Loaches Online Community Edition

[shari2]

If you go to the community you'll notice I tried to create a L. taeniops profile, and what I got.

Didn't use the template, which might be the problem, or it could be that my brain is actually asleep...

[shafer]

If you go to the community you'll notice I tried to create a L. taeniops profile, and what I got.

Didn't use the template, which might be the problem, or it could be that my brain is actually asleep...

Yeah, I noticed that a while ago, but was afraid to ask how all the paragraphs ran together in one big blob...

I actually don't use the template either. The text is already in the proper format so the template slows me down. What I do is open up the thread on the loach forum, copy the text, and paste it into a new page that I've created on the community site. I lose the boldface formatting, but the paragraphs come through just fine, and I can reapply boldface later. Images I upload separately.

What web browser are you using again?

[shari2]

I'm using the new firefox. The problem I run into is the 'pasting from javascript is disabled due to Mozilla security settings. see...'

Don't know how to change that...

[shafer]

I'm using the new firefox. The problem I run into is the 'pasting from javascript is disabled due to Mozilla security settings. see...'

Don't know how to change that...

Wow, that's so weird. I've edited the site from 4 computers using Firefox 2.0 (and 1.5 before it came out) and have never had that warning...

Wait, I found it! Don't right-click in the new edit window and choose paste. That's what triggers the error. Instead, go to the Firefox Edit window and choose paste instead. That should fix it. I always copy and paste with CTRL-C and CTRL-V and never ran into it.

Jeff

[Emma Turner]

I've just registered, Jeff. This looks fab. I already have a couple of articles to submit at some point.

Emma

[shari2]

Thanks Jeff. I'll give that a try.

[shafer]

I've just registered, Jeff. This looks fab. I already have a couple of articles to submit at some point.

Emma

Ok Emma, your account is ready too.

Jeff

[Emma Turner]

Many thanks, Jeff. Will have a play around later.

Emma

[shafer]

I was wondering what everyone thought of the first two species profiles on the new site. Do you like the way they look, and the way the attached photo galleries function? I'd like to spend some time this week moving profiles from the forums to the new site (so you don't have to do all that tedious work!), but I don't want to start unless we're happy with the style I'm using first. (Essentially, just one GREAT photo on the page species page, and a big link at the bottom to a photo gallery where we can have dozens of photos. Certainly, there's flexibility here to put photos inline in the text if we've actively describing and referring to them, but most of the photos have a 1-line caption at most and work fine in a gallery format)

Also, when I copy descriptions, should I put a little note at the top saying that the page is incomplete? Or are all of the species profiles currently works in progress right now?

I noticed Emma uploaded a nice article on "Why Loaches Should Not Be Kept With Malawi Cichlids" which is great. She created a new "File" (not a page), and selected the word document as an attachment. Although this is a good test, note that we shouldn't really do this for the regular site, since it would make the site hard to use. (Would you want to have Microsoft Word open up every time you view a page?). It's better to create a new "Page" and copy&paste the text into it. But, creating "Files" is a nice feature if you want to upload a PDF or an Excel file (or a VIDEO!!) as an attachment for downloading.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Martin Thoene]

I just moved the Barbatula toni file over as a test into my personal fileto get used to the functions. It took me a while to work out that I needed to upload the picture first into Photos rather than import it in from my computer. Is there a method where one can pull a pic in via a URL? I couldn't seem to find that kind of thing.

I chose that species because the image file name fits the format you need (because it was an existing LOL URL), so I didn't need to change it. But then I couldn't link to the URL, so I ended up downloading it to my machine because I could upload then from My Pictures.

If you're going to do the file moves Jeff that would take this duplication of the work we've already done of of our shoulders. It gets a bit old second time around

So many of the images we've used have to get their file names changed. Most of Emma's are all DSCN#. Were going to have to change an awful lot of stuff
Is the simplest way to "right click, save as" on everything and then import from our own My Pictures?
We could each be responsible for doing that for the profiles we authored while you loaded the text, then we could insert the main picture and create the link to the other picture files. (The last bit I'm not too sure of.)

