Open Resource section - Trip Reports / Zoo Reviews?

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

Administrator
Staff member
20+ year member
Since the relaunch of ZooChat with the new software, we've had a new "Resources" section that I haven't had an opportunity to set up and find a good use for yet.

Originally intended for use by the forum developers to allow contribution of addons to the XenForo forum software, it is also used on the XenForo website for documenting tips and guides and tutorials.

You can see how it is used on XenForo:
There are several main features we may want to take advantage of:
  1. is well suited to long-form content
  2. can be categorised so doesn't get lost amongst discussion threads - better for reference material
  3. can be edited by the original poster to add more detail at a later date, includes the ability to track changes to the resource via an "updates" page
  4. can have an associated discussion thread which is separate to the resource, but linked
  5. resources can be reviewed by other members and given a rating (the intention is that this rates the contribution of the person posting the resource, not the subject ... so it's "hey, great review - I give you 5 stars", not "I love this zoo - I give it 4.5 stars" ... rating zoos is a slightly different thing we'll need to address separately)
  6. in addition to "categories" and "tags" we can also add custom fields to resources to track other types of information. For example, on the XenForo website, they add a custom field where the person posting the addon resource can indicate which version of the forum software it is compatible with or any special licensing information dictating how you are allowed to use the software. We can even have the custom field be another "rich" text field with full formatting capability which can optionally appear on its own tab, which they use to add an optional FAQ page or other supporting information.

If you consider the types of content that is currently posted on the forums, there are news threads, general discussions and then there are zoo reviews and trip reports.

News and discussion is generally transient in nature (that it, it's important at a particular point in time, but progressively less so as time passes).

However, zoo reviews and trip reports and other such content is potentially timeless and valuable well past the time they were posted - so losing this content amongst the clutter of news and discussion diminishes its value somewhat.

I'm thinking the resource section may be well suited to collecting those zoo reviews and trip reports as reference material.

Originally I was thinking perhaps we could use it to document news as well - but I'm not so sure it's well suited to that usage.

If there was some other reference material that someone wanted to capture in a separate part of the site and have the ability to edit it to maintain it - I think that may well be suited to the Resource section too.

Anyone keen to give it a go?

We can convert existing threads into a resource - but we'd have to think about the best way to approach long zoo reviews or trip reports which cover multiple posts.
 
Simon Hampel said:
However, zoo reviews and trip reports and other such content is potentially timeless and valuable well past the time they were posted - so losing this content amongst the clutter of news and discussion diminishes its value somewhat.

I'm thinking the resource section may be well suited to collecting those zoo reviews and trip reports as reference material.
Click to expand...

This would serve a similar purpose to my ongoing attempts to form a central database for such reports:

The World Is Not Enough - Zoochat Travel Report Directory

Of course, a section integrated into the functionality of the site which would serve the same purpose of preserving reference material would be even better.

Which reminds me, I really have to get cracking both with updating that thread *and* my ongoing trip reports :p
 
This sounds like an excellent idea. Although TLD's trip report directory is the best thing we can do using the current forum setup, something as you describe with the resources sounds even better in my opinion.

Another possible use for the resource section could be a zoo wiki. If I remember correctly, this was briefly considered at some point in the past, but I think it could be interesting. Of course the key point with the zoo reviews/trip reports is that there is already loads of content to get started with.
 
LaughingDove said:
Another possible use for the resource section could be a zoo wiki. If I remember correctly, this was briefly considered at some point in the past, but I think it could be interesting. Of course the key point with the zoo reviews/trip reports is that there is already loads of content to get started with.
Click to expand...

There is a separate thread about wikis - ZooChat Wiki?

While we could certainly start to collate lists of information in the resources section - the big downside is that only the original poster has access to edit them. This is where wiki's have an advantage in that they allow multiple people to edit and maintain the same document.

The zoo reviews and trip reports are typically authored by one person - making them ideal candidates for the Resources section and we can use the categorisation abilities of the Resources tool to cross-link these reports to other parts of the site (forums, gallery, zoo maps, etc).

I'll try and find some of my own material to move into the Resources section as a test so people can see how it works.
 
Simon Hampel said:
There is a separate thread about wikis - ZooChat Wiki?

While we could certainly start to collate lists of information in the resources section - the big downside is that only the original poster has access to edit them. This is where wiki's have an advantage in that they allow multiple people to edit and maintain the same document.

The zoo reviews and trip reports are typically authored by one person - making them ideal candidates for the Resources section and we can use the categorisation abilities of the Resources tool to cross-link these reports to other parts of the site (forums, gallery, zoo maps, etc).

I'll try and find some of my own material to move into the Resources section as a test so people can see how it works.
Click to expand...

Sorry, missed that thread. Was very busy last night so didn't have as much time as usual to browse ZooChat properly.

I think the trip reports especially suit something in the resource section, however I'm not sure how well the shorter zoo walkthroughs/reviews would work, since I think they benefit from being linked to the zoo forum. I think the resources section could become something like the 'blog' function on birdforum.net, another forum I use (which, incidentally, has a wiki as well).
 
I think using the resources section for zoo reviews (not just updates from visits) and trip reports is a good idea. It would be good to retain the discussion aspect though, reading the comments by others on a long trip/review thread is often of as much interest as the main content, but if the discussion was separate (but linked) I think it would still work well.
 
zooboy28 said:
It would be good to retain the discussion aspect though, reading the comments by others on a long trip/review thread is often of as much interest as the main content, but if the discussion was separate (but linked) I think it would still work well.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is an associated discussion thread with each resource item - shows up both as part of the resource as well as in the forum section, so it won't be missed.
 
Am I the only one who has no idea what a wiki is? Honestly I am not really sure what anything on this thread means.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Am I the only one who has no idea what a wiki is? Honestly I am not really sure what anything on this thread means.
Click to expand...

It will be a bit easier to comprehend once it is all set up and you can see it in action.

In brief: a wiki is a type of content management system (CMS) which allows people to create content on a web page. What makes wiki's different to other types of CMS is that multiple people can edit the same page to add or improve the content on it.

So we plan to have the following types of CMS in use on ZooChat:
  • Forum - one post per user, limited editing ability - primary use: discussion threads
  • Resources - one resource per user, user has ongoing editing ability - primary use: personal long-form content / trip reports / reviews
  • Wiki - shared content, all users have editing ability - primary use: reference material / lists
  • News - submitted by members, curated by moderation team - primary use: archive of official zoo news
  • Zoo Database - maintained by admin staff - primary use: database / maps / social media links
 
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Simon Hampel said:
It will be a bit easier to comprehend once it is all set up and you can see it in action.

In brief: a wiki is a type of content management system (CMS) which allows people to create content on a web page. What makes wiki's different to other types of CMS is that multiple people can edit the same page to add or improve the content on it.

So we plan to have the following types of CMS in use on ZooChat:
  • Forum - one post per user, limited editing ability - primary use: discussion threads
  • Resources - one resource per user, user has ongoing editing ability - primary use: personal long-form content / trip reports / reviews
  • Wiki - shared content, all users have editing ability - primary use: reference material / lists
  • News - submitted by members, curated by moderation team - primary use: archive of official zoo news
  • Zoo Database - maintained by admin staff - primary use: database / maps / social media links
Click to expand...

Would this proposed use of the resource section allow other users to comment, as a forum thread does? Or is it more akin to a blog?
 
CGSwans said:
Would this proposed use of the resource section allow other users to comment, as a forum thread does? Or is it more akin to a blog?
Click to expand...

We have the option to allow a discussion thread to be associated with each resource ... so yes - the intention is to encourage comment.
 
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