Hiking Ideas Updatehttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/Hiking+Ideas+Update.aspxThe latest news about the Hiking Ideas website.en-usCopyright (c) 2007-2008 Sawtooth Gear LLCSat, 03 Feb 2007 18:58:00 GMTsupport@hikingideas.comhikingideas/1.0Hiking Ideas now has more attractive and usable discussion forumshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2007/2/3/Hiking+Ideas+now+has+more+attractive+and+usable+discussion+forums.aspxSat, 03 Feb 2007 18:58:00 GMTrwhitneyforumshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2007/2/3/Hiking+Ideas+now+has+more+attractive+and+usable+discussion+forums.aspxWe just redesigned our discussion forum areas to be much more attractive and usable. There are several odds and ends that we still need to do but I think you enjoy them much more.

Here are a couple of things that you will see very soon:

  • The images for the forums and the topics will change based on whether you have already viewed them or not.  This will help you find newly posted items.
  • You will be able to add photos to your posts (like I do here in the blogs) so you can include pictures of gear or photos from a recent trip.

Here are a couple of images from the new forums.  Feel free to try them out now!

]]>Improved RSS feedhttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2007/1/25/Improved+RSS+feed.aspxThu, 25 Jan 2007 01:26:00 GMTrwhitneyblogsnewshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2007/1/25/Improved+RSS+feed.aspxThe last week or so we have been working on improving the RSS feeds for our blogs and news stories.  RSS feeds allow news reader programs like feeds.reddit (web), NetNewsWire (Mac OS), SharpReader (Windows) and Straw (Linux) to collect our latest stories and put them in an easily readable form along with other news providers.

Up until now you could follow abbreviated versions of our stories through our news feed.  We have improved this significantly so the feeds from our blogs contain the fully formatted content.  Enjoy!

]]>Check out our new About Us page!http://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/29/Check+out+our+new+About+Us+page!.aspxFri, 29 Dec 2006 16:59:00 GMTrwhitneygeneralhttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/29/Check+out+our+new+About+Us+page!.aspxabout us page.  Again, she blew me away with her drawing talent.  If you ever need any computer graphics drawn be sure to contact her.]]>Blogs v1.0 is now completehttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/21/Blogs+v1.0+is+now+complete.aspxThu, 21 Dec 2006 18:52:00 GMTrwhitneyblogshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/21/Blogs+v1.0+is+now+complete.aspxWe now have all the basic (expected) functionality for blogging.  Here's a complete list of features:

  • Editable title area (banner)
  • Customizable background color
  • RSS feed (news readers can automatically detect new blog entries)
  • A short (snippet) and long blog entry.
  • A fully customizable blog sidebar
  • Two-stage publishing of blog entries - this means you can enter your blog entry and look at it before deciding to make it visible to your readers.
  • Timed publishing of blog entries - If you want to write your blog entries in advance then you can control the date and time that the blog entry becomes visible to readers.

A collection of choices to include in the blog sidebar including:

  • About information including a tagline and a picture
  • A generic blog logo
  • Blog Roll - collection of links to other blogs
  • Tag Index - A custom list of categories for people to find your blog entries
  • Links to your most recent entries
  • An archive of old entries
  • A seasonal hiking graphic

The final piece we added was archiving of old blog entries.  Now a list of months shows up in the archive on the right sidebar of the blog.  If you click on a month you see all the blog entries abbreviated from that month.

The other new feature added is the ability to edit existing blog entries.  If the edited blog entry was already visible to readers at the time of the edit then the entry is marked as edited with the date and time.

]]>Keeping the news positivehttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/18/Keeping+the+news+positive.aspxMon, 18 Dec 2006 14:26:00 GMTrwhitneynewshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/18/Keeping+the+news+positive.aspxEvery morning I post stories about hiking to the Hiking Ideas site.  I use a variety of tools to monitor the latest stories around the Internet.  It never fails that the majority of hiking news is negative.  Most stories are about some tragic fall, some hiker is lost, a hiker was attacked by an animal, etc. etc.

