The "mystery" about CSV files and collection managing software

[Al Gebra]

There once was a time when collection CSV files and collection management software were rather popular. I would like to know how many privy VEF members are still familiar with CSV files and collection managers based on collection CSVs (CSV stands for Comma-Separated Values).

If you know what I'm talking about, please share your experience! Which collection manager do/did you use (e.g. Hunter *, The!Checker aka PicCheck), what are the advantages, what are the difficulties? Do you only use pre-built CSVs, or do you create your own ones?

Is this topic still up to date nowadays? Are you still using these tools to organise your collections, and would you recommend using them?

For those who think I'm speaking Alien language ... here is a brief introduction for a specific example (links are outdated meanwhile, sorry, but I'm able to provide most of the tools if wanted).

Please refrain from asking questions, if you don't have an idea what this topic is about.
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* I'm using Hunter, and it even works with Windows 10.

[ulitka]

I'm still using CSV-files, mainly for locating files in my CSV-collection and CD/DVD collection. When searching for certain files you first need to know where they come from and where to locate them. I started collecting in the late 1990s and built up my collection mainly on CSV-files by using Hunter as collection manager. This means the main part of my collection is organised in CDs and DVDs based on CSV-files. I had to cease collecting this way in the early 2000s, when my internet provider cut my volume down to 3 MB per month (yes MB not GB). It took me a few years to get an unlimited connection but now my interest in DVD collecting was gone. But I still have my old collections and CSV files and use them mainly for organising my model collection and for locating files.

How does it work for me today?

1. Let's assume, I've found a single file or just a few files of a set on VEF and I'd like to find the whole set.
2. Essentional precondition is: it's an original file. It may be renamed but otherwise unaltered.
3. I detect the CRC32 value of the file using Febooti on Windows XP (yes, still!) - it's just a right click on the file
4. I start "Agent Ransack", a free file searching utility. I enter the CRC value in the search box and either search my whole CSV collection or just the website CSVs in case I know which site the file comes from. In this case searching only take a few seconds, while searching the whole CSV database needs one or two minutes.
5. If Agent Ransack finds the file, it displays the name of the CSV-file(s) and the corresponding line(s) with the contents.
6. In case of websites, a CSV file usually holds all files of a collection in CD or DVD size. In case I have this disc, locating the files there is very easy, because the CSV file also contains the path to the files.

This method also works for locating a certain model and her work for a website, provided that she always appears under the same name and there aren't too many models with the same name (like on Karups or Teendreams for instance).

I also use CSV files when the filenames were altered by the user or the filehost to get the original file names back. In this case I run Hunter to do the job.

[Dubie]

I'm using Hunter on windows 10. It does crash when running a new quick hunt but the workaround is to select "all csv in a folder" rather than "add a csv file" . I'd like to know if anyone has found a better solution to that bug.

It's difficult to get csvs from times gone by. I've tried to rebuild collections that I lost with hard drive failures or bad CDs but find that the CSVs have long since expired on usenet and the old csv websites are closed.

[Al Gebra]

Originally Posted by Dubie

I'm using Hunter on windows 10. It does crash when running a new quick hunt but the workaround is to select "all csv in a folder" rather than "add a csv file" . I'd like to know if anyone has found a better solution to that bug.

I'm still new to W10. I'll try to reproduce your problem.

Originally Posted by Dubie

It's difficult to get csvs from times gone by. I've tried to rebuild collections that I lost with hard drive failures or bad CDs but find that the CSVs have long since expired on usenet and the old csv websites are closed.

My collection of (old) CSVs is huge. Just let me know per PM what you're needing.

[Al Gebra]

Originally Posted by Dubie

I'm using Hunter on windows 10. It does crash when running a new quick hunt but the workaround is to select "all csv in a folder" rather than "add a csv file" . I'd like to know if anyone has found a better solution to that bug.

I experienced the same issue, but as you said, there is a simple workaround. Don't forget that Hunter was created long before the year 2000, and it's still working without any upgrade ever since! (Which version of window$ was up to date back then???)

Originally Posted by Al Gebra

Just let me know per PM what you're needing.

Please check your PMs.

[candela]

It seems like an eternity since I've used CSV. I don't remember when I started using it but I must have still had dialup. Downloading a single picture from Usenet or Irc took ages. You had the CSVs from scanners, that scanned paper magazines and CSVs for collections from paid porn sites. Every month people with a subscription to sites like Suze Randall, Digital Dreamgirls, etc downloaded the pictures, put them in a proper folder structure, made a CSV and posted them to usenet. These CSVs allowed you to automatically organize the downloaded pictures in same folder structure and verify the integrity of the downloaded files.

The!Checker was by far the easiest tool to use, Hunter the most powerful. What was also useful was making a CSV for missing pictures in your collection. Someone with a complete set would simply use your CSV to quickly copy the missing pictures from his set and post them to usenet.

There used to be sites that had large collections of CSV files. They are probably all gone now. I must still have many on a harddisc somewhere

[Mahem]

I use JSheriff a very old program, works well for me on XP 32 bit (please don't laugh).
I can't give any comparisons to those programs previously mentioned.

[Al Gebra]

In case anybody is willing to check it out I uploaded PicCheck, a few how-tos, and some CSV files to begin with. I also added JCheck, a tool to check the integrity of JPGs that might not verify against the CSVs. It is even able to repair corrupted files to a certain degree.

It is said that PicCheck is easier to use. Hunter (that I'm using) is a more powerful tool, offering additional options, but quite a bit more sophisticated to familiarise oneself with. (It was the very first one I was pointed to .) If you wish I'll send it you later - just for the fun of it. BTW, both tools are small and don't need to be installed (and both are compatible with Windows 10!), simply extract piccheck4.20.zip and JCheck to a folder of your choice.

After taking a brief peek at the how-tos myself, I recommend to start with "pwas_thechecker_introduction", but also the others might be helpful.

You find pictures to use for tests in Scan Collections, (MX Scans is actually Maxscans).

Does anybody new to collection management software dare to give PicCheck aka The!Checker a try and report their experience here?

[deepsepia]

Al, on a slightly related topic, do you recall that there was some kind of project to create standardized filenames for internet adult images?

This was at a time when the folks who were posting stuff to BBS's and the like often used completely useless names (eg "1.jpg", "2.jpg", etc -- stuff that would lead to files overwriting similarly named files, and which generally defied organization)

Some guys had something like "Internet filenames project", they had a naming convention intended to apply to all adult image files, something that would incorporate the Studio, the set, and the image into one unique filename standard.

Can't recall anything else about it. . .

[Rommelbommel]

The way some uploaders name their files here always makes me rage and I rename them similar to the Tosec naming convention, which is made for computer and video games.