Redump Forum

Marl de Jigsaw is missing version!

Seriously? Shoot, sorry about that. 1.50.

By the way, regarding ring codes, I think it's very odd that we don't mark some areas as NULL when there's no data there. By not doing so, it makes it look like the dumper maybe just didn't do it right, like maybe he missed that field or something. Some examples are my dumps for Sorcerous Stabber Orphen and Evergrace NTSC-J; they look incomplete if we don't mark that those areas are NULL. Why don't we add that information?

Egen wrote:I think it's very odd that we don't mark some areas as NULL when there's no data there

Generally, yes, that would be more convenient to mention all matrix sectors, even if they are absent.

Egen wrote:Why don't we add that information?

We cannot force people to do something they won't or can't do, you should know human's nature
Those, who are accurate in their doings, are submitting those details by default.

Oh, okay. I asked if I should add the null spots and the answer was that I should just leave them alone so I'm a bit confused now. But anyway, I included them in my recent dumps. Would somebody be kind enough to mark the missing spots in my Evergrace and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen dumps as NULL? It's everything else: toolstamp and all IFPI (SID) codes.

Do you thing you can provide a few verifications of discs already added to the database before continuing with new submissions?

I can do whatever you ask, you're the boss Is there something wrong with my submissions?

Also, I'm still confused about adding the NULL information because I added it to all of my recent submissions and yet none of them are showing NULL in those spots. The DVDs should have NULL in the Toolstamp and Mastering SID Code fields and the CDs should have NULL in the Toolstamp field only. So again, it just looks like that information was potentially left out. That's why I'm asking why we don't add it. It looks incomplete without it.

We dont add NULL information to the fields.

Well that's a shame, they'll never be complete/reliable that way. This looks like when the hyphen was added to every serial number, and now we have several thousand serial numbers to correct over time because we decided to do it that way for so long. And the longer it takes to add NULL information to ring codes, the more incomplete data that piles up... but maybe you won't decide to add that information at all.

I don't mean to impose, it just seems a shame to purposely exclude data. NULL isn't the absence of data, it's quite the opposite.

EDIT: Respectfully, this also makes the script that determines whether or not a ring code field is "incomplete or improperly formed" not only completely useless, but actually detrimental, because it will report this for ring code fields that are both complete and properly formed since, as acknowledged in another thread, the script behaves this way when there certain fields are absent of any data. If you had this NULL data, you would be filling those fields in properly and then the script, as well as anyone looking at the entry, would know that certain fields were not simply missed. But without doing this, the script is actually giving faulty reports about the reliability of data and so it is actually what is unreliable.

Egen: there is no way one can rely on NULL values as well. While submitting, one can be: very tired, unfocused, drunk, on drugs, have bad eyesight, do a copy/paste error, using bad light source and/or light angle, etc etc etc. A good example are those black colored psx discs which you cannot read easily. Though, you are helping the staff very much by providing that information. Anyways, the submission accuracy is not given!

The status lights are only there to appeal on next dumpers to be more focused on reading the matrix down if the light is set to yellow color.

Well, let me give you an example: Eternal Ring has a submission with just a Mastering Code and a toolstamp. This is probably a correct submission since it is a very old game. But have you ever seen a USA PS2 game without a toolstamp? Preposterous, isn't it? Well, I have one, and it's Eternal Ring. That's right, it only has a PDSS code (Mastering Code). No toolstamp, no IFPIs, nothing else. This is a very unique submission. But if I submit like this and nothing gets a NULL value, you just see an incredibly incomplete looking submission. And why does it look incomplete? Because you didn't fill in all the fields with their proper data, even if that proper data is NULL.

I mean of course you're right that anything could have an error. That's not what reliability is when it comes to data though. We always take any submitted data at its word. It would be no different for a NULL submission. The problem with purposely excluding NULL values from an entry is that the missing field is not submitted at all. For all we know, the submitter completely missed that field and maybe there was something there. Then none of it is reliable because none of it is complete; every single given entry could be missing data and we don't know it. By including NULL data, you are honoring that the submitter knew of its existence, looked for it, and found nothing, rather than just not looking for it at all.

That's the only point I'm trying to make