Your Feedback On Project to Help Forum Members

[Scarlett Pistol]

    I am thinking of building a tool that scrapes the products from Cajun Gun Works and CZ Custom and then allows people to sort by the types of upgrades they want to accomplish. For example, I want a lighter trigger pull, so I select that option and it populates the products that would accomplish that upgrade. A few additional ideas of things to add:

• Select products, so it is almost like building out your kits/orders right there.
• Have a section that links to forum posts that are tutorials and or reviews on the products/upgrades
• Have a section with popular products for the upgrade by price ranges so people can see that they can make an awesome CZ without hundreds of dollars in upgrades.

    I wanted to hear if this would be something you all would appreciate. I know many of the vets of the forum don't need such a tool, but I remember how confusing it was when I was a newbie. I do want to preface that I am new to this type of build project so it'll take me some time, I generally do data analytics/science and research, this will be a learning experience as I code the web scraper and then make an interface (that's the part I have never done).  I didn't think of adding Scorpion products in Version 1 as I don't have a Scorpion and don't know all the vendors and upgrades. I want to try and be somewhat quick and get something working sooner rather than later. Ha, once V1 launches maybe I can get donations to get a Scorpion, learn all about it, and build out that version of this tool, if its in demand... (pipe dream.)
    Another data scientists at my work built a little python tool that was super ugly, but really functional. He just had it as a program file we downloaded, installed, and then used on our computers. That might be my easiest option since he has paved the way and could help me out - as opposed to something that could live on a webpage. Do you all have preferences? Tool you download and then run whenever you want or try for something natively living online?

[cntrydawwwg]

  Sounds like you'd have your work cut out for you. It's above my head how programs work[emoji6] it does sound like a cool idea.
    But...... since you asked for opinions here's my take as it pertained to me.
   Although it would be neat and make it easier for newbs, in a way it may make it harder on them.  By this I mean you take out a bit of the learning curve.
   I was fairly new to CZ's and autos in general. In fact I was new to mods and tweaking all together. If there would have been a tool like you suggest when I started, I could have jumped right in.
   But, I wouldn't have all the knowledge (and still learning) that I have gained while sifting through all the threads. For me anyways, having to go find the info that I needed, instead of having it at my finger tips, meant that I was better informed.
   Of course this is me. Even in my everyday life I'm more hands on. If someone tells me how to do something new I don't retain near as much as doing it myself with their direction. 
   So by sifting thru and reading all those threads I retain more.
   Like I said, this is a neat idea, and will help a lot of people. I'm not trying to discourage you at all, just a different way of looking at it.
    Good luck with your mission, I'm sure many would find it very useful. [emoji6]
 
   

[Grendel]

I was with you up to the word 'tool'. Could you dumb it down for us?

[Scarlett Pistol]

I was with you up to the word 'tool'. Could you dumb it down for us?

Think of a super basic, likely ugly, little application that let's people browse products by what they want to accomplish, rather than only pistol type and part type. Does that make more sense?

  Sounds like you'd have your work cut out for you. It's above my head how programs work[emoji6] it does sound like a cool idea.
    But...... since you asked for opinions here's my take as it pertained to me.

Those are excellent points! I agree with you on the value of knowledge and obtaining it. I think this app/tool would make searching for products easier and hopefully the corresponding tutorials. But the reading and learning part would still exist and requires the hard work. Haha it definitely won't come out of the computer and install the parts for us. Hopefully it adds value where it counts but still allows for the same outcome you experienced.

[bang bang]

like anything else in the world, "you cant please everyone"

so whatever you do, expect SOME people to use it and SOME wont.

good luck.

[Boris_LA]

My opinion as a very long time IT admin. This tool will only as good as support behind it. Products and prices are changed and updated regularly. Keeping its current is a job on its own. Unless somebody is willing to monitor vendors and options and update this application, I would just direct new owners to the vendor for a full list of options currently available with pricing and advice on what to select based on the their desired result.

