[Dan]

Hello, This would be my first post.

I am designing a UK birdwatching website and would like your suggestions and ideas. What kind of things would you like to see on it? I have some ideas.. but your ideas would be very helpful.

Many Thanks

Dan

[Steve]

I would like to see a link to BF please

Thanks.

ps Welcome

[T0ny]

Yeah, well that was predictable, but not 100% helpful. I'd suggest :
Decide on your expected viewers - do you want something for all-round birders, your average garden Blue Tit strokers, or the twitching minority ? Do you want to feature identification articles, in-depth scientific studies of population trends, habitat changes, etc, pix of birds national and international - in short, is there a niche you're trying to fill ? As Steve says, reciprocal links to other birding sites will get your hit rate up. Finance is another thing - being brutally frank, who's paying ? I've an idea that the average '50 megs of space free with your ISP' deal can get a bit fraught if the site turns out to be fantastically popular, but this is just my impression, I may be wrong.
That's my two-penn'orth - I look forward to seeing the results. Will it be ready by New Year's Day ?

Good luck and welcome.

Tony

[Steve]

you predicted it did you tony? and who says its not helpful, if the members see his site on here, id of thought it would be very helpful to him.

Tony you would not believe how unpredictable I can be.

[cjay]

Try looking at other peoples sites. locally based sites are easier to handle. also you need to promote it as much as you can so people send in their sightings to you.

CJ

[paula]

Visit other sites, see what is missing and add that missing something to your's.
Make it different from other sites,
Keep it simple
Make sure it is easy to navigate
Hope this helps!

[Dan]

Thanks for the quick response!

My Idea:-

If i could get records for the last 5 years.... At present i have just for my home county(Essex). But im sure i could get other counties data. With this data i could then allow the users to filter,search etc the data.. plot graphs,maps etc all online! Do you think this would be useful?? It will allow you to see changes in arivals of migrants etc etc.. it can do anything!!


I have the server resources, the skills to do this... would something like this be useful?


All Comments welcome.

Thanks Dan-

[T0ny]

Do you mean something like an on-line combination of the various BTO atlases, County Bird Reports, Rare Birds by Lee Evans (tm), etc. as a searchable database ? If so, I think it's an excellent idea, providing a central site for this data. Good luck.

Tony

[Dan]

Thanks,

Thats the plan.. and then i would like people to submit sighting each day.. to keep the records upto date. etc etc.

Any ideas for features would be great..


Thanks

-Dan

[IanF]

First of all I hope that your planned site has different objectives to Birdforum, else you will be competing for membership and you may struggle

A big problem will be to get people to submit their sightings everyday when there are so many already doing this ie Birdcall, Birdline, Birdforum etc...
I should think you will have to come up with an entirely new idea to attract sufficient members to keep the site going.
You may be better off trying to stick to one county initially and then expand the area covered, else utilise the information from other sites and newsgroups to build up birding maps.
I already try to judge the movement of migrants across the country in my head from viewing various sites, in the hope they may be heading my way. It works surprisingly well in so far as I have a good idea what to keep my eye ope for next time I go out.
I find the problem with using bird club data is that it is all historical, by at least a couple of months, but if you have records for five years plus, you could try to establish trends and move on to making predictions of new arrivals and departing migrants.

As has been touched upon, the more narrowly defined you make your website, the fewer the number of members you will have.
Steve in his 'subtle' manner hit the nail on the head. Reciprocal links will tremendously boost the number of visitors, but then it's up to you to keep them !

[Dan]

Thanks,

I will stuggle?? Don't you mean you will stuggle to keep your members?? hehehe

This will not be the only resource on the site, I have other features.. those, you will just have to wait and see :)

Dan

[Camberley red]

Try birdguides.com, birdtours.co.uk or surfbirds.com as they currently set the standard in general interest birding web sites I believe, all from slightly different angles. As mentioned before see whats missing and fill the gap! easier said than done probably.

good luck

Paul

[monkeyman]

Sounds good, so far!

