Hi,
I'm starting to feel bad about a high percentage of site structure/organization related posts both here and on WAB, please don't consider it to be "nagging for the purpose of nagging" but I just like to give my opinion while I'm still 'fresh' so as to make clear what 'problems' newbies may run into. Once settled in those things are much harder to identify and one tends to forget they ever were a 'problem'.
This post basically addresses the information provided to new users on what is expected from them, what would be welcome, what not and
why.
I'm afraid that in various other posts (mostly on WAB) I've made clear enough that I'm not a huge fan of the (current state of) software used on both sites. I feel the pages are very cluttered, with many "features" I don't need leaving little space for the information that I do wish to read and resulting in much scrolling to even find what buttons to press. I'm only repeating this because this also goes to "providing information". As a newbie, because of the clutter, I find/found it hard to find my way around...
Things might have been a bit extra confused as I didn't quite 'understand' from the start what parts of the "menu structure" at the top are supposed to be context-specific and what not. Various instances of "Home" and "Search", that do different things - that sort of thing. This also means I spend some time with things like first going to "Forums", then "FAQ" and next "Gallery" then "FAQ" ... to find the same FAQ, that doesn't really tell me anything about the Gallery.
Which brings me to the main point of this post - I now believe that some/most of the information I was looking for did not as much get obscured by the "clutter" but more likely just isn't present.
To me as a newbie some of the points below are quite unclear and I didn't easily find comprehensive information on them:
- What is the exact purpose of the site? Is it all about "sharing", "community", about getting ID's for images, collecting/providing images of all species of the world??
- Why was this site even created as a "sister" to WAB? What's the point/theory behind splitting things up, not having all images in one joined gallery, all discussion in one forum. I find "British" animals here and foreign animals on WAB? Where am I supposed/requested to post what?
- What is the purpose of the Galleries in general, and why the split between user and main galleries? What goes where? What sort of images do you even "want" here. Only foreign species? Only high quality "beautiful" images, or do you want to 'document' as many species as possible, even if relatively low quality (if so: why not more structure in the taxonomic info with the images).
- Possibly related: Why the lower limit on image sizes. To me this can only mean you do not want to "document species" as many images would be refused. Or do you prefer huge images with a tiny indistinguishable creature somewhere in the center. Silly question, I know, but the point is that I cant find any info concerning the purpose of things as they are.
- Also related: Where do the "Attachments" to the forum fit in? What is their purpose vs the "galleries". And in what ways will these be searchable/retrievable (how is meta info of these handled).
- Is meta info inside image files (EXIF, JPEG-coments etc) evaluated / searchable at all? Is it considered "good practice for the porpose of WAW, or is it considered unfavourable "extra luggage" both in terms of storage and bandwith?
- And what's with the "Links" section? What sort of links do you want there? In many screens I find an invitation to "Promote your Wildlife or Environment website." that seems to link there. Okay, so that's the purpose? Or do you want to build an extensive general collection of links to good resources for ID-ing and other interesting info on wildlife related issues? If so, what sort of links are wanted, and what would be considered "SPAM"/"garbage".
Because of these unclarities at the moment I'm a bit reluctant to upload/contribute stuff... really no idea whatsoever
what is (
un)wanted/expected.
Please, again, note that this is by no means intended as "site bashing" - these are genuine considerations of a newbie that I feel might be of use to the admins to know about.
Also the points raised are genuine questions - what sort of contributions do you want/expect from me. If I've overlooked info already available of course a mere pointer of link will do. If the info is not available and you feel, as I do, that it might be of use to (new) visitors, please consider adding it to the FAQ or an "About" page rather than answering (just) here.
Cheers!
Arp
P.S. Forgot to mention: The "Links" section seems to have 2 items for reptiles and none for insects/invertebrates ...