My apologies for not responding sooner, I wanted to dig through the various profile sections.
First and foremost,
I want to thank ALL the mods and admins. My original post was not intended to cast aspersions on any of their work. Running a site such as TFK is a huge job and I applaud all who share their time and expertise, including the non-mod members! I promise I’m not an internet troll, stirring up problems just to do so without offering my possible solutions (for what they are worth, if anything). So, I'll give my opinion here on making the profiles easier to use!
Back to my original concern that it's not really easy to "browse" the fish profiles. I do understand website technical limitations and logistics. I'm a mod on a small club forum and the technical limitations are very frustrating. I'm summarizing my understanding of TFK below, so if it's wrong, it's no one’s fault but mine!
I'm assuming there is no corporate entity that "owns" TFK? IF there is, then the best solution is that corporate entity needs to pony up some $$$ for a robust relational database design and technical support ;-). Lacking deep corporate pockets, we’re back to an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization. Originally you had a "web design guru", for lack of a better term, who was excellent at designing and kludging code together for the old profiles section but - it was page-specific coding(?), not portable(?), or easily scalable? Now you need literally a global system that makes sense to multiple users, in multiple countries, AND that is usable by people with disabilities. You also now have to contend with users regularly interacting with the site using a growing variety of mobile devices (the ultimate challenge in universal web design - making it work for everyone on all platforms). Please Note: mobile devices may not display the “rollover” info properly, so while that is very helpful when browsing TFK profiles on my laptop, it’s less so for some mobile devices and may not function well, or at all, with screen-reading devices used by the visually impaired.
Byron’s point regarding the universality of the scientific names is an excellent one. Common names vary widely. I totally support the use of the scientific names and families for grouping, but there also needs to be an easier way for novice, and experienced, users to cross-reference the material.
How would this work? And, I’m suggesting it for all the profiles if it turns out to be practical:
A “sticky” in each of the main Profile areas (one under FW fish profiles, one for Salt, one for brackish, etc). In this sticky would be one, perhaps more, “index pages” for the forum posts. Assuming we can still embed links in individual posts back to individual profile pages, couldn’t there be a page that lists common names for fish (admittedly there will be some inconsistency) and lists the scientific family, genus, species (with a link to the profile page) The “index” posts could contain very abbreviated descriptive information and/or even be set up in multiple index configurations the user could select from (soft-water fishes, hard-water fishes, community fishes, etc.).
Ok, I admit that would be a
huge amount of work, especially if the profile pages are not static on your web server! BUT a basic index "sticky" page using a general description of the family, listing the common names of fish found in that family, and containing link(s) to fish profiles would be very useful. I’m not certain I explained it well here. I could make, I think, a mock-up index post if this doesn't make sense.
The only thing I don't know that could be a major technical hurdle is the size limit for a single post
Anyway, that's the only thing I could come up with given my limited understanding of the forum structure, for what its' worth! If you don't think it's a good idea, my feelings won't be hurt (it won't be the last bad idea I'll have, unfortunately :lol
David
