Loaches Online Community Edition

[Martin Thoene]

Hehe! I copied (just in case!) the profile, pasted into the species index, then created the internal link to the page. It's pretty easy once you've actually done an action. With a bit of guidance here and there I think this is going to be a dream to use, especially for edit and one-off creation of stuff.
It's the repetition of these profiles that needs doing that's a PITA. I could concentrate on doing the Hillstreams if you like. What we want to avoid is any duplication of work as that's just a waste. A quick note saying "I'll do Botia over the next few days" or whatever would stop that.

We still have a few Sps to do profiles for, but to be honest now this is up and running, we could do them in Community directly. Cybermeez is working on the remaining Kuhlis so she tells Shari and I.

I'll go back now and delete my original version of B. toni from my personal file.

Martin.

[shafer]

I'll go back now and delete my original version of B. toni from my personal file

The delete function is a bit dodgy at the moment. (i.e. Actions->Delete just gives an error). If you have problems, go to the page you want to delete, then go up to the folder that contains it. (Such as your member folder). The little navigation horizontal bar below the logo will be invaluable in that task. Then, click Contents to view every item in the folder. You can select the item and delete it from that screen.

[Martin Thoene]

Yep! That's exactly what I had to do

Martin.

[shafer]

Hehe! I copied (just in case!) the profile, pasted into the species index, then created the internal link to the page. It's pretty easy once you've actually done an action. With a bit of guidance here and there I think this is going to be a dream to use, especially for edit and one-off creation of stuff.
It's the repetition of these profiles that needs doing that's a PITA. I could concentrate on doing the Hillstreams if you like. What we want to avoid is any duplication of work as that's just a waste. A quick note saying "I'll do Botia over the next few days" or whatever would stop that.

Yes, editing a page will be great. But I'm sure I'll get tired of moving profiles after, oh, the second one! But I'm willing to put in the time necessary to move over all of the species if I have to.

Ideally, when I start to move a profile, the FIRST thing I'll do is move the thread in this forum to the other ('Moved") forum. As long as people only move threads in the active forum, and only move 1 thread at a time, we shouldn't be stepping on anyone's toes.

Sure Martin, if you want to do the Hillstreams, that would be great. It looks like you were able to create your test page just fine. For me, I'm just going to start alphabetically, and when I get to some of your pages, I'll add the image search function. You don't have to add related items on the main profile page, since the image search will substitute for that. (But, you could make the images related to the profile page!)

We still have a few Sps to do profiles for, but to be honest now this is up and running, we could do them in Community directly. Cybermeez is working on the remaining Kuhlis so she tells Shari and I

For NEW profiles on the new site, I have a template in the Moderator folder all ready for you to use. For old profiles in the forum, it's probably more hassle to use the template than it's worth.

[shari2]

Mark in Vancouver wrote:

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!

How about if I edit the synonyms names in the excel index and ftp the changed files out to my webpage? That way, I won't have to run back and forth from site to site making the changes? Or will that mean you have to reload the whole thing all over again and it will be annoying? If we are pulling profiles from here, and I upload the changes via ftp, all the entries still here will have the changes made before you move them. Meanwhile, will the list on the community need manual edits?

Boring, but that I can do...

[Martin Thoene]

Obviously you'll need Jeff's reply on that before starting (or not) the process.

Am I understanding this right? Mark is saying that....

Nemacheilus X, Nemacheilus Xa, Nemacheilus Xb, Neomacheilus X, Neomacheilus Xb

should read:

Nemacheilus X, N. Xa, N. Xb, Neomacheilus X, N.Xb

That it?

Aspirin............................

Martin.

[shari2]

Yup. I think that's what he meant.

So then this:
Cobitis botia, Nemacheilus botia, Botia nebulosa, Botia mackenziei

Should be THIS:
Cobitis botia, Nemacheilus botia, Botia nebulosa, B. mackenziei?

If not...speak up please Mark!

Since Jeff already has the current excel version I think I could go ahead and get started making the changes in the one I have. I won't upload till he says it's worth doing. At least that way, if it comes down to manual editing on the community page I'll have a print out with the changes right in front of me and can do it more methodically. All those teenie tiny little spelling differences will definitely require some concentration...already took my Ibuprofen.

[Martin Thoene]

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...

That's a can of worms there Mr Administrator

I know for a fact that you'll find a whole mixture of yes's and no's to that.

Because we've been inputting photos into a regular Forum Page format, the sources have been multiple in size. Personally, what I've done is chosen pics from the existing index that will basically fit the page. All my personal photos, or ones I've used from the Coppermine (Emma's for instance) are often the "normal_" version because the full-size photo as loaded by the originator is too big to fit.

