Talk:Expedition

This page is a little confusing, because it starts out talking about an expedition page, and then somehow crosses over into being a graticule page. I came for the graticule template, and ideas on what to put in an expedition page, was going "huh, why would an expedition page have sections called "About" and "Expeditions"? Maybe "Planning," "En Route," and "At the Geohash" or something like that. If I'm confused (and I've made lots of expedition pages) someone making their first expedition page might be really confused.

I suspect the graticule map code was cut and pasted and you accidentally pasted some of the wrong text.

A Cut and Paste "fill in the blanks" boilerplate for an expedition page would be great.

Now re-reading the page I realize that it isn't a graticule page. It does make sense, but it's still confusing from the point of view of someone who has never been to a single geohash that had multiple expeditions. -Robyn 15:32, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

We do need a blank template of a graticule page also. I'll add a little intro paragraph to hopefully save others from mass confusion. --Thomcat 15:58, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't have outgoing e-mail right now (the joys of motel living) so I'll reply here.

I love the sample page. That would have helped me so much when I started. I made a blog instead, because I didn't "get" expedition pages right off.

I figured out what confused me so on first reading, and it's still there. It's the single sentence: "The second section contains the date for the individual expeditions." Al the expeditions should be on the same date for an expedition page. Did you mean "data for the individual expeditions"? Perhaps "contains descriptions of the various geohashers' experiences reaching the coordinates" but that's a little verbose.

I guess you can work on the wiki while your code is compiling. Unless you have a swordfight to attend. -Robyn 17:39, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

data, it was supposed to be data. Durn font! Reworded yet again, anyways, as overkill is the finest form of destruction. --Thomcat 18:04, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Current wording is beautiful. Amazing how one letter changed the meaning of the whole page for me! -Robyn 21:34, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

I've started seeing expedition reports made with an inferior template with too many braces in it. 2009-01-31 55 12 is an example, if you look at the edit before mine. Do you know where these people are finding this template? -Robyn 16:06, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

It's what you get if you put in {{subst:Expedition}} like the Expedition page says. I've changed it to two braces, but I don't see that it really matters - you have to remove ALL the braces anyway to make the template work. Does anyone know why the braces are there in the first place? Just to make it clear what needs to be changed? In that case maybe 3 is better, so we can say "anything that is in 3 curly braces, you need to remove (along with the braces) and update; e.g. {{{lat}}} should be replaced by your latitude." --joannac 21:54, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

I see. Why does it have any braces at all? I guess the idea is that the person might not recognize which words replaceable parameters and which were code. Why not have no braces, and list the replaceable parameters in a comment. ("Replace each instance of lat, long, date and graticule name with the data from your expedition.") I also think it might be better if all the categories except "Expedition Planning" or maybe "Unedited Template" were commented out in the initial template. -Robyn 22:18, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree :) I just don't like making changes to templates I didn't create. I vote for paramaters in capital letters too, in addition to the list, just to make them stand out a bit more. As for the categories, they're annoying, but they at least give people an idea of what categories need to be there. We could always categorise expeditions manually for new geohashers, until they get the idea, though. --joannac 22:35, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Go, go, Gadget wiki magic. -- UnwiseOwl 23:03, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't know how to change what the magic wiki template does, so I'll leave it to Joannac. -Robyn 23:46, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Done. User:Joannac/Test is what you get from typing in {{subst:Expedition}}. let me know if there's anything else you want me to change. --joannac 00:36, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Clap clap clap. (That looked weirder when it said "clap lap lap" because my C-key didn't fire). Happy Robyn. -Robyn 00:58, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Your c key does that a lot, doesn't it? -- UnwiseOwl 01:12, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's a known defiiency. -Robyn 02:03, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Also, I had a closer look at the redone Expedition thing. The comments should include the format for the date, and the big list of possible categories. Make it so the ategories are commented out but all they need to do is delete the ones that aren't true and delete the comment delineation. -Robyn 02:07, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Fixed, I think. I dunno how clear it is how categories work, I tried to make it as clear as I could. --joannac 02:55, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems ok to me. -- UnwiseOwl 02:57, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

How close?

How close do you have to get to the actual point for it to be generally considered "successful"? As close as your GPS will tell you, which could be several meters away? PhilHibbs 16:50, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Within GPS accuracy is fine. And yes, it will often be a few meters of variance. --mykaDragonBlue [- i have no sig -] 00:56, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Keep in mind that the accuracy shown by the GPS doesn't have much to do with the actual error. People's standards about how close you have to get are different, and there are no exactly fixed rules. Basically, it says to reach the spot itself, and stay honest. My own standards are rather strict - If both the satellite imagery and my GPS tell me that the point is well behind that fence, I have not been there, even if the distance is only 6m. If I'm in a forest with lots of underbrush, where you could go everywhere with some effort, but GPS signal and satellite imagery wouldn't tell you very precisely anyway, a much larger distance might be perfectly acceptable. --Ekorren 04:58, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Subst

Someone please document on this page (high up on the page) how to use the subst to make a new page? That seems like the easiest way to make a new page and would save having to read most of this document. --davidc 22:30, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks joannac for doing this. I pointed new user ryanb towards the updated page: User_talk:Ryanb#Adding_an_expedition. --davidc 23:43, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

First time poster's mistake.

So, when I get told to put in the code featuring "lat = latitude of graticule", what do I do? "53 = latitude of graticule". From re-editing the page concerned, I realise that it should have been "lat = 53". Don't know whether it's worth clarification, or does everyone else who makes this n00b mistake also realise just as quickly what was really meant? (Given that I'm a coder in various languages, to be honest it does make more sense that "var=val" than "val=var", but Wiki code still inhabits that strange bermudan triangle zone between familiar HTML markup and all the scriptable and compilable languages I'm also familiar with... :) )