# speedcubes.net (new website)



## Stefan (Feb 5, 2010)

I've been working on a few cubing websites for a while, one is now somewhat ready. Example views:

3x3x3 centers: http://speedcubes.net/puzzle.php?puzzle=3x3x3&compare=center
3x3x3 names: http://speedcubes.net/puzzle.php?puzzle=3x3x3
3x3x3 summaries: http://speedcubes.net/puzzle.php?puzzle=3x3x3&summaries=1
3x3x3 cube4you: http://speedcubes.net/model.php?puzzle=3x3x3&model=1

The site's goal is to offer competent help with these common questions:
*Identification:* What cube is this? How does cube X look like?
*Source:* Where can I get cube X?
*Evaluation:* How good is cube X? What is the best cube?

Though regarding that last aspect, the introduction page quickly adds that there's no globally best cube and why.

Besides the technological advantages I see over forum threads and wikis, I also like the idea of independence. We here have our own stuff spread across the site, the Germans, the Vietnamese and quite possibly other communities have their own as well. I'd like to bring us all together in a nicely done place, to get more and better information.

There's still a lot to do, but due to new motivation I finally at least got it to a reasonable and useful state to show. And I'm working on it. Check out the News page for a brief plan of how I intend to progress, check out the other pages for more explanations.


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## Yes We Can! (Feb 5, 2010)

Good page!
Hopefully there won't be too many "Best cube for speedcubing" anymore


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## Mr.Toad (Feb 5, 2010)

Thanks Stefan, it's looks great.


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## andyt1992 (Feb 5, 2010)

when i get my uk store site up and running we'll have to swap links. your site is cool now there might be less "which is" and "where are" and "how do I" threads.


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## PHPJaguar (Feb 5, 2010)

That's terrific!


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## PeterV (Feb 5, 2010)

Looks great, Stefan! I've had a quick look around the site and I'm quite impressed with it. Keep up the good work!


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## GermanCube (Feb 5, 2010)

Nice homepage, good structure and not too many words.

I like it.


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## Cride5 (Feb 5, 2010)

I like it! Excellent work, especially with the detailed photos! I'm looking forward to seeing the new ratings system - its something the community has long been needing. 

My only worry is that a site managed by a single person always runs the risk of becoming stagnant if the maintainer loses interest and moves on. Are there any plans to allow for user accounts so that others can add cubes, images etc? If this were possible, it would make it a great community resource.


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## miniGOINGS (Feb 5, 2010)

Looks good!!


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## Stefan (Feb 5, 2010)

Cride5 said:


> Excellent work, especially with the detailed photos!


Thanks. I'm fairly happy with them, though I might retake some I'm not so happy with. Still getting used to my camera. But first I'll of course add stuff that's not there yet.



Cride5 said:


> I'm looking forward to seeing the new ratings system - its something the community has long been needing.


Well, yours isn't bad. But yeah, I do think it's better with a good database and interface, and combined with a model catalog. I'm glad you're interested in this, cause I'm interested in starting off with the data you've collected already. Thinking of importing it and have people confirm/update the data in the new system. Possibly changing rating aspects in the process, for example if you think that a scale should be renamed or replaced. I hope you're ok with this and we can talk about that a bit later, right now adding and validating/correcting puzzle data is the priority.



Cride5 said:


> My only worry is that a site managed by a single person always runs the risk of becoming stagnant if the maintainer loses interest and moves on. Are there any plans to allow for user accounts so that others can add cubes, images etc? If this were possible, it would make it a great community resource.


Yes, like briefly mentioned in the plan on the News page, I do intend and hope for others to participate. I imagine the usual structure roughly with these capabilities:

*Administrator/Host:* Me. Can obviously do everything.
*Moderators:* Selected competent people I trust. Can add/update data (includes accepting what normal users have submitted).
*All users:* Everyone. Can rate their puzzles, submit puzzle names/pics/data/links/comments, flag links/names/etc as correct or wrong.

Haven't decided on the details, that will come step by step and I'll see how it goes and adapt. But you get the idea. Ideally, I provide the system but aren't necessary for maintaining it (doesn't mean I won't, just that I'm not needed).