The original premise of the Coppermine was as a storage facility for possible source images for The Book. Therefore, because of publishing requirements all inputs went in at max resolution available (Mine are 2048 x 1536), but a lot of subsequent uploads were specifically edited to be posted within forums and are generally a third of that size.

What I'm saying is that photos as currently in our new profiles do not necessarily represent the largest file available, but a larger file (or the original unedited version) may be available.

So it's quite feasible to acquire larger format pictures for a lot of these profiles, but it's extra work involved. I have lots of 2048 x 1536 images, but they're now on CD's in original, unedited form. Anything recently posted on a forum is in the Coppermine and represents an edit with cropping, sharpening, editing, color balancing, etc for optimum appearance.

Certain images (not mine) I've used in the profiles I've created could do with editing to iron out some imperfections. There's an awful lot of detail tweaking that can be done in lots of areas.

The fine detailing of everything as we get it into the system is where the possibilities for this new software can absolutely make this new site completely shine compared to many others and absolutely eclipse the user-(somewhat un)friendliness of the old site. Even my short useage yesterday opened my eyes to the possibilities.

I was laying in bed this morning and ideas were bouncing around my head.
I want to update my Hillstream article and there's ways I've already seen with the Plone capabilities that just my one article can become truly interactive with the other content in the new site. Just one idea that popped into my head this morning.......At the start of the article there's a list of Genera.....each of those could link to a related items list. Click "Gastromyzon", get a list of every Gastromyzon species profile.

Oodles of possibility. The only limits are your imagination as you write an article. Oh....Emma.....I read the Malawi/Loaches article. Excellent stuff!

Martin.

[Martin Thoene]

Shair, I noticed that the species list as uploaded still includes entries from the old index that will need removal (Aborichthys sp.) for instance, which was just a picture and is now included in A. elongatus.

More housework! These things are just dust-bunnies though

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

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

Hi Jeff,

I knew I had probably gone about it the wrong way, but at the time I just could not see how to submit it as an Article. You'll have to forgive my basic computer 'skills'. I didn't want it to open as a Word document, so I'll go back in later and try and create a Page for it instead.

And thank you for your kind comment about the article, Martin.

Emma

[shari2]

Which index are you looking at Martin? The (Aborichthys sp.) is gone in the excel version which is the most up to date one. However we do still have the Acanthocobitis sp. (Puma loach?) listed, but no profile on it as yet.

What would you like to do with that one?

there are others:

Homaloptera sp (Old entry features multiple species)
Leptobotia sp.(#1)
Protomyzon sp.
Sewellia sp.'spotted' --This one has a profile, don't know if you want to change the entry name or not. Don't think we have to with the community software, if you don't want to.

Got the synonyms edited in the index, just don't know if Jeff wants them out there or not so I haven't sent them. If he's transferring files, it might be good to be transferring ones that already have the synonyms corrected. Save work on the other side...

Question:

Are the synonyms in order according to date, or is there no specific order? If there is no specific reason for the order they are in, can I alphabetize them? They are all over the place as far as spelling goes...

I started editing the community index and got as far as the Liniparhomaloptera disparis disparisprofile but thought I should get input on the above question before going any farther.

[Martin Thoene]

I'm looking at the Index on the Community site.

In most cases I just pasted the synonyms over from Fishbase. No idea what order they're in. Grouping in first names (alphabetically), then alphabetizing them on second name seems logical.

If the software doesn't need it, let's keep the "spottie" as is.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Jeff, I added the Loaches/Cichlids piece as an Article, and deleted the Word file from my Folder. The View tab on the Articles section still says there are no articles there though, yet when you click on the Contents tab it is there.

Emma

[shafer]

I knew I had probably gone about it the wrong way, but at the time I just could not see how to submit it as an Article. You'll have to forgive my basic computer 'skills'. I didn't want it to open as a Word document, so I'll go back in later and try and create a Page for it instead.

Looks great the second time around Emma. Many thanks! I've made an entry on the Article page and linked to your article. (Obviously, we'll have to organize the whole article section as it starts growing, but temporarily I'm just making a list of the articles for navigation purposes)

Jeff

[shafer]

Jeff, I added the Loaches/Cichlids piece as an Article, and deleted the Word file from my Folder. The View tab on the Articles section still says there are no articles there though, yet when you click on the Contents tab it is there.

Emma

That's because the Articles section (when you click on the folder in the Navigation bar) is a Page like any other page in the site. So, I had to edit it to link to your article. (Technically, I made the Articles Folder first, than make the Articles Page second, and then set the Articles Page as the Default View for the folder.)

I made it a Page because we'll likely want to have some nice text and a fancy organization system to find all of our articles, rather than a simple automatic folder list in alphabetical order.