- Our DNS registrar is 'Godaddy' at a recurring cost of £7 a year.
- We are using Cloudflare (free, recommended) as a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which actually serves the pages to you.
- As of March 2016, the website is hosted on "Google Cloud Compute". We pay for the server, the bandwidth, and disk space used - around £10 a month (about £120/year). We also have a much more powerful development server, but we only pay for it when its actually switched on (a few hours a month). Otherwise, we just pay to store its disk (about £1/month total)
- Our Walks and Source Code are managed in a Github.com repository (and so backed up) at around US$7 a month (About £50/year)
- Nature/Weather, Railways, Swimming, and parts of This Week's Walks and the forum are hosted by Google's Blogger (currently free)
- Mapping is from Bing, Google, and OS Openspace (currently free).
- The club has an annual income from NDC (from royalties on the TOCW books) of £250 a year. So with an expenditure of ~ £180 per year, the result is still happiness.
If you wish to discuss the website, please do so here.
69 comments:
The pictures across the top look lovely and make the site even more inviting.
Thank you for all your work on this
I think you are definitely owed a big vote of thanks (and perhaps a pint!!) for all your work on this, Andrew.
This is behind the scenes work that is invisible to most walkers, but absolutely vital for the survival of the SWC.
The website move is complete. The old website on Madasafish (freenetname) has been decommissioned.
Thank you for all the information on the LDPs. May I suggest a comments button so those that have done the walks can give info they wish they had had before they did the walk.
May I also suggest future possible candidates: Monnow Valley Trail, Oxfordshire Way, White Horse Trail, and The Border's Abbeys Way. Thanks again.
Can't say I've noticed in the last few days but GitHib DDoS attack
betanews
WSJ
Google Pagespeed, our 'content delivery network', is closing down, so webpages will be served direct by Dewahost once again.
Hopefully, the transition (over the next 24 hours or so) should be seamless :)
Walk authors might like it, as pages should no longer be 'cached'.
In theory, pages should take longer to load, and, we should use more of Dewahost's (chargeable) network bandwidth.
But, hopefully, you won't notice, and we'll stay within our price plan.
Andrew
Unless I am mistaken, the site has recently been changed so that comment blocks scroll within their own frames on a page that itself has its own scroll bar.
Can I express dislike for this UI? It means that the action of the up and down keys changes depending on what part of the page one happens to have selected. Prefer a single scrolling page.
David, Yes, it has.
On a PC, scrolling is harder than on a touchscreen. The 'limited size' comments area was meant to be a compromise for posts with loads of comments.
If more people feel the same...
Andrew
The snowflakes are making me feel ill. I don't want to spoil the Christmas spirit but could they be substituted with a non-moving image?
they were kind of distracting
The SWC webservers have Brexit'ed from Belgium.
The main server is now in London as Google have a new data centre here.
The development server is in the US mainly as (a) its free, but also (b) spreading the risk.
The 'auto generated' walk PDF's have been updated.
The included 'OpenStreetMap' Maps (which some of them have) now print correctly.
- this is for 'HTML format' walks only (e.g. book 1)
- the 'PDF format' walks, e.g. book 2, TG and PC walks don't have an 'auto-generated' PDF as they are already in PDF format
- I switched from using 'phantomjs' (which has some issues) to saving the PDF's directly from the Chrome web-browser's new print-to-pdf command-line facility
On TWW, would it be possible to provide a shareable link for individual walks when emailing to arrange to meet others on a specific walk.
Do you mean a link to the walk's page - it's the tag - or to the event post?
I have (finally) moved the remaining 500 old (pre Flickr era) photos to Flickr.
They were lost (as were some of Sean's map images -- sorry) and were found.
The 'taken' date didn't get set in some of them, so a few will appear as new.
They show up in 'recent photos'.
To do.
#1 A better forum
#2 A "filter" page to help select a walk (e.g. choose toughness, length, is-coastal, is-touristy and see results on a map or list)
#3 A guide to the south coast beaches
A link to the event posting in TWW would be useful.
