Talk:Main Page

Nicely spotted!

Go SC, go, go, go!

For Sale: North-East Outcrops SMC guide - brand new! £12.50

Grab a bargain. Brand new North-East Outcrops guide for sale. £12.50 posted.

Being a namby pamby boulderer this stuff is waay to hardcore for me! Best someone gets some use out of it.

If interested drop me an email to annatrybis at yahoo dot co dot uk

Cheers

Anna

Bagger‎

New route at Auchinstarry?

Hi, I've climbed what I think is a new route at Achinstarry, I just wanted to check no one has done it already. It takes the arete between the start of Promitory Direct and Plumbline Crack. It's a bit eliminate but I reckon it's quite good. If it is new, does anyone know who I should report it to so it goes in the next guide? Cheers, Brendan

BrendanC‎

Report it to Dave MacLeod and Andy Nisbet in the SMC.

Raymond67‎

Embedding Google Maps

A thread, Thread:Talk:Main Page/Embedding Google Maps, was moved from here to Help talk:Maps. This move was made by Susan Guest (Talk | contribs) on 14 September 2010 at 15:42.

New Routes

Is it possible to link the "Routes" tab to the New Routes 2010 page?

That's it done (damn, I'm so fast!). Good call, by the way.

We'll have to remember to poke you come new year

SusanG‎

Cheers.

How about this page for the gallery link? Not ideal, but probably better than the Gallery I made?

Nice idea until we get around to something more specialised. Cheers Mike!

Show recent posts on the main page

I'd like to see the recently posted in topics up there on the main page, just as they used to be. Just a simple list of topics. The recent posts page is not the same as this!

If that's not possible with this new style discussion then I'd like the old style back, otherwise people will go to UKC or UKB, unless they already have. I personally find the new discussion ok-ish but think i might lose interest since no one else can use it! The forum topics are all over the place, they've got to be weaved together somehow.

The lack of postings speaks volumes ..me thinks...

Mark McGowan‎

Michael, what are the differences between the old forum and the current one, exactly?

The old forum had the titles of the ten most recently replied-to threads displayed on the main page. Currently, users must click on a link to see these. This is not much of an impediment - and it keeps the main page tidy. However, the new forum shows users much more information.

Looking at the old main page, users would essentially have to memorise which order the thread titles had been in last time in order to be able to see what had changed just by looking at the main page, and the thread titles could - by chance - have been in exactly the same order as the day before, but with lots of unseen replies. Users could previously only check what replies had, in fact, been made by clicking on each thread separately.

Currently, users make one click and they can see at a glance all the threads that have been replied to today, who has replied, which sub-forum each thread is in, and even the first sentence or two of the actual replies. If you want to look at the contents of a sub-forum - say, Lifts and Partners - you click on it - just like the old forum. But, unlike the old forum, if you think a new sub-forum would be useful you just go ahead and create it yourself.

What do you mean no-one can use the new discussion system? You read a thread, hit reply, pound the keyboard for a while, then hit 'post', or in this case 'Save page'. Prettty standard stuff. The forum topics aren't all over the place - they're all there if you hit that link on the main page that says 'Forums', just like they were before.

Surely this new system is WAY better than the old one?

The only problem I've had is not being able to search for the user creation log, but I've just tracked it down: special pages > logs > user creation log; or latest posts > namespace = user > user creation log.

TomCE‎

Hi Tom Having not been on during the old forum system, I cant compare, but I think the point is: - has user interaction reduced since the new system? if so (dramatically), then the general user is not finding the process of posting easy enough? And ironically cant voice their opinion by posting it...

if Postings are much of a muchness, then there is no problem with with system, just lack of interaction. which is a more subtle issue requiring a different approach i suppose?

regards

Mark McGowan‎

Actually the old site sometimes went weeks without posts too :)

If anyone does want to comment and can't log in and do so here they can always email us (or even post to one of our blogs).

I agree the new system is 'diffrent', but AFAIK the option of going back to the old forum doesn't exist (there may be other new options - if you want us to explore on let us know).

Stylistically it's pretty basic - but in terms of functionallity it's got some pretty nice features (discussions linked to guides - that's got the potential to be pretty powerful!)

Currently, users make one click and they can see at a glance all the threads that have been replied to today, who has replied, which sub-forum each thread is in, and even the first sentence or two of the actual replies. - TCE

I would say 'at a glance' is a bit hopeful. For today alone it's a page full of text, which could (if possible) be brought down to a short list of the 5 or so topics that were posted in today. I don't need to know about the individual posts until I click on the thread.

