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Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

hike.io

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Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#41

Post by kfk »

I think you need some kind of reputation/review system in place. I used to do 8-9 hrs hikes and in that case you need to know the new guy won't start screaming in pain after 4 hrs.

Also, most of the hikers are in a group, there should be a way to create a group tied to a specific area.

Finally, you should think of something better than donations to keep this going, because potentially it can go very far. The thing is you are hosting pictures, can't you use an external provider (flikr, picasa)? Otherwise, if you reach an important size (and for this site, you have to), even a supporter budge (a la couchsurfing) for $5 a year could bring you nice revenues.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#43

Post by zakn »

bpowah wrote: post #39

I'm excited to see where this goes. You are right about the competition. There is tons of information out there, but not many are wiki and none have the responsiveness or a clean modern design yours does. Kudos on the "free and open" promise! I hate logins. Critique: - I second the suggestion to encourage contributing to OSM. Most popular hikes will be in OSM already and adding them to hike.io could be as easy as sel…

Awesome feedback. Especially the part about making the "adding an entry" part easier, it didn't dawn on me that some of that information is redundant.

The reason I've been writing driving directions in a wall of text is because in a lot of cases, google doesn't map all of the forest roads required to get to the trailhead. There are some hikes, like http://hike.io/hikes/mount-rose, which do and in that case I include the link in the Directions header. I thought it might be nice to also include the step by step directions in case you don't have an internet connection, but you're right, it feels extraneous.

And, I'm going to have to investigate OSM, you're the second suggest that.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#44

Post by blaze33 »

alan_cx wrote: post #21

Just my personal thoughts as a hiker; not a hacker, HNer or what ever. Firstly: Dont be disheartened by my criticism which will follow. Its a decent first attempt, the idea is absolutely worth working on, and could become a valuable resource for a lot of people. On to the criticism.... What goes in the search? Are hikes named? Do I need to know the name to search for? Search for a location? From the first page, what…

I was also going to suggest mini-maps.

I would suggest you look at camptocamp.org, it's run by a french non profit (CC data, also has an english interface) and has a lot of users posting their hikes. It's pretty useful if you want fresh data about the terrain conditions of your future hike. They have a split by activities (just hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, etc.) and also by hiking grade, height diff up, etc.

On a personal note I have a small webapp I used to share my location while hiking alone: http://gr5.herokuapp.com/ it has mini-maps based on the gps data I uploaded at the end of each day.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#46

Post by ateevchopra »

zakn wrote: post #38
ateevchopra wrote: post #35

Hello @zakn. Great site. I have one question. Can you please share from where are you getting the description of the hikes. For Example: http://hike.io/hikes/salkantay-trek Are you manually typing out all the data or you hired someone to type all this out. I know you are using community to edit this , but who made contribution for the first time ?

That one was all me. I did the hike, took the pictures, and typed it up. And actually most of the hikes I wrote, although I'm starting to get edits from others. One great example is Mount Meru - http://hike.io/hikes/mount-meru which was done by a good samaritan I've never met.

oh thats cool. Well, we are also working on something similar, so i was just curious.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#47

Post by INTPenis »

zakn wrote: post #23
alan_cx wrote: post #21

Just my personal thoughts as a hiker; not a hacker, HNer or what ever. Firstly: Dont be disheartened by my criticism which will follow. Its a decent first attempt, the idea is absolutely worth working on, and could become a valuable resource for a lot of people. On to the criticism.... What goes in the search? Are hikes named? Do I need to know the name to search for? Search for a location? From the first page, what…

I appreciate the feedback, especially as a fellow hiker. A number of people now have mentioned that the first page is not working, so that's something I'm going to reevaluate. I need more info there beyond a daunting search box. At the moment, you can type in the name of a hike and it will show up, e.g. try "The Narrows". The site assumes hikes are named. If you're searching for a location, then you need to go to the…

Yeah don't give up on this, I've wanted a site like yours for years now.

But like the first poster said, there are some usability issues to fix.

Not sure if this was mentioned but for me the landing page works but I immediately click on Map because I don't know what to search for. Do place names show hikes in a specific radius? If so, what's the radius?

So map was much more straight forward to me, but when I then click on a red dot on the map I can't return to where I was on the map and the only way is to click Map again and return to the north american continent view.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#48

Post by zakn »

INTPenis wrote: post #47
zakn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the feedback, especially as a fellow hiker. A number of people now have mentioned that the first page is not working, so that's something I'm going to reevaluate. I need more info there beyond a daunting search box. At the moment, you can type in the name of a hike and it will show up, e.g. try "The Narrows". The site assumes hikes are named. If you're searching for a location, then you need to go to the…

Yeah don't give up on this, I've wanted a site like yours for years now. But like the first poster said, there are some usability issues to fix. Not sure if this was mentioned but for me the landing page works but I immediately click on Map because I don't know what to search for. Do place names show hikes in a specific radius? If so, what's the radius? So map was much more straight forward to me, but when I then cli…

I'm not sure I understand the question: "Do place names show hikes in a specific radius?" Are you talking about the orange dots on the map? They correspond to a single hike.

That is annoying that the map doesn't remember where you were. Seems like the best way to handle that is to store your last location in localstore.

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#49

Post by caio1982 »

Besides the points already mentioned by other commenters I'd say imperial units all over instead of metrical system being used was a big let down to me for using the site. Given only the US uses imperial stuff it would be reasonable to assume metrical units for any IP not located in the US, unless the site is targeted for american audience.

Also, I'm not sure how multi-trails hikes should be organized. I tried to add the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal which I did a few months ago (and is actually a series of hikes between villages) but I could not figure it out and gave up.

Good work though, don't give up now! I know a lot of people who have been looking for a site like that :-)

Re: Show HN: Free, open-source site for finding beautiful hikes

#50

Post by arethuza »

blaze33 wrote: post #44
alan_cx wrote: post #21

Just my personal thoughts as a hiker; not a hacker, HNer or what ever. Firstly: Dont be disheartened by my criticism which will follow. Its a decent first attempt, the idea is absolutely worth working on, and could become a valuable resource for a lot of people. On to the criticism.... What goes in the search? Are hikes named? Do I need to know the name to search for? Search for a location? From the first page, what…

I was also going to suggest mini-maps. I would suggest you look at camptocamp.org, it's run by a french non profit (CC data, also has an english interface) and has a lot of users posting their hikes. It's pretty useful if you want fresh data about the terrain conditions of your future hike. They have a split by activities (just hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, etc.) and also by hiking grade, height diff up, etc.…

I like Walk Highlands - but it's only for Scotland: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ and Geograph: http://www.geograph.org.uk/
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