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## iSpinz (Feb 5, 2010)

Looks good! I hope I will be able to help with this!(hint hint) And like Cride said, the photos are very nice.


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## koreancuber (Feb 5, 2010)

Wow. Great work! It must have taken days to finish the webpage. Nice job, and thanks for the reviews.


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## Stefan (Feb 5, 2010)

koreancuber said:


> Nice job, and thanks for the reviews.



Hmm, there aren't any reviews yet. I've been thinking about letting people submit reviews along with their rating, like it's done at for example Amazon or general product review sites. Possibly also letting people rate and comment on reviews so you'll see the "most helpful positive/negative review". But that might be overkill, so I haven't decided yet.


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## koreancuber (Feb 5, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> koreancuber said:
> 
> 
> > Nice job, and thanks for the reviews.
> ...



Ok, but if you want a review, I have one about Type C I and a Type A V. http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18904


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## Deleted member 2864 (Feb 5, 2010)

Really plain atm, but I'm sure the site will grow. It's nice that you have a general plan for the site's future too


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## Stefan (Feb 5, 2010)

koreancuber said:


> Ok, but if you want a review, I have one about Type C I and a Type A V. http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18904


I was thinking more of rather short textual reviews. If someone has more to say and discuss or show in photos or even video, I think forum threads or youtube are still better for that. But that could be linked to or embedded. In any case, I'm still what I consider stage 2, so ratings/reviews shall come a little later (in a few days, I hope). Particularly I first want to be sure that the models are accurately named so people don't rate the wrong model, and that the links to shops are accurate so that people don't buy the wrong thing (wrong in the sense of wanting something else). That's why there's stage 2 and the red warning on the top of every page.



aznmortalx said:


> It's nice that you have a general plan for the site's future too


Well, I've been thinking about it every now and then in the past year or so, and I have a fairly clear vision of what I want to do. I'd say it's all rather straight-forward, though, and if speedcubing were a company, this might exist already.

Now... back to work.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 6, 2010)

great site! there is just one more thing that counld be better is that maybe you could put the brief description and comaprison about the type Cs (original, normal, retooled, and ver.1.5)

also, the "unknown" cube is a Type D.


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## Stefan (Feb 6, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> great site! there is just one more thing that counld be better is that maybe you could put the brief description and comaprison about the type Cs (original, normal, retooled, and ver.1.5)


Yes, definitely. Though if models actually differ (in how they look/feel/behave), then I intend to actually treat them as different models. I'm not particularly familiar with these models and I think I think I only have one or two of them, but I'll check it out when I get to it. I'm covering the puzzles in somewhat random order and it just takes some time.



daniel0731ex said:


> also, the "unknown" cube is a Type D.


Thanks. I suspected that, but this is one I bought from ebay with no name given, so I wasn't sure. I do have one or two that I bought as "D", still want to compare that. Just in case I do see tiny differences, I'll replace the pictures with those of the cube I know is a D. But it's good to have your judgment, I do know you're familiar with many models.

Preparing more stuff now, will probably upload tomorrow.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 6, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> daniel0731ex said:
> 
> 
> > great site! there is just one more thing that counld be better is that maybe you could put the brief description and comaprison about the type Cs (original, normal, retooled, and ver.1.5)
> ...



actually, i meant putting them all under the type C page,
just add brief descriptions about the differences in center pieces.




StefanPochmann said:


> daniel0731ex said:
> 
> 
> > also, the "unknown" cube is a Type D.
> ...



Thanks  
the key to be able to identify different cubes is to pay attention to small details and read a lot of posts about cubes


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## Stefan (Feb 6, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> what i meant is to put them all under the type C page.
> just brief descriptions about the differences in center pieces.


If that's the only difference and doesn't affect the feel/behaviour, then yes I'll just describe it on the same model page and add a picture showing the differences.



daniel0731ex said:


> the key to be able to identify different cubes is to pay attention to small details and read a lot of posts about cubes


Yeah, and sometimes the differences are indeed really small, like the Sheng En fakes or these:


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## tjtj_pr0 (Feb 7, 2010)

thanks, Stefan. you know Vietnamese? that's amazing...it's my country


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## dongqh608 (Feb 7, 2010)

like the background


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## xXzaKerXx (Feb 7, 2010)

nice website, Stefan! lots of detailed pictures, nice background and most importantly, very organized. thanks for creating it.


