Announcing New V-Features: Community Page and VVallpapers
Whenever The Keepers disappear a bit and our postings become sporadic and pointed, you can bet we’re either out riding our bikes or we’ve been busy working away at new features for the site. We have a number of features in various states of completion, and we’ll be rolling them out over the course of the next few weeks and months as they reach maturity and we become convinced they’re working reasonably well.
The beautiful thing about a word like “reasonable” is that it contains within it the perfect amont of vagueness while giving the impression of specificity. After all, there’s no universally agreed-upon reasonable degree of reasonable, meaning that what seems reasonable to me might be completely unreasonable to others. Take, for example, the number of times the word “reasonable” appears in this paragraph. Completely unreasonable.
Back to the point, when I say our new features are working reasonably well, I mean to say that three requirements have been satisfied. First, the vision for the feature is well understood. (The vision does not need to be realized in the release, but it does need to allow for it to become realized at some later stage.) Second, the initial feature set is working sufficiently well that I got tired of testing before I found any major problems. Third, it looks good.
At this time, we’re releasing two new features, both of which represent an initial iteration which we plan to expand on as the features grow and the community adopts them (or not). As we gather feedback on what new features would be helpful, we’ll incorporate it into the subsequent releases (or not).
The VVallpapers
Velominati is founded on the idea of sharing with each other the little things about Cycling that make this sport so amazing. On that premise, providing desktop Wallpapers or, indeed VVallpapers, has been part of the envisioned feature set from the beginning; to select photos from our collective archives within the community that represent Cycling in some way, and provide a specific place to share them with each other. But, like so many other ideas we have kicking around, there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to make everything come to reality.
However, a discussion last week spurred us into action, and we present you with The VVallpapers. We haven’t really found a good home for them yet, but for the time being at least, they can be found through the footer and via The Keepers. The same principle applies as elsewhere; post your suggestions for additional photos for inclusion, and we’ll update the main list with the best ones. Several initial wallpapers have been added already as a start.
The Community
As we know, there is great sense of community on Velominati, and increasingly we’re seeing the desire to know a little bit more about our fellow members. To that end, we’ve put together a Community page which provides a mechanism to share some background information and posting activity. Obviously, we wanted to provide this as an option to people who wish to share information, but still make sure that people who want to stay anonymous can do so. To that end, people who have an account at Velominati may log in and update their profile, sharing whatever information they are comfortable sharing, including a bio, their location, and various social networking coordinates. For those who don’t have a Velominati account or who don’t fill out their profile, only a very basic amount of information is shown along with their posting activity. The fundamental idea is to allow people to choose what they’d like to share; only the handle, photo, and website are shown by default.
To access anyone’s profile, simply click their name in the posting threads. The only downside to that is that in order for you to access a member’s profile, they need to have posted at least once; there are loads of members who have never posted any comments. Unfortunately, this release doesn’t provide a mechanism for viewing their profiles.
To that point, however, is the notion that The Community in particular is viewed by us as an initial iteration; we have a mountain of ideas that we think will help foster a sense of community here, and we’re sure you do as well. With that in mind, have a look, fill out your profile (or don’t), and start using learning about the community. If you have ideas or suggestions, we’d love to hear about them.
Thanks as always to everyone who comes here and makes this all worth while.
Nice one Frank.
As for reasonable, have you never been on a Clapham omnibus ?
Awesome, Keepers! Thanks again for all of the hard work.
How about adding them iPhone wall papers?
@frank
Good stuff, it’ll be good to find out a bit more about the Velominati.
@ChrisO
Not a lawyer are you, Chris?
Just noticed a small typo in the profile page BTW… next to the member’s name, it says Velomiantus – which could mean the opposite of a Velominatus for all I know.
Sorry… I notice these things. My children hate me for it.
Can I share another slightly sad grammatical thing with everyone. I recently bought some low-fat Pringle’s crisps (I don’t usually do low-fat stuff, I just don’t eat as much of it because I have a modicum of self-control, but I digress). The Sour Cream and Onion flavour is actually quite nice.
Anyway I have a little tingle of joy and appreciation every time I take the packet out because it proudly says Fewer Calories… not Less Calories…. Fewer Calories. Ahhh, it makes me happy just to say it and to think there is at least one intelligent and educated copy-writer at large in this world.
@Chris
Nearly was… but for some reason I decided against having more money than I could poke a stick at. Don’t ask me what I was thinking.
I was also in my youth a devoted fan of the work of AP Herbert aka Albert Haddock. Pretty sure TMOTCO featured there more than once.
@ChrisO
Life’s simple pleasures.
To be clear, while all Keepers may be out riding bikes and screwing off, it is Frank who is busy dreaming up and making all the features on this site. He is Velominati and we are just trying to keep up with him.
Pardon my ignorance, but is there a difference between having a mere username and being fully registered?
@Nate
Yep. Click on “log in” either at the top right of the page or right above the Post Preview box. Then fill in the blanks.
I’m having a blast reading everyone’s biographies. “Pedant” is my favorite. You know who you are.
@Gianni
There are certainly worse wheels to follow… Chapeau to Frank and all The Keepers!
Cool!
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Grazie mille!
@Nate
Con mucho gusto! And now that you’re registered, you can attach pics.
@Nate
Pics like this…
If I may be so forward as to suggest another commuity idea (the Keepers in their wisdom have probably already thought of this), what about a Velominatus gear swap page?
@Jeff in PetroMetro
That pic never gets old. Wallpaper seconded. Meanwhile, frank will be relieved not to have to convert my pic postings anymore.
As for this comment:
There are quite a few of us who admit to that description. Props to whoever was honest enough to include it in his profile.
Nice work! I have always felt I’ve fully gotten my membership fee worth here at velominati.com!