Techies Only. Our google app-engine domain is now https (thanks google!). Its a Python app that handles swc + short walk comments
Now using Bootstrap v4, a major version bump.
Let me know if anything's not right, as many of the styles have changes.
The default theme is very vibrant, like Windows 10 apps, no pale colours / backgrounds like before.
Upgrade has made the text much easier to read.
Thank you.
Over 65 ?
Serena has been in touch with the Ramblers and I thought SWC might like to read what she's written, so here it is ...
My name is Serena Dhaliwal, I work for a multi-award winning television production company called Boundless Productions, who are the makers of successful shows like BBC One’s The Apprentice, BBC Two’s Great Continental Railway Journeys with Michael Portillo and Channel 4’s Grand Designs. Currently, we are working on a new exciting action-adventure series for a major broadcaster, which will see a group of fit adventure seekers aged 65 and over go on an expedition of a lifetime. Under expert guidance, the group will be trained and led through a specially designed expedition route in one of the world’s most breath-taking landscapes. The idea of the series is to break the ‘I’m too old’ mould and prove that age is just a number. We want to celebrate aspirational senior citizens who have a lust for life and a sense of adventure. We want to showcase the amazing things people can do when they put their mind to something and to potentially inspire others to do the same. With this in mind, we are trying to reach out to those who may be interested in finding out more about the series and potentially like to take part. If you think this would be something of interest to your club, then please let me know and I can send you a flyer to share with them. If you have any questions about the production, please feel free to give me a call on: 0207 691 5098
Kind Regards
Serena
serena.dhaliwal@boundlessproductions.tv
Over 65? Part 2
Mail decoding for Serena
{no spam} = boundlessproductions
I wasn't sure which part of the forum to leave this message, so I hope here is ok. Andrew set up an Instagram account earlier this year and gave me (Karen, the Canadian one) control over it. This weekend, another walking group account found ours and I see that they are using the same logo as ours, as well as being called 'Saturday Walkers Club'. They appear to either be in Spain, or are a walking group that is on holiday in Spain.
My question is: does the SWC have legal rights over the logo? If so, what should I do about it? If not, I guess it's fine and just let them carry on?
Or perhaps some of our lot have gone on holiday and found Instagram...
Thanks!
Karen
Hi Karen,
Thanks. When I tried to set up the instagram account, 'saturdaywalkers' and 'saturdawalkersclub' had already been taken.
I think you're looking at saturday_walkers who seem to be using our roundel logo. I've asked them to desist.
Andrew
Instagram have removed our logo from their account.
Interesting that @saturdaywalkers @saturdaywalkersclub and various combinations thereof are all taken. I can't help but think that I (or one of the others) registered it, then forgot about it.
We're @swcwalks, which was the nearest I could find.
Hello
I was wondering if there is an issue with the website. I can't see any of the upcoming walks or the recent ones. I have tried multiple devices, but all I see are ads. This has been since yesterday. Is it just my devices or is it the website?
Thanks!
Karen
@karen Hi. I need some more information. Which pages (URL's), which browser/device (e.g. Chrome on an android phone). Are you using an ad-blocker. Andrew
Hi Andrew
The pages I can't see are the 'This week' ( https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/this-weeks-walks.shtml ) and the 'Recent walks' ( https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/recent_walks.shtml ). I have been checking them on Apple devices including an iPhone, iPad, and iPod; I have been using Safari on all three. I did happen to check it this afternoon on a regular desktop Mac on both Safari and Chrome and it was fine. So maybe it's a mobile device issue? Every other page of the website seems to work fine (pictures, individual walk pages, maps, etc). I don't think I am using an ad blocker. I have certainly not changed any settings on any device, and they are not connected to each other through a cloud or anything. All I can see is the main part of the page, then box with the changing info (trips, nature blog) and then the ads that are usually at the bottom. It's very strange! Luckily, I also use meet up.con so I can get this weekend's walking info from there.
I hope you can shed some light on this issue!
~Karen
Web browsers have a language called Javascript to do stuff, in this case to get the feed from Blogger, format it into HTML, and then "inject it" into the page.
