bricklists are boring.I mean some are amazing,but the other ones are boring.

Under 18, United States

I think you should add the price of sets in other currencies.

Under 18, Ireland

The opportunity to delete Bricklists, in my opinion, is needed. I might've typed something and not mean it anymore, and just want to delete the whole thing. The opportunity to just simply delete reviews is needed too.

Under 18, United States

1. nothing
2. nothing
3. mark reviews as read

Under 18, United States

I know this is kinda minor, but I'm not a huge fan of the eBay bar. I actually found the new on Lego.com feature helpful. I'd like to see that come back.

Under 18, United States

Brickset forums - allow younger members to join. Improve search.

Under 18, Israel

I don't like that there is an age limit to the forums. I know it's there to protect KFOLs and some TFOLs that visit the site, but I don't think (and this is just my thinking) that anyone would say something bad in the forums that KFOLs and TFOLs should be shielded from. Now, I've never seen the forums, being a TFOL myself, but I think us younger LEGO fans should have our say. Also, the content is sometimes behind, for example, to my knowledge, two versions of the Angelica (PotC) minifigure have been released, yet I've only seen one catalogued here on Brickset. But most of the content is fresh, so it's not much of a problem with me.

Under 18, United States

I like all of the page!!!!

Under 18, Austria

I don't like the fact that this site is British, the search engine needs to be improved and ESRB ratings should be added to the video games.

Under 18, Norway

Often times the news is... not quite necessary. I think there should be two or more tabs at the top of the page, one that says 'USA' one that says 'UK', etc. so users can filter what news they get based on what country they are in.

Under 18, United States

I believe that a while back that reviews that were under 3 stars or below were removed. I would like to see those come back, I enjoy bad reviews, as long as they give reasons why the sets are bad.

Under 18, United States

What hapened to Random Bricklist?

Under 18, United States

only on occasion do i find unsatisfactory things. the site is near perfect. i have found one or two innacuracies, however. this has only happened once or twice, so i am not concerned.

Under 18, United States

What I don't like is some lack of news regarding upcoming sets. That need to be improved. Though I wish there's a agreement with TLC themselves between you both that way you can get exclusive news and a sneak peek at what will be coming for new sets. That way it'll be easier for TLC to control the leaks of the new sets/collectible minifigs series.

Under 18, United States

Search ACM collecter i.e. all incomplete sets
built in trading system
Set for sale on bricklink kinda like the ebay tab

Under 18, N/A

Nothing

Under 18, Australia

Hmmm... Nothing that I can think of right now, which is great!

Under 18, United States

I like most of it, although I find the search a little less than powerful, and maybe an easy way to set amazon Bargain watch to only show up for your country.

Under 18, United States

There aren't many things I dislike about brickset but sometimes the set images (especially the new set images) are too small to see details of the set. I don't think that this is't really brickset's fault though, I'm just looking for something that I dislike :P. I can't think of anything that would need to be improved at the moment. I do have some suggestions:

1. Sort bricklists into categories so that people can find a certain bricklist quicker (for example: a star wars category, a classic town category etc...)

2. Brickset user of the week (or month). Just an idea for something extra on the home page.

3. A trading/buying/selling feature allowing brickset members to trade, buy or sell Lego between themselves (a bit like the buy,sell,trade,finds forum on Eurobricks)

4. More data mining lists including worst rated sets or sets not yet reviewed for example.

5. A feature allowing brickset users to share MOCs with others (Like the Eurobricks forums).

Under 18, United Kingdom

I think you should add more mini fig galleries that are from brickset.

Under 18, United States

i don't like the ebay feature an i think there should be a brickset app

Under 18, United States

I feel that sometimes my reviews are are categorized as unhelpful because they use pictures or simply because I am a TFOL and not an AFOL. I would suggest adding a feature to view only reviews of (a) certain group(s) - KFOL, TFOL, AFOL, Parent, Educator and with/without pictures - that way somebody who is looking for an adult's opinon can find it easier. One of the reasons I think my reviews are marked as unhelpful for this reason is that I remember when reviews with pictures were first added and a number of users opposed it because they thought it made it seem too much like Euorbricks and took up too much space. For the age thing, I feel that some people are simply being prejudice and not reading the review. I'd also like it if we could provide feedback on a review by adding a comment, which I think should be neccessary for marking a review as unhelpful so I could know what I was doing wrong, but these comments would have to be moderated I supposed and depending on how numerous they are, I wouldn't expect this feature.

