I figured Oatestache would get you in here.

So it's been a while since I rambled about something new here at Crankfire. And yeah, to be honest, there has not been much happening. I have barely been on my bike this year, and when I have actually found a little "me time", I find it is best used staring blankly at a wall.

But I did do something!

I updated the most fundamental data set we got: Trails!

You wonder why? First off, I know your not wondering why, but I am going to tell you anyway with a quick little background: Ever since I made the "add a trail" page, I realized the trails entered were a little "one sided" - these trail records were entered by a single user, which pretty much then limited all other users' thoughts to bupkis. Sure, other users could comment on it and rate it, but that is just not enough. It just didn't have that "the community majority is probably the best data" feel to it.

Here is what I did

I broke the trails data into two pieces:

1. Base Trail Record: The only information this record now contains is the trail name, city and state.
2. Trail Review Records: Each of you, my beloved users, can now each enter their very own trail review. Trail terrain ratings, trail descriptions, trail notes and a user specific rating all now get jam packed in here.

This is a good thing. Not only can you get more than 1 single review of a trail, but now you can get even none! The beauty of none? Well, this opens up a door adding "place holder" trails into the system - so if someone has some data or photos, a place to associate them to can easily be created.

I have something else as well

Within the terrain ratings for these new trail reviews, I added a "Greenway" terrain rating. Not sure why, but I feel we should not ignore them. Sure, most of them are paved, but some are gravel, some are dirt - but the truth is we can ride mountain bikes on them and I just happen to have some sections of them mapped out.

And I wanted a place to put it.

Wait! There is more...

Sort of. I am also starting to try to clean stuff up and making things more user friendly. You might notice some nice little tooptips popping up here and there on a lot of them cryptic little icons I like to use. You might even find some of our data pages a little less cluttered and, if you are lucky, you may even notice our data entry pages might be a little spiffier.

I also started down the road of granting more "data control" - you can now delete gps data you uploaded, and other data sets are in the works.

Now, get to work!

These trails ain't gonna review themselves! Hmmmm, not sure who you are.... Sign up, log in and come back right here for the link.

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