[Scarlett Pistol]

like anything else in the world, "you cant please everyone"

so whatever you do, expect SOME people to use it and SOME wont.

good luck.

One of the most absolute statements in existence! Still happy to hear everyone's feedback. I am doing this for fun and to learn more about Python (code language I'll use), so while I am doing this I wanted to try and at least hear as much feedback as possible, that way I can make any changes to my plan to make it as usable as possible for the most people possible. Can't get em all, but if I can get at least +-1 standard deviation that'll be good. Alright, alright, no need to be that nerdy, I digress.

So thank you for any and all feedback!

My opinion as a very long time IT admin. This tool will only as good as support behind it. Products and prices are changed and updated regularly. Keeping its current is a job on its own. Unless somebody is willing to monitor vendors and options and update this application, I would just direct new owners to the vendor for a full list of options currently available with pricing and advice on what to select based on the their desired result.

    Great feedback! I'll have the web scraper run and update every evening. It's a small data set of products, so I am not worried about just refreshing to whole set (have some tables with over 3 trillion rows at work and we aren't too big in the world of big data, this set shouldn't break 1000 rows).
    As for the ongoing support and updating for new products.... That's a good point. I'll have to write in some logic to send updates when new products are put on sites and when products are removed. Then have the old products moved to a table of deprecated products, just in case then return I can pull their info. Ultimately, you're probably right Boris, that would be easier. But, I have planned to learn to write web-scrapers so I can get web data and run analysis on it, and this sounded like something more interesting than doing the normal projects that tutorials - use like scraping a news website...

[Tok36]

Interesting, if and when this come together i will gladly try to break it for you...... erm, i mean beta test it. 

[lowcountrySC]

I have been programming with python for a year in an ArcGIS environment. It makes my job a lot easier for myself, that is for sure.  I knew it could be used for other task, but didn't even think to use it as web scraper. I would like to try your script out when it gets going.

[whitecap]

I think the idea has great merit and would become a very useful part of the family. If it were possible to have a data base that would catalogue parts and instructional videos for a specific DIY project, I'm absolutely for it. "Make it so" SP. Thanks for thinking of us and being willing to spearhead this venture. I'm with Grendel on the lingo part.

[Scarlett Pistol]

Thanks for continued input and keep it coming. Happy to share it once it's working. Have a project I'm wrapping up right now, so this will be my project into the holidays, no major rush.

[srREXed]

Wow that sounds like a fun task. Would it help me personally? No. But, there are a lot of forum people who come here for just that sort of thing. Without knowing you need a lighter, more crisp trigger pull, you could find out by saying your feedback to the action of the weapon, and what you would like changed? And then it could populate a list of items with a description and its function in the platform so as to better inform the guy who shot a thousand rounds thru his new PCR and has noticed a list of things that would better suit his shooting style? Just taking a shot in the dark there. What do you think of that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scarlett Pistol]

Wow that sounds like a fun task. Would it help me personally? No. But, there are a lot of forum people who come here for just that sort of thing. Without knowing you need a lighter, more crisp trigger pull, you could find out by saying your feedback to the action of the weapon, and what you would like changed? And then it could populate a list of items with a description and its function in the platform so as to better inform the guy who shot a thousand rounds thru his new PCR and has noticed a list of things that would better suit his shooting style? Just taking a shot in the dark there. What do you think of that

Sounds like a great idea! Can you give a few more examples so I can make sure I'm on the same page?

[Tyerone]

Maybe show an example of what the OUTPUT would be based on a hypothetical desired scenario?  Lets say I want a SD pistol without rail, left handed, FO front sight, rackable for feable hands with a decent trigger pull (no way Gramma could pull the DA trigger of my PCR!).  Is that what we are talking about for a likely INPUT?

Somehow the program would have to ask all right questions to come to the above request for info, maybe I left out trigger reach measurements for instance, so I could see where such a tool would seed further considerations for the user.

[Scarlett Pistol]

Ahhh, that's a great example. Thank you Tyrone! I like this approach a lot! As of now I'll make it one of my end goals.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk