YET another forum idea: "Where In The World To Shoot"

[Radtech1]

OK, here is another forum idea, but it would likely work only of the forums can be nested.

Quite often someone will post a "I am traveling to Xxxxxxxx next month and I am wondering where are the good places to shoot". I got to thinking, since we are a worldwide community, why don't we use our collective experience and create an archive of where to shoot.

Top forum could be "Where In The World To Shoot"

First nested forums could be: "Where in The Americas To Shoot", "Where in Europe", "...Australlia", "...Asia" and so on.

Second nest could be "...USA", "...Mexico" and so on

Third nest could be "...California", "...Idaho", "...Wiscoisin" and so on.

Then, once I am in the, say, California nested forum, I would post something like "I have found good shooting in the Mohave Desert...
To get there, take the 215 freeway north from Los Angeles...
The type shooting is ...(Landscape, Nature, Ghost Town...)
The price is ...(In the event it is a place, like Disneyland)
What else to see or do while there.
And then post a representative sample of images.

OR... (referencing my recent Germany trip)

Then, once I am in the, say, Germany nested forum, I would post something like "I have found good shooting in Dresden...
To get there...
The type shooting is ...(Archetectual, Landscape...)
The price is ...
Sample images...

I know it sound like it is redundant since we have a "travel/landscape" forum, but that lacks the structure to answer the question, "Where should I go when I am visiting Xxxxx place?"

The nested forum would not have to be completely created in advance. It could be an ongoing, growing resource. If someone has a recommendation for Kansas, and there is no Kansas nested forum yet, then s/he would just PM a mod and request Kansas be added.

Any thoughts?

Rad

[In2Photos]

Not a bad idea, but it sounds like a lot of work for the mods. I wonder if there is an easier way, or perhaps if someone volunteered to start it they might consider.

[tommykjensen]

The idea itself is good. However I think we need to organise it differently because there is only one person to create all these forums and that is Pekka.

But I think there is a different way to do this.

A member created a google map to map where members live.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=119586

We could use a map like that to record the photo ops.

[coreypolis]

might be easier to just setup a database that we can submit write ups too, but I like the idea

[Radtech1]

Not a bad idea, but it sounds like a lot of work for the mods.

Truth be told, I have no idea how much work it would be, but I suspect that might not be too much work, especially if it is built on the fly. Once the top levels are created, say, down to the continent, the sub-levels could be created only on an "as needed" basis.

That way, they would not need to create all 50 sub-levels (one for each state) to get it going. Only when someone PMs a mod saying "I have a recommendation for Minnesota" would the Minnesota sub-forum be created.

Rad

[tommykjensen]

Truth be told, I have no idea how much work it would be, but I suspect that might not be too much work, especially if it is built on the fly. Once the top levels are created, say, down to the continent, the sub-levels could be created only on an "as needed" basis.

That way, they would not need to create all 50 sub-levels (one for each state) to get it going. Only when someone PMs a mod saying "I have a recommendation for Minnesota" would the Minnesota sub-forum be created.

Rad

I run a few forums that use vbulletin so I can say that setting up forums do require some work. My guess is You should calculate about 2 minutes per forum. And as I mentioned only Pekka create forums so it would all depend on him.

As for the map idea I posted I just found out that this can interact with google earth so that would be the best idea if I may say so myself ;)

[Radtech1]

I run a few forums that use vbulletin so I can say that setting up forums do require some work. My guess is You should calculate about 2 minutes per forum. And as I mentioned only Pekka create forums so it would all depend on him.

Question: ignoring for a moment the time/hassle issues, is it even possible to nest the forums as I have described?

As for the map idea I posted I just found out that this can interact with google earth so that would be the best idea if I may say so myself ;)

I was thinking that as well, and I have in fact long ago put a marker on that very map. The problem that I see would be going to some other site (the map site) which I find a bit cumbersome to use. I keep accidentally "placing" markers when I mean to re-center.

Then the maker would have to link to yet another site for each location. THAT would be dependent on each contributor keeping up his/her site. The idea that it is all located on the forum seems a more reliable way to keep the info consistent, organized, and present.

