Hi,
It isn't obvious how to get back to the home page, or how to access the fora from the home page. I have to drop out of the site and access via an email link.
There are a lot of villages under a given county and it is difficult to scroll down, esp on a mobile device. Is it worth considering an alphabetic submenu by county to help navigate?
Cheers
Janet
updated by @janetb: 04 Apr 2015 22:41:32

Hi there,
Yes - I've been looking at today's analytics, and in fact no-one has accessed the home page at all. You can always click the OTS logo to go back home, or your profile name (in the top right hand corner) to go to your personal 'home', but I'm going to put in a 'Home' option as the first menu item, to make it more obvious.
The fora can be accessed by either the 'help' menu dropdown, or, temporarily for iOS, by tapping the 'Help' menu.
The number of places at county level is big, and (obviously) varies hugely, depending on the county. Some form of alphabetically indexed list is the right idea - in fact we have tried out a version not entirely successfully, but one which, once working right, will be a better option than a long scrolling list.
Tim
 

Oh on iOS earlier it said that the dropdowns for the counties were not working and to select from the list on the right - but there wasn't a list on the right.

And either your analytics are wrong or its a matter of timing but I accessed the home page via the button just before starting this forum....

The list immediately to the right of that message contains all the counties and local authorities in the system (under a spurious map of Aberdeen) - it's showing on my iPad...
EDIT: It was timing!
updated by @iamtimbo: 04 Apr 2015 22:46:50

mmm couldn't find it on the iphone earlier, will check next time I'm on the phone.
Why does a speech bubble pop up over your reply?
. 'Attach' would be more intutive than 'embed local media' maybe?
Cheers
J
 

Ah - on a very small screen, such as iPhone, it might be below, rather than to the right so that it remains legible.
The speech bubble is there so that you can quote a post in a response, but it shouldn't obscure the text - I'll check the padding.
'Embed local media' - I'll get back to you....

cheers

Hi, @janetb, 
I'm thinking about how best to improve the navigation on County pages. The most sensible options seem to be either a letter index in which clicking on a letter narrows down the available options to just that initial letter, or a text box that narrows down the options the more of the word you type. 
There are pros and cons to each method of course - the predictive text box takes up much less space, but affords less idle 'browsability'. The letter index again reduces browsability, but is less prescriptive than the text box. 
Just wondering if you had any thoughts or preferences....
Tim
updated by @iamtimbo: 09 Apr 2015 22:43:30

Will think about that one and get back to you. One of the problems is knowing which places you have chosen for inclusion. Some of the East Lancs ones are qiute esoteric and I wouldn't have thought to search on them. I wonder how many pics you will get for some of them. Maybe include a search of postcode + radius which will help us find things we wouldn't think to search for?
Related to this is how you handle deserted villages, those under reservoirs and the like. Are they there or not? I'm thinking of places like Grane between Blackburn and Haslingden for example. It isn't listed, and I can't easily see what your policy on abandoned villages is.
What are your criteria for inclusion? You have Sherfin but not Acre (both Haslingden) for example. You have Lumb in Rossendale but not Lumb in Irwell.
Incidentally Newchurch BB4 7 is strictly speaking Newchurch in Rossendale to distinguish it from Newchurch in Pendle.
Janet
 

Thanks for giving it some thought!
As regards the places that are 'in', they are a sort of cross between places that are considered administratively 'active', have recognised postcodes, and also (to a degree) reflect the fact that formerly singular places have now been subsumed by growing conurbations. We've tried to achieve this without overcrowding the map too much. 
I'm more than happy to add anywhere that can feasibly be identified as existing recognisably at some stage (in fact @our-town-story-archivist's relatives lived on a farm at Urmston i'th Meadows, which is now very much in Pennington Flash near Leigh!). The underlying system allows for the quick addition of places in these circumstances (like when we moved your places slightly). 
Today there's been a bit of a change in how the maps reflect images posted - if you go to a place profile, the images shown are indeed based on a radius, rather than having been specifically tagged with that place. On the info-bar on the left hand side of any place, you'll see a map with the nearest profiles marked.
EDIT: got Pennington Flash and Rivington Pike mixed up - now corrected...
updated by @iamtimbo: 09 Apr 2015 23:41:42

Hi there - I was reading this back and just wanted to add some clarity to the last post. I should add that we didn't personally pick the locations - we picked a database that reflected the criteria I mentioned above. 
The source is is the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Gazetteer, which seemed to suit the requirements of this project. It also seems as authoritative source as we were likely to achieve, knowing that there was likely to be the occasional query. 
The OS Gazetteer does geocode locations to the centre of the 1km x 1km grid within which the location lies, so for small conurbations there can be some slight discrepancy (a maximum of 707 metres, mathematically), which is easily rectified when brought to our attention.
As regards the Newchurches, OS lists them separately as 'Newchurch' and 'Newchurch in Pendle'. 
updated by @iamtimbo: 13 Apr 2015 12:21:02