I also prefered the New at Shop@Home bar to the e-bay one, because I normally find the E-bay one irrelevant to what I'm interested in, usually only seeing Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Spider-man sets. I'd prefer the Shop@Home bar because even though you usually make sure to tell us when S@H has been updated, it's nice to just scroll up and see for yourself what's there, even though there is a two day lag, I like to see new sets over again as there are so many LEGO products, you might miss something new that wasn't of interset during preliminary periods but is now.

Under 18, United States

A better Star Wars minifig gallery, at the moment it is down in alternative minfig galleries, although Star Wars is probably the biggest licensed theme that Lego do, the minifig gallery isn't a good representation of that.

Under 18, United Kingdom

I can't think of anything to improve! All i can say is thankyou for this excellent website!

Under 18, United Kingdom

I think a good feature would be videos of the sets where the bar that says "news ebay reviews ect"

Under 18, United Kingdom

Nothing.

Under 18, United Kingdom

-The ACM could be viewable by others, not just you.
-In the ACM, you could mark a set as incomplete, and then choose an approximate percentage of the pieces that you own. I would like this because I do some trading with friends and get parts from sets, but not the whole thing.

Under 18, United States

The Amazon.com updates water down all the news

Under 18, United States

The website seems to have an old look to it. If the width of the site could be variable, that would be very nice. A little more support for the Mac would be great, along with HTML5.

Under 18, United States

I don't like the eBay panel and the fact that some news reported on other sites is often missing here.

Under 18, Australia

-

Under 18, Germany

maybe different country sections

Under 18, Australia

Everything is great. It might be interesting to be able to give an entire theme a rating though. That way people could voice their opinions about how they felt about the theme as a whole, instead of just individual sets.

Under 18, United States

I like it all mow much

Under 18, New Zealand

I think most things are very well done exept for some aspects of searching

Under 18, New Zealand

I have a great idea for brickset! Sometimes I buy sets seperately on eBay or at Flea markets and they don't come with minifigures. Can you add a feature where you can mark the set as "set only" and not include the minifigures in your minifigure collection count? That would be awesome!

Also, for reviews, can there be a way where we can attach our own photos so that we can show close-up pictures of the set? It would improve the set reviews by a lot; I myself would write more reviews on this site rather than eurobricks, etc. :)

i would spruce up the eBay part on the home page. I find it quite weird that its one of the first links to appear on the home page...put it on the side or lower on the screen.

I have been a member for about 4-5 years now, and I definitely have seen the new features and design improvements over that long period of time. I have to say that I love the site now! I've been visiting the site daily for about 5 years now. I have seen the site grow from a handful of members to one of the largest Lego places in the world. I am very impressed! Keep up the good work Huw!

All the best,
Da_LegoBuilder

Under 18, United States

I can't really think of anything. Just keep up the good work!

Under 18, United States

What Don´t I like?
Reviews that use questionable words, even in an innocent way, should not be published. 1st Review on set 7868 is a classic example.

What needs to be improved?
Roles at Brickset. You should be able to apply for a role, and attain one, provided you meet the qualifications and would be useful.
Already existing is a minifigure collection. But, it does´t count minifigures in Product Collections. That needs to be improved.

What Features should be added?
Statistics for the hours spent on Brickset by the users collectively throughout the year, that updates itself every hour. That way Brickset´s use can be seen.
Top Review of the Week would be good. That way new reviews can get votes quicker, AND hopefully, Inspire others to review the sets they own too.

Under 18, New Zealand

I don't really like the new ebay watch bar.

Under 18, United States

I do think that you should allow people to join the forums as long as they stay on topic.

