New Feature: Trailforks Integration at the park level

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Sure. To be honest, I feel like this is all overkill. I think most people that care know if their local spot is good or not. We have a thread for each park where people can ask about unfamiliar parks. People ask if the park will be good and somebody usually replies.

I do and don't agree. We were trying to figure out where to ride Saturday and Jungle came up, but D said it was apparently muddy (IG posts) so I text DVW and ask about Wawayanda. He says it's good and he'll be there after 12 and we end up riding with him a bit. I would have assumed both parks would have been fine but I was wrong. At the same time, I know enough people to ask. Probably not a lot of people can say the same.

That said, I think this is an issue for 4-8 weeks a year then once mid-April gets going we all forget about it.

So I guess basically 4-8 weeks a year we should just have a thread called Spring Trail Conditions: Ask Dave
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I would have assumed both parks would have been fine but I was wrong. At the same time, I know enough people to ask. Probably not a lot of people can say the same.

True, and it can be tough this time of year. Your widget worked well way back when.

I think this is an issue for 4-8 weeks a year then once mid-April gets going we all forget about it.

Yeah, as long as people update conditions, it's definitely useful. Then freeze thaw ends, and nobody cares anymore.
 

Tim

aka sptimmy43
I think this is a worthwhile endeavor. I don't understand why there seems to be a sentiment that it can't work and it's GIGO. There has to be a starting point somewhere. The way I see it it can only get better and more useful. We have an opportunity to move the needle away from the garbage that may be going in now.

We all complain when 6MR gets gutted but now we don't want to put better information out there?
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I think this is a worthwhile endeavor. I don't understand why there seems to be a sentiment that it can't work and it's GIGO. There has to be a starting point somewhere. The way I see it it can only get better and more useful. We have an opportunity to move the needle away from the garbage that may be going in now.

We all complain when 6MR gets gutted but now we don't want to put better information out there?

I think you missed the point of my post. Add that with Jim's and you get the gist of a practical solution.

I mean, just think logically about it for any length of time and you'll conclude that poor trail conditions will never be entered on TF. The people who ride either DGAF and won't enter them, or they do GAF and will be afraid to enter poor conditions because they will get slut-shamed for riding the mud.

That leaves only trail stewardship and that puts inordinate demands on a few people which isn't going to stick.

I mean answer that 1 gaping hole of a question here. Who is putting in Six Mile conditions from this past weekend?
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Who is putting in Six Mile conditions from this past weekend?

This is why I suggested having 1-3 locals for each park that are responsible for updating conditions. I'm sure the Six Mile locals could update the status of the trails most of the time without going there to look.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I mean answer that 1 gaping hole of a question here. Who is putting in Six Mile conditions from this past weekend?

George i would guess.

I got bored and wanted to learn how to access associative arrays of indexed arrays so the current weather is turned on for 6MR and Allaire
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm sure it's not available but showing a forecast of 10 days 5before/future. Not a written just typical icon. Maybe a calendar thread of sorts. Sorry visually I can picture but difficult to explain.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I'm sure it's not available but showing a forecast of 10 days 5before/future. Not a written just typical icon. Maybe a calendar thread of sorts. Sorry visually I can picture but difficult to explain.

Something like that might work across the top or bottom of the screen - I like the icons better than the numbers.
I'm still thinking it is local knowledge. it could not rain for a week with the freeze/thaw thing going and the parks are
a mess. or there are parks/areas that handle it well.

i'd like to find a similar weather display as presented, but with a high/low for the day, and maybe something if it is changing.
 

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
So I signed up for Trailforks, just to be able to comment on things. My first attempt at anything was to add a trail to Wawayanda.
I did it and I saw a message saying "conformation" or something like that.It seemed to go along with no hitch, but I don't see the trail listed either.
Has anyone here done this before ? What now, just wait? I can't even find it anymore. Duh...
 

roc

Well-Known Member
I do and don't agree. We were trying to figure out where to ride Saturday and Jungle came up, but D said it was apparently muddy (IG posts) so I text DVW and ask about Wawayanda. He says it's good and he'll be there after 12 and we end up riding with him a bit. I would have assumed both parks would have been fine but I was wrong.

