An FAQ is a Frequently Answered Questions list. Our basic
faq covers topics of interest to new members, such as what is this site,
where do we go, etc. This advanced FAQ covers more complex topics, such as how
to organize an event, security policies, and detailed information on how to use
the web site.
Partner organizations are other hiking and event groups and clubs. Sometimes
we'll help them out by advertising their upcoming events, organize carpools for
our members to one of their events, or co-lead an event. This is not a huge list
- we don't want to overwhelm our members with information, and some groups wish
to stay private and separate. This section covers how partners works.
First we need to define basic information about the partner, so it doesn't
have to be typed in each time:
id - a short word to identify the partner - example: laguna
name - full name as it should appear in emails - example:
Laguna Foundation
web - url address of their primary web site - example:
http://lagunafoundation.org
pic - url address of their logo
info - a brief paragraph describing the organization
contact - name of person who gave us permission to link to
their information, the date, etc.
This currently has to be defined by the admin in
Hike_Globals.pm.
Once a partner is defined, we can select it when creating a new event. Here
are the event settings:
partner - same as the id above
partner_type - how is the event being run? partner only?
helping carpool? joint event?
partner_reply - does the partner require a response from
anyone in our group that is going?
partner_event_web - url address of where our members can go
for more information on the partner web site.
We make use of this information in the following ways:
Main Welcome Page - Short Event List
Note partner in caps in front of name, and $ cost at
end. Example: LAGUNA: hike through swamp ($100
opt)
All Events List - We have more room for the title here
Note partner in front of name, and longer $ cost at
end. Example: LAGUNA: hike through swamp ($100
optional)
Partner now shows up as it's own column, and
can be sorted on.
TODO: make partner links go to either a new
partner page showing our info for them, or
directly to their site.
Event Page
Key info box - a fair number of new
warnings, based on fee, partner_type,
partner_reply.
At bottom of page - there is a new partner
box with the logo, partner info, and text
paragraph of type/reply/etc.
If type = partner only, we replace the
contact box with the partner box. Don't bug us.
Respond to Event
TODO: Note again if user must respond to
partner as well.
Email invitation:
Subject line gets partner in front of name,
and $ cost at end.
Email contents otherwise same as event page.
If user has email filtering turned on, they
might not get an invite as they can opt out of
partner led events.
TODO: Re-do event email contents to make it
much smaller and direct people to our web site.
If a partner led event, let them respond
directly to the partner from the email.
User Settings Page
User has "allow partner" setting to opt out of
email initiations for all partner
events of type = "partner led", "help carpool",
but show "joint event". This also
requires the user to set "email filtering" to
all.
Sometimes an event will have several options, and you'll need to ask people
what they want to do or can bring. Examples:
Perhaps you'll have dinner at a restaurant afterwards, or
lunch before hand and want to know how many people are coming so
you can make reservations and/or plan out carpools.
Perhaps you are carpooling a long distance and want to know
if people are willing to drive and if so, how many can fit in
their vehicle.
Perhaps this is a pet friendly event, and you want to know
how many pets the person wishes to bring.
Perhaps your hike has a long and/or short option, and you
want to know who plans on each one.
Here is a copy of our "edit event" section for questions. You can define up
to 4 of them, mark them as required (or optional), then list the question along
with a list of valid responses. By default you can just enter a question, and if
it is yes/no, you're done. For more complex questions, save the event, look at
the response, then edit the event again until you have what you need.
If the answer list is completely blank, we'll give the person a text field
where they can type anything. If you want a number, we suggest you enter the
numbers, such as "1,2,3,4,5,6". If you mark an item as required, then when the
person responds, they'll see a dropdown list with the word "required" selected
by default, and they'll get an error if they don't change it. If an answer is
not required to your question, then the person will get a default of the first
selection in the answer list.
We make use of this information in the following ways:
Main Event Page
Responses Column: If the person answers yes,
then the id in parenthesis will be added to the
displayed users response. For example, if the id
is "dinner", then you'll see their response
followed by (dinner). A brief glance will let
you know who's coming. If you have several
questions, they'll be separated by commas.
Please keep the id's small so they don't take up
too much room.
TODO: May want to add these questions to the
Event Details list on the main part of the page.
TODO: Summarize responses (if simple) at top
of Responses column. (example: dinner: 3-5 yes,
2 no) Needs to look at maybe responses.
View Responses Only Page
Each person's full text reply will contain
full details on how they answered each question.
Example: "Yes, I'll make it
to your hike! (Additional
Questions: dinner: yes; long
hike: no; car seats: 5)
TODO: Bottom of responses page should have a
table per required question, with full list of
responses. Free text should be handled
differently from select lists. It would be nice
if we could select a response value and generate
an email to all those with that response. (eg:
sorry, dinner has been cancelled)
Edit Event Page
Contains section noted above.
TODO: may want to specify maximum limits to
each response in the answer list. This could be
done with another checkbox a number at the end
of each answer, before the comma.
TODO: as a separate function, allow us to
define the maximum number of people who can join
this event.
Respond to event page
Questions will either show up in the
required or optional sections.
TODO: show on this page how people have
already responded with each response to each
question. If there is a maximum value, show how
many choices are left for each question, plus
note which ones are "finished" in text to the
right of the question. Figure out how to handle
questions where the maximum value for all
responses has been obtained. (resulting in an
error where the person can't select anything)
Also, showing results, even without names, will
be quite busy - find some way to avoid making
the page too complicated. Perhaps an icon one
can hover over?