Under 18, United States

The rating system for the reviews is terrible, in my opinion. I know it'd put more stress on the mods, but I think if you rate a review as bad or good, you must put a reason (At least for the bad) I'd like to know why everyone hates my review, or it's just some eight year old and his friends giving everyone bad ratings. The 16+ forum (Ah yes, the forum), I understand there are legal issues, and I appreciate the teams care, but still it's very annoying. If it weren't for the legal issues, I'd say I hate the rule for the forum, but it is what it is. Maybe every week their can be a 'chat' news, that stays up so under 16's can chat about Lego's. Maybe it could be held once a month or something? I don't love the E-bay thing, but it's a beta so whatever. Although there are things I don't like about the site, this is by far the most well kept and well run site I've ever visited. It's fresh, clean and easy to use. Kid friendly and all around awesome. Keep up the good work Brickset team people :P

Under 18, United States

You need a minifig buyer. a system that sells old minifigs that could be hard to find today.

Under 18, United States

new lego instructions

Under 18, United States

I dislike the ebay panel that has been added to the homepage, as I think it cheapens the look of the site. I know it is supposed to be temporary, but if you decide to keep it there should be a button to hide the alerts :)

Under 18, Canada

The forum's age group could be expanded. Last time i checked i was not old enough, so i am stuck with the lego.com forums.

Under 18, China

i dont like that you took out the ''NEW AT LEGO.COM.'',put in the ebay listings

Under 18, United States

I would love a revamp of the homepage to make it more spiffy and inviting. Particularly, perhaps more space usage on the left and right, and a more "official" layout, but definitely in terms of color and design, it has grown slightly drab in my opinion. Just some changes to make it look "cooler" without detracting from being able to use the site easily would be great to see. There really isn't something that I absolutely don't like, but other people might have peeves about the site. I would say another thing that would be great is keeping images in continuity; like the "theme clouds" in browsing sets by theme, which have some outdated logos that could be updated to keep with more recent sets. Other than that, keep up the great work!

Under 18, United States

I do not like the new eBay bar on the homepage, I'd rather have the Lego one because it shows me what is now available. I don't like using eBay anyway. I think there should be more descriptions for the sets, either above or below the pictures. That way, when I'm choosing between two, I can just see all of the parts of the different sets. There should also be a way to access your bricklists from the home page, like a link on the side bar or something. And when creating a bricklist, I don't know if this always happens, but it lists the sets in tens (10, 20, 30). And then I have to go through and change them all to 1, 2, 3 and so on. Also, with that same feature, there should just be arrows to change the order of the bricklists, instead of having to type the numbers. But other than that, this site is great.

Under 18, United States

i think you should honestly change the ebay thing back to now available at toys r us

Under 18, United States

I like to collect some of the more obscure Lego stuff, such as books, board games, etc. Any promos really. If the inventories for such things could be completed and expanded it would be fantastic.

Under 18, Guatemala

The blue color scheme is okay, but a bit bland. I would like something more vibrant and exciting, but of course, the problem with that would be it could be kind of difficult to see everything. Just a thought. I would like more reviews from professionals, like Huw and all the other site...workers. The review once a week was really nice, but I like to see one EVERY week, not just when news is slow. I think a cool feature would be a thing beside the sets to show the cheapest place to buy the set.

Under 18, United States

More Minifigure galiries

Under 18, United States

Add 1960's sets! I'll add them if you want me to!

Under 18, Canada

none

Under 18, United States

I don't really enjoy the auto-answer on the search bar.

Under 18, United States

I think it's pritty good as is, really. The new forum has some room for imporovement as far as layout, But it's quite new so I'd expect that. One thing that I would love is if the Amazon Deals pages were updated more often/frequently.

Under 18, New Zealand

I do not like the amount of advertising on the website's main pages. Having the links on the product pages is fine, but I do not like the big ads at the top of the main pages(ex. homepage).

Under 18, United States

Naturally, I don't like the age requirement for the forums because some of us are actually quite capable of intelligent conversation. It would be great if there were some kind of merit system to gauge a member's reputation. After a member's reputation drops below a certain level, they would get kicked out.

Abuse of a merit system is inevitable, so there could be something that takes a member's own reputation into account when voting another member's comment up or down. A member with a bad reputation would have a worthless vote. A member with a good reputation would have a vote worth a bit more than usual. Even with what little programming knowledge I have, it shouldn't seen too hard to implement.

