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Website Suggestion

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:13 am
by Slough Shark
Hey Mods/Admin,

I was just flipping through the profiles of various loaches and thought to myself "How about country/region classification?"

Do you think it would be a good idea to add a column for the origin of the species on the species index to enable quick searching for us biotope people?

What do you other members think?

Thanks for looking,
Taylor

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:19 am
by janma
I vote Yes. Good idea.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:56 am
by bslindgren
Yes, that sounds like a good idea!

Another potential improvement would be to emulate the planet catfish species list and have a thumbnail of the fish show up when you put the cursor on the name. I know nothing about how this would be done, so perhaps this is a bad idea, but it is sure nifty to just go down the list and see pictures of the species without having to open the page - particularly when you are trying to ID something!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:03 am
by jones57742
Folks:

In addition to the above posts and

This may sound absolutely absurd here but as this is the Loach site and many of yall are real gurus how about setting up an LC numbering system similar to the L#'s.

TR

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:34 am
by Stonecoloured
I really like the idea of the country classifications - it will clarify which loaches would portentially be living together in the wild and thus share hibitat and water quality.

I'm not too sure about LC numbers, Just purely because there is such a range of loaches - some of which are un-identified or are so similar to others that it is difficult to gain a specific ID. In order to do effective LC numbers we would have to ID the loaches or leave them out. Or were you thinking of doing LC numbers for the more common loaches (ie clown, zipper, yoyo ect)?


Just my 2 pennies worth

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:38 am
by Stonecoloured
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 :)

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:08 am
by Martin Thoene
Stonecoloured, those thumbnails on the LOL front page are linked to the species profiles.

As regards thumbnails popping up when your cursor hits a name I'm not sure if that's possible. The pictorial search index that I developed has proven a very effective search facility for people who don't know a fish's name and a lot of people have raved about it as being very unique for fish websites.

Martin.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:24 am
by shari2
"How about country/region classification?"
If you look at the 'Distribution' line it does list country of origin, and sometimes regions within countries. Is that what you meant?

For instance:
Acanthocobitis urophthalmus
Distribution: Sri Lanka, restricted to the south western lowlands from Kelani River to Nilwala River.

As for the scroll over thumbnails, it sounds like a great idea to me. However, we'd have to ask Jeff how doable it is, if at all.

I can inquire...

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:30 am
by Rubix
Martin Thoene wrote: As regards thumbnails popping up when your cursor hits a name I'm not sure if that's possible.
this is very possible 8) 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 :o

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:36 pm
by Slough Shark
shari2 wrote:
"How about country/region classification?"
If you look at the 'Distribution' line it does list country of origin, and sometimes regions within countries. Is that what you meant?

For instance:
Acanthocobitis urophthalmus
Distribution: Sri Lanka, restricted to the south western lowlands from Kelani River to Nilwala River.
I meant that we have a column stating that location on this page:
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/species-index

I just think it would allow for more efficient searching in some ways. And as another member pointed, if we want to mix species, its good to know where they are from so we can provide proper water parameters, filtration, etc.

Taylor

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:14 pm
by Mark in Vancouver
I think this may have been possible prior to inputting all the data. Trouble will arise because not all of the distribution info is detailed. So if you pull up a listing that just says "India" it won't tell you very much. Also, hillstream loaches and kuhlis may occur in the same river system, but their requirements are at opposite extremes.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, Taylor. Just that the results may vary in usefulness.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:35 pm
by Slough Shark
Good point. It would probably be too much to add the species' biotope (fast-flow section, shorline of river, stagnant pools, etc.) into the said column for area wouldn't it?

As for the species that don't have distribution info, why not just put what's already in the "Distribution" bit of each page into the column. For the species where it says "Unkown" just have that said in the distibution column. Would that work?

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:20 pm
by Martin Thoene
Rubix wrote:
Martin Thoene wrote: As regards thumbnails popping up when your cursor hits a name I'm not sure if that's possible.
this is very possible 8) 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 :o
The fact is that since December '06 there's been a zillion things added to the site that could have gone into the "news" section. It's just a function that we've never investigated. During early experiments with the software Jeff told me how to input stuff there but I've completely forgotten how now.
What was more important was getting all the old info over from the old website and updating it with the capabilities of the new software. I spent a LOT of time updating articles and rationalizing info to get what you see now. The reason it happened how it did was the fact I was off work due to an industrial injury and able to dedicate the time. We all have jobs and "life" which get in the way normally of being able to dedicate THAT much time to it.
You'd be suprised actually how much does go on as regards updates. It's a gradual process and something that almost never happened with the old site.

Martin.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:53 am
by jones57742
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

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:37 pm
by Emma Turner
It is always good to receive feedback. 8) You know, we seem to have a million and one things in the pipeline, but never enough hours in the day! :wink:

Emma