Value of bushwalking clubs

[Kolbaska]

I walk with a Brisbane club. It was a great (and only) opportunity for me to start bushwalking, as I didn't grow here and don't know local places. I walk with friends, too, since suitable club walks happen very rarely. It's very hard though to do anything serious with friends, as firstly most freak out at a perspective to get up at 6, leave alone 4.
There's a mixed bunch of people in the club, walking for all sorts of reasons:) I'm mostly interested in flora, fauna and broader history of the place, so I just mind my own business, I don't participate in chitchat a lot:) Photographic walks are a particular issue - I do want a company, but ordinary walks aren't suitable usually... I ' m starting to organise them with a couple of friends.

[Son of a Beach]

Yes there's no reason why they couldn't have a few forums each with different permissions for each forum.

[Bush Walker]

Yes there's no reason why they couldn't have a few forums each with different permissions for each forum.

I think that would be a great solution for those clubs who either don't have a webmaster or someone to maintain their blog.

[ILUVSWTAS]

HWC now has a facebook page where members can advertise FLASH walks that arent in the regular circular and anyone can attend. Only members can add to the page though (I think)

That way if someone suddenly wants to go for a walk they dont have to plan it MONTHS in advance which at times can be difficult to do.

[Bush Walker]

HWC now has a facebook page where members can advertise FLASH walks that arent in the regular circular and anyone can attend. Only members can add to the page though (I think)

That way if someone suddenly wants to go for a walk they dont have to plan it MONTHS in advance which at times can be difficult to do.

I'm afraid that despite its popularity I feel that Facebook is a dangerous security risk. It links people together so that it is easy for someone to determine when your away on holidays, who are your friends and see photos, get birthdays etc: perfect for identity theft!

Ever tried to delete your account!

[photohiker]

Ever tried to delete your account!

Well, not mine, but I did it for a friend who wanted out. Worked fine.

When you delete your account, it goes into limbo for a couple of weeks. If you log in during that time, the delete is cancelled and the account is restored.

[BarryJ]

............................
Ever tried to delete your account!

Yeah, was a pretty straight forward procedure. Can't remember how I did it though.

[ILUVSWTAS]

I dont think the HWC is too concerned about it's identity being stolen either....

[Son of a Beach]

Ever tried to delete your account!

Well, not mine, but I did it for a friend who wanted out. Worked fine.

When you delete your account, it goes into limbo for a couple of weeks. If you log in during that time, the delete is cancelled and the account is restored.

No quite. The account does not get actually deleted (at least not for a very long time). I wanted to delete mine about 18 months ago, but there is no delete option. Only the option to 'disable' the account. Everything remains stored in the account, but just not enabled. About a year later, I re-enabled the account, and it was exactly as I left it.

(I can't stand facebook, but unfortunately, it is the only way I can see photos of my nieces overseas, as their parents don't seem to be interested in communicating any other way).

[BarryJ]

There is definitely a delete option but I can't remember where I found it and I certainly don't intend signing up to again so I can find it.

[Son of a Beach]

The information certainly suggests that it will be deleted permanently after 14 days if you don't interact with Facebook for 14 days after requesting deletion. But that sure didn't work for me - about a year later!

[BarryJ]

Just tried to log in for the first time since deleting my account several months ago and Facebook doesn't recognise me, so it worked for me.

[Son of a Beach]

hmmm... I wonder what I did wrong? In any case, it turned out I did need it again anyhow. My facebook page is very exciting. It basically just contains messages saying, "Don't contact me on facebook!".

[Bush Walker]

hmmm... I wonder what I did wrong? In any case, it turned out I did need it again anyhow. My facebook page is very exciting. It basically just contains messages saying, "Don't contact me on facebook!".

I hate the way it links you to old work acquaintances and friends of friends who you are trying to forget!!! ....AND the defaults for privacy are always the minimum, so you have to actively opt-out!

[davidmorr]

HWC now has a facebook page where members can advertise FLASH walks that arent in the regular circular and anyone can attend. Only members can add to the page though (I think)

That way if someone suddenly wants to go for a walk they dont have to plan it MONTHS in advance which at times can be difficult to do.

My club has an e-mail mailing list. Any member can get offers of new trips mailed out by contacting the webmaster.

One of the advantages of e-mail is that the message comes to you. With Facebook or forums, people have to consciously go and look to see if there is anything new. And if the volume is low, they may not check more than once a week, or even less frequently. Which makes it very untimely and therefore almost useless.

[ILUVSWTAS]

hmmm... I wonder what I did wrong? In any case, it turned out I did need it again anyhow. My facebook page is very exciting. It basically just contains messages saying, "Don't contact me on facebook!".

