Trip Reports by region

[Parma]

is there a place on here where the Trip Reports are broken down by state or region?
i'm wanting to just see southern Utah trip reports.

 

[Nick]

There is not. We had a tagging system going for a bit but it didn't work out very well. We could add a prefix option to threads so the titles would be something like "UT-Escalante: My Trip Report Title" and then that "UT-Escalante" part would be filterable, but there are aspects of that that are not ideal. Maybe it's time I do some digging for a better solution...

 

[Parma]

ya, that can be a huge hassle.
i don't know how big of deal it is to others. i don't mind scrolling thru the trip reports...it's kinda fun.

 

[Nick]

I was thinking of adding two fields that people fill out when the create a trip report. An optional one where you can put a set of coordinates and a not-optional one where you select the state/region. With that data, we could have a dynamically generated trip report map where you could zoom in and see all the trip reports in any given area, right down to the exact trail/canyon/peak, etc if coords were provided. The only struggle I've had with it is figuring out a way to make the results of a what is basically a PHP script populate within Javascript map code. Any hardcore coders out there know much about that?

And it would still be really easy to just sort/filter not using the map that way as well.

 

[Ben]

i've thought that it seems like there are enough trip reports now that it might be nice if there was an other way to organize or filter, or group them. tags crossed my mind also. one of the problems that i've run into using the search function. say i'm interested in a particular area, like the 7 devils, when i run the search, every comment that has ever mentioned them. i can search by post titles, but not every thing covered in a report is covered in the title. some times a title doesn't even specify where the trip was.
i know this isn't much in the way of constructing a solution, but some thing that i've thought about.

 

[Nick]

Good input, Ben. The search function is definitely not the best in that respect. I find myself frequently using google with the site:backcountrypost.com function to get better results.

Any other thoughts anyone else has on the organization of the trip reports is very welcome and more useful than ever right now as it seems I may be embarking on a winter time programming adventure to spruce it up.

 

[Parma]

Having a map where you can search trip reports would be awesome!
Gathering the coordinates of past TRs would be kinda fun if you need help.

 

[Ben]

can i ask what the issues were with the tagging system. i like the idea of being able to select a state and region to attach to a report, but agree that there are some imperfections with it.

 

[Nick]

The tagging system failed because I set it up so that anyone could create new tags and didn't specify it as a location tag only. So some people would not tag at all, others would do basic tags like 'backpacking', 'wyoming', etc. Then others would tag anything and everything and add all sorts of whacky, useless tags. Perhaps revisiting that system with some tweaks could be a good and relatively easy solution.

 

[Ben]

tough decisions

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

I'll give some input as a member who is a bit of a geographical outlier here. Improved functionality for searching/filtering past trip reports would be a nice improvement of the site and would be really helpful for trip planning purposes. However, I think if you go beyond a tagging/searching system and actually segregate trip reports into separate forums/sub-forums by region, it will definitely homogenize the sites membership over time. Meaning the regional forums that are strongly represented areas will get the most traffic, discussion, etc, which will attract even more members from those regions to use the site. Members from under-represented regions will start to die off because the line of thinking will be - "ehh nobody has posted in my region's forum in a month, why bother writing up a trip report that will go unnoticed in a forgotten corner of the site?"

The way the forums are structured will have a drastic effect on how geographically diverse the membership will ultimately be. Do you want BCP to be be more of a southwest forum or a broader, more diversely represented forum in the long run? There's no right or wrong answer and that's for Nick to decide.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Nick]

Good input. I don't think I would ever be in favor of breaking up the subforums geographically. Being able to filter them is good, but I'm not a fan of more and more subforums. You can probably tell by how few subforums there are now. I'd just like to improve functionality so people can easily find what they are looking for. I love seeing BCP grow geographically and would hate to see that stifled.

 

[Artemus]

I second/triple that it would be nice to tag filter trip reports - all content for that matter. And I REALLY BEG for a better search functionality. Please Mr. Admin, Xmas is coming !

 

[Nick]

Sadly, I'm not sure what to do about the search. The software developer of our forum software offers an 'enhanced elastic search' package that supposedly is smarter/better, but I hate using the search function on their forum just as much as I do here, so I'm not sure what an improvement it really would be. Doing my own improvements to that system is waaaaaaay beyond my level of expertise.

 

[Artemus]

Hmmm... How about a google site search of our own site? Like I implemented on our web site www.slcolibrary.org. (use the main search input form but pull down the selector to see the library web site search) It is pretty easy. The hard part may be "embedding" the search input box in the BCP template and returning the results in the BCP template. I did it on my site but it was using a CMS that I am familiar with and I am not with BCP's. I could coach you. Do you have a site-related google account for me to use to set up a google site search? Nick, move this part of the discussion off-line if you want us to avoid hijacking the thread....

 

[Nick]

I've played with google site search in the past. While it has a lot of strengths, it also lacks some functionality of the current search system so I wouldn't want to completely replace what we have with it. For example, I like that the current search system allows the criteria to be narrowed to specific forums, titles only, posts by a certain user, etc. And if I add the tagging feature I'm looking at, it works really well together to search tagged content. But like I said earlier, I do often use the DIY version of site search by going to google and typing in 'site:backcountrypost.com' before my search so I definitely see the strength there. Let me think about this one for a bit... I like how you did the drop down to choose how to search.

 

[Artemus]

Interesting... You are right. Being able to search by author is critical. That said. 50% of the time I do a search and nothing is returned - even on something massive like "zion". I then give up and poke around looking and then give up if that fails and go do something else. Search by author helps if I remember that but it won't find posters (vs. authors) either.

Another option - have two search input fields. One for current and one for google site search. FIrst one "BCP search..." second one "Google Site Search...."

 

[Ben]

there are things that i do like about the current search here. it's not useless by any means, just doesn't always get you what you want. so i'll toss in my interest in tags being an option, but that's having no experience with how it worked in the past. i'd share the concern over wacky and useless tags cropping up.

 

[Nick]

Another option - have two search input fields. One for current and one for google site search. FIrst one "BCP search..." second one "Google Site Search...."

I think that's the ticket. Maybe just adding the option for google search below the standard options. Something like this perhaps:

 

[Artemus]

I think that's the ticket. Maybe just adding the option for google search below the standard options. Something like this perhaps:

View attachment 22048

Yes!
And you might be able to game the GSS to do a faux location search by having different searches for keywords like "Utah", "Idaho", "Zion" etc. and implement them as just links below your new input field. Then, you adjust the URL variables in the link to do that keyword search. Make sense?
Be aware that two submit buttons on the same form can be tricky if you don't know it. And then deciding which button is submitting by hitting the enter key has to be programmed too. You GO boy!