TractionKiting.co.uk

need some help from all you kind folks...

statred this project over 6months ago but havent really had much time so things have happened very slowly. the plan is to put together a website to catalog as many kitesurf-able in scotland as possible and to provide usefull information about them This should then provide an excellent resource for finding new beaches or planning road trips.

i know there are a lot of site around with similar goals but IMO a lot of them fail cause there too general, by trying to encourage scottish kitesurfers to share info about beaches they use or have found it should be possible to make a pretty comprehensive database.

i am no web developer and lack an eye for design and stuff so please bear with me, i am still really at a sort of proof of concept stage. the site is using the google maps api and databases so i can hold loads of info on locations.

important info on kitesurf spots as i see it are:

• hazards such as rocks, rips etc


• restricions on certain beaches


• wind directions that a location takes

i have chosen to add a few more sections that i thought might be usefull but what would you want to know about a location???

curreently anyone can go onto the site and add a new location to the list, i am aware that this leaves the site a little vaunerable to abuse but i feel logins and stuff may put people off. what are your opinions?

anyway, i have added a few locations through testing stuff but before it going live these will be scrubbed and more accurate info will be used.


i welcome anyone to have a play and comment on the concept or whatever. your help is invaluable....

http://www.kite-pics-scotland.com/locations/index.php

cheers for looking
Angus

Great idea Angus, as you know we (TK) are doing the same thing for the land side of things and will be launched with the new TK site early next year, I think keeping it nice an specific you will have a brilliant resource for people wanting to kitesurf in Scotland.

Top job fella!

Not sure how to get round the problem of people abusing the system other than the information not getting updated automatically, this does mean you or someone else would need to authorise the location before it was submitted but I dont think this would put people off.....just a way of making sure the locations arent bogus.

O.

cheers O

thats quite a nice idea about allowing anyone to submit but having a sort of 'ok-ing' procedure before it goes up. not quite sure how i could implement it in a nice way though. will certantly give it some thought. i was thinking about just being trusting and if it did get abuses then introduce an login system

will post some locatins for ya this week angus. do you want ones that i have heard about as well as ones that i have actually used?

the problem with being "trusting" is that random bots will eventually start abusing the site, we get approx 30 bots a day trying to create accounts on our gallery!!

O.

Angus mate,

Have you seen this?

http://kitebeaches.com/kitebeaches/country.php?country=Scotland%20(UK)

Some very good info on here.....but again,as you say,some of the descriptions are a bit vague or repetitive

yeah, i have seen that before. its usefull in some aspects but not in others...

a lot of the info is pretty vauge and seeing a list of names of locations you dont recognise isnt really very usefull for planning trips or just finding other sopts near you...

i do like the way they use images of the locations, this is something i am incorporating. currently only with thumbnails but soon hopefully will allow you to upload decent sized images and the server will also create thumbnails

will post some locatins for ya this week angus. do you want ones that i have heard about as well as ones that i have actually used?


am going to wipe database before it goes live proper but your welcome to play before hand. first hand experience is always best but if youve heard of a killer beach that hasnt been added then its welcome...




the problem with being "trusting" is that random bots will eventually start abusing the site, we get approx 30 bots a day trying to create accounts on our gallery!!

O.



did consider this, was going to look into how they worked to see if there was a nice way round it. do you know if they just target known formats of forms like on forums and stuff or do they actually learn to spam indeviual sites?

one way round it is to use the old picture of a codeword thing...

So tempted to add the location of the puddle I had to cycle through tonight ...... but would feel too guilty at starting a craze of bogus locations. Great idea though - hope you get plenty of feedback.

Angus the picture code idea also known at CATCHA would be the best solution, as far as I am aware the bots simply fill the forms with bogus info until they get a submit = true response. I will be using something like this on our new contact us page because we are getting lots of spam.


O.