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## Stefan (Feb 7, 2010)

tjtj_pr0 said:


> you know Vietnamese?



Nah, not at all. I just accidentally stumbled upon that in my research


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## JTW2007 (Feb 8, 2010)

Awesome idea Stefan.


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## Cride5 (Feb 8, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> I'm glad you're interested in this, cause I'm interested in starting off with the data you've collected already. Thinking of importing it and have people confirm/update the data in the new system. Possibly changing rating aspects in the process, for example if you think that a scale should be renamed or replaced. I hope you're ok with this and we can talk about that a bit later, right now adding and validating/correcting puzzle data is the priority.



Yes, that's absolutely no problem. The system/data was created by the community for the community 

The user account system proposed sounds ideal. I can imagine it will be a fair bit of work but will almost certainly be worth it!


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## PHPJaguar (Feb 10, 2010)

http://speedcubes.net/model.php?puzzle=3x3x3&model=20
I do believe that this is a CI.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 10, 2010)

PHPJaguar said:


> http://speedcubes.net/model.php?puzzle=3x3x3&model=20
> I do believe that this is a CI.



:fp


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## PHPJaguar (Feb 10, 2010)

If I were a mod, I would ban you for that. Don't facepalm without at least giving a reason.
The name of the cube had a question mark next to it. I was confirming his guess.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 10, 2010)

PHPJaguar said:


> If I were a mod, I would ban you for that. Don't facepalm without at least giving a reason.
> The name of the cube had a question mark next to it. I was confirming his guess.



Right.


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## vgbjason (Feb 10, 2010)

There should be a sticky in the hardware section which refers to this thread, so this site is the first thing noobs find when they join the forums. . . Just saying.


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## Ton (Feb 10, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> I've been working on a few cubing websites for a while, one is now somewhat ready. Example views:
> 
> There's still a lot to do, but due to



I see, for the nitpicker ; There are two types of constructions for the Rubik's Domino, you can tell the difference because one has grooves and the other a spindle (axle) the patterns are mirrored 

Your picture is the groove version
Spindle type


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## Stefan (Feb 10, 2010)

Update: Added some more puzzles and brands/shops/links sections, rearranged content a bit. If you know more/better speedcubing forums than the links I listed, let me know. Those I have there are all I know.



vgbjason said:


> There should be a sticky in the hardware section which refers to this thread, so this site is the first thing noobs find when they join the forums. . . Just saying.



Not sure the site is quite ready for that yet. And this thread is more about the site's development. Maybe a new thread later...



Ton said:


> There are two types of constructions for the Rubik's Domino



Yeah, I'll add the spindle version when I visit my parents again, I just don't have one here. But I added "groove" to the name now, thanks for the reminder.


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## hyunchoi98 (Feb 10, 2010)

Why did you say "to do" next to lanlan toys in the brands section?
The brand name is lanlan.

And cool site too! I actually learned that there was a brand called mf100.


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## Stefan (Feb 10, 2010)

hyunchoi98 said:


> Why did you say "to do" next to lanlan toys in the brands section?


The "todo" is for the missing MF8 logo. The "?" for LanLan was a copy&paste mistake. Thanks for pointing it out.



hyunchoi98 said:


> And cool site too! I actually learned that there was a brand called mf100.


I'm not sure how much of a brand it is, though. The logo is on the box of my mini C, but http://mf100.org looks more like a community site than a producer.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 11, 2010)

Ton said:


> StefanPochmann said:
> 
> 
> > I've been working on a few cubing websites for a while, one is now somewhat ready. Example views:
> ...



there is also the russian one.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 11, 2010)

hyunchoi98 said:


> Why did you say "to do" next to lanlan toys in the brands section?
> The brand name is lanlan.
> 
> And cool site too! I actually learned that there was a brand called mf100.



actually i think there are some division in the type-c cubes manufactorer. i'm still trying to find out about exactly what's happening, but i think one is called shung-le, and another one is called guo-bing (the original name coined by the chinese cubers)


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 11, 2010)

TRIPLE POST

ok so i spent an hour looking at the Type C forum and finally got things cleared up. 
There is no schism or whatsoever, they just simply regestered 2 trademarks: one is the chinese name and the other is the Logo.


the logo is a 2x2 square with a solid circle in the middle. inside the circle says " m_f_100 ". in china "mf" is the abbrieviation for 魔方 in romanized character; but in this case it also stands for "more fun", which is their motto.