As time has gone by, Javascript has had lots of improvements, which are tempting to use. However, the problem is they don't work in older browsers, like IE, have been left behind.
Safari (Iphone, Ipad, Macs) is usually safe, as Apple devices auto-update themselves regularly to the latest version, with the newer Javascript features.
This sounds like a problem with the mobile IOS version of Safari only. I ran the page on an 'iphone 8', and it seemed OK.
Not sure what to do next.
Help Required! You'll need a Mac and an iphone or ipad.
Link them together with a cable. Set Safari on the Mac up to debug Safari on the mobile device. (Google for how to do this).
Then go to this url on the mobile device: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/this-weeks-walks.shtml?swc_admin=on
Then email us the 'console' output... it should be several hundred lines of debug messages (post #1: id, title, date; post #2: id title, date, ...) ending in an error message.
Thanks
How about we have an emoji button to "Like" posts or comments?
good idea.
we use blogger for comments which has been neglected of late and doesnt have them.
we should really move to a better comments system. blogger doesnt work at all well for the forum.
we could use the facebook page for coments. thats has emojis, comment on a comment, moderation, etc
May I suggest that the FAQ be updated with the new club rules
which have been introduced because of COVID-19.
The page of Bluebell walks needs updating; currently there is only one walk listed.
https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walks/bluebells.html
Hi I’d like to leave a walk report for Cuxton to Sole Street as those of us on the train home didn’t think anyone else would. I can see how to leave a comment beneath that day’s walk post, but how does that become a report ? Thanks Judith
Once there has been a n=7 or w=sunny, comments are treated as trip reports
Is there a better alternative to Blogger available ? It’s a bit cumbersome to use.
@margaret. Yes, Meetup. It was designed for groups. And might have attracted younger people as we gradually age and become more like the Ramblers... But the walk posters didn't like people expecting to be led.
Another option is the Facebook Page. Facebook has "events", which could be duplicated on TWW. Facebook are very strict about privacy on their interface now (stable door), so setting it up would be hard work
Or something like Wordpress. We could install it on our sever - it would be like blogger without all the future dated nonsense. But it would mean running a database ourselves.
It would be nice to move away from Blogger... It seems unloved by Google at the moment. Next lockdown, I'll look in to it....
@Margaret and @Andrew - You might like to take a peek at lwug.co.uk again (used during LD2 I think) It seamlessly merges Posts and Comments created on Blogger with those created locally. There's the tricky issue of having to subscribe, but all posters will have to do that somewhere (e.g. Blogger, Facebook, Wordpress etc) so it's just convincing other folks that lwug doesn't share their data with anyone. For newcomers, subscribing is a doddle too
Dear Andrew, Margaret and Mike,
Sincerely appreciate all of the work that goes into running the website and club.
The website is well maintained by Andrew,
it serves the purpose of sharing information,
and getting people together for fabulous walks.
Please do not change anything about the website,
it runs perfectly;
the lwug or similar are just not needed.
I agree that Blogger does need replacing.
You could consider using a wiki, some now feature event and calendaring functions, and a few don't require a database.
as far as I am aware, none of the actual walk posters have any issues with blogger. it needs two button clicks to publish a walk for anyone set up by admin as a walk poster. what's wrong with that?
Thanks, Andrew. It's a pity that Google removed the ability to publish future dated posts from their new user interface. I can see you've queried it with Google support and provided your own API as a workaround so thanks for all your work on that.
Can anyone tell me a safe route to walk to Scotland from Notting Hill? Please
I would have reported on my latecoming walk round Arundel today but
. . .
it now seems to be impossible to post a comment on a walk without signing in to a Google ID. Is this intentional? I'm already annoyed by the statement that I "agree" to Google ads personalisation to access the website (I don't - unless "agree" doesn't mean what I think it does). Is it now compulsory to participate in the google ecosystem in order to be in the SWC?