I would have thought that wawa, would have been a little worse than jungle, but I also would have thought that they were both fine to ride. Maybe I’m off base, but jungle seems pretty bulletproof, no?
 

Tim

aka sptimmy43
I think you missed the point of my post. Add that with Jim's and you get the gist of a practical solution.

I mean, just think logically about it for any length of time and you'll conclude that poor trail conditions will never be entered on TF. The people who ride either DGAF and won't enter them, or they do GAF and will be afraid to enter poor conditions because they will get slut-shamed for riding the mud.

That leaves only trail stewardship and that puts inordinate demands on a few people which isn't going to stick.

I mean answer that 1 gaping hole of a question here. Who is putting in Six Mile conditions from this past weekend?

Sorry. My post wasn't meant as an attack and it wasn't in reference to anything you said, specifically. I get what you are saying. I also realize that integrating "features" which bring clicks to an external site probably aren't your favorite thing.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Sorry. My post wasn't meant as an attack and it wasn't in reference to anything you said, specifically. I get what you are saying. I also realize that integrating "features" which bring clicks to an external site probably aren't your favorite thing.

Not at all. I <3 TF.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I think this is a worthwhile endeavor. I don't understand why there seems to be a sentiment that it can't work and it's GIGO. There has to be a starting point somewhere. The way I see it it can only get better and more useful. We have an opportunity to move the needle away from the garbage that may be going in now.

We all complain when 6MR gets gutted but now we don't want to put better information out there?

You are on point that "we" need to take control of the TF data if we are going to use it.
I'm on board with @JimN, identifying people that will take responsibility by park, and post up conditions regularly,
based on their local experience. TF can designate "official" reporters, and the widget can filter on their feedback.

OTOH - I like @Norms 4 point scale at the park level, with the following changes to the legend.

? Green - go - usual wet spot rules apply
? Yellow - there are muddy zones or Freeze/thaw (split conditions, know the park)
? Red - it is a shit show
?‍☠️ Black - Closed

With a little more effort, we might even generate a map of the more resilient areas/trails. both a good and bad idea.
 

JimN

Captain Wildcat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Trailforks essentially has the same four options:

Clear/Green
Minor Issue/Yellow
Significant Issue/Amber
Closed/Red

But as it's been said, that's per trail, not per park, and updating the status of every trail is a huge pain. This is why I suggested picking a single trail and using that as a barometer for the entire park. No matter which system you pick, it comes down to someone being responsible for keeping the conditions updated.

With a little more effort, we might even generate a map of the more resilient areas/trails. both a good and bad idea.

Leaving comments on specific trails saying that they are generally more resilient to rain is a good idea. Some of the trails out in Sedona and Hurricane/St George have this, generally because when it rains out there, pretty much everything turns to shit.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Minor Issue/Yellow
Significant Issue/Amber

8 bit color problem. ;)
i'll use poop emoji for red.

We can also enable push notifications, and people can follow a park.
I should apply for a grant for that one.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
To continue experimenting on you all, I've added the Singletracks widget for trail conditions to the sidebar for 6MR and Allaire

It allows guest updates, they are time stamped, and it has the rain info - right now it is too wide for the sidebar,
but i'm working on it....
 

ekuhn

Well-Known Member
To continue experimenting on you all, I've added the Singletracks widget for trail conditions to the sidebar for 6MR and Allaire

It allows guest updates, they are time stamped, and it has the rain info - right now it is too wide for the sidebar,
but i'm working on it....

Shrink the column width for the lastest post on the right. Maybe that gives you the space?

The Heathcote-Mapleton status just throws me off...
 
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