Add Your Favorite Trail to Trailsnet.com
Swamp Rabbit Trail page on trailsnet
The Swamp Rabbit Trail in South Carolina was the latest trail to be added to the network of trails on trailsnet.com. Thanks to @BikePedBrian for adding a great new multipurpose trail and for adding the first South Carolina trail to trailsnet. As with all new technologies, we still have some bugs to work out of the trail submission system. But in general, it’s working great. To make sure we end on a positive note, let’s take a look at some of the areas where we need to improve the “Add a Trail” experience:
- pictures – The process for adding pictures could be easier and smoother. Currently, many users are experiencing difficulties when trying to add trail photos to trailsnet. Part of the problem is that we have the picture size set pretty low. This is to avoid slow loading times. We may experiment with allowing larger trail pictures, just to see how it works.
- maps – Up until recently, no one was adding maps w/ their trail submissions. Other than copying and pasting codes from other trail websites, we didn’t know how to get map files onto trailsnet. Fortunately, that’s an easy problem to fix. If you can get your map into GoogleMaps, it’s easy to get the trail map code onto trailsnet. While on the Google Maps page, you will see a link symbol near the top left of the page. When you click on that symbol, you’ll get an option to “Paste HTML to embed in website.” Just copy that code and paste it into the “Add a Google Map Code” area on the trail entry submission form.
Fortunately even the bad news about adding trails to trailsnet is being improved. And even better, we’ve got more good news than bad news:
- People are starting to add trails to trailsnet.
- The trails that are being added are awesome.
- Most people who add trails are also notifying folks on their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.
- We’re getting a much greater variety of trails than when I was entering all the trails myself.
- We’re hoping to go international with our “Add a Trail” feature soon.
Needless to say, the more people who add trails to trailsnet, the better it will be. Trailsnet is still hoping to have trails from all fifty states on there by the end of the summer. So if you haven’t added a trail yet, go for it. It’s quick and easy and makes you part of the solution. It’s important volunteer work you can do from your own home, coffee shop or library.
2 comments
Kevin.This ‘site is turning-into a great success and there are some brilliant trails being added. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more.
Barry.
Author
Thanks Barry. I’m real pleased at the progress of both trailsnet & ActiveTravelTours. They are both coming along nicely, I’m learning a lot, and I’m having a good time doing it all. As always, I greatly appreciate your comments, FB posts, and tweets. You’ve been a great part of trailsnet from the start, & it’s nice to know there’s someone out there (besides me) who’s watched it grow from that silly little Blogger website to something that is truly becoming useful to “trail folks.” (-: