A video of the clearup at Leigh Market in 1968
General
Video here that shows the tidy up at Leigh Market in 1968 - followed by (for some reason) a Leigh Corporation drain cleaner in action....
updated by @iamtimbo: 02 Jun 2015 01:50:05
Forum Activity for @iamtimbo
Forum categories now active!
Updates
Whether you're researching a location for family history purposes, looking back to the way you remember a place, or picking the brains of others with local knowledge, our unique forums - local to each of the 43,000+ place profiles in Our Town Story - are the place to post your queries, questions and observations.
So that you feel 'at home' whichever place profile you're looking at, there's now a standard and comprehensive set of forum categories across Our Town Story. These are:
Buildings & Places
General
Industry & Business
Local Genealogy
Military
People, Events & Entertainment
Places of Worship
Pubs, Clubs & Hotels
Schools
Sport
Transport
World War I
World War II
Off-topic
These should be enough to cover most eventualities - to post, just click the forum tab in the appropriate place, choose the right category, and hit the '+' button to start your forum post - don't be shy!
updated by @iamtimbo: 13 Apr 2015 15:03:51
navigability
Bug Reports
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
Image upload system improvements - existing users please read!
Updates
Further to feedback that we've had so far about the image upload process, we have implemented some changes to the way that works. It has had some knock-on benefits, too - specifically that photos will appear in the galleries of nearby locations, too, which should make it easier for the casual browser.
You will also see that at the bottom of every image detail view, under the Google Map, a short list of the nearest places to that location appears, to make it easier to go and look at the photo in its geographical context.
This means that the image upload process has changed slightly - in a nutshell, you add them from the Gallery section of your profile - the key thing is to make sure you add the location to the image once you've uploaded it.
You can read an updated guide to image upload here - enjoy!
updated by @iamtimbo: 13 Apr 2015 15:04:25
navigability
Bug Reports
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
navigability
Bug Reports
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
Differences between OS and Google data make stuff invisible
Geographic Issues
The nearest settlement to Hope Cove is the village of Inner Hope, and the your picture does appear on its image page.....
updated by @iamtimbo: 09 Apr 2015 23:16:17
Grief updating image information for galleries
Bug Reports
UPDATE: Halfway there, I think. When looking at an image detail page, after the map that shows where the image was taken, you'll now see a list of the closest places to the image, which when clicked upon will take you to that place....
Grief updating image information for galleries
Bug Reports
I've ditched the Facebook/Twitter sharing buttons on the right hand side, for now. I'll look at adding inline buttons where necessary, although as it will be a members-only site,money a limited amount of content will be shareable anyway.....
Grief updating image information for galleries
Bug Reports
We do have a fundamental issue, I think, with the image upload system, which I now believe needs to be altered. There is (was) a reason for tthe galleries functioning the way they do, but we may be able find a different answer to the same problem.
The issue is that from a user perspective, images need to 'belong' to two profiles - firstly, the place that they relate to, and secondly the person that owns them. That's important, so that the user feels that they retain 'ownership' of the images.
The side-effect of that is that casual browsers can come across the images out of context (ie not having come from the 'Casterbridge' page), and I felt that there needed to be a link to the image's place page. That's why at the bottom of each image detail page you get the 'This image was originally posted to the galleries for 'Casterbridge' link. Behind the scenes, 'Casterbridge' can only be generated via the process of clicking 'Add to the Casterbridge galleries', and it's built in that when you've finished editing images, it takes you back to the Casterbridge page.
There are downsides to this system, as you've identified. These are that:
every time you edit any picture, OTS takes you back to the place they came from - this discourages editing
it adds extra clicks to the image upload process, and any extra clicks are probably not a good thing
Not using this system is the obvious answer. We do not want to discourage editing - indeed we want to encourage as much addiotnal information on each image. In this version, all images would be added through your own Gallery on your own profile page.
There is one huge caveat, though - not using this system relies on users adding the location of the picture via the GoogleMaps plugin. If they do not, then the image is not associated with a place, and it will not appear on the place profile.
I think that we have to bite the bullet and accept that a street-level image archive like the one we are trying to create is going to need people to use the maps plugin. It's about as user friendly as it's likely to get - although we can definitely improve the labelling and help text. We could also make a short video that guides people throgh the process.
I will work on a system that will suggest the most likely relevant 'place' profile(s) for an image, based on its GoogleMaps location, to appear at the end of the image detail page.
Using the 'old' system for now won't matter - just remember to add the location for each image. I can probably change systems tomorrrow (Friday).