Hello there,
Big fan of the site. I am noticing that when there are modules with alternate panel colors—say a Mimetic Digitalis that comes in silver and in black panels—there are sometimes different ratings, ie:
Black: 5.0 with 4 reviews
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/noise-engineering-mimetic-digitalis-black-
Silver: 4.18 with 11 reviews
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/noise-engineering-mimetic-digitalis
Make Noise STO:
Black & Gold: 3.44 with 9 reviews
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/make-noise-sto-black-and-gold
White Knobs: 4.0 with 1 review
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/make-noise-sto-white-knobs
Silver: 4.41 with 118 reviews
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/make-noise-sto
AFAIK these are generally the same models/specs, just different panel color. It makes it more challenging to get aggregate rating for users. Does it also hinder a company's efforts to rise in the ranks on the top/popular modules list? Those need 30 ratings to appear on the list, so if there is a module that is popular in silver and black (or similar), it is possible that the ratings get split across both module entries, keeping it from making it on the list for awhile. This may (potentially) hurt a manufacturer's sales that otherwise has a popular module.
I am sometimes seeing that there are duplicate modules where there isn't a rating field—is this intentional? I am wondering if this is just difficult territory because modules are being submitted all the time by different folks and it is cumbersome to organize them in one unified way.
Is there the possibility of adding a class to the taxonomy of modules, where one module becomes the 'parent' module, and alternate/variant versions are contained as 'child' entries, otherwise sharing the same stats/specs, info etc?
Discogs' model of having one master release works well, with all of the variants contained within. Like Nirvana's Nevermind has one parent entry, with each add'l version having a sub entry.
Thanks for your consideration, and keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Aaron