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Megalithic Portal various tweaks and improvements |
Andy B
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|  Posted 24-02-2010 at 14:19
For pages outside the UK and Ireland were there is no Geograph, I have added a geographic lookup to Flickr for photos of a nearby location (where we don't already have any images posted)
This has come up with some nice 'finds' from the US
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24940
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24985
and some nice views in Germany
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12859
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6335763
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Andy B
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| Posted 02-03-2010 at 22:49
I've also added a look up at Panoramio for nearby photos so there should be more than ever. Please have a browse, there's lots of interesting stuff being found.
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Andy B
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| Posted 02-03-2010 at 22:54
A couple of good ones from Panoramio
Rock art in Canada
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=22804
China
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=22449
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-03-02 22:59 ]
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Andy B
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| Posted 02-03-2010 at 23:02
Lots of good stuff in Mexico
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24995
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24467
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=23521
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24996
and look at this in NZ !
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=11417
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PAB
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from Menevia
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| Posted 06-03-2010 at 20:59
Andy,
I initially thought I liked the geograph pics, but they so often have ne bearing on the MP site I was interested in that I think they can perhaps be a distraction & irritant....
Maybe I just have a low threshold of irritability - but any way of being able to add a 'turn off geograph' option as there is for the mapping options?
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| Posted 08-03-2010 at 04:50
Andy -- I think this is great. When I am hunting for long and lat to create site listings to go with news stories, I often use Panoramio photos to help "find" the spot. The people who posted are sometimes extremely vague, but this is still a great way to get more photo content for places where we do not have a photo presence.
Other good spots:
US - Midwest:
Mammoth Cave
US - the Plains:
Double Ditch
US - the South:
Poverty Point
Nikwasi Mound
US - the Southwest:
Choco Canyon
Chimney Rock
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Andy B
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| Posted 09-03-2010 at 13:54
Pab,
Good idea, I've tied it in with the 'turn off map' switch to give you a clutter free page. I have suggested to Barry from Geograph for a way to limit the 'nearness' of the images a bit and hopefully he will do this.
The Panoramio and Flickr images are only shown if they are within a 1km radius of the location you're at, and it stops looking if it finds images from one of the sources as I thought a possible 3 sets on a page would be too much!
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Andy B
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| Posted 31-03-2010 at 20:38
I've been doing a bit of reprogramming and I've added the facility for logged in users to edit their own comments. This is currently for site page comments only, not gallery comments yet.
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Andy B
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| Posted 02-04-2010 at 00:25
New Street View Maps
To showcase everyone's amazing efforts with Street View I have created some new Street View search maps. The dots on these link to on-page views of all the Street View scenes that have been found:
England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
USA
etc
New Street View scenes will automatically be added as you find them so keep searching and try some other countries as well.
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-04-02 00:28 ]
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Andy B
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| Posted 02-04-2010 at 09:59
As SteveDut has found, there is Street View in Mexico and Japan so these will now have maps too.
Another new feature I've added to the site pages is a link to 'show all information'. This will look up nearby images on Geograph, Flickr and Panoramio (if available) along with showing all our submitted images, and Street View. You can see why this is optional to prevent information overload!
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PAB
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from Menevia
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| Posted 02-04-2010 at 10:39
Andy,
re "Another new feature I've added to the site pages is a link to 'show all information'."
I may be doing something wrong, but the ability to 'show all information' seems irreversible - it doesn't seem to go to 'turn off'?re "
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SteveDut
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from Newcastle Australia
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| Posted 03-04-2010 at 07:59
Andy, over the past 5 - 7 days I have found the site sluggish, the only reason I'm saying anything is that everything else works my end bar searching your site (I usually have google earth open too but it doesn't seem to matter) Any thoughts?
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Andy B
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| Posted 03-04-2010 at 11:24
Where in the world to look for sightings on Street View
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/maps/streetview/where-is-street-view.html
PAB, I didn't think a 'cancel all' was necessary as it will automatically cancel when you navigate away to any other page. You can just do a 'back' on your browser to go back to the previous version.
SteveDut, I haven't noticed a slowdown here, any particular pages? Embedded Street View can make pages slow so I haven't enabled it unless we don't have our own photos of a particular site. The embedded nearby site maps can be slow but there is an option to turn them off while browsing.
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Andy B
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| Posted 07-04-2010 at 20:31
I'm pleased to say that I've finally got round to adding the spreadsheet of cursus data that Keith (EssexMan) entered for us. There are just over 200 new sites.
The source of data is the thesis Cursuses and Related Monuments of the British Neolithic, Roy Loveday, Department of Archaeology, University of Leicester, 1985
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/theses/cursus_phd_2006/
which itself includes references for various other primary sources from where the data was obtained
Where the data gives two terminal points I've added these as two points in our database with a note that the other point will be found in the Nearby Sites list. Thus you can see the length and direction of the cursus.
You can see all the new sites on our cursus home page
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/search.php?query=&country=&category=0&county=&sitetype=34&days=0&type=stories
Although cursuses are not the most obvious of monuments it's possible some may be visible on Google Street View so don't forget to check these out if you're taking part in the competition.
A reminder that if you have a lot (like over 100) ancient sites to add it can be quicker to put them in a spreadsheet and I can bulk add them like this. If you have any data like this that you could contribute then please let me know.
Andy
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-04-07 20:46 ]
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Andy B
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| Posted 09-04-2010 at 19:46
On page OS maps now added to all of our site pages in England, Scotland and Wales via the new OS Openspace facility. One tiny thing we have Gordon Brown to thank for in making the OS free up some of its data!
You can turn them off with the same button as for the Yahoo maps. If I can get them to work for nearby sites I may replace the Yahoo maps, but perhaps it's useful to have both.
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cerrig
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| Posted 21-05-2010 at 00:14
A couple of things that would be nice to have;
A facility to print out a site page without any adverts or anything unnecessary, to save on ink. This would be useful when investigating sites, all the info and a map too. Could be just the thing for the "Site hunt" day's.
Also, when uploading photo's, is there a way to navigate straight to the site page from the uploading page without going back through the search pages, as in the link to the main site page from existing processed photo's.
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Andy B
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| Posted 21-05-2010 at 12:41
I'll see what I can do for our July meetings. A 'low graphics' mobile version of the site would do the same job, that's something I've been meaning to do for a while.
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Andy B
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| Posted 22-05-2010 at 14:16
OK, as an experiment I have created a version of the Portal theme without any side bars, which should be good for mobile viewing or printing.
To get this you need to be logged in, then click on
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php
and then "Select Theme".
Then choose Mobile from the list and Save
To get back to the 'normal' Portal again look for the 'Edit Settings' link at the right of the top menu and set the theme back to 'Default'
As you don't get the left hand menu there are a couple of things I need to know about it
a) does the top 'drop down' menu work on your mobile device? Otherwise you'll have no navigation at all so I need to do something about that
b) is there anything you need for navigation in the left menus that you need that is not in the top 'drop down' menu
I will work on a quick way to get to this version when you are on a mobile device but I'd appreciate some people having a look at it on their Blackberries / Iphones / Androids / whatever else and giving some feedback.
Thanks
Andy
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Andy B
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| Posted 25-05-2010 at 19:54
The links to 'Old Maps' are fixed. Look for the square grey buttons in the External Links on our UK site pages.
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DrewParsons
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from New Zealand
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| Posted 25-05-2010 at 23:08
The new "Mobile" setting on our personal pages (Themes) is an excellent improvement for printing. Top bars all seem to work OK on my home based laptop too. Can't try mobile phone internet links as I don't use one, sorry.
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