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PM&M Site Changelog Page

Statistics 2018

Generic

The first step this year (completed on 2018-02-01) was to restructure the listing type and subsequently rename the mark images shown in the Identification Credits section. This involved adapting a new alphanumeric organisation scheme and clearing up the numbers. This enabled me to reset the counters for the unidentified (and misrepresented) marks, for which this new system was devised.

The second step (completed on 2018-04-01) involved overhauling the offline archive structure of the regular folder and secondary archive files (in Info and Items subfolders), checking and resizing them to common resolutions before packing them into single ZIP files. This reduces the overall file sizes slightly and allows me to easily hide PNG images, TXT- or PDF files and other formats by simply excluding ZIP from view (e.g. in IrfanView or XnView MP), making it much easier to visually search for a certain mark. While I am at it, I will also reduce the folder structure by one level, making file paths much shorter. The "256-character path/file length" restriction typical for Windows™ systems does not affect me under Linux of course, but shorter path and file names are always nice (reduced scan times and less memory use).

The third step was to completely restructure the content of the Unidentified and Misrepresented categories. Previous experience shows that visitors do not really know what they are looking for; they either search the wrong section or have to check each entry. The new system takes a "what you see is what you have to look for" approach: all marks (unidentified, reproductions, fakes, misrepresented, single marks or known groups) are listed by stated country of origin. Even if the true country of origin is China, but the fake mark states Austria, the mark is listed in the Austria section, where its true origin is then explained. This means that even completely clueless amateurs should easily find what they are looking for.

As the newly created sections will cover unidentified items, misrepresentations, reproductions, and other mark groups, I wanted to avoid using those terms. Hence, the four main sections that were formerly positioned under the heading Resources are now listed separately.

The sections

• Misrepresented #1 (Marks)
• Misrepresented #2 (Groups)
• Unidentified #1 (Marks)
• Unidentified #2 (Groups)

including all sub-structures, will consequently be removed.

While the above covers what an amateur may directly see, there is a mark subgroup which consist of a standard main part but comes with multiple countries of origin; these are of course used by importers/distributors and the like. Under the "what you see is what you have to look for" rule, all respective marks will be listed under the corresponding country heading. This replaces the grouped pages containing all marks of one unidentified importer/distributor as that is redundant information; a link to other marks of the same origin would be sufficient.

As I mentioned at the end of the 2017 history, I spent quite a long time on this revamp, given the large number of new marks to be included and the initial processing and storage required for them. The whole section now contains over three times as many images.

Take care, wherever you are !

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