A Calendar for Michigan Trail Riders?

[gopat]

Ever want to go riding on a certain date but can't find anyone to go with? Ever want to try riding with new people?

I have noticed folks posting to this forum looking for someone to ride with on a certain date. There has to be a better way for like minded riders to rendezvous to a destination. After all, didn't your mother tell you not to ride alone? ...

Well, how about starting a public calendar for Michigan trail riders. Perhaps we could open a Google account and create a public calendar just for this occasion...

Below is how it could work:

• Interested riders would get a Google Gmail account.
• Create an appointment and duration on the date to ride and name the appointment with the name of the trail.
• All interested riders would put their gmail username, rider skill level, and their home town on a single line in the appointment details section. Example entry: "jmcbrat (B) Detroit"
• Users could confirm ride details via email and perhaps share a ride if both are from the same general area...
• If this works, then put the link to the calendar in a sticky topic, then later move it to the FAQ.

Obviously this would need to be tested, and Google calendar may not be the best choice. But the calendar with this forum is broken (stuck on 2006). Any thoughts? Please vote...

 

[INCA]

After all, didn't your mother tell you not to ride alone? ...

No, she did not.

YT1

 

[Fred T]

After all, didn't your mother tell you not to ride alone? ...

No, she did not.

YT1

Thats because when you were a kid motorcycles were not invented......did she tell you not to go horse back riding alone?

Learning to make trouble... :nener:
Freddy T

 

[INCA]

Same answer still applies. Are you sure horses had been invented?

YT2

 

[bje]

Excellent suggestion, Gopat. I voted yes.

 

[gopat]

Hey, thanks for your votes on this idea!

I have investigated a number of approaches that might make this work. So far, I have found that incorporating graphical calendars do NOT work. They just don't scale with a large number of events.

My findings indicate that you must have collaboration and user visibility that is available in forums or possibly blogs. The other piece may be using a format on topic subject lines that allows you to search for posts of interest. This could mimic a "custom" graphical calendar that would display only the trails and date ranges you want. You simply bookmark the search and respond to posts that fit your interests...

This forum may be able to handle this format. It has a great search features that allow you to search by title, user name, forum name, etc. I just wonder how these event postings would "mix" with regular postings in this Michigan forum. The other option would be to have a forum named "Dirt Bike Events" for all states.

So what would a "DirtDate" subject line look like? Below is an example:

# DirtDate Subject Line Syntax Below:
HourAM/PM "Trail Name" STATE-YYYY-MM-DD Level=(seeFAQ) Event=(seeFAQ)
# "Level" refers to a FAQ listing of rider experience levels.
# "Event" refers to a FAQ listing of event types (ie: Trail ride, Enduro, Dinner, etc)

# Example Subject Lines Below:
8am Cedar Creek MI-2008-07-01 Level Event=T

The above subject line format should allow easy searches for those interested in dirt bike events during a range of times. It communicates the target audience and the event type, all in the subject line! All of the details could be in a FAQ link or a sticky post. Obviously, this would need to be tested with a try-out period...

What do yo think? Is this something that might work here?

 

[gopat]

I haven't heard any response about this idea... If there are no major objections, I would like to create a few threads this weekend (~6) to test how well this idea works. This test would show how they would work with the forum search process. I will pick event dates from the past and make it obvious that it is a test.

 

[gopat]

All,
I created 9 event test posts... And yes, they can be deleted...

In summary, I think it will work to use this forum to post events using a standardized format for efficiency and specific search results to mimic a graphical calendar.

The last post had a title of: "8am Evart MI-2008 06 15 Level=3 Event=TRide (Event Test post)". I used the advanced search feature to search the entire forum by titles only and sort by titles. The catch is that you must search for whole words. You could also limit your search to a specific forum.

If there were 10 event posts for June of 2008 (ie: MI-2008- 06-15), you could not search for "MI-2008-06" since the entire "word" also needs each day value "-15". But it would work if you separated the date by spaces... Then if June events had dates like: "MI-2008 06 15", you could search for "MI-2008 06" and pull up all 10 June Michigan events, just like a custom calendar. This would allow useful custom calendar searches that can be saved as browser bookmarks.

I propose 2 options:

1) Create a separate forum called, "Dirt Bike Events" that would be used only for events and have a FAQ as a sticky topic.

2) Allow "DirtDates" in this forum, but also include a usage FAQ as a sticky topic.

I have created a draft of a potential FAQ that proposes basic usage, rider levels and event types. I can post this if this group would like to move forward with this idea...

While this concept could be tested more, the basic requirements have been met. I think this forum should discuss and adopt one of the 2 options mentioned above. Any thoughts?

 

[fatcat216]

Too complicated.

Too detached Robotron-speak (rather than cool Michifolks chatter).

Losing your dirt soul to formatting and faqs= Lost interest.

Losing your personalities is not worth it in my very envious "I'm stuck in WI when the cool people are in Michigan" un-asked for opinion.

A calendar or forum to post dates=good.

 

[gopat]

Good point! My suggestions were workarounds for spending $$$.

The "correct" way would be to budget $$$ to create a form that users fill out when creating events. Then the program formats the post, not the user. Without some kind of unified process, the custom searches will not work...

To your point, I thought about how it could be simplified. Below is what I came up with that still preserves search capabilities:

"MI-2008 06 15 8am -- Trail Ride at Evart -- Rider Level: Experienced"

I suppose you could skip the rider level stuff, but then you may have to deal with that issue in the forum post or worse, find out on the trail that there are huge skill level differences... Putting the skill level in the subject line could save a lot of hassle...

Any ideas how to deal with the "rider level" issue?

 

[gopat]

All,
Based upon the above poll, I would expect at least 80 event entries per year if this group had a workable event system. While, a forum event system would work in a separate, dedicated forum, it would not be as convenient. I also think some consistent but simple event format would really make this work...

I may create an offsite FAQ page for "DirtDate" events and include the URL in some events that I will post. Others will be welcome to use the same format...