LPA Community Maps

[Desmond]

As some of you may be aware - I made a Google Maps page for community mapping - hopefully, we'll use this page to share locations, routes and other great tips with the rest of the community.

If you want to collaborate... ( you should! ) you can send me your google account ( you can create one here ) and you'll be added to the list of collaborators, and you'll be able to edit the map & add new collaborators yourself.

The LPA Community maps can be found at
bit.ly/LPACMaps and tinyurl.com/LPACMaps (extra link for good measure)

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Right now it has very little on in, of course, it's waiting for YOU to get involved! The next time you discover a good spot or route while out training, take a note of where it is, and when you get back, mark it out on the map, write a description - let us all know!

This Thread will be used for discussion - For example, i say we adopt some kind of colour key - at the moment i've added a line, and a point in red, because you can overlay the existing LPA maps over there, and a colour other than blue was necessary... perhaps we could adopt something like:

• Red - general spot
  
• Yellow - common meeting/meetup area
  
• Green - ?
  

( completely random colour selection/key... discuss! )

Also, if anyone wants any help regarding editing the map ( adding different points, lines, descriptions etc... ), i'll be happy to draw up some tutorial-y things in this thread.

thanks

[SHiiV* =)]

Jul 30, 2010 11:54:26 GMT Desmond said:

As some of you may be aware - I made a Google Maps page for community mapping - hopefully, we'll use this page to share locations, routes and other great tips with the rest of the community.

If you want to collaborate... ( you should! ) you can send me your google account ( you can create one here ) and you'll be added to the list of collaborators, and you'll be able to edit the map & add new collaborators yourself.

The LPA Community maps can be found at
bit.ly/LPACMaps and tinyurl.com/LPACMaps (extra link for good measure)

-----

Right now it has very little on in, of course, it's waiting for YOU to get involved! The next time you discover a good spot or route while out training, take a note of where it is, and when you get back, mark it out on the map, write a description - let us all know!

This Thread will be used for discussion - For example, i say we adopt some kind of colour key - at the moment i've added a line, and a point in red, because you can overlay the existing LPA maps over there, and a colour other than blue was necessary... perhaps we could adopt something like:

• Red - general spot
  
• Yellow - common meeting/meetup area
  
• Green - ?
  

( completely random colour selection/key... discuss! )

Also, if anyone wants any help regarding editing the map ( adding different points, lines, descriptions etc... ), i'll be happy to draw up some tutorial-y things in this thread.

thanks

Nicee one Jimmm! I still haven't made a Google account yet.. Just been so busy with this wedding I'm at. I'll be back Leicester on Monday hopefully. Anyway gotta go

[Tim]

Sweet! Thanks Jim!

I'll log into the lpa google mail account and add a few spots later!

[Abstergo]

I think pictures should be added to spots for verification purposes.

[Desmond]

yeah, if you upload some pictures to a host... tinypic/photobucket/etc... then you can post images in the descriptions for a point - use the rich text editor :}

for example, look at the Hell Night meeting spot point, i put a quick test-y thing there

[SHiiV* =)]

Jul 31, 2010 11:33:19 GMT Abstergo said:

I think pictures should be added to spots for verification purposes.

StreetView might be useful for SOME spots

[mjp]

I live in Shepshed/Loughborough area. Is it worth me adding spots around my area? If so, I'll shoot you my account info.

[Abstergo]

do it, try and add pictures too

[Desmond]

added some more recent, and older spots, with a few pictures - also, i'd like to raise the question of Markers, and their importance - i've found instances where i'd like to mark a specific place, as part of a major spot ... for example, the new(er) scaffold at Shaven Haven.
At the moment, i've just Marked it as normal. but do you think we should acommodate Sub-markers (?) as a way of differentiating between important markers?

i can think of a couple of ways to visually show this:
- create a custom icon, which is essentially a resized version of the original marker image.
- use the coloured markers, as part of a colour key system ( which will be fully outlined here )

of course, the other alternative is to put all information under the same major marker.. which could work, although i wonder about the usefulness, due to lack of easy location, and it's possible that there may be too much for the popup from the marker... especially if all parts have their own image, description, etc...

also, would it be possible to sticky this thread? keep it up there with the main LPA maps, so that people are aware, perhaps when we are more clear on the usage, i'll edit that first post into a big bumper guide...?

[Abstergo]

A key could be a good idea, draft one and we'll discuss it,

[Joe Rogan]

Green logo for small pots? pots LOL. Spots.

Also maybe we could add shop/store locations near to spots? Useful things like that

Annnnnd, everybody take photos and upload them to the maaaaaps!

Nice job Jim!

[Abstergo]

I think photos should be MANdatory (see what I did there?)

[Desmond]

Thanks joe! great additions to the maps....
But i raise an important point here... what do we do about points that already exist on the original LPAmaps? the reason i chose red for a colour scheme was so that when you overlay the existing points from LPAmaps, the LPACmaps points are different...

I guess the question is - is this map supposed to be used alongside LPAmaps, or to replace it? if we were to make this the official maps page, especially as we are in control of who collaborates... we could expand on everything from LPAmaps...

And yes! photos! photos are important! they dont need to be big ( its only going to be displayed at 300px wide ), most of us have camera's on our phones, etc...
If you dont know how to upload them, i can show you how, or send them to me and i'll upload them myself

regarding colour keys... we need to sort it out properly, but essentially i think it would be sensible to have a different colour for each 'category' of marker... i propose these markers be divided into:

Training Spots
Meeting Points
Facilities ( Toilets, Shops... ? )

as the major categories.

other suggestions would be very welcome. remember i'm basing this off the official google maps icons,

we can make our own custom icons too.


edit: also, i was thinking... we should have a 'misc' category, for just general helpful things....

[Abstergo]

You should have temporary spots eg. scaff etc...

[Desmond]

proposal!

Red - Training Spot
[custom icon] Small Red/purple - "Sub-spot"

( you should be able to find it under 'my icons' if not then here : i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy20/raptorbot/redot-pinky.png )

Yellow - Meeting Spot ( if a spot is both training and meeting, then i'd leave it on Red for Training Spot )
Green - Facilities
Turquoise/Light Blue - Misc ( general useful stuff... )

As for Temporary Spots ( Scaffolding, etc... ) I was thinking of creating a Red market, but with some other icon in the center, for example a question mark, or a cross ... ?

[Abstergo]

I cracked up at the Leonidas picture for the hell Night meeting spot!

can someone add me as a collaborator: [e-mail]

[gman1987]

well for anyone around stocking farm area, there is a lot to be done down their where all the "shops" are lol. I work in the sure start centre and I've had to use what skill i have to climb onto our roof, the joys. Anyway, their is rails and plenty to play with.

Gman