Under 18, United States

I think that there should be more minifig galeries and that the news should be more frequent. (P. S.- just a general request, it would be great if you mentioned to the world that it's LEGO and NOT "legos","lego's" or "legoes". :)

Under 18, United States

20

more effort should be put into finding the additional images for some of the older sets.

Under 18, United States

I dislike the fact that teenagers can't access the forum when I know many, many adults who are far less mature than many teens.

I can't add notes about prices that are missing, and that's been bugging me.

Response time is quite slow.

Under 18, United States

I must admit, i liked the old "New at Lego.com", especially as there is now nothing there (given my location).
The search is a little slow, and very sensitive--perhaps if it had a "did you mean ______", or "similar results" rather than 'No results'.

Under 18, Cameroon

I don't like the 16+ rule on the forum since I am not even quite 14 yet, but I respect it from the aspect of AFOLs and child safety. The more critical moderation on news comments is very odd, I have not know it to have been a problem before. I am not talking about my somewhat innappropriate comment, for the record.

The My Friends tool is kind of an orphaned feature, I think you guys could maybe do something else with it.

I would like the Helpful/Unhelpful review ratings to become a Poor/Okay/Good or a 5-star rating system. I lost my Silver (and apparently my Bronze too) rating because of it.

Thanks for another great year on Brickset!
-Jonbuddy

Under 18, United States

The search features on Brickset are not perfect, because they do not recognize all searches properly, and you must type in something specific to get a response. That is only a minor problem, everything else is very good.

Under 18, United States

I don't like all of the Amazon Bargin Watch alerts. I'm not a member, so I can't turn them off!!!

Under 18, United States

There is nothing to improve

Under 18, United Kingdom

If more than two or three tabs are open, the site freezes. It may just be my computor.
I wish that the app for iPhone was usable without an internet connection.

Thank you for your site, It is really useful!
:)

Under 18, United States

I don't like I cant zoom in on the big pictures. It would be nice ( even though it would be asking a whole LOT) if you had a mini fig search with every minifig lego has ever made :D:D :D :D

Under 18, United States

Now, here are some issues:

The moderation seems to have become very strict. TOO strict, in fact. Can't you allow just a little off-topic chat?
A now major bug. I already told you: Sometimes, the shopping banners disappear, the old "New at LEGOShop.com" banner items disappeared, and "Brickset thinks you are in .". Now though, the shopping banners, the eBay banner, and, worst of all, ALL the news disappear! Fix this bug, please!
Set reviews could be a little better.
More responses to suggestions in comments would be nice.
Make a kids forum. :P One that wouldn't need another account, too. :P
Quicker moderation of reviews.
Something that would tell us how to become a "Trusted Reviewer".
Implement the Amazon Bargain Watch pages more quickly. :P

That's all, I think.

Under 18, United Kingdom

I think the minifigure galleries need inprovment

Under 18, United States

There are only a few things which I currently dislike. The foremost being the new eBay bar at the top of the homepage. It doesn't fit with the site design and looks rather unattractive. The only other thing I dislike would be the Amazon News feeds. However, I'm not concerned as it is easy to hide them using the custom news feed. Keep Up the good work!

Under 18, United States

The site is really, really well done, but maybe getting a direct email when a set on your want list is discounted at Amazon would be nice. :-)

Under 18, United States

The forum, could you lower the age limit just down to 14 or 13?

Under 18, United States

One thing that bugs me when searching on the site using the search bar on the top of the page is that when you start typing a suggestion(s) comes up: when you click on the suggestion that's right it inserts that into the search bar but doesn't then load the page - you have to then press "search" or press enter. I know it's just a small thing but it catches me out every time I go to search a set :)

I would also like the "Brickset pick of the week" to return. I found this interesting and a quick, quality review of a current set was a light relief every week!

A feature that I think would be good for the forum would be a "trading function". This would be where you could add the sets you have to trade and the sets you'd like to recvieve, much like the bricklist function but through your profile. People could also set up their PayPal accounts with it so there would be a greater ease of use.

Under 18, United Kingdom

I don't really like the forum, but then again, there is nothing really WRONG with it. Maybe I'm just not used to it yet...

Under 18, United States

some reviews lack content and sometimes need more info.

Under 18, United Kingdom