I hate the way it links you to old work acquaintances and friends of friends who you are trying to forget!!! ....AND the defaults for privacy are always the minimum, so you have to actively opt-out!

Each to their own. I enjoy being able to see what everyone I know is up to. And really it's not hard changing settings to suit how you wish to use it.

I have enjoyed meeting new people and old friends through FB, and if you dont want to have anything to do with a person you can always block or hide them.

[Son of a Beach]

HWC now has a facebook page where members can advertise FLASH walks that arent in the regular circular and anyone can attend. Only members can add to the page though (I think)

That way if someone suddenly wants to go for a walk they dont have to plan it MONTHS in advance which at times can be difficult to do.

My club has an e-mail mailing list. Any member can get offers of new trips mailed out by contacting the webmaster.

One of the advantages of e-mail is that the message comes to you. With Facebook or forums, people have to consciously go and look to see if there is anything new. And if the volume is low, they may not check more than once a week, or even less frequently. Which makes it very untimely and therefore almost useless.

That's not quite the case for forums if used correctly (and for Facebook too, I believe, but can't be sure, as I don't use it). For example, in the case of the forums on this site (Bushwalk Tasmania, or Bushwalk Australia forums), you can subscribe to a variety of RSS/Atom feeds, to make sure that you are automatically notified of any posts, either to a particular topic, a particular forum, or any forum. NB: This is DIFFERENT to using the "Subscribe Topic" or "Subscribe Forum" links at the bottom of topic/forum pages which will only notify you of the first post since your last visit to that topic/forum, and will not include the content of the post, but merely a link to it. The RSS feed will notify you of ALL updates, and will actually include the content (or at least the first part of it) each time.

To subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds use the Feed icon presented by your browser for any page which provides RSS/Atom feeds. In my browser, it is at the right end of the URL bar and looks like this:

Feeds Icon

Screen shot 2010-09-23 at 8.28.32 AM.png (3.52 KiB) Viewed 11257 times

When I click on it, I get the following menu:

Feeds Menu

Screen shot 2010-09-23 at 8.28.46 AM.png (19.11 KiB) Viewed 11257 times

Selecting any of the feeds in this menu subscribes me to that feed using whatever my operating system's standard feed reader is. In my case, I use my email reader as my feed reader, but many people who keep a browser window open all the time use their browser as a feed reader. You can also get dedicated feed reader programs.

I reckon this is the best of both worlds, as people can either choose to browse, or to be notified automatically even when their not browsing. They can easily choose what they want to subscribe to for notifications, etc.

The only problem is that for some reason, most people have not caught on to the possibilities, and don't realise how easy and useful such feeds are.

[davidmorr]

Safari has a similar feature, with Mail as the reader. However, I don't use Apple's Mail program so I will never see the updates unless I consciously start up Mail. (<soapbox>And why a mail program should be used to read RSS feeds has me mystified. Most programs do one thing well, but people insist on loading other functions onto them which they usually don't do well.</soapbox>)

But more to the point, most novice computer users seem to use webmail. To access their RSS feeds, they would need to run a mail program or install a dedicated RSS reader. Again, this requires a conscious act to see what is new.

[Son of a Beach]

Safari has a similar feature, with Mail as the reader. However, I don't use Apple's Mail program so I will never see the updates unless I consciously start up Mail. (<soapbox>And why a mail program should be used to read RSS feeds has me mystified. Most programs do one thing well, but people insist on loading other functions onto them which they usually don't do well.</soapbox>)

But more to the point, most novice computer users seem to use webmail. To access their RSS feeds, they would need to run a mail program or install a dedicated RSS reader. Again, this requires a conscious act to see what is new.

Safari is the default RSS/Atom reader on Mac OS X, not mail. Apple gave their mail program the ability to read feeds as an OPTION only for people like me who prefer to get all their messages in one place, and not split between their web browser (for feeds) and mail program (for email). Besides, it covers the exact problem you mentioned for many of us. Ie, people who do use the mail program usually have it open all the time, whereas people who use a web browser are less likely to have it running full time.

Again, if you really like to use a dedicated program for each task, then you can install and run a dedicated feed reader program which overcomes such problems for those people. No conscious action is required to check RSS feeds, no matter which type of program you use. If you want to have RSS feeds reported to you immediately, then you keep the program running, and it will alert you when something new comes in. Same as email. If you don't keep your email program running, then conscious action is required to open it every time you want to check for mail, but most people leave it running, and it alerts them without any conscious action required. If you use webmail, you can leave your browser running. The same browser can alert you to new email messages, as well as new RSS feeds - this is the default way to use RSS on most operating systems - ie, in the web browser.

However, we've digressed a long way from the original topic. Sorry about that.