Creating our own assembly instructions

[sbblabotw]

As a segue from this thread about linking back and forth from PlaymoDB to Flickr, I've been thinking about a way to help fill a gap in the information PlaymoDB provides - namely, how to put sets together - and still stay within copyright restrictions.  If you've looked at Playmoboard lately, the Part Numbers & Building Plans forum shows a desperate need.  People don't necessarily want to join an online community to get the information they need, and if Playmobil makes it difficult, we'll do the best we can.

 I have tucked away, for some of the large sets, the page numbers on which each part is used in the assembly: it's handy when I have to go back and make the little pictures for each part, to know what page to look on.  With this information, it wouldn't be hard to list the parts in a set grouped by page (or step number) and then have a photo or series of photos showing how the actual parts go together.  A step-by-step tutorial, let's say.  It's important, copyright-wise, not to reproduce the printed plans exactly, but to rephrase in our own view: maybe we could even make improvements!  If we were to use Flickr, it wouldn't be difficult, although time-consuming, to tag the pictures with the set number and name, theme, and all the part numbers and names, and notate the parts in the picture with links back to the database.  To keep it all within the site, photo-gallery software could be used without a problem, although the notes would have to be plain links.
 
 I'd like to hear suggestions about how this might work, how to make it most useful, or alternative methods of approach.  Would anyone like to take pictures, sort out inventories by page or step, or do the Flickr notation?  Let's talk.

[Sir Gareth]

I already have a set of photos here on PF in the gallery on how to build older playmobil forts, the images have had a fair ammount of views.  It would seem though that most people wanted to look at the image of the complete fort rather than possibly building one using the guide.

http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/album/thumbnails.php?album=31

Is this similar to what you are thinking of doing for other sets?

[Tiermann]

I suspect that's just what Heather means Garry. I actually think your "What's in a Box" series of photos of box contents where there are no instructions might be a more lucrative place to start. If those could be crosslinked to PlaymoDB by using notes, as on Flickr, it could be helpful for people trying to complete older sets. They could use PlaymoDB to see if the parts are commonly available from other sets.
Sorry to be slanting this off the main topic but it all kind of hangs together.  It could be very helpful if in every case where PlaymoDB says "No Instructions Exist" we eventually had a What's in a Box photo available and linked back to the DB. Thos photos could in turn be grouped with assembly instructions as appropriate.

At Flickr there are a few useful concepts for this sort of project.
1. Notes - it's possible to add a layer of notes right on top of a picture surface and include live links in the note
2. Folders - Flickr member accounts allow the creation of "Sets" - essentially a folder to hold a group of related pictures. The Sets can in turn be held inside a second layer of folders called Collections. An assembly series could be included in the same Set as a What's in the Box photo. When a photo is in a set the page at Flickr shows a link to that set so it would be easy to find the related instructions.
3. Groups - Flickr has public Groups that can be created by any member and joined by other members. Each grpoup has a Photo Pool where any Group member can post their photos. So a Playmobil Box Contents and Instructions Group could be a central place for anyone who wants to participate to post their photos so they can be easily found by other members or the public. When a photo is in a Group it shows a link to that group.
5. Tags - on each photo at Flickr it is possible to add Tags, related keywords, that will show up in the search engine so people can find the photo. Often Groups will ask all members posting to the Group to add a specific Tag to their posted photos so they can be easily searched for. It is also possible to do searches just within photos posted to a group. So someone could go to the Playmo Instructions Group and search for a set number like 3666 and the results would show all the related photos in the group.

There are already a few Playmobil Groups at Flickr and at least one combined Playmobil and LEGO group. We could easily start our own for this sort of project, we would just need to come up with a name for it. I think it's worth a try as an experiment if nothing else.

[sbblabotw]

Good explanations, Tim.  Any other Flickr members on here want to chime in?

Garry, your What's In A Box pics are super-useful, especially as they deal with the klickies and accessories that are impossible to definitively list any other way; even with the original box in your hand, you can't see all the furniture inside a house, say.  A lot of the parts you show don't have known numbers, but some do, and some are common enough that making a temporary number (to show that more than one set has it) has value.  It's not exactly the focus of what I was talking about, but certainly goes along with it, and I think that making links, somehow, from them to the corresponding parts pages in the DB would be useful to visitors.

I think the thing about the fort, and the old Steck castles, is that it didn't much matter exactly you put it together.  Not that your fort-pictures aren't useful: I'm going to link to the gallery from the sets, and you just watch your stats increase! System X, on the other hand, is pretty mesmerizing to someone buying a jumble of parts on ebay.  They'd need just as much help or more, and when they get to a step using a part that isn't in their box, they need to know the number to order it, since it can, probably, be ordered.  So, sure... no need to get grandiose at first: any information added is a good thing.  Agreed?