Most of our events use a predefined carpool spot or two. Usually this is in
Santa Rosa and/or Rohnert Park. The predefined carpool spots need to be easy for
the event organizer and often are along the line of travel to the event.
Anything past this is a chore for the organizer - don't ask them for too much,
or they'll stop wanting to organize anything for us.
So the question now becomes, how can I as person who wants to join this
event, organize my own carpool with people from my general area? How can we do
this without bothering the organizer or people from other areas?
This is a difficult question, and it's not fully implemented yet. For now,
please note that you'd like to organize an alternate carpool with other people
and the city you're in. Come back and look at the "View Responses Only" page a
day or two before the event starts and look for others coming from that general
area. Select their names to send them an email, and propose a carpool.
The rest of this section discusses how we plan to implement this a little
better.
Self-organizing carpools have fields on the following screens:
Define cities and regions
Done: pre-defined in Hike_Globals.pm. It has
entries that look like "@city_region{"west soco"}
= ["Bodega Bay" ...]".
TODO: It would be nicer if we could specify
it via the web on an admin screen.
Account Preferences Page
Done: specify preferred primary carpool -
Santa Rosa, or Rohnert Park - for default
carpool setting.
Done: specify nearest city to help
self-organized carpools. allow option of "none"
to opt out of this feature.
Main Event Page
TODO: find way of notifying others that you
wish to self-organize a carpool. (example: (sebastapol?))
Respond to Event Page
TODO: Add optional question asking if person
is also interested in self-organizing a carpool.
Pre-load carpool-city with persons default
value.
TODO: Like questions, see if we can
summarize counts of response from carpool-cities
already. Group together by region.
View Responses Only Page:
TODO: Create table for self organizing
carpools, show counts + list of names per
region, then city. This way people know who to
contact. Make the names links to the email form.
TODO: Make the region names links to an
email form for all of those users.
Email Form Page:
TODO: Note in email that this is a query to
self-organize a carpool. Put it in the subject
line by default.
TODO: Remind person on this page & in the
email, that if they organize a carpool, they'll
need to change their default carpool response to
show where they'll be meeting us.
On the edit event page, you have 2 values named max_yes and max_maybe. They
set the total number of people that can sign up with these responses. We use the
maybe responses as a waiting list, and direct people to use it once the event is
full. So ... simply set max_yes to the maximum number of people for your event.
The waiting list is manual. As time gets closer to the event, a few people may
change their yes responses to maybe or no. We won't do anything automatic. It's
up to each person listed as maybe to check the site occasionally and change their response to
a yes when there is an opening. First come, first served!
Note: You can set max_maybe to 0 to prevent any maybe responses. The max_yes
value must be at least 2 or more. Any admin or event organizer can bypass the
limits and force a response to yes.
There is some complexity in this system:
Displaying information: there are many
places where the limits are shown.
Home page: the event will
have [FULL] or [5 spots left] displayed after
the event name if it is limited. This is omitted
for past events.
Event listing: you can
query for max_yes and max_maybe if you wish
across all events. We don't indicate if it is
full.
Main Event Page: the "Key
Information" section will get a new label called
LIMITED and it will display one of many values:
We have room for 5 more
people.
The event is full, but you
can join the waiting list.
The event is full, and there
are 5 spots left on the waiting
list.
The event and waiting list
are full, sorry!
You are on the yes list, but
the event is full for others.
You are on the waiting list,
and the event is full.
You are on the waiting list,
and there are now openings for 5
people.
The event title will also
have the words [FULL] appended
if the event is full.
Once the event is over, we
simplify all this, and simply
write "The event was limited to
20 people and filled up", or
"The event was limited to 20
people, and 19 signed up".
Event Response Page:
several changes occur here.
The top of the page
specifies the limits and current
situation for the event in red,
similar to the event page, but
with more information. We ask
people to update their response
from yes to something else if
their plans change so someone
else can join. This is not shown
for past events.
We remove yes as an option
if the event is full and the
person is not already accepted
on the yes list. We remove maybe
as an option if max_maybe is 0
or the waiting list is full and
the person is not already on the
waiting list.
Next to the "how many
people" selection, we spell out
how many people you can bring,
or emphasize that the event is
full and you can't bring any
more.
Email Invites: Like the
main event page, it will say "we have room for
12 more people". The organizer should sign up
before sending the email invite to make sure
they get a spot.
Changing a response: If anyone is on the
yes or maybe list, they can come back at any time and change
their comments or reduce the number of people without an error.
This is true even if the organizer lowered the max_yes value and
there are too many people on the event.
Change another persons response: The event
organizer or admin can always force people onto the yes list and
bypass the limits.
We have some ideas on how this might be improved in the future: (these are
NOT done now)
Allow sort by response date on the main event page when
yes/no/maybe was last specified. Paul requested this so
we could notify people on the maybe/wait list in order of
initial sign up.
Allow sorting by many different values on the
"responses only" page and full listing.
Implement "email me when people respond to the
event", and let people on the waiting list know when an opening
occurs.
Advance people automatically from
the waiting list to a yes: Doing this automatically is
hard - we'd have to keep track of the order people signed up in
the waiting list and differentiate between a maybe and a
yes/waiting list response. Many people on waiting lists often
make other plans too, so this could backfire.
Please see our contact page for general
questions. Please contact the event organizer with any event specific details.
We hope to see you on a future hike!
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