> signing it
not being anonymous encourages kindness, and helps prevent spam, trolls, and the need to moderate comments
> ads personalisation
its the same EU cookies message you see everywhere which google-ads decided they wanted
Google Cloud have given 6 months notice of price changes.
From what I can gather, it means a big price cut for us as there will be a new free internet data transfer allowance (to match Amazon's free tier)
There appears to be two records with the same id field value (397) in the file walks-swc.yaml - time for an SQL table with an id column which auto-increments maybe?
For those who stress about such things, the webserver's server has been updated to the latest version (Ubuntu 22-04, still on Google Cloud), which is why it was a little intermittent yesterday. Hopefully, everything should be fine again now.
I thought this might be of interest.
Pirate Weather
https://pirateweather.net/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter
Pirate Weather is a free weather forecast API. It aims to return data using the same JSON structure that Dark Sky uses. Pirate Weather uses public data for its forecasts. It can provide forecast data for current conditions, minutely data for one hour, hourly data for up to 168 hours, and daily data for 7 days for anywhere in the world.
Cool MoonBrain
I also found a provider at https://openweathermap.org/ a wee while back which is similar, but you never know when they will start charging :-(
At the moment you can hit the API a million times a month for free (throttled at 60 hits a minute
I guess it'be really nice to pull the data straight from its source eventually???
The location database at https://www.lwug.co.uk/location is still work in progress, but the lat and longs are all done for the major stations so simple to get the weather for a walk start point.
As with pirate 🏴☠️ weather, you get the data back in a JSON package, here's a simple code fragment example in jquery for a clientside call ..
const apikey="don't tell him Pike";
const kabs=273.15; // 0 degrees c in kelvin
const ws=36; //m/s ->km/hour
const tz=Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone;
const wurl=`https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=London,uk&appid=${apikey}`;
$.ajax({type:'GET',url:wurl,cache:false,dataType:"json"}).done(function(w){
const op=`Weather in ${w.name} ( longitude: ${w.coord.lon} latitude: ${w.coord.lat})
`+
`Temperature is ${Math.floor(w.main.temp-kabs)}℃ (feels like ${Math.floor(w.main.feels_like-kabs)}℃)
`+
`Wind speed is ${w.wind.speed} miles/hour from ${w.wind.deg}°
`+
`Today sunrise here is at ${new Date(w.sys.sunrise*1000).getHours()}:${String(new Date(w.sys.sunrise*1000).getMinutes()).pad(2)} hours `+
`and sunset is at ${new Date(w.sys.sunset*1000).getHours()}:${String(new Date(w.sys.sunset*1000).getMinutes()).pad(2)} hours
Timezone is ${tz}`;
....
thanks @mike
piratemap.net looks interesting, a PHD student set it up on his own using public weather data and public weather models... but how accurate it will be for the UK which has complex weather
think I've looked at openweather, which isn't open - we'd have to pay for the (7 days x hourly) data I was looking for
open-meteo.com is another option, free, set up by an individual
the met office have been just about to upgrade their api offering since before covid, still waiting...
pirateweather.net ....
Had a request to be give walks a rating (e.g. 1 to 5).
Have shied away from that in the past. The 7 Sisters is always going to be 10, and a lowland walk is never going to match it, which is disheartening for an author who has spent a lot of time on it.
Then again, we have 400 walks now, more with options, and (someone new to them) needs a way to choose.
Thoughts?
500 walks, incl. Books 1 and 2, and even before counting the 'Short Walks'...
I'm against anything that looks as if it's objective while in fact being deeply subjective, ie quality ratings of walks. Who's to say what people like? Most walks change character with the seasons anyway (maybe apart from coastal walks; but even then I remember being lambasted for posting a coastal walk in winter, as if it were only enjoyable during summer).
Describe the walk well enough so that takers know what to expect from reading the summary chapter. That's all that's needed, surely?
And the 7 Sisters is not always going to be 10, by the way: some may find the endless chalk cliffs a bit samey and many don't think much of Eastbourne whichever route you take through it... And when the sea mist rolls in, you can't even see much of the cliffs or the sea and then it's truely boring.
p.s.: Objective vs subjective: that's also why I've long argued for putting toughness ratings on an objective footing, ie based on numerical factors like length, ascent and time taken.