But, unlike the old forum, if you think a new sub-forum would be useful you just go ahead and create it yourself. - TCE

We're going to end up with a huge number of sub forums. I don't know if this is good or bad. At the moment I think bad, it's going to be too easy for a thread to get lost, with changes moving down the latest posts page really quickly.

Mike Lee‎

Being able to see a full page of information is great - you don't need to click/back-click in and out of sub-forums/threads, all you do is scroll down a bit. If there are so many posts they run onto another page, that would be a bit crap. Would that happen in one day? Presumably the length of a page is variable?

As I see it, there is a bit too much information on the Latest Posts page. The username of the author of the thread is followed by '(Talk | contribs) posted a reply to', which doesn't really need to be there - or does it? There's an entry for users editing their own posts - do they really need to appear? The time of the post is followed by two stops - what are they for? Being able to see the first sentence someone has written is only useful if it's not just a quote from further up the thread! :)

The Forums page is pretty sparse at the moment. If you look at the UKB main page you have to scroll down a bit to see all the forums and sub forums, but they'll be a bit more compact on here. You're right, having loads of sub-forums would not be ideal - but having enough would help to make things manageable.

I'd like to be able to see a slightly tidier version of the current Latest Posts page plus the five most recent posts, as at the bottom of the main page on UKB - but at the top of the Latest Posts page...

EDIT - with the forum and sub-forum headings and forum how-to on the same page, rather than two separate pages:

        thread - username (the most recent poster) - time - forum x 5

        forums and sub-forums

        link to how-to page

        list of posts as in current Latest Posts

If that's all on one page you could either bookmark the main page or the forum page in your browser, depending on your priorities - and the five recent thread titles could appear on the main page. I've got the forum page on UKB in my browser rather than the main page - pretty though it is.

I'd like to see the constantly changing photo back on the main page somewhere - if it can show pictures from Flickr and elsewhere. Alan's blog looks good with a prominent photo and content lower down, and obviously UKC's new main page looks good.

TomCE‎

Shouldn't the 'Forums' link on the front page now go to the Talk pages, seeing as threads have been moved out of the Forums to the Talk pages?

TomCE‎

I think we are aiming to have the 10 (or some other number) of most recent posts on the front page. It's just someone will need to spend a bit of time getting it up and running (not me incidentally, i don't know code from my elbow).

Please be a little bit patient with us - bright shinny websites like UKC have full time staff being paid to work on it - SC on the other hand has busy people, with lots of other things to do (including jobs), who are paying for the privilege of running it.

Sue's right, we are definitely wanting to have the recent posts aggregated somewhere. This probably means the last 10 or so updated threads being linked to from the main page as well as (probably) having all of the threads linked to from a single place, like this forums page. There is a LiquidThreads bug about something similar sounding (there's a facility to vote for bugs...).

However, it's not a five minute job getting that to work and there are some other things that have to get done first.

Rest assured it's on our minds though!

ImageMap extension

Mark, have you implemented the ImageMap extension? I've just tried to create one and it didn't seem to work. It would be great to be able to use this extension for marking-up panoramic photos.

Also, is it possible to link from a thumbnail image to a full screen image? ...and what about the SlideShare widget? Questions, questions... :)

TomCE‎

Good find, I think it could be useful! It should be working now.

I've just had a go, as you can see on Recent Changes. I used the ImageMap editor in The GIMP, but that gives you a text file in HTML format rather than wiki format. I altered it according to the wiki-formatted example on the MediaWiki ImageMap page. Pretty tedious. There are a couple of online editors linked from that page, but they all buggered up in various ways. I'll try again at some point and see which one is best. Doing it by hand, without an editor, would be about as tedious an undertaking as I can imagine.

TomCE‎

Priorities for new things on SC

things that'd I'd like in order of how much i'd like them:

1) List of forum threads in order of latest latest post.

2) Embedding flickr or other photos.

3) New look front page which reflects changes to site content and has a picture.

Sections for the main page

The main page has got to reflect the fact that stuff is going on on the website.

LIKE -

List of most recent discusion topics - like what the old forum was on the main page.

list of most recently edited pages

keep the blog list

Most recent vid

Most recent Picture

News and Events.

Why have the most recently added picture on the main page? If I'm adding a series of different grip types for a training article, why would anyone want to see those on the main page? When you add a picture it should need to be specifically tagged for appearance on the front page.

