Make the Events Forum More Useful

[Mission]

I was just thinking that it is annoying that the events forum contains all the old topics and requires a new topic for the same event each year. It would be cool if there was a sort of uber-post which is ALWAYS at the top of an event thread, no matter what page of the thread you were on.

This should contain the bare-bone basics (and not much else):

1. Where (City, State & encompassing location - the park, pier, fort or whatever)
   
2. When (Event Times and Days)
   
3. What (A single paragraph explaining the concept of the event)
   
4. Who (A contact person, pm, phone number or whatever)
   
5. Web-site URL (if such exists)
   
6. Facebook Page (for one often exists these days)
   

I have been trying to link the Pub's Facebook page to our events page and I am pretty sure there are events that are going on which have no current post, but have one for the previous year or two years ago or whatever. So the potential for pirate re-enactors to publicize their event here is being missed. (Like the NorCal thing. Where is the current post for that?)

This is an important function of this site and it should be as serviceable and useful as possible. Any other thoughts on how we can better inform people about events?

[Ransom]

I think everyone, including Stynky, agrees that the events forum is a mess, but no one so far has come up with a way to fix it, and make it useful.

As for NorCal, most of the communication about that event takes place between the West Coast pirate groups on their own forums, or on FB. There wasn't much said about it last year, as Stynky blocked the events forum right after NorCal weekend, which killed any discussions. He brought it back on line, but by that time it was too late. Kinda sad, for an event that draws 35K people in two days, it has never gotten much PR on the Pub. As stated, most of the planning and talk about that event has moved to other places on the web.

[Mission]

OK, we all agree it's kind of a mess. But it doesn't have to be and it needs positive input.

Anyone else on the forum got any other ideas on how to make it better?

[Cascabel]

I was just thinking that it is annoying that the events forum contains all the old topics and requires a new topic for the same event each year. It would be cool if there was a sort of uber-post which is ALWAYS at the top of an event thread, no matter what page of the thread you were on.

This should contain the bare-bone basics (and not much else):

1. Where (City, State & encompassing location - the park, pier, fort or whatever)
2. When (Event Times and Days)
3. What (A single paragraph explaining the concept of the event)
4. Who (A contact person, pm, phone number or whatever)
5. Web-site URL (if such exists)
6. Facebook Page (for one often exists these days)

I have been trying to link the Pub's Facebook page to our events page and I am pretty sure there are events that are going on which have no current post, but have one for the previous year or two years ago or whatever. So the potential for pirate re-enactors to publicize their event here is being missed. (Like the NorCal thing. Where is the current post for that?)

This is an important function of this site and it should be as serviceable and useful as possible. Any other thoughts on how we can better inform people about events?

I think something like this is a good idea. Sort of a calendar of events that should have brief and complete info that should always stay at the top of the events page. ALL discussion inputs should be separate from the calendar info. This would prevent the important info from getting buried !!

[hurricane]

The ideal would probably be a clickable graphic calendar widget that has the events listed. Click through the months with arrow navigation, click on the event and you can access the information for it. This way they are automatically in order, there are no repeats and old events simply become a date on a previous calendar. This would allow people to view dates for events a year or two ahead as well. Pretty simple stuff these days to do and from a user standpoint, very familiar.

[Commodore Swab]

How about simply a map like google with a flag where an event is. When the mouse is placed ove the flag it will show the dates and a link to hopefully a thread pertaining to the event.

[Diosa De Cancion]

How about simply a map like google with a flag where an event is. When the mouse is placed ove the flag it will show the dates and a link to hopefully a thread pertaining to the event.

I am sure this option is a lot more work, but I like it :)

[Ransom]

How about simply a map like google with a flag where an event is. When the mouse is placed ove the flag it will show the dates and a link to hopefully a thread pertaining to the event.

I like it. Easy, visually, to see where everything is.

[Stynky Tudor]

The ideal would probably be a clickable graphic calendar widget that has the events listed. Click through the months with arrow navigation, click on the event and you can access the information for it. This way they are automatically in order, there are no repeats and old events simply become a date on a previous calendar. This would allow people to view dates for events a year or two ahead as well. Pretty simple stuff these days to do and from a user standpoint, very familiar.

I love this idea and have been talking about doing something similar for a while.

Quite a few years ago I helped write an (clickable) events calendar with recipicle links to discussion forums and image galleries for an old version of phpBB, but between changes in technology, web browsers, PHP and HTML, keeping up with it and writing bug fixes ended up being hell.

There may already be a system similar to what we want written and out there, I just haven't come across it - granted it's been a while since I've looked.

[Stynky Tudor]

How about simply a map like google with a flag where an event is. When the mouse is placed ove the flag it will show the dates and a link to hopefully a thread pertaining to the event.

I am sure this option is a lot more work, but I like it :)

(As I shoot myself in the foot or head - and talk about something I haven't a clue about. . .) I don't think that it's so much work - but more a matter of research and implementation.

And at the moment my dance card is pretty full up and I can't even think of looking into something like this until the beginning August. . .

But if someone else has the know how or can point at some applicable examples, by all means - please do.

[Mission]

Ok, but what about my simpler (I think) idea of having the first post appear at the top of every page of the thread? This would allow us to use the same thread for an event repeatedly. (Having several topics for the same event (one for each year) is kind of confusing.)

