Website Suggestion

[crazy loaches]

One thought I had, which would include the origin, would be the ability to search / organize the species list by one of many different 'categories'.

I know this would be very difficult but just an idea. It would probably require some fancy database programming.

Basically, you could select among the categories like: alphabetical by scientific name (like its organized now), alphabetical by common name, origin, length, temperature, demeanor, etc. Or perhaps a combination, like drop down boxes, so you could select just those loaches 4" or under, peaceful, and tropical temp, etc.

I know this would be very difficult to put into production, and would require a lot of data entry, but if such things werent a problem then thats my ideal solution.

[cybermeez]

One could also go out and buy that fabulous book Loaches: Natural History and Aquarium Care.

[daspricey]

The thumbnails popping up sounds good but it would certainly get one my nerves as it could block the links below it. Perhaps if a small icon on the right of the common name would be better so you could chose to see it?

A suggestion i put on a while back was about having a "my loaches" bit like what planet catfish did. What did everyone think of that?

David

[Slough Shark]

So what is the final verdict mods/admin?

[Graeme Robson]

So what is the final verdict mods/admin?

Lets say, we will place it into our 'thinking tank' along with many other requests.

[Rubix]

thanks for the reply martin i know the site is constantly updated but that's because i'm a regular on here. i greatly appreciate the time and work you and others put in here - i really mean it if there is ever anything i can do to help don't hesitate to ask, i can conjure up some free time for it. i brought up the news box because it concerns me that newcomers may notice old news and think the site is old, along with the information. in reality the site is constantly updated, as you said, and the information is without a doubt the best loach information available (my opinion, but im sure others will agree ); the LOL community is obsessed with loaches, the knowledge and experience here is remarkable. perhaps instead of updating the news box, it could be removed? either way, just a suggestion. i only hope to help improve, share, and contribute to LOL and all loach-kind throughout Earth

[Slough Shark]

Lets say, we will place it into our 'thinking tank' along with many other requests.

Cool, thanks.

[Rubix]

nice news update

[newshound]

So what is the final verdict mods/admin?

Lets say, we will place it into our 'thinking tank' along with many other requests.

sounds good to me

[shafer]

PS - I also like the idea of little thumb nail pictures. Also on http://www.loaches.com/species-index there are thumb nail pictures of quite common loaches - is there any way to link these to the specific species profile? As then if a user sees the loach they want to ID on the 1st page then they can actually click it and find info - rather than going through the ID system. Just a thought

Hi Stonecoloured,

Well, as Martin said, the loach thumbanils on the front page are already linked. On the species-index page that you mentioned, those pictures are *really* tiny and more for visual effect. I think it would be really hard to ID a loach based on that, and besides there's the Pictoral Search option to use.

Thanks,

Jeff

[shafer]

this is very possible i somewhat like the idea.
while on the subject of the webpage, perhaps my only 'button pusher' if you will, is the fact that the most recent item in the news box is from december '06. then again where i'm from no news is good news

Good point, I added a news entry about the Loach Book, in case anyone was living under a rock and hadn't heard how fantastic it is!

Oh, and we now have 1500 loach photos available! This deserves a news entry too!

[shafer]

Martin:

I have an ulterior motive here as I am attempting to get up to speed on web servers, dynamic sites and customizing dynamic sites.

What was the old software and what is the new software?

TR

Hi Jones57742,

The old software was *me*. (Well, I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to build the pages by hand with a template, and was responsible for making all the changes.)

The new software is a Content Management System called Plone ( http://plone.org ) that allows all of the mods to directly edit the website and see their changes immediately. It's really slick and works well right out of the box, and I had to do very few customizations (mostly to the style) to get the site working as it does today. The only drawback is that the underlying software is large and memory intensive, and you can't run it at your average $20/month web hosting company. But, I've got it installed at one of those "Virtual" hosting companies where you get a slice of the full server and full administrative access, and it seems to run well enough...

Jeff

[jones57742]

I appreciate your response Jeff.

TR

[shafer]

A suggestion i put on a while back was about having a "my loaches" bit like what planet catfish did. What did everyone think of that?
David

Hi David,

I see what you mean about Planet Catfish, but I'm not thrilled about how it would look on our species pages to have a big list of names at the bottom...

I was thinking of just adding a field to your forum profile so people could list the loaches they keep. There is a built-in feature of the new forum software (phpBB 3) that allows administrators to add custom fields to profiles. Alas, we're currently using version 2 right now. Rather than me hack it in right now, I'd rather just upgrade the forums and get the ability automatically.

The reason we have not upgraded yet is that version 3 was just released in mid-December and is still at version 3.0.0. I'd rather let them fix any bugs first before we move. Maybe in 3-4 months...

[Stonecoloured]

Good afternoon Jeff,

It is good to see you here again

I see what you mean and thank you for your response.

Overall Loaches.com is priceless for information, facts and friendliness. Any changes would be great, but not essential.

-x-