Once the backbone is done, is the creation of sub-forums a privilege that could be given to some of the mods? Spread the work around?

Heck, if someone would show me how, I would volunteer to create all 50 states and then upload that to Pekka just to get the ball rolling.

Rad

[tommykjensen]

Technically it is possible. I don't think creation of subforums privillege will be given to other mods.

Unfortunately a "subcontract" for the work of creating the subforums would not work because You would need an exact copy of the forum structure as it is.

Also You repeat 50 states. The world is more than just 50 states in USA ;-)

[tommykjensen]

I could be wrong but I don't think Pekka would create this many subforums for this.

So here is another idea how to organise this.

Create one Sticky in "POTN Member Activities " - I could do that in a jiffy.

This sticky will spawn threads by country. each of these threads will spawn state, cities, locations.

The advantage is that nothing needs to be created until necesary.

So in a tree structure it would look something like this

"Where in the world to photograph" (thread)
...Denmark (thread)
.....Copenhagen (thread)
..........Zoo (post)
..........Tivoli (post)
...USA (thread)
.....Florida (thread)
..........Orlando (thread)
..............xxxx (post)

and so on.

So it would work like this. When a member want to add a place in Prague, Czech then the member would create 2 new threads. One for Czeh (if it is not already created) and one for Prague (if it is not already created) and link them. Then the top of the new branch should be linked to the sticky.

[Radtech1]

Also You repeat 50 states. The world is more than just 50 states in USA ;-)

Oh, don't I know it. 11.5 hours Los Angeles to Frankfurt just 2 weeks ago!:eek:

The offer was meant just to get things started.

Rad

[tommykjensen]

Oh, don't I know it. 11.5 hours Los Angeles to Frankfurt just 2 weeks ago!:eek:

The offer was meant just to get things started.


I know.

[saravrose]

I could be wrong but I don't think Pekka would create this many subforums for this.

So here is another idea how to organise this.

Create one Sticky in "POTN Member Activities " - I could do that in a jiffy.

This sticky will spawn threads by country. each of these threads will spawn state, cities, locations.

The advantage is that nothing needs to be created until necesary.

So in a tree structure it would look something like this

"Where in the world to photograph" (thread)
...Denmark (thread)
.....Copenhagen (thread)
..........Zoo (post)
..........Tivoli (post)
...USA (thread)
.....Florida (thread)
..........Orlando (thread)
..............xxxx (post)

and so on.

So it would work like this. When a member want to add a place in Prague, Czech then the member would create 2 new threads. One for Czeh (if it is not already created) and one for Prague (if it is not already created) and link them. Then the top of the new branch should be linked to the sticky.

this sounds about perfect..

[lakiluno]

could we not make a POTN member location Wiki? I run a wiki, and find they are excellent for this kind of thing - just create a page when you want to talk about it. As long as you keep a set of rules as to how you name pages, it works well.

What you can do is have a page in the main: category, and then in that page (Say continents, so Europe) you have a page called main:europe, and then countries, so main:europe:UK. Each country would have a list of citys, so main:europe:UK:London.

Each page would have a list of links to all its pages below it, until you got down the the city pages. There, you'd have a page called, perhaps, "Zoo", and that would have a description of the zoo.

[peacock]

Why not just set up another map and instead of marking members just mark places of interest for photo ops , you can easy cruise the map of the area you are going and anyone can populate it with text or a small thumb even.

http://www.frappr.com/

[tomvill]

I,d love something like this cause I,m heading to Northern ireland and scotland in july and i,ve been wondering besides the typical tourist areas were are some decent places to photograph or at least some places of interest..

[In2Photos]

Looks like someone had a similar idea and got the ball rolling.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=172578

[tommykjensen]

Looks like someone had a similar idea and got the ball rolling.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=172578

Yep looks like it.

[lakiluno]

I still think a WIKI would be the perfect use. Examples are wikipedia (obviously), and the one I run, http://m3wiki.emuparadise.org

I believe talkphotography.co.uk are planning on introducing a wiki soon.

Leo