The brand name is 生樂 (shung-le), meaning "enjoyment of life". there is actually a second logo that is just simply the chinese name in capligraphy font.


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## iSpinz (Feb 11, 2010)

What about Guo Bing?


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## Neo63 (Feb 11, 2010)

awesome! strongly support this site


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 11, 2010)

iSpinz said:


> What about Guo Bing?



guo bing have never been the official name for the type c brand. it is a temporary name coined by the chinese cubing community, just like how QJ used to be called as "cleffert's".


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

stefan, are you 100% sure that the joy cube you have on the site is a joy cube? i never seen a joy cube before, but the pictures looks identical to the Type B (including the screws, springs, washers, caps, etc)


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> i never seen a joy cube before, but the pictures looks identical to the Type B



I think I never bought a Type B and I got this cube from Tribox ordering a Joy (together with Edison and floppy, can't confuse those).

Also does look like these which supposedly show a Joy:
http://img242.imageshack.us/i/img2230hh4.jpg/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3303/3607572273_c3b5d26136.jpg


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## pjk (Feb 13, 2010)

I've finally had the chance to browse your site a bit (been out of the country for a bit and still catching up on work).

Very nice to see detailed information about all of these puzzles. It has indeed been a much needed resource. The images are quite helpful as well!

Great job, Stefan.


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## mazei (Feb 13, 2010)

Hey Stefan, just wanna tell you, the Malaysian community site is www.malaysiancube.com


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## Sebastian-1 (Feb 13, 2010)

Add the chilean community site too  it's www.cuberos.cl


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

Added Malaysia and Chile, thanks.


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## blah (Feb 13, 2010)

QJ is QiJi, not QunJia. QunJia is the name of the company that produces QiJi cubes. The characters on the QJ logo say "QiJi."


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

blah said:


> QJ is QiJi, not QunJia. QunJia is the name of the company that produces QiJi cubes. The characters on the QJ logo say "QiJi."



actually i think they changed their name. i'm not so sure about it though.


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

blah said:


> QJ is QiJi, not QunJia.



But then why is "QunJia" all over http://www.chinaqunjia.com/ while "QiJi" isn't? The name and URL are also on this box:


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## LarsN (Feb 13, 2010)

Danish speedcubing community can be found at www.speedcubing.dk. If you would like to add the link.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> blah said:
> 
> 
> > QJ is QiJi, not QunJia.
> ...



Quinjia (奇佳) is their old name; they changed it to Qiji (奇积) now.


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## Toad (Feb 13, 2010)

"LIFE IS LIKE QJ MAGIC CUBE"

Rofl.


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

Danish community added, alternative QJ names added. Thanks guys.

I'll keep QunJia as main English name for now since that's what's on their site, but I added the others under "also known as".


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

the taiwanese cubing forum is kind of strange. it is a board in the very popular bbs system in taiwan called "PTT". it is hosted in the telnet protocol so i don't think you could actually access it using normal web browser. we usually use PCMan to access the board, but you could also use windows word commender.


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> the taiwanese cubing forum is kind of strange. it is a board ...



Does it have a URL or name?


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## blah (Feb 13, 2010)

There isn't any point in arguing about this, because it really doesn't make any difference to the English-speaking community. But for the sake of accurate and reliable information, I'll lay the facts out anyway:

QunJia = 群佳 (your website currently says "奇佳", that needs to be changed)
QiJi = 奇积 (notice these are the exact same characters on the QJ logo)

According to this, the company is called "Shantou Qunjia Plastic Products" (汕头群佳塑胶工艺制品厂) and it produces "QiJi cubes" (奇积魔方). Notice the logos on the upper left and upper right corner of this picture say 奇积魔方, or QiJi cubes.