To clarify, how much they liked the walk, not how hard.
I can see a need for assisting the volunteers who post club walks as well as individuals in choosing a walk. But if the suggestion was that some of us in "the SWC" should rate the walks in a subjective way, I don't see how that would work without causing a fair amount of friction. I'm already unenthusiastic about the "My Favourites" or "Top 10" tags which crop up on a few walks.
We already get some detailed reports after our club walks and we also encourage people to leave a comment after doing walks independently (which I always glance at before deciding whether to post a walk). Do we need to do more to generate this feedback, perhaps make this feature more prominent and/or easier to use? [In the past some people have told me that they've been tripped up by the need to sign in and "prove I'm not a robot", but presumably that's necessary to filter out spam and other junk.]
Asking people to give a quick (1* to 5*) rating would probably generate more feedback and is superficially attractive, but personally I wouldn't find a set of bare ratings (without any reasons) particularly helpful. And large organisations (eg. Amazon, hotel chains) have found that these are open to manipulation - providers paying for 5* ratings, giving their competitors 1*, etc.
with Sean on this one.
ratings from anonymous people without any reasoning are barely more than useless for the purpose of refining our offer. say the trigger-happy masses of hiking in london go out with 50 odd punters in one group on a walk with great selfie potential on a sunny day and all give the walk a 5* rating afterwards: what does that mean for the rest of us 'normal' walkers and/or for a rainy day? nada. give me detailed written feedback anyday over anonymous star ratings, even the random off-on-a-tangent one is more interesting...
Found a new free weather data API supplier - Visual Crossing - for the walks (14 days) x (hourly) weather charts.
The current one is Dark Sky. It was brought by Apple, who are removing the free tier from the end of this month.
Regarding ratings-you could collect ratings on more than one aspect of the walk as part of the walk report.
For example, a 5-star rating on the walk directions, the lunch stop, the tea stop, amount of tarmac/road walking, quantity of mud, etc.
In addition, you may wish to codify the weather report using the Met Office codes for weather conditions.
Collecting these over a number of years might give a better rating of the walks and when best to post them.
As an illustration, I created a quick example of my suggestion as a Google Form which can be viewed via the link below.
Example Form Link
As requested, a ZIP file can be downloaded which has examples of the:
* blank form (swc-blank-form.pdf)
* form filled with details (swc-filled-form.pdf)
* summary and charts automatically produced by Google Forms (swc-summary-chart.pdf)
* details collected by the form in a spreadsheet/CSV file (Example Walk Report.csv)
ZIP file of example output
I would like to emphasis - the purpose of this is to show the detail of information that could be collected quickly using a 5-point rating without having to write narrative text. This may encourage more that one person on a walk to submit feedback. How this data is collected is up to you; Google Forms what just convenient for me to build a example form.
I've been updated the website's icons (e.g. the Twitter symbol, or start/finish symbols on maps). You may have noticed me playing with the colours.
The new ones are "SVG" (text which describes the shapes and colours) rather than a binary image files. The text is smaller and much easier to change than creating a new binary file.
An interesting rendering of the Pulborough to Petworth walk (by headless Chrome?) at https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/pulborough-to-petworth/Pulborough-to-Petworth-SWC-Walk-128.pdf - possibly needs a tweak?
@Mike A, thanks, Sean had already noticed, fixed
Google are changing the way 'automated' (aka headless) Chrome works. I use it to 'save as PDF' the web page. Like any self respecting geek, I was among the first, rather than the last, to switch to the new version which has had too many teething troubles, like this one . Automated Chrome could be used for for automated testing, but I wouldn't want to take away everyone's sense of purpose. See https://developer.chrome.com/articles/new-headless/
Bloggers, in posts, you can refer to a one-off GPX file as, e.g.
#/test/thomas/something.gpx
This will create a map page link and a download gpx link
The GPX has to start with a / and end with a .gpx
Post a Comment