Next ACD

[Lemming]

For some time now I've been working on a new version of the ACD. It's nowhere near ready yet but it's making progress. Reading posts on here about old coffeeshops has given me extra motivation as shop history is an important part of the changes.

The main objectives are twofold: to fix the way that shop history is handled and to drop the tabs.

Shop History

At the same time as I was launching the ACD in 1998, a shop in Amsterdam was changing hands. Lucky Mothers was transforming into Het Kruydenhuys. I covered this by creating a new record for Kruydenhuys and leaving the Lucky Mothers one in place.

As time went on, more shops changed their names and/or ownership. Rather than creating new records for these, I decided to simply change their names and add a note saying "formerly ...". This saved some space (which was very restricted in those early days) and reflected the way that a coffeeshop licence was permanently attached to a specific address. So, for instance, as De Kuil gradually morphed into 420 Café, the filename of its page remained as "kuil.html" but its name changed to "420 Café (formerly De Kuil)". This meant that all existing links to kuil.html continued to work. Search engines didn't update themselves so frequently in those days and this preserved continuity.

Over the years I've come to regret that decision. We now have silly situations like Hunter's West having a filename of Heath.html because a few decades and many name changes ago, it was once called Heath Cliff.

I've wanted to do something about this for a long time but it's always been a daunting task to restructure the whole site. Now I'm grasping the nettle and working on the transformation.

For the first stage I'm creating separate pages for each incarnation of each shop with links between them. Each page will have a history list on it linking to all of the other incarnations. The new pages will have file names based on the names that the shops had at the time. There will then be mechanisms to redirect links from the old pages to the new ones. All of the index pages will be changed appropriately and so on.

Once the new structure is in place I'll continue the process by linking old menus to the correct shops and attempting to divide up the shop reviews and forum reviews so that they are also linked to the appropriate incarnation of the shop. Finally I hope to add lots of pictures from my archive to the historical shops.

Tabs

There was a time in the past when I became concerned about how long some of the shop pages were taking to load. Google maps and streetviews could cause delays, forum reviews had to be loaded from a different server at that time and so did menus from FBN's site.

My solution to this was to divide the pages over a set of tabs (those buttons across the top saying General Info, Reviews+Forum, Local Maps, Outside View, etc.). This meant that the first tab, containing basic details and a single picture would pop up very quickly.

The world has moved on a lot since then. Browsers have become more efficient in how they load components, most aspects of the Internet have got faster and both the forums and FBN's site are now on the same server as the ACD. So, the next version of the ACD will have a single page for each incarnation of a shop. I'll redesign the layout to make this work.

[Jolly]

Exciting stuff. Look forward to it. Appreciate all that you do. Thanks

[AzLaker]

Exciting stuff. Look forward to it. Appreciate all that you do. Thanks

Ditto.

AzLaker

[HitTheNorth]

This sounds awesome!
Good on you @Lemming

[avfc-herbalist]

Brilliant idea and very exciting. Can’t wait to see it, Lemming!

Really happy to see old incarnations get a page. The first Coffeeshop at any address to me is quite an important incarnation, if not the most important, in a way. If it wasn’t for that first Coffeeshop at that address, then that address would not be allowed to have a green and white licence sticker in the window today. We have to give thanks to the very first at any location I think

Many thanks for all you do, Lem.

[Lemming]

As part of the new development I've been experimenting with a history report trying to tell the story of each licence/address. In the new version there will be separate pages for each incarnation of each shop, but that's still not ready yet.

In the meantime I've made this special version with links to the current ACD via the addresses. It's very big so you may struggle to view it on a phone. Find a descent size screen if possible

Shop History

[HitTheNorth]

As part of the new development I've been experimenting with a history report trying to tell the story of each licence/address. In the new version there will be separate pages for each incarnation of each shop, but that's still not ready yet.

In the meantime I've made this special version with links to the current ACD via the addresses. It's very big so you may struggle to view it on a phone. Find a descent size screen if possible

Shop History

Wow @Lemming that look quite the project. Awesome. To me this is incredibly important work, it's underground history that is in real danger of being lost unless people like your good self document it. I'm fascinated by it, can't wait to see how this progresses

[avfc-herbalist]

Absolutely brilliant, Lemming! It’s wicked being able to see the coffeeshop history without having to click on each shop first. But saying that, I still can’t wait to be able to click on each incarnation for more info when you’ve finished the project.

I completely agree with HitTheNorth about the importance of documenting it all. Without the ACD the majority of the Coffeeshops would’ve been lost to time. Thank you for all of the hard work you put into it, Lem! It truly is appreciated

[Lemming]

Still some work to do but I've made a couple of steps forward recently. The new page layout is close to finished and I've built a new alphabetical index where each incarnation of each shop has its own entry rather than a "see ...", if you see what I mean.

