Help › Editor Guidelines

Information about collectibles on Colnect is contributed by our registered collectors. See: Catalog Contribution Guidelines

New contributor? Fill out the Contributor Application. Your application will be reviewed and you will be contacted with further details.

Some of the contributors are given permissions to edit information on the database and become editors. You may become a voluntary editor - contact our database coordinator:

We will appreciate your help.

Forums

Colnect is constantly improving, adding new tools for editors and updating the catalogs. As an editor, please make sure to keep in touch with the updates and discussions on the Forums. This will help you make the best out of your editing experience and avoid misunderstandings. You can receive notifications of new posts via email by clicking "Subscribe forum" icon that appears at the bottom of every forum page.

Subscribe forum

Editor Mode

Editors see a special "Edit" option next to the "Inbox" icon on the top menu. The editor menu is shown only on relevant pages of Colnect but does not mean you can edit these pages. Initially, the editor controls are disabled and you will see Edit (Off) in the top menu. Click it or select Switch edit mode on from the Edit menu to enable editing. You will then see Edit (ON) in the top menu.

Editor Mode

When the "Editor Mode" is on, pages will load slower. If you are not actively making edits, we recommend to select Switch edit mode off. This will load your pages faster, but they may not show your most recent edits.

Switch edit mode off

Comments I Can Process

Collector Comments may be added by any Colnect member. Editors should review these comments and process them. The "Edit" menu title includes a comments counter showing the number of currently pending comments you can process. Click the number to see the "Comments I Can Process" list.

Notice that the "Edit" menu title includes a comments counter.

Click an item name on the list. The item page will open in a new tab, with the pending comment appearing at the top of the page. If you find the information given useful and correct, edit the item accordingly and choose "Accept". Otherwise, please "Reject" it and possibly explain why it was not useful. Pictures may automatically be accepted by choosing "Accept as FRONT" or "Accept as BACK". Please carefully check picture quality before accepting it. You can also choose to send a private message to the comment submitter by clicking the envelope icon. If the comment is in another language, you can use the "Translate" icon to auto-translate the comment.

Collector Comments

Edit log

Every item you can edit on Colnect will have a list of recent edit actions on its single item page. Use this list to understand who was responsible for changes made. If you disagree with some of the changes, please post of the relevant forum and send a private message to the coordinator with a link to your topic.

Coordinators have a much wider access to all edit logs in their category and it helps them monitor the activity of editors.

Filters

In addition, certain filters can be selected in the editor menu to filter items by their Colnect catalog information for editing purposes. Currently the following filters are available:

Filter - Editors

Comments: - items which have pending "Collector Comments" to be processed by editors. The faster comments are processed, the more motivation members will have to contribute so please check pending comments frequently.
Redundant catalog code: - items displaying more than one code from the same catalog.
Wrong date: - in categories with two dates, show items whose last date is before the first date. In categories with one date, show items which don't have a date assigned.

Filter - Pictures

None / One / Two / No Front: - find items which miss pictures on our catalog.
Low Resolution / Very Low Resolution / Extremely Low Resolution: - pictures of low resolution cannot be of high quality and replacing them would be useful.

Filter - Hidden

Catalog code - None: : items that have no catalog code assigned to them.
Variants: : items that are a part of variant group.

Editing Data Fields

Collectible items information is stored in different data fields. All data fields can be easily edited on-line. When viewing collectibles to which you have editing permissions, the editing icons () appear, each with a different functionality. Read the instructions on each icon carefully before clicking it. Click it and a window will pop-up allowing you to edit that field content.

Edit

NOTE: When you submit an update, it's immediately shown on the site so please be very careful.

Processing Member Comments

Comments may be added by any Colnect member. Editors should review these comments and process them.

To know which items have comments that need your attention, select Comments from the Edit top menu. This option is available on list pages. To see the actual comments you must view the single item page. You will see the pending comments for that item only if you have permissions to edit it.

It's your choice whether to use the information in the comment or ignore it. However, you should check it carefully. It's not uncommon for comments to be wrong. Make sure you click "Accept" if the information was helpful or "Reject" if it was not helpful. The member who made the comment will be notified about your decision. Pictures may automatically be accepted by choosing "Accept as FRONT" or "Accept as BACK".

Pictures

Basically, high quality JPEG images are the best choice. It's best if no borders are present and if images are properly rotated. Pictures with watermarks should be avoided. We prefer high quality images, as Colnect will automatically reduce the image size when needed. If you create new images, we recommend creating 1280x1280 pixels picture.

If a picture is wrong it may easily be erased by clicking the image edit button and submitting the word DELETE. It is also possible to enter a URL to copy a picture from an other website or to enter the picture ID from an other picture in Colnect's database. If you're using the same URL or same filename, Colnect will not create a new picture ID on Colnect but reuse the existing image.

Cached Pages

Colnect has a caching system which helps Colnect respond faster. When a Colnect page is first requested, it is saved in the fast cache memory. The next times the same page is requested, it is fetched from that cache memory. Some pieces of information are also cached separately. The downside is that if changes were made on Colnect, the page may still display the old data. Pages do not stay in the cache longer than 12 hours.

When "Editor Mode" is on, the cache is disabled and Colnect pages will load slower. When "Editor Mode" is off, the cache is enabled. Your most recent edit may not appear correctly. This is normal and means the cached pages have not yet been updated.

Thank you for helping us make Colnect the best site for collectors!

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If you have any questions or comments, please post on our Forums.