more forum suggestions

[jman]

So, I could of PMed Sombeech or ACDCman, but maybe other people will chime in on this.

Any thoughts of a "Guide/How-To" Forum?

I mean granted this is a outdoor forum, but I have a few guides and how-to documents on various things, ranging from Canyoneering to technology. Examples: How to clean a Backpack; Anchors 101 (Canyoneering), Rappelling 101 (Canyoneering), Adding Friction while Rappelling (Canyoneering), and more how-to's of outdoor-related junk. Also The iPhone and Jailbreaking; Understanding Cell-phone technology; How to Calculate a Height only using a rock, simple math, and a timer; Important Programs for your PC, How to Maximize your Computer experience, How to build a HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer), and much more.

Some of these have been published to various websites and all are copylefts (compared to copyrights), but I'm sure other Bogleyites have guides and how-to, and do-it-yourself manuals that they would be willing to share....(?)

Would a new sub-forum be appropriate for all of this? or would be keeping it in it's proper forum be more appropriate, but then again - after a few days, that post would be gone and not very helpful to anyone. Unless that post was stickied or put it in a glossary page (which is stickied already), but some moderators seem to be slacking (haha j/k).

And if that idea gets implemented, I think it would be beneficial for organization sake, to add a "Guide" or "How-To" or "Do-it-Yourself" prefix.

Also, I have a bunch of others I can share too, as in Google KML/Z downloads of various places in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona; and I know others have many KMZs and Google GPS Tracks - like IntrepidXJ, and I think Redman.

Anywho, I just feel like I need to share more of what I got and if there was some time of organization, I can start pumping them out.

In conjuction with ME adding more text, that one newb that recently joined, Spooky, said she could post lots of TRs (from the past) and that's all good and all, but again, I'm afraid after a few days, those TRs get lost. Unless people search for em. And it seems the "search" button is alien to a good handful of people. And those who have already published volumes of past TRs, it would be good to resurrect those and make those more easily available (besides just searching for it).

So what if there was some type of Glossary that would automatically (based on the prefix) would add it to the stickied thread at the top labeld "TRs", or they could be added in manually by the moderators, or another option, if it's possible, have the aforementioned sticked thread "TRs" have the ability to be changed by everyone and they can add in the direct link itself. Hopefully that made sense with my super long, run-on sentence... haha

And also, with the "Trip Report" stickied thread, I think it would be great if that thread could be divided by state and region. Example: Utah: SE, Utah NW, or Utah: Zion, Utah: Lake Powell, Utah: Uintas, California: Yosemite, Arizona: Sedonia, or Arizona: NE, California: Central.

I think some MAJOR organization there could dramatically increase the repeat value to Bogley, and also the general populous' input and feedback.

BTW - If you need anyone to help with the organization, investigation, etc., I would be more than happy to offer my services and time.

I have a few more ideas, but I can't show all of my pearls at once...haha

[accadacca]

Wow, lotta stuff there. Some good ideas tho.

We are in the process of evaluating current moderators and maybe adding or adjusting a few. We could certainly use a global format for our trip report index stickies. And hell, just bring them all up to date. Automation would take more dev time, but I am open to suggestions. Perhaps we could use the rss somehow to feed and automate. It really only takes a little time for each mod to keep up on the trip reports in their section, but it doesn't happen. Do you want to take a stab at a format that would work in all sections? We are only talking about a handful of forums. Some just aren't busy enough to need an index. However, it's good to look back and handy that way.

[Cirrus2000]

I came in here and started to read jman's post, but got distracted by his avatar. Anyway, yep, it would be nice to have TR index stickies updated. Doesn't take that much work, and I'd be in to help out with that kind of thing (updating, reorganizing) in at least a couple of sections. If you're looking for someone else to commit some time and effort, keep me in mind.

[accadacca]

I came in here and started to read jman's post, but got distracted by his avatar. Anyway, yep, it would be nice to have TR index stickies updated. Doesn't take that much work, and I'd be in to help out with that kind of thing (updating, reorganizing) in at least a couple of sections. If you're looking for someone else to commit some time and effort, keep me in mind.

Will do Kev.

[Sombeech]

One solution is adding the prefix of [Trip Report] to each actual trip report - in posting or retroactively. I believe we may be able to categorize those prefixes and separate/sort them somehow, by customizing the Forum View with the drop down tools. This may take a little tweaking, but I agree we need faster access to the Trip Reports.

The tags can help with this currently, when anybody has "trip report" in their post, it's automatically tagged and searchable via:

http://www.bogley.com/forum/tags.php?tag=trip+report

...but it wouldn't separate it to forums.

So either way, there's a little manual work to be done. It is an option to force everybody to choose a prefix when making a post, limited to certain forums, but some may say that would slow down the thread creating process (if only by one click). We would leave it off the "non trip report" forums like general, videos, newbies....

Some things to think about though.

[Sombeech]

And if that idea gets implemented, I think it would be beneficial for organization sake, to add a "Guide" or "How-To" or "Do-it-Yourself" prefix.

Sure, we could definitely add a prefix like that.

One more note on the prefixes that I should have mentioned earlier. At the bottom of each subforum page, you can filter the threads by prefixes. So if you just want to see the Trip Reports of a certain forum like Canyoneering, filter it there.

Of course this will require that each actual trip report include the prefix of [Trip Report], and the moderators can assist in going through those and editing those posts.

I'll have to post this in Gen Disc as well.

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[Sombeech]

http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthre...fix-What-is-it