We've had several comments, complaints and whimpers from folks regarding all the missing recipes, so I thought it was about time to give a more in-depth response. For those old-timers who have been with us since the early EQ days, it's one of "those" long-winded 'Mum commentaries. For the newer folks, welcome to what happens when 'Mum gets talkative!
One of the first things folks tend to do is compare this to the parent site, EQ Traders Corner, assuming that since we already had a database in place for EQTC, it "should" have been a piece of cake to have EQ2TC up to speed. Sadly, such isn't the case at all.
When we launched the EQTC database, we took well over half a year from the time we started work on data entry, to when we unveiled the database for the public. Along with volunteers, we worked with a large number of flat HTML files that contained all the details for all the recipes released in the first few years of the game (yes, we started with several year's worth of data, since the database was launched long after the site), posting regular whimpers in our forums when we ran into chunks of items that needed stat details fleshed out. Basically, we had all the recipes, and much of the information already in hand, and data entry was relatively "simple" once we got the kinks worked out of the database.
Fast forward to EQ2 beta. We got into beta relatively late in the game and dove right into testing. In order to gather info on recipes, we actually had to skill up in the appropriate tradeskill and take notes - knowing all the while that it was beta, and that the information we had was likely to change. Given that, our main focus was not gathering recipes for the site, but in bug testing, while things like reaction arts and suchforth were being added around us at the last minute. (A lot of things that we reported in beta took several months to be fixed, due to staffing changes at SOE and so on, but we really did try to catch many glaring bugs before launch.)
The game launched earlier than planned, the release of the NDA caught us flat-footed, and there's enough differences between the EQ and EQ2 item and recipe information that the database code needs lots of tweaking before it can be used for EQ2.So, we started EQ2TC with almost no recipe information collected ... and the dust from an EQ expansion still distracting us and eating much of our time. Instead of being able to ask a several-year-old community for data entry volunteers, where they full well knew how much easier life would be once the database was live (and where there was no handy recipe book for in-game reference to recipes), we had to ask folks new to the game, and new to the site, for help. Recipe info posted to the forums was spotty and often incomplete, leaving out process and technique information and so forth.
Sadly, there are enough nit-pciky details needed for all the recipes, that we've found that the "easiest" way to enter recipes so far has been rather hard. Folks end up sitting in game in a (hopefully) quiet corner with their recipe books open, sorted to one specific book that they've scribed, then toggle to several open web browser windows and go to town. Check to see if the item(s) exist in the database. If it's one that makes varying quality levels of items, make sure all the item variations are in the db, not only one. If they're not, add them. Note the item numbers. Check to see if the book has been added as an item. If not, add it. Check to see if the recipe is in the db. If not, start adding it, looking up item numbers for the book, the items created, the ingredients and the fuel as needed. If you're working on alchemy/jewelcraft/sage skills/spells, you can maybe use the repeat function and make minor changes for the next item in the book (but you'll have a LOT more items to add per book than things like carpenter). If not, you're likely better off starting a new recipe entry from scratch, as long as you've scribbled down the book number on a piece of paper somewhere (you can only have one item number search window open at a time, so you don't want to keep looking up information that is often repeated). Of course, this means that you have to have volunteers for this part that both play a lot (so they have several of our missing recipe books scribed), and have time to do data entry.
Pretty kludgy. In theory, we could (and will when we run out of data entry folks with scribed books), take the recipe information sticky posts in the various forums and enter from them, but there's often so many missing details that we have to enter incomplete information (which messes up them showing on some searches), and spend extra time later going back and editing them to fill in the missing information. Lots of extra time involved.
With the member-provided updates to the Data Entry Forum, it's easier, but also often even slower. You have to make sure that all the major details are in the post. If they're not, you have to post asking for more information, and check back in a day ... or three ... or ten ... depending on when someone gets around to filling in the blanks for you. Then you have to go and check for the item. If the base info is already in the database, it's pretty easy to update it. If the item isn't there, and is one of 3 or 4 quality levels (depending on the item), you first have to create the multiple items (we have a function for doing the set in one swell foop), with just the information that is common to all the variation of the item. Then you have to go back and edit the information for the specific version for which information was provided.
If your eyes are glazing over at this point, or you've skimmed through the last several paragraphs, then you may be starting to understand why our data entry volunteers don't always last long (and while several left with our well-wishes due to RL reasons, others just disappeared without a word), or if they do last, things seem so slow being added. It's long, it's boring, it's tedious. There's only so much data entry you can do before you climb the walls. You need time to skill up so you can enter more recipes, because the information submitted in the forums just isn't complete enough. You need time to work, play, work on spouse faction, etc.