Next I need to change all the file names on the geographical and other indexes. The alpha index now generates much faster, which is good for me and will make absolutely no difference to you For the others I think I can do some quick and dirty changes.

Eventually I'll get to upload it. Along with lots of redirects. Then there're lots of links from the menus site and these forums to change. Then maybe attempt to divide up the reviews, including the forum ones, onto the historical shops. At some point it might feel finished. For a while

[Lemming]

It is done!

I know you'll look at it and say "what's changed?" and "why did it take so long?". Most of the changes are not obvious. It's the filenames that've changed and that has enormous consequences.

Anyway, I've been sitting here with a joint checking links and stuff. So far it looks like nothing is badly broken, so that's good.

Still loads more to do but that's the big step taken.

[AzLaker]

It is done!

I know you'll look at it and say "what's changed?" and "why did it take so long?". Most of the changes are not obvious. It's the filenames that've changed and that has enormous consequences.

Anyway, I've been sitting here with a joint checking links and stuff. So far it looks like nothing is badly broken, so that's good.

Still loads more to do but that's the big step taken.

AzLaker

[BLZBUB]

It is done!

I know you'll look at it and say "what's changed?" and "why did it take so long?". Most of the changes are not obvious. It's the filenames that've changed and that has enormous consequences.

Anyway, I've been sitting here with a joint checking links and stuff. So far it looks like nothing is badly broken, so that's good.

Still loads more to do but that's the big step taken.

hi mate, ive just saw this earlier and had to join to reply.

i had an idea for a live prices website, so i built it using some data from here and coffeeshop menu's.
its live now, but its still a work in progress, the site is built and all the concepts work but my "live" data is only based on when the latest menu is posted so not quite "live prices" but as a mvp/ prototype its pretty solid.

so 2 things i am asking, would you be interested in integrating or linking the site once i figure out sourcing more live data.
and 2 can i give you the link to the live site, maybe let the community have a look and find problems im not seeing.

this is a yt short of the site...(if it works)
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/purkTfnmxg0[/youtube]

[Lemming]

i had an idea for a live prices website

You're the second person to approach me with an idea like this.
What you're proposing is very similar to the existing strains database on the ACD (https://www.coffeeshopdirect.com/strains.html). Unfortunately that's not been updated for a while. That's because it's incredibly labour-intensive to maintain it, even with a few automation tools to help.
You might think that it's just a matter of scanning the menus with some OCR software but, in reality, it's not that easy. Maybe AI assistance will make it possible soon but menus are very inconsistent and hard to machine read. A small mistake in a strain name can change the meaning altogether.
If you think you've cracked these issues then please let me know. I'd love to be able to process menus into a database quickly and easily.

[BLZBUB]

You're the second person to approach me with an idea like this.

yeah, im sure im not the only person who can see a need for this type of data, OR not the only stoner with a bit too much time on their hands...

and yes all the issue's you mention are still there, but not as bad as you might think, i have been quite supprised when checking the data extraction vs the actual menu. the bigest problem i have is making it understand that deals for flower being 1g 3.5 5g, but extract can be 0.5 and prerolls can be singles or x5. thats stuff that can be fixed afterwards as it will still group the items correctly. strain names and 1g prices are about 95% accurate from about 260ish images.

the only real issue i have yet to figure out is menu consistency. the newer digital signboard menus are all fine, its the pegboard/chalkboard/scribbled on a wall type menu's that give me the problems

i had the idea that if they have digital menu's then surely its running of a pc or something were the info could be emailed upon menu change, but i am only recently learning about self promotion rules of the coffeeshops so not sure if this is something they could be involved with.



*edit
also im not looking to step on any toes with this project, i hadnt seen the strains page here. my goal is an easyway to find the strain you want with the best relative price (not walking across the city to save 1 euro) and an easy way to locate the shop. having access to this data also allows shops that show consistently above average prices to be tagged as potential tourist traps amongst other things.

[DazG]

Sounds like a lot of work for 1 - hats off to you Lemming if I was anyway capable I would offer my help. I’m struggling to keep up with the tech so maybe I’ll stick to posting Coffeeshops menus

This site is amazing, although I’ve noticed there’s not so much activity these days, is this down to the alternative social media availability (Facebook and instagram etc?). Would be good if some of the YouTubers (eg drew and corax) gave some shoutouts to ACD, maybe raise awareness
For me, this site is the first stop after I’ve booked a trip, then also when I haven’t booked a trip keeping track of what’s hot or not !!

Have had a little trouble when trying to view the Coffeeshops map (the big one covering all shops) although I think that my iPad is the issue as I can view it on my phone.