If I were reasonably smart and reasonably talented like certain very reasonable Keepers, I’d make a font or even a picture of the original velomiskrit. “A” in the style of Assos; “B” in the style of Bontrager; “C” for Cinelli; etc etc. Alas, I am not as reasonable as the ancients….
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Who has the original of this? It really should be made in full resolution. So good, so bad. So Velominati.
@ChrisO
Merci; corrected. Funny how when you work on these things all the letters just turn to symbols and shapes. Which is what they are, I suppose, but I mean to say they become meaningless. Thanks for that.
Awesome new features Frank, thanks for all the hard work!
@Jeff in PetroMetro
I should update that picture. I did it in such a hurry at work while I should have been working on other things, like you know… my actual job. HA. I still have the layered PSD file, I should adjust how his jersey looks under the robes (angles are weird) and maybe try and increase the size a little bit.
@frank
I was using images I found with Google image search, so they aren’t full-screen resolution unfortunately.
I was gonna give credit to mcsqueak for his FINEST.WORK.EVER. But he beat me to it. It’s the 6th post on my LOOK 595 article.
French translation of reasonable= “normalement”…. so much is contained within a simple word. If you’ve read Peter Mayle you know what I mean.
@frank
the photography in Rouleur is stunning and would make great Wallpaper, perhaps it is worth looking into it, it’s probably all copyrighted and stuff but you don’t get if you don’t ask
@frank
If we are talking typos on the Keepers pages, I’m sure Marko is meant to be an Author… unless Aurhor is some cycling/keeper term I’m not familiar with. Just sayin’ (has only been bugging me for six months… glad to get it off my chest)
Awesome new additions to site, btw.
I bet Jens can’t do this.
@Cyclops
Those are Jens’s kids.
@Cyclops
Or this. Well, maybe he could do this, but I don’t want to know.
@Steampunk
+1
@Keepers Nice job guys, already the site is great and allows for great interactions between all the members. Keep up the good work and look forward to seeing what else you guys can come up with.
For my two cents, section for members to annouce the rides they are doing so that if any others are going or want to people can easily see who else is going.
Section for video for Velominati to upload their ride videos to a single place. I know we can upload them to youtube and then link them to the site but a separate section would allow a place to collect all these things and have a laugh at magenta gear we might have won (i know it was red really).
I know there are a few users that are not just into cycling in a big way, but also like to use cycling to do some good for the world we live. Perhaps a section for charitable events fellow velominati maybe involved in to allow those who wish to get involved in some way easily can. It maybe that these things are not numerous enough to warrant an entire section but maybe it is. I have a lot of faith in the generous nature of the Velominatis I have already had the great pleasure to meet so far.
I have more but that will do for now!
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Christ, don’t let the IOC see this. Having ditched the kilo and individual pursuit, they’ll probably drop the team pursuit and replace it with this, deeming it a “cycling” event.
@anyone
How does one change the v-cog to a picture of one’s choosing?
@snoov
Join Gravatar.com and put any silly thing (dog with toupee, for example) you choose as your avitar and it will follow you around on the web. It’s free.
awesome. excited about BOTH of these additions. as if this site needed to be any stickier… think there will be a need to have guidelines for submissions at some point? you know, a list of rules never hurts.
I currently have an image taken from Mavic’s website (they use it for the background under their road shoe section. There’s my reference, so it’s not illegal.
Seth
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Well, it stands to reason: the guy has, like, fourteen of them…
@frank
Am I being a bit of a retard here? I’m logged in and showing up as a Grey Order Veluminatus but when I click on Chris my profile lists me as being a level four and loses my gravatar sketch of the chap climbing. Or is it my computer or the internet?
Cool improvement!
@Cyclops
But he can touch this.
@Chris
No, you’re not mistaken and it’s not your computer. I suspect that there is a little bug in the logic for how it’s pulling your info and that it’s pulling up another Chris. I didn’t think of that path; I’ll get it corrected shortly.
@Tartan1749
When I saw that I really wanted that as a wallpaper. awesome picture.
@frank
Cheers for that. Love this personalised service, you don’t get that anywhere else!
@frank
While it’s not picking up my gravatar and my grey cog status, it does seem to be picking up my posting history.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Greatest wallpaper i have ever seen. Nothing more to be said.
@Sean Ge
Indeed. Here’s hoping @mcsqueak gets me a higher resolution version. I trust he’s making it a priority even as we speak.
@Chris
You’re right as rain now; the profile and comment history were pulled by different mechanisms for a good reason, but not a good enough reason in light of the fact that the name is not necessarily unique. Good catch!
Also noticed your facebook link isn’t working; I anticipated that people would be using all kinds of different forms for that, so I’ll make some tweaks to the backend to straighten that out as well.
@metalface
Nah…who needs Rules?
@Sam
Excellent idea – Rouleur is an inspiration and their photography is second to (almost) none. Cheers.
@roadslave
Thanks, corrected.
@huffalotpuffalot
Awesome suggestions. Eventually, The Community is the first step towards dedicated Cogal sites; those would be localized sub-sites that manage local rides and provide a way for people to organize group rides. In the shorter term, we have a The Rides section in the works currently which will function at a global level (best rides in the world) and will follow our “moderated croud-sourcing” model that we’re using on The Rules, The Lexicon, and The Works already. The Rides is in development and will hopefully be released in the coming weeks.
@all
Thanks for the great suggestions all round. *snif*
@RedRanger
Great idea; I’ll need to make a little change to the code to support that format. I’ll also provide the one I use, which is even more awesomer.
@frank
Your awesomeness knows no bounds.
The racers (@cyclops) might like a palmares section to the profiles. Somewhere to keep their magenta kit as it were.