TAY software upgrade - Feedback requested!

With the help of one of TAY’s community members, we’re going to bring the site onto a more modern web platform.  The main goals of the upgrade, at this point:

• Improve security and ease of content management;
• Improve the overall user experience with respect to Trip Report creation, photo/video uploading, etc.;
• Build the site using largely existing out-of-the-box tools to speed development and future upgrades;
• Bring TAY onto a platform that has more power and flexibility for features/projects in the future, as yet unplanned;

I’m posting this because, while I own the place, it has always been a community resource and I want to try to capture the various uses and important features that y’all  value, which may not occur to me.  Now is the time to speak up about what you like, what you don’t like, or any ideas that you might have to make the place function better for you.

Please indicate whether particular features (existing or new) are "must have" or "nice to have".  We'll take a look at all the ideas we get and see what fits best with the project goals.  Down the road, this upgrade should make it much easier to make both significant changes and fine-tuned adjustments to the site.

Thanks!

I find the format for trip reports easy to use. If we had the option to place videos in line with our text, like we can with photos (instead of a link that directs your browser elsewhere), I would use that option.

Don't know how many other cavemen with slow connections are out there, but how about moving the 'Info Center' from the bottom to the top of the Trip Reports page?

Thanks Markus.

I do like the simple layout of the site. My feedback would be there's no need for anything fancy.

Also, there is real value in the historical repository of trip reports and discussion threads. It'd be great to see the whole site from "day 1" make the transition to the new platform. On this note, if it's possible (it may already be) to store photos on the site as opposed to linking to an external source, this would maintain the integrity of TR's with photos. Lots of older TR photo links are dead since the external source has moved, been deleted, etc.

Thanks again for all your hard work and effort keeping this community connected in such a wonderful way!

Hey Marcus,

I think a updated forum section would be nice. I like the tapatalk forum app that you can use on iphone/android which allows for easy integration and mobile browsing on forums. Another thing would be nice would be an updated home page, the current one seems a bit dated and formatted a bit off.

Another thing if you migrate off your current hosted provider you could migrate this onto AWS (Amazon Web Services) and use their compute cloud platform to host the site. I work for AWS and could help you setup this part and secure it very tight.

I think a trip report section that didn't require you to open a forum would be kind of cool. Click a 'trip report button' select the date, name, title etc.. Add in pictures and txt and hit submit, then it could automatically update to the trip report section in a formatted way that looks the same in every report? Maybe also have a option to upload GPS tracks in it too.

If we could setup something for each individual user such as strava stats or garmin stats, that could be fun to have a leader board to see who has the most vert logged each month.

Anyways, some idea's and food for thought. Let me know if you want help on implementing anything on the site.

If providing info on current conditions is the relevant purpose of TR's, then the current ability to go back no more than 3 months, or so, to reply/discuss, is acceptable.  But I would like the ability to layer content ( or to note others' comments), over a longer timeline for a particular location or tour.  In Random Tracks, one can respond to any topic since the beginning of time..   for better or worse..