[Commodore Swab]

We had a map on a sailing forum that I was a part of where you could interact with it (it was a google map) and once you found your location you could put a "pin" on the map so that everyone would know where you were. This is where I got the idea, I checked the forum recently and the map is down or forgotten about.

[hurricane]

The problem with a map as opposed to a calendar is that multiple events take place in the same city in some instances. For example, St. Augustine has Searles, Drake's Raid and Pirate Gathering. Which does the pin point to? This could be very confusing and even frustrating from a user perspective.

For planning purposes (i.e., limited vacation time), it's far more effective to scroll through a calendar function and see events in chronological order and be able to readily see which events fall on the same date, or different dates that still may be in proximity geographically, so you could, in essence, plan a weekend at one event and the second weekend at another that you never knew were happening at the same time.

This also allows someone to pull up their calendar and easily cross reference planned events with their own activities. Plus, we even planners can put in the dates for years going forward, since the dates of Pirates in Paradise are set from year to year, only the actual dates on a calendar change.

I know the guys overseas on elance could whip this up pretty easily and cheaply. It would certainly make the event section here "the" place to go. Right now I'm having to rely on Jamaica Rose's calendar, as it's the only one in roughly chronological order right now.

[Mission]

If we were going to use the map (and I think it is a great idea) my thought before even seeing Hurricane's post was that the two be combined by having a map for each month. Make them a series of monthly maps that you can scroll through with arrows. Maybe combine a few months in the winter when events are few and far between.

The trouble with the calender is that there are often many events on the same weekend and you wind up not really having enough room in the calendar box to fit all the info.

[Stynky Tudor]

Ok, but what about my simpler (I think) idea of having the first post appear at the top of every page of the thread? This would allow us to use the same thread for an event repeatedly. (Having several topics for the same event (one for each year) is kind of confusing.)

To be honest - (I thought) that's what we were already doing. . . kinda.

For a while Jamaica & Black Syren were going to keep it organized and up to date - but they've both been pulled away.

[Mission]

Ok, but what about my simpler (I think) idea of having the first post appear at the top of every page of the thread? This would allow us to use the same thread for an event repeatedly. (Having several topics for the same event (one for each year) is kind of confusing.)

To be honest - (I thought) that's what we were already doing. . . kinda.

For a while Jamaica & Black Syren were going to keep it organized and up to date - but they've both been pulled away.

No, what I mean is that when you open page three of the comments, the first post from the first page still appears at the top. With the ability to click on the latest entry, the first page is easily skipped in a multi-page thread.

What I am trying to do is consolidate all the threads for different years of the same event into one thread. If the first post is the event info, it only needs to be changed after the event and the same thread can work for the event the next year. Then the event organizer doesn't need to start a new thread for each year of the event. (Go look at June and maybe you'll see what I mean. The same event appears more than once on the first page of the forum because a new year with new dates/times/whatever has come up and the old thread is no longer relevant.)

[Stynky Tudor]

Ok, but what about my simpler (I think) idea of having the first post appear at the top of every page of the thread? This would allow us to use the same thread for an event repeatedly. (Having several topics for the same event (one for each year) is kind of confusing.)

To be honest - (I thought) that's what we were already doing. . . kinda.

For a while Jamaica & Black Syren were going to keep it organized and up to date - but they've both been pulled away.

No, what I mean is that when you open page three of the comments, the first post from the first page still appears at the top. With the ability to click on the latest entry, the first page is easily skipped in a multi-page thread.

What I am trying to do is consolidate all the threads for different years of the same event into one thread. If the first post is the event info, it only needs to be changed after the event and the same thread can work for the event the next year. Then the event organizer doesn't need to start a new thread for each year of the event. (Go look at June and maybe you'll see what I mean. The same event appears more than once on the first page of the forum because a new year with new dates/times/whatever has come up and the old thread is no longer relevant.)

Oops, sorry - I get it.

Now that you mention it, i think there is a way. . . As Admins we can make/post (stickyish) announcements and those announcements can either be made global or local - they would have to be posted, managed and maintained by the Admin group.

But let me look into it to make sure.

[Stynky Tudor]

Ok it can be global to all forums or local to a forum, but not local to a specific topic/post. . . let me look into it though - there might be some code or a hack already out there that will do it.

[LadyBarbossa]

Good idea. But some folks post without looking to see if there is a post already for that event/subject. In which case, more than one - several actually - post of the same event has been made.

Generally, it's a good idea to just... LOOK! A good pirate will keep their eyes and ears wide open for upcoming events. I learn about them all the time and try to pass them on.

~Lady B

[Stynky Tudor]

The ideal would probably be a clickable graphic calendar widget that has the events listed. Click through the months with arrow navigation, click on the event and you can access the information for it. This way they are automatically in order, there are no repeats and old events simply become a date on a previous calendar. This would allow people to view dates for events a year or two ahead as well. Pretty simple stuff these days to do and from a user standpoint, very familiar.

I love this idea and have been talking about doing something similar for a while. . .

Well we finally have a clickable Events Calendar that people can comment/post conversation threads to. . . at least in theory.

What we need to do is populate it with events, start using it and make sure it works the way I/we think it does.

To echo Mission's suggestion - lets make sure to include the what, when, where and contact info. . .

FORMAT:

Month Day - Day, Year

Event Name

Location Address

City, STATE, COUNTRY

Event Web/Facebook Link

Contact Person

Event Phone

Event Email

Description

[hurricane]

Yeah, I think that's all the fields that would be pertinent.