Like I said, since both QunJia and QiJi have the initials QJ (one is the name of the company and one is the name of the cubes they produce), it really doesn't matter to the English-speaking community, but this is just here for clarification.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> daniel0731ex said:
> 
> 
> > the taiwanese cubing forum is kind of strange. it is a board ...
> ...



:fp it's telnet, how am i going to find the url?


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 13, 2010)

blah said:


> QunJia = 群佳 (your website currently says "奇佳", that needs to be changed)





sorry about that, it's my bad.


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## masterofthebass (Feb 13, 2010)

stefan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System

surely there's a telnet:// link for the taiwanese board, but its not that useful for most people to browse.


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

blah said:


> your website currently says "奇佳", that needs to be changed


Thanks again, fixed now. Finally chose "QJ" as the main name and put both QunJia and QiJi as alternatives. Everybody knows them as QJ anyway.



daniel0731ex said:


> StefanPochmann said:
> 
> 
> > daniel0731ex said:
> ...



I don't know. But PTT is huge, if a cuber asks for the Taiwanese cubing community, do you just tell him "Go to PTT"? Surely better directions can be given, maybe a URL like telnet://bsdtw.ptt.cc:3128 or a name of the board inside PTT or a search term or whatever is used there? How do you get to it?


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## Stefan (Feb 13, 2010)

masterofthebass said:


> stefan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System


I know, but that doesn't tell me how to get to the cubing board inside PTT.



masterofthebass said:


> surely there's a telnet:// link for the taiwanese board, but its not that useful for most people to browse.


Well I assume the Taiwanese cubers didn't choose to be hard to reach, so I'm assuming Taiwanese are used to it.


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## daniel0731ex (Feb 14, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> masterofthebass said:
> 
> 
> > stefan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System
> ...



It's the good old answer that everyong are familar with, *use the search function*
You basically need to search inside the BBS to find a specific board. 


However, i do know the location of the board. it's:
戰略高手 > PlayingGame > Rubiks


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## Stefan (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks, added that: http://speedcubes.net/links.php
Is that flag alright? Wasn't in the collection I had, had to get it elsewhere...

Oh and... funny reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Ffz9sd-A8#t=1m26


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## Stefan (Feb 27, 2010)

Got sidetracked with job/money issues, now I'm working on it again. Added some communities and brands today, other stuff shall follow tomorrow.


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## koreancuber (Feb 27, 2010)

You can use my review of the shops. Here's the link if you want to use it. http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19449


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## Stefan (Mar 3, 2010)

Update: Filled the shops page. More details/functionality will follow, but I'm happy enough with it to show it now. You can filter by country and for example list only the shops in USA.



koreancuber said:


> You can use my review of the shops.



Thanks. I had most of the data already, but it did help a bit.


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## koreancuber (Mar 3, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> Update: Filled the shops page. More details/functionality will follow, but I'm happy enough with it to show it now. You can filter by country and for example list only the shops in USA.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wow. That's a lot of shops. Good job!


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## Stefan (Mar 3, 2010)

Yeah, 43 right now. Btw, why did your review not include rubiks.com? Feels like an odd omission.


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## koreancuber (Mar 3, 2010)

StefanPochmann said:


> Yeah, 43 right now. Btw, why did your review not include rubiks.com? Feels like an odd omission.



Oh, I didn't really include that since it's widely known IMO. Well, it doesn't matter now since the thread's dead.


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## iSpinz (Mar 5, 2010)

Check your PM box Stefan.


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## daniel0731ex (Mar 20, 2010)

cuber_shop have both an official site and a yahoo bids account.


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## iSpinz (Mar 20, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> cuber_shop have both an official site and a yahoo bids account.



?!?!?!?

Maru 2x3x3, edges only void, 3x3x4, fisher windmill, 3x3x5?!?!


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## ianini (Mar 20, 2010)

iSpinz said:


> daniel0731ex said:
> 
> 
> > cuber_shop have both an official site and a yahoo bids account.
> ...



It's most likely that one warehouse manufactures them and sells them to all the different cube companies and then they put on there own logos and stickers.


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## Stefan (Mar 20, 2010)

daniel0731ex said:


> cuber_shop have both an official site and a yahoo bids account.



And your point is?
(In case you didn't see it, I link to both on the shops page already)


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