TomCE‎

Show how-to on the main page

I was thinking the other night we need a wiki howto on the main page - I think the majority of users to SC really do not realise just what it is. You wouldn't go onto a majority of read only website and edit away!!!

Number one on the wiki how to should be where to add your info - begining with searching for similar information and topics before you start adding anything.

I'm guilty of falling into this trap ;)

Dredpath‎

A related point: I was looking at the MediaWiki site last night for a tutorial on how to mark-up wiki pages. One great aspect of using a wiki is that users can simply look at the code to see how to do something they like the look of - as long as they can actually see an example of something in use on a page. If there was a page on SC with a comprehensive list of examples of ways of marking-up pages, it would increase ease of use / flatten the learning curve. I didn't find a whole load of information after a brief search last night, but I'll add what I do find to the How-to Page, unless anyone beats me to it.

TomCE‎

Flickr ideas

We can propbably set up something similar for flickr using the ScottishClimbs group. I think the issue with the old Flickr API was it wasn't very searchable (lack of time). Perhaps we can do something nice with that using carousels, slide shows, tag cloud - all the candy you would expect from a modern site! We'll get experimenting once Mark is back in a week.

Dredpath‎

Please please please at the very least, can someone make it possible to embed flickr photos to the wiki? or if it's already possible, make it easier to find out how to do it!

It's not possible just now (at least, not in a pleasant way), but is definitely something that we want to do. Unfortunately, there are some other server related things that have to take priority just now.

Let's try to figure out what would be best for us from Flickr integration. What did people think of the gallery (it was search thing that was backed by the ScottishClimbs Flickr group) that is disabled just now?

Love it? Hate it? Never use it? Didn't know it was there?

Why?

Correction: I think the old Flickr gallery pulled from the ScottishClimbs group and the ScottishClimbs Flickr account.

I think the priorities of a photos page have to be:

1. Show some photos - whether it be recently added or random (ideal)

2. Brain dead categorisation sport, trad, boulder, hills - the previous tags were just too random

3. Have comments

4. Make it easy for people to add them

DaveR‎

Too many tags/categories. I frequently wouldn't know where to start searching for an image, or would look where I thought it should be and not find it.

Isn't extensive categorisation the kind of thing you want to see on someone's user page, i.e. chronological (a list of trips: last summer, last winter, summer 2008, etc.) or geographical (Font, Spain, Pabbay, etc.), whereas - secondly - you would also want images to be tagged/not tagged for appearance on the main page (if they were to appear there in future), and - thirdly - you would want some straightforward but comprehensive search terms for people searching the site for a particular image.

TomCE‎

ideas for scottishclimbs.com

Guess this is the best place to have such a topic...

...with a bit of work on site navigation.

I think there are 4 sections to this site which are:

Info: all the guides, articles - most of the wiki
Community: News, recent topics, recent changes, blog aggregator, events, some Wiki pages for forums like 'partners needed'.
Media: pics and vids
Help: all the stuff on how to use the wiki

An idea would be to have the main page featuring links to just these 4 (or whatever) sections, leaving loads of room for a picture or something arty that looks good. Each link would take you to a page which looks similar to the current main page.

Is it possible to have list of users?

There's a list of users accessable from here (also a list of active users)

This would be ace, though a bit of a change of style from the currently rather busy main page. The main page of UKB looks nice, but it would be better with a constantly changing photo - a la UKCs new main page.

Does the Mediawiki software enable "floating menus" (or whatever the actual technical term for them is), i.e. menus that appear when you hover the mouse pointer over a hyperlink?

TomCE‎

What are the best/worst things about SC?

Here's some thoughts - please feel free to join in

Good

Our sport guides get good use
No fluff
I like the community ethos (eg don't moan, sort it out yourself

Bad

It's like winter doesn't exist
People seem to find it too "techy" to use the wiki (although i'm soo non-techy and i can do it - it's just text mostly)
the people who run SC (with the exception of dave) are non-scene so not really that in touch with everything going on

Good

Guides
Knowledge of people on the former forum

Bad

No pictures, no videos. Can we embed pictures from flickr into the wiki discussions?
Poor news section
Slow traffic.

Let's keep in touch with our climbing peers using SC, let's leave facebook for the drunken nights out, farmville and pictures of girls making faces like ducks!

Slow traffic

What do you mean - the speed of the site? Or number of users?

I meant that, in the past, very little seemed to be going on. Hopefully this new style will encourage people to contribute and keep things up to date.