Pretty much, the main body of these profiles are done as far as I'm concerned. Any further updates can be done on-site in the Community.

One thing I'm not clear on yet is how we move files from personal files into the public domain. That species description for instance. How do you get it into the species index pages? And I want to re-write/update my Hillstream article yet again, because there's so much new knowledge available that needs to be incorporated into the text.

As regards articles, I think that for best reader enjoyment and continuity of understanding, they need to be way different from profiles. There, we do need text-wrapped pictures and in certain cases there will be images that do not fit the species image search criteria so yes we do need a protocol for such image storage. By picture title alphabetically?

Martin.

[shafer]

Hi Martin,

No, there's no way to have the software grab a picture from another website and save it on the community site. (You can link to a picture off of another server, like how the forums can use photos from loachtank, but that's not the way we want to build the site). So, the way you did it was correct. Right-click, save-as, etc. etc...

One question for the group: Are the photos already present in the forums the largest size available? Or, for each species, do I need to go searching for the original format? (I can get the originals from Loaches Online no problem. I'm just wondering if I need to search other sites too.) If the forums already have the "best-available" photo in the largest size, that would be great...

To move anything on the site, go to the file, and choose action->cut. Then go to the folder where you want to store it (actually, it's easiest to go to another file in that folder), and choose action->paste. If you use the Content tab of the file, you can select and cut/paste multiple files at the same time to make the process faster.

Yes, articles will be way different from profiles. Articles, most likely, won't have the image search feature, and all of the images will be inline or floating by the text. No problem at all.

Let me hear from some other people too before I start moving files. It's definitely tedious and I only want to do it once! Maybe I'll do 10 a day or something like that...

[Martin Thoene]

You're too quick! I was adding edits above. More thoughts, questions, agonizings

Martin.

[Mark in Vancouver]

I was wondering what everyone thought of the first two species profiles on the new site. Do you like the way they look, and the way the attached photo galleries function? I'd like to spend some time this week moving profiles from the forums to the new site (so you don't have to do all that tedious work!), but I don't want to start unless we're happy with the style I'm using first. (Essentially, just one GREAT photo on the page species page, and a big link at the bottom to a photo gallery where we can have dozens of photos. Certainly, there's flexibility here to put photos inline in the text if we've actively describing and referring to them, but most of the photos have a 1-line caption at most and work fine in a gallery format)

Also, when I copy descriptions, should I put a little note at the top saying that the page is incomplete? Or are all of the species profiles currently works in progress right now?

I noticed Emma uploaded a nice article on "Why Loaches Should Not Be Kept With Malawi Cichlids" which is great. She created a new "File" (not a page), and selected the word document as an attachment. Although this is a good test, note that we shouldn't really do this for the regular site, since it would make the site hard to use. (Would you want to have Microsoft Word open up every time you view a page?). It's better to create a new "Page" and copy&paste the text into it. But, creating "Files" is a nice feature if you want to upload a PDF or an Excel file (or a VIDEO!!) as an attachment for downloading.

Thanks,

Jeff

I think it's brilliant. The image search works well, IMO, and just enough information is given to offer the best starting point for each species. It will become the standard reference to loaches on the internet when it is not even complete.

On the species index, in the synonym field, genus names should not appear more than once if spelled the same way - and this is my technical creepy side saying this... It should be Nemacheilus thoeneii, followed by N. turnerii. Spelling redundant names out more than once was an early flaw to science data that was fixed and understood.

[shafer]

You're too quick! I was adding edits above. More thoughts, questions, agonizings

Martin.

Haha, now I'm editing my post while Mark is replying! (although to a different message) Be sure to re-read...

[shafer]

On the species index, in the synonym field, genus names should not appear more than once if spelled the same way - and this is my technical creepy side saying this... It should be Nemacheilus thoeneii, followed by N. turnerii. Spelling redundant names out more than once was an early flaw to science data that was fixed and understood.

So, do we have a volunteer to fix it? This should be an easy edit. Just click the edit button on the page!