[socrates]

Hi Heather! To be honest, I feel like this would be a lot of work with only little gain. I agree that some sets are difficult to build without instructions, but on the other hand I feel like Playmobil's silent tolerance of how we dealt with it so far works in a pretty sufficient way.

It will be a lot of works and, provocative spoken, supports only people that do not own the regular instruction.

On the other hand I like the general idea, but I would suggest to use this nice infrastructure to make self-made instructions of custom buildings. I am especially thinking about great buildings like the customs of the month from collectobil or the SysX-steamboat or similiar.

This would be a great addition to playmoDB and would extend the use of the part lists in a extraordinary way. 

...just my two cents... 

best,
socrates

[Richard]

Hello, Socrates ...

On the other hand I like the general idea, but I would suggest to use this nice infrastructure to make self-made instructions of custom buildings. I am especially thinking about great buildings like the customs of the month from collectobil or the SysX-steamboat or similiar.

This would be a great addition to playmoDB and would extend the use of the part lists in a extraordinary way. 

I think that most if us would agree that there are COLLECTORS and that there are CUSTOMIZERS here at Playmofriends. And, that many of us are BOTH collectors AND customizers.

What you, Heather and Tim are suggesting would be incredibly useful to all of us in one way or another. Personally, I really like your idea about sharing "custom" instructions.

Thanks for a great idea, Socrates!

All the best,
Richard

[sbblabotw]

Hi Heather! To be honest, I feel like this would be a lot of work with only little gain. I agree that some sets are difficult to build without instructions, but on the other hand I feel like Playmobil's silent tolerance of how we dealt with it so far works in a pretty sufficient way.

It will be a lot of works and, provocative spoken, supports only people that do not own the regular instruction.

The same could be said for all of PlaymoDB, and the work of mailing out instructions never ends.  True, there will be lots of visitors who use the building guide and leave, but how many more will maintain their interest in the hobby and go on to be devoted fans, because they avoided pitching the box of parts in the Goodwill bin out of frustration?

It doesn't have to be a giant body of work all at once... it can build up over time.  We're all volunteers here.

On the other hand I like the general idea, but I would suggest to use this nice infrastructure to make self-made instructions of custom buildings. I am especially thinking about great buildings like the customs of the month from collectobil or the SysX-steamboat or similiar.

This would be a great addition to playmoDB and would extend the use of the part lists in a extraordinary way. 

Absolutely!  Once the framework is built, it can be extended to include all kinds of things.  Could hook into any CAD system that comes along, too.  Great idea.

[socrates]

The same could be said for all of PlaymoDB, and the work of mailing out instructions never ends.  True, there will be lots of visitors who use the building guide and leave, but how many more will maintain their interest in the hobby and go on to be devoted fans, because they avoided pitching the box of parts in the Goodwill bin out of frustration?

no, I disagree. the db-search of single pieces is impossible if you have to parse through the collector for every single piece. so in this aspect, PlaymoDB is functionally completely expanding the collectors universe...   

I just don't like the idea of all the work invested in REmodelling the existing plans, just because of the copyright issues... 

It should be invested into something NEW. 

It would be wonderful to have kind of a building instruction for a new creation like this based on playmoDB-pieces, including shopping list... 
...and roman buildings.
...and steck constructions.
...other historical adaptions...

best
socrates

[sbblabotw]

Definitely!  I'm not disabusing the notion of using the system for customs, at all. The thing is, that when you're working on an ongoing, unscheduled group project (or I assume we are: I can't do it all myself!), people do what they're interested in doing.  Collectors who aren't interested in creating customs, as Richard makes the distinction, would be more likely to build sets according to instructions and therefore would be more inclined to submit pictures of that.  If you have a custom done with standard parts (like Anne's new house... wow!) then by all means, an inventory and set of building instructions would be more than welcome.  Other contributors just do scanning, or photography, or completely separate projects like Andi's "Heads" table (which I'm also thinking about how to incorporate!).  It all helps.

In truth, what I'm calling a system is pretty loose at the moment.  Since the URLs of the part pages actually contain the part number, anyone can put up a web page with their own pictures and easily include links to the part pages, without my involvement.  Going both ways takes a little more structure, so that's pretty much what we're going on about. Am I making sense?

[gloobey]

Hi Heather, I just wanted to let you know that I am still planning on taking some pictures this weekend. I was going to start with the 5300.

I also really like the idea of distributing assembly instructions for custom builds. I have a few Steck houses that I wouldn't mind sharing. I guess I would list the parts/numbers and then show a pictorial assembly section for something like that.

Which do you think I should do first? The 5300, or a custom building? I could go either way,
Steve