
Ask HN: Please Try Out My Reddit-Like Map - andrewljohnson
http://www.trailbehind.com/upload/upload_gps
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ableal
You should really grab someone off the street and seat them in front of your
app, with a notebook or recorder in your hand.

You seem to have done a good deal of work, and have some neat stuff. However,
after a couple of minutes digging, I can only surmise it's about hiking trips,
and it should somehow be possible to see foot trails - if I could get the
inscrutable markers to do something ...

~~~
andrewljohnson
I do certainly do some "man-on-the-street" testing :), but, I'm always looking
for more feedback just like yours.

I'm sorry I dropped you on this page for your first go. You might find the
experience of using the site less confusing if you go to the home page:
<http://www.trailbehind.com>. There is a legend for the markers, and we
display hiking trips. This page is just for adding data to the map.

In response to your bugs:

1) I should add the home page legend to this map, which is no problem, just an
oversight

2) There are trails on the map, at zoom level 15 and above. We're working on
showing them earlier, but browsers choke on our method of display right now.
We have many ten thousands of GPX files indexed.

~~~
ableal
_This page is just for adding data to the map._

Ah, mystery explained. I usually read the URL, but it's late here ...

P.S. Have you thought of mining a series of pics with geo data ? With the
newfangled kit out there, should make the 'upload' pretty easy for anyone.

~~~
andrewljohnson
Yes! I am working on a feature that merges a GPX track with a Flickr set based
on timestamps. One of the sites we index to our map actually does something
similar: www.everytrail.com. They merge tracks with photos, but don't use
Flickr.

Also, we already show Flickr photos for places on the map via the Photos tab.
We are typically be able to show photos of places based on that alone.

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andrewljohnson
If you know a good webpage about a park, trail, or other outdoor place, please
attach it to that place(s) on the map.

First, you select stuff on the map.

Last, you can add a link, Reddit-style, or write a report using our site.

I would really appreciate any feedback!

All these pages get indexed to the TrailBehind Map
(<http://www.trailbehind.com>), and they show up in Recent Reports,
(<http://www.trailbehind.com/new_stuff>), which sort of looks like a Digg or
Reddit with a map.

~~~
Chocobean
is there a way to "correct" a marker? the marker for a lake near my house is
about 7 blocks away from the actual lake =P

also...I can't find a way to add content...

~~~
andrewljohnson
There's no marker correction right now. We pull the data from geonames.org and
USGS waypoints, and it's supposed to be pretty accurate. But I'll file a bug
about doing something like that.

Also, to add data to the lake, simply click the lake. Then click Save Map.
That will create a trip page with a "File A Report" link, and you can add a
link or report or whatever.

~~~
Chocobean
perhaps label the button as "edit map" then....I had the impression that "Save
Map" means to save the map at its current state, a la MS Word.

