DonMartini
05/18/06 07:28 PM
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Hey there!
Maybe it's an idea to do something more with the category 'in the news'. The point is that those maps in there have something to do with items that were in the news once, like crash sites for instance. But in fact, almost every famous building/house/church etc. has been in the news once... So I was thinking: it might be nice to actualise that category with new or existing maps.
Example: last week the Indonesian volcano Merapi erupted, so a lot of people search VGT for this map. Could it be possible for users to upload this map to the daily actualised category named 'newsflash' (or something) where you can find it for, let's say, a week? Of course you can still find it in the category 'volcanoes' but now the item is hot, you can also find it in the 'newsflash' category.
This way you keep people coming back for new or existing maps and always have the latest news right on your site!
Let me know what you think!
Greetings,
Maarten
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DonMartini
05/22/06 02:46 PM
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Anyone....?
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nic
05/22/06 05:04 PM
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I definately like the idea -- it would be nice to have a way to tag things as "In the news" and have them auto-removed after a while.
I've added it to my to-do. If anyone else has ideas on how to flush this out that would be great!
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AlbinoFlea
05/22/06 05:38 PM
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Well, this goes a little further than Maarten's suggestion, but it could be limited to just In the News maps as well.
Give each map that currently has an In the News or Historical category a date and event description field. Users could submit dates and summaries of what happened on that date, and upon moderator approval they would get thrown into the database. I don't see any reason why you couldn't have multiple events for a given map.
Then, maybe every week, all those maps that fell on dates corresponding to the next 7 days get thrown into a mix, and when the index page updates every 20 min or so a new random map from this subset gets slotted into a This Week in VGT or On this date in VGT type of box.
Also should probably have a link to let folks see all of the selected maps for a given week or day, and give folks the option of entering a date/event combo when submitting a map that they designate with an In the News or Historicalcategory.
This would provide a way of auto-deprecating categories from the In the News to the Historical once they've become old enough, and wouldn't need the creation of an extra category.
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dda
05/23/06 10:38 AM
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Good idea.
But now, you have a new problem : a hierarchical one.
Is Britney Spears new house as much important as 73 000 deads in Pakistan earthquake ?
Are elections in Uganda as much important as grammy awards ceremony ?
You need to have a journalistic policy, with choices...
dda
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DonMartini
05/23/06 12:45 PM
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I agree with you, although I think you must see it as the frontpage of the newspaper: a newsflash of the most important newsfacts of the week. If there is a big item about Britney Spears' new house that's mentioned at the frontpages, then I think it's news. Even though the eartquake in Pakistan is a news fact from a complete different kind, both can be mentioned I think. However, a policy about this is an important matter.
Anyway thank you all for these reactions! I'm glad you liked te idea. I'm curious if you can make it possible in some form.
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romulusnr
05/23/06 06:14 PM
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One solution would be to combine a time period with "In The News", say a month and year. Then, *recent* newsworthy locations would be distinguishable from past newsworthy locations.
Technically given the current design of categories this would probably be a mess, so maybe the "In the news" identifier would be best *not* as a category since it isn't timeless.
Then again, "Under Construction" can also find itself becoming invalid as imagery is updated with newer shots.
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nic
05/25/06 03:50 AM
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I definately like all of these ideas. I think a way of tagging maps with certain dates (and descriptions of the events) is a great idea. We could have a browse by timeline as well as showing "this week in maps" or something on the front page.
Ideas are added to the todo! (as long as that is!) 
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dda
06/03/06 10:01 AM
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Perhaps it can be useful for this idea :
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/06/google_maps_lin.html
dda
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