Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more

Information => Forum News, Information and Help => Topic started by: admin on January 04, 2012

Title: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: admin on January 04, 2012
We'd like to hear any suggestions that people might have for improvements we can make to the forum. Please post any ideas you have below.

Thanks all!
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on January 04, 2012
more smilies please

(http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/images/smilies/camping.gif)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Mourneman on January 04, 2012
What about a YouTube video,showing some activities our members do
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Grace. on January 04, 2012
might be silly but might as well add it - Somewhere were you could list the outdoor achievements from people in  the group.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Mourneman on January 04, 2012
That's a really good idea Grace,also maybe a map of place's and peaks climbed,camp-site's and routes taken
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Al Fresco on January 04, 2012
A Rant room would be good to let off some steam lol,
an integrated gallery section would be excellent for users to upload pictures,
A Ni-Wild youtube channel for users to submit videos to etc as Mourneman said

Making the forum compatible with a forum app reader or widget would help increase membership, traffic and revenue, such as...
http://www.tapatalk.com/

I found this which I think is quite interesting, if you look at the monthly users against page views it seems people only read 1 page each, perhaps its not easy enough for most people to browse subjects of interest, just my tuppence dont know for sure though.
http://urlspy.co.uk/www.ni-wild.co.uk

Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: AdamMcC5 on January 04, 2012
A kit room, so we could post up what our kit is made up of when we go a night on the hills
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: jonnycrutchley on January 04, 2012
That's a really good idea Grace,also maybe a map of place's and peaks climbed,camp-site's and routes taken

I think that is a great idea.  Routes people have taken, places to avoid and interesting sites along the way.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: rin44 on January 04, 2012
Well, how about a section devoted to Food :D, people  could post favorite recipes they use when up in the hills.cook ahead and cooked on the hill. Hints and tips on storage .what peeps have in their camp kitchen  ect. I have at least a few tasty recipes. heres a tip. I dont carry a heavy wine bottle into the hills. decant it into a 1 litre platypus !!dead simlpe and light.  :)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Bic on January 04, 2012
...a section on Mountain Safety, including various links to MLTUK and various Mountaineering Boards, including things like International Distress signal using a whistle and replying if hearing such....Naismiths Rule...ICE numbers...Route Cards.....small things like when walking downhill, it customary to allow people who are walking upwards to..to give them right of way.......links to sites detailing weather in various locations...etc...etc..list is endless...all captured in one area to entice and educate people......Every days a learning day.... 
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Rumblebum on January 04, 2012
I spoke to whorya about this idea recently.
I was thinking there are quite a few of us who would spend a considerable amount of time in the mourne mountains either on day hikes or the odd overnight.
Quite a few of the higher or remote hills put people off camping on them as it would take condsiderable effort to haul up their rucksack, tent , food, so id thought on the next day hike im up commedagh, bernagh ,etc, id take up a fire log that been weather proofed in plastic and hide it in a marked location somewhere in the wall, then give its location to the members.
A small thing like that certainly makes the nite more comfortable and more people may feel they can go that extra bit further as their have less weight to carry.
Maybe there could be a few of these in different locations?
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on January 04, 2012
Quote
id take up a fire log that been weather proofed in plastic and hide it in a marked location somewhere in the wall,
good idea, especially if you have a gps to mark it accurately, but imagine how gutted you would be if someone had taken it or you couldn't find it  :'( would be like forgetting your buckfast  :o  also best not put stuff in the wall, people could hunt too much and move stones, geocaches are always placed a few meters away from the well used tracks to avoid accidental finds
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Rumblebum on January 04, 2012
Quote
id take up a fire log that been weather proofed in plastic and hide it in a marked location somewhere in the wall,
good idea, especially if you have a gps to mark it accurately, but imagine how gutted you would be if someone had taken it or you couldn't find it  :'( would be like forgetting your buckfast  :o  also best not put stuff in the wall, people could hunt too much and move stones, geocaches are always placed a few meters away from the well used tracks to avoid accidental finds
Hi Liam, yeah im open to suggestions, the geocache would be a good idea, if one of us was heading to the hills we could ask were there any goodies stached near by.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on January 16, 2012
all that stuff is readily available on the internet, so we just need to do a trawl and post our favourite links, bit like the weather forecast thread http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=426.0 , in fact i bet someone's already compiled such a list, i think i'll do a bit of surfin tonight  :)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Oisín on January 17, 2012
Here is a start on that navigation help.

http://www.magazine.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/magazine/tscontent/editorials/outdoor-skills/map-and-navigation-skills/using-a-compass.html
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Ed on January 17, 2012
I second the tapatalk suggestion :)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: wee gaz on January 17, 2012
cheers oisin top site looks easy enough but need to get out and try it.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Oisín on January 17, 2012
How about a tutorials area, where things like basic nav(wee gaz), H&S etc can be kept without getting lost sort of what bic posted i suppose  :-[

So can we...

Ask certian members to compose a thread about their specialist subject (what they feel comfortable teaching) or you could say its like a tutorial basics including how to's and pictures etc. And then as a group we can discuss what could be improved/added to it. And when we are happy with the finished product we can have it as a "Pinned" thread?
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Al Fresco on January 18, 2012
I was looking at the suggestion of the interactive map as I thought it ws a good idea, it really isnt easy to do though.
It is possible through google maps with quite a lot of effort but it would only really place markers on the map. The best solution on google maps I found was a free website that you can upload your gps route etc to andit displays it on google maps. http://www.mapmyhike.com/
Other similiar sites but with better maps are ;
http://www.everytrail.com/search.php?q=mourne

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=urofdctyxozpjkwi&referrer=trackList

http://www.mapmytracks.com/about/products

Im no website expert and im sure there must be a better way.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Matthew on January 18, 2012
Quo mapping software or the Garmin base cam p software will allow you to import a GPS file and over lay that on to a terrain map driven from Google. I am not sure if this is what you were meaning.
That's a really good idea Grace,also maybe a map of place's and peaks climbed,camp-site's and routes taken

I think this is a very good suggestion and it is something, which is easy enough to implement.  It would allow people who are not as confident to give it a go and it allows more experienced outdoors people to develop and modify the routes to suit their needs.

Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Al Fresco on January 19, 2012
Yes Matthew thats what I was talking about, thought it was  great idea but was just wondering how feasible it was. Hope it makes it onto the site.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Matthew on January 20, 2012
It should be easy enough to do, if we had one main routes thread that has links to other overnighters and routes then they would all be in a central place. It could be as simple as an overlaid map or as advanced as having photos indicating the main points of the route, campsite and places to collect water for example.

I will see what I can come up with but I feel it will be an ongoing work in progress.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on January 22, 2012
how about a Lost & Found section? or maybe just one post which is stickied to top of the list
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on February 07, 2012
maybe a climbing section too?
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: mregan on February 07, 2012
Video section.
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Mourneman on February 08, 2012
Still like this idea of an interactive map,showing routes,campsites,points of interest,geocache's
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LandyLiam on February 23, 2012
so are we getting any of out suggestions implemented  ::)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: LennyJ1 on February 24, 2012
maybe a climbing section too?

Ditto  :)
Title: Re: Forum suggestions and ideas - 2012
Post by: Are we there yet? on February 24, 2012
maybe a climbing section too?

Ditto  :)

Yep.. climbing would be of interest to me too  :)