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9:22 December 25, 2008
| al
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Website is simple and clean… very nicely done, but there is one field missing… GPS coordinates.. It would be nice to have that as a seperate field rather than GPS coordinates in comment body.
One other suggestion which webmaster may not want to implement… Have a feture that allows user to download the entries for a state (name, gps coordinates) for import into mapping software (Microsoft, Delorme) for use while planning / traveling and no internet available.
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8:34 December 26, 2008
| jenn
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Thank you very much. That's what I was going for, simple and easy to use.
I understand the desire. Internet access is a sporatic a luxury for us nomads. I will probably implement this in the future. At the moment however, I am dedicating my time to importing data and some fixing bugs.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jenn
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13:37 December 27, 2008
| Gene Teggatz
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I was impressed with the initial layout of your page and information.
I am the Group Owner of the Yahoogroups of Boondocking Locations, which you joined last June and finally posted a note about your site.
Suggestion: Since you're pushing a "commerical" site, it is desired (or maybe even mandatory) that you should so note in the posting. I get very nervous about the group being used for commerical purposes.
On the other hand, if you read my posting to the group, I think we'd like to work with you on making the site more useful. Including the Lat/Long info is almost mandatory for us fulltimers today (14 + years.)
I don't want to see a site that duplicates what is out there now and ends up being just another listing. Spoken another way, it ought not to include information that is readily available elsewhere, such as Walmarts, Flying j, etc. A bonifide list of boondocking sites (especially free ones) would be a Godsend to the community.
Thanks for considering our request.
Gene
Group owner, Boondocking Locations and Walmartrving.
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13:25 December 28, 2008
| jenn
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| Weekend Warrior | posts 2 |
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Gene Teggatz said:
I was impressed with the initial layout of your page and information.
Thank you.
I am the Group Owner of the Yahoogroups of Boondocking Locations, which you joined last June and finally posted a note about your site.
Welcome. Ya, I am not too talkative. I perfer to be behind the scenes. Its actually a little difficult for me to respond to all of the wonderful forum posts that I have recieved.
Suggestion: Since you're pushing a "commerical" site, it is desired (or maybe even mandatory) that you should so note in the posting. I get very nervous about the group being used for commerical purposes.
Taken. I now understand how it might of come off to some. I was a bit nervous about posting it. I do appreciate you not deleting or condemming my post.
On the other hand, if you read my posting to the group, I think we'd like to work with you on making the site more useful. Including the Lat/Long info is almost mandatory for us fulltimers today (14 + years.)
I appreciate it. Coords will be appearing today.
I don't want to see a site that duplicates what is out there now and ends up being just another listing. Spoken another way, it ought not to include information that is readily available elsewhere, such as Walmarts, Flying j, etc. A bonifide list of boondocking sites (especially free ones) would be a Godsend to the community.
I feel the same way. But, I am a bit torn. I could have easily imported the walmart lists that I found. But, I haven't. Mainly because when I was looking at what I considered the best boondocking database website, 98% of the listings were walmart, cracker barrel or flyingj. It annoyed me. On the other hand, those locations are useful, and it would be nice to see all of your options on the same page. I definitely will not add them without making it possible to exclude them in your results. In the end, the community will decide the direction this website takes. Heck, maybe I should post a poll to see if folks want me to import retail locations or specifically deny them.
Thanks for considering our request.
Gene
Group owner, Boondocking Locations and Walmartrving.
Thanks for visiting and taking the time to post.
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14:49 December 28, 2008
| jenn
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| Weekend Warrior | posts 2 |
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al said:
Website is simple and clean… very nicely done, but there is one field missing… GPS coordinates.. It would be nice to have that as a seperate field rather than GPS coordinates in comment body.
Done
One other suggestion which webmaster may not want to implement… Have a feture that allows user to download the entries for a state (name, gps coordinates) for import into mapping software (Microsoft, Delorme) for use while planning / traveling and no internet available.
If I were to do this, would csv be an acceptable format? I am not familiar with all of the GPSs. My gps is a dongle that connects to my computer. I use it with google earth and MS streets and trips. In addition, I would probably have it automatically update only once per day. If the site takes off, it would be less stress on the database.
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20:33 December 28, 2008
| al
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Hi Jenn:
I am impressed! You have implemented my suggestion VERY quickly. Thank you!
Now the second suggestion… I personally prefer tab delimited files. It is very very unlikely for tab characters to show up in text data files so that is the reason I prefer them. But CSV would also work… the reason I don't like CSVs is that commas can occur in addresses. I guess that issue can be dealt with by putting each of the potentially problem fields in quotes. Also you need to output the GPS coordinates as two seperate fields, latitude and longitude. I say that because I see in your implementation to my suggestion 1, you implemented it as a single field which is just fine for that purpose.
Again, thanks. I recognize how much work you have put into this and I think it will be (and is already) very well received. I know that I like what I see very much.
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20:52 December 28, 2008
| al
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One other comment on file formats… I think you have to settle on a file format and let it be the responsibility of the user to deal with any intricacies of their individual GPSs or software (DeLormein my case.) Trying to deal with the many different formats required by the different GPS vendors and software could be a whole job in itself. There are free/shareware software packages available that can deal with the necessary conversions for the common GPS systems. I just want to be able to get the basic data so that I can massage it as necessary and get it into my program.
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21:18 December 28, 2008
| jenn
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| Weekend Warrior | posts 2 |
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jenn said:
al said:
Website is simple and clean… very nicely done, but there is one field missing… GPS coordinates.. It would be nice to have that as a seperate field rather than GPS coordinates in comment body.
Done
BTW, there isn't a separate field to enter the coords, they are automatically generated via the map submission. I thought the extra field would be repetitive and tedious.
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22:09 December 28, 2008
| al
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I agree… it is a usability thing that you thought about that once you explained it it made sense. Perhaps some sort of indication on the page to let a new user know how it works is in order??
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