I actually get angry when I see all these stories because it's not representative of the hiking sport.  As a result, I made a vow to myself to not post the negative stories.  Having said that, I violated that rule this morning.  I posted a story about the search & rescue team finding one of the hikers dead on Mt. Hood.

The story of the Mt. Hood hikers has captured my attention and the attention of many people across the US.  I've been praying that they would find these guys alive but it doesn't look good now for the other two hikers.

As a result of this story I've decided to adjust my posting policy.  I will attempt to be fair and representative.  That means that for every 100 or more positive stories I will post one negative.  Let me know if it seems like I deviate from this.

]]>Blog entries can now be taggedhttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/17/Blog+entries+can+now+be+tagged.aspxSun, 17 Dec 2006 23:22:00 GMTrwhitneyblogshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/17/Blog+entries+can+now+be+tagged.aspxYou can now categorize your blog entries with tags. Readers can find all entries associated with a tag if you add the Tag Index to the side panel of your blog.  You can do this by selecting "edit the page" and then "page settings."]]>Reader comments on blog entrieshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/3/Reader+comments+on+blog+entries.aspxSun, 03 Dec 2006 23:11:00 GMTrwhitneyblogshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/3/Reader+comments+on+blog+entries.aspxHiking Ideas then their name is automatically recorded.  Non-members can fill in their name and URL when they enter their comment.]]>New blog authoring capabilitieshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/3/New+blog+authoring+capabilities.aspxSun, 03 Dec 2006 02:10:00 GMTrwhitneyblogshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/12/3/New+blog+authoring+capabilities.aspxThere are several updates to the blogging capabilities of Hiking Ideas this week.  These new capabilities are available to anyone who has created a blog on our site.

We have updated the blogging capabilities to include more control over your blog home page.  You can now fully customize the banner and format the information in the right-hand sidebar.  There are five different pieces of information to choose from in your blog sidebar. 

  • About (including a photo and tagline)
  • Logo (this adds the standard blog logo image for Hiking Ideas
  • Blog Roll (this adds an area that you can customize to include links to other blogs organized by categories that you enter)
  • Recent Entries (this will include links to the most recent 10 entries in your blog)
  • Seasons (this includes the same seasonal graphic that appears on the home page of Hiking Ideas. This graphic changes with seasons and holidays).

In addition to the control of the sidebar information you can also choose between 10 different background colors for you blog.  All the standard images that appear that appear in the blog have been blended to work with these standard background colors.

]]>We are blogging nowhttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/11/25/We+are+blogging+now.aspxSat, 25 Nov 2006 19:34:00 GMTrwhitneyblogshttp://www.hikingideas.com/blogs/2006/11/25/We+are+blogging+now.aspxWe just added blogging to Hiking Ideas.  Any member of the Hiking Ideas site can create a blog and write about whatever moves them.  As of today, the blogging capabilities are relatively simple but many new capabilites are planned in the near future.

What we have so far:

  • You can name your blog whatever you like and the name is used as the URL (browser address).
  • You can enter a tagline for your blog that is a short description for the content of your blog.  You can enter anything like "Wild stories from the wilderness"  This tagline shows up in a number of places including the newsreader (RSS) feed for your blog, the catalog of blogs on Hiking Ideas and on your blog home page.
  • You can also upload a photo of you or of something that represents your blog.  The photo will automatically be resized to fit within the right-hand column of your blog (128x128 pixels).
  • You can maintain a blog roll.  A blog roll is a list of links to other blogs you like to read. 
  • Each blog entry has a date and time when the entry will show up in the blog. If you include a future date for your blog entry then the entry will only show up for visitors when that date arrives.
  • Each blog entry has a short entry (snippet) and a full entry.  The short entry is used for news readers that subscribe to your blog.
  • The Hiking Ideas home page will automatically show the most recent blog entries from all the blogs.

Here are some features that will be coming soon:

  • Edit blog entries.
  • Photos in blog entries
  • Blog entry archives (a catalog of old blog entries)
  • Customization of the blog banner area (like adding images)
  • Reader comments.
  • Tags on blog entries
  • And much more.

Enjoy!

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