Welcome to the best (or should I have left it as "beast"?) Forum on the planet, Dan!

For my fourpence-worth:

(And this depends on how scientific you aim to be)

How about a general round-up of areas; a bit like an on-line version of the 'Go birding' section in "Birdwatching", but more in depth with a "rarities seen" section etc? I for one enjoy reading about what other members see in their local patch; perhaps you could expand on that? It woulb be great to have an up-to-date/"with maps and photos" resource to "look up" when you're visiting a particular part of the country!

And I like maps!

I'm quite happy to contribute sightings from the Black Country and South Staffs ('though I can't make it on a daily basis!)

Migration maps and sightings would be nice and you will NOT take any members away from here it is THAT GOOD!!!hehehe

[Dan]

Thanks for the support monkeyman... Thats some good ideas there.

An idea i just had based on your post...

Each area has its own checklist. based on that month/season, detailing what should been seen (based on current sightings) and what should be seen (based on past data). Would something like this be helpful?

I really want the site to be the BirdWatchers ToolKit... so feedback and further suggestions would be great.


Dan

[monkeyman]

The idea of a checklist sounds good, cos I'm a lazy so-and-so! Anything to make life easier, eh?

Need any help with graphics?

[Dan]

Monkeyman.. What you like with Graphics?? Ohh i see that your a freelance designer so id guess u might be good

Yeh.. Graphical help would be cool, thanks.

Thanks for your input into this MM, much appriciated.


Dan

[T0ny]

Dan,
If it's not too late, something akin to the BBRC site, showing rarities accepted but searchable by county might prove popular.

Tony

Dan

How are things moving along with your plans?

[Dan]

Hello,

Thanks Tony will have a look at that site.

Peter: I have been sorting out functions of the site research and collecting sources of sightings etc.

Thanks for everyones responses. I will have a look at the BBRC site and get back to you.

Happy New Year


Dan

[Dan]

Thanks Tony that site has some good ideas. I think c by c search and such would be a good plan.

I would like to hear peoples ideas on what functions/features would be helpful when I have the data. What kind of searches/filters graphs etc etc would be of help to you?


Thanks for everyones inputs


Dan

[monkeyman]

Dan

1) some of my stuff is in the gallery and in "Articles" under Urban Safari. If you want background imagery or vignettes or even photos of South Staffs/West Midlands then let me know. Illustration falls into two categories: decorative or informative, so take your pick!

2) Have you come across MapMate (www.mapmate.co.uk)? It is very basic (visually) but has a great database function. Now if you could improve on that, that would be something! I started using it for butterfly/moth sightings (which it caters for primarily) but I'm sure it could be revamped into something pretty spectacliar for birds!!! (I likes my maps and piccies on a website! As well as relevant and accurate info!)

I suppose my ideal website (of the type you are talking about) would be one that displayed:

a) maps of places I am interested in (ie a cross between the OS Atlas, GetMapping and Routemaster) and photos of what to expect;

b) a list of what I could reasonably expect to see (plus photos/illustrations) in said chosen area of interest at various times of the year; and

c) what rarities might turn up in said area (complete with, you've guessed! photos or illustrations)!

But then, that's just my opinion!

Hope this helps!



Al

[Dan]

Very helpful thanks! Thats given me a good starting point.

I will check out the mapmate site see what that has to offer me

:-)

Dan

[Dan]

I checked out MMate and it looks cool. From this i have started designing the mapping engine for the web-site. It's all starting to get exciting now!! :-)

Maps!! I like the maps in map mate, but wondering if these detailed outline maps are avaliable FREE?? I have had a look round online by the maps are not of enough detail for the purpose of the site.

So if anyone knows where i can find maps of this detail, i would love to hear from you. Or if someone wants to give me a copy of map-mate??? heheheh

Thanks.

Dan

[fatbirder]

Whatever you decide be sure and send me the URL so i can put a link on fatbirder...

bo