I am embarrassed to say I forgot the forum/database we were linked with for trail reports. Anyone?
I am embarrassed to say I forgot the forum/database we were linked with for trail reports. Anyone?
Trail Damage?
No, we had a link in our forum when you filled out a trail report.
glacierpaul (April 2nd, 2013)
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Chris in Florida
I'd be open to build something similar to what TD offers.
What I use at TD is:
GPX files, maybe Google Earth files (possibly a repository (?top 5? most current) GPX files)
Map of "where is this trail"
Ratings (does not need to be as comprehensive as TD's)
Some description or special notes (I don't often read TD's description)
Traildamage has spent a long time putting all those trails together. I would think that if FR4x4 was going to create something that was successful then it would need to have some kind of "value added" that makes it unique. I would assume that anything associated with FR4x4 would be very Colorado focused (then again, so is TD). Off the top of my head I think current trail conditions (i.e. is it open or not) would make it valuable, but that would come with a significant amount of updating.
One item that I've wondered regarding TD is what is their bandwidth during peak times? I know I have visited the site and was presented with an "we're offline" as they went over quota for the month. That would be a consideration.
Having links to the USFS pages for trails would be good.
Not having extensive photos (or any photo aside from a "for public use" map image) would keep bandwith issues down.
Making such content Members Only would be a solution but I'd be on the position to keep it public
This site maintains trial open/closed status:
http://www.bushducks.com/tripreps/passopen.htm
Did I delete or just hide the forum Jim? The problem with TD is with how current the info is, I've noticed some are years old which isn't very useful. Some listed are now closed which can lead to problems too.
Both Aaron and I likes and tried the wiki style setup but not many folks here are interested in learning how to use it.
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Chris in Florida
Hadn't thought about a Wiki format. That sounds like a great idea. There really isn't a lot of ” learn” involved since there are so many visual editors available now. If you can reply to a forum post, then you can edit a wiki.
Just for kicks I'm installing a wiki at http://4x4Trails.co if anybody would like to see how a wiki works.
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Chris in Florida
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Chris in Florida
I like the idea, not too sure I like a wiki without the front range 4x4 brand only because it is us risking our vehicles to gather the information. I would speculate that is why trail damage is not editable by the public. I would also add their pictures are limited to a set size to keep the bandwidth down.
As Jim mentioned, bandwidth seems to be an issue even with the small pics they use. I don't know of any front range folks risking their trucks for anything. My point has been that 4x4 folks are not wiki folks regardless of anything else. As I said, I have yet to see a successful 4x4 wiki. I have $6.00 invested in what you see on some free space of mine until it expires. My point is that even pointing FR people to it will result in little content.
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Chris in Florida
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Tom
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I was talking about carnage and fuel costs. I suppose you have no carnage or expense?
Exactly Jim, I'd never go out with the sole intent of making a report. A good report sure is a nice byproduct though. I do recall having a Trail Directory forum that failed to go over using the regular forum format.
My wiki is just a sample since I had unused hosting. It will expire along with the hosting.
I don't recall everything we tried in the past but I'm pretty sure we tried MediaWiki which is the best free standing wiki. There's also a vBulletin add-on that we tried. Someother attempts too.
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Chris in Florida
The memory clicked! There once was a way to embed MediaWiki into vBulletin so the registrations carried over. That's not the case any longer. I also think the one that's supposed to be a seamless integration is not free but too expensive to buy to experiment with.
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Chris in Florida
On the integration front, I am curious why vBulletin? I am new here and certainly have no pull to suggest a switch, but other software seems to be much friendlier to integrating a forum with other services. Plus vBulletin seems really clunky to me.