wrote:

The site has been up since Monday. We have 500 registered users who
have made about 3,500 edits already.

That's excellent. It sounds like you've found a need that people want to
fill. Still, are you sure you need such an extensive sign up process with
yet another password to keep track of? I wonder how many more people would
be contributing if it were easier.

BTW, you missed the marina where I keep my boat in Portland. I'll post some
information after I dig it out.

--
Roger Long

Still, are you sure you need such an extensive sign up process with
yet another password to keep track of?

I know, but seriously, it isn't really extensive. You need to enter an
email address, password, name you want to go by, first and last name,
and home port. There's a balance between making it easy for people who
should be on and making it hard for spammers. One of the things that
makes ActiveCaptain different is that you can change any of the 100 or
so items in each record of a facility. This also means that it is
possible for someone to go and make a lot of changes to a competing
facility to spoof it. For example, one marina could change that the
marina across the way has no slips, etc. We want to protect a little
against this.

(Changes made don't replace real data until they are verified by us -
this is a time consuming process with 4,000 edits so far - we're up to
date right now after some non-stop checking all week)


BTW, you missed the marina where I keep my boat in Portland. I'll post some
information after I dig it out.


As a registered user, you can add a new facility. We haven't missed
many - it could be that it isn't where you expect it to be. You can
search for an item by facility name - it might be that we have it
marked at a mailing address instead of its location on the water. If
you don't want to join, feel free to give me the name of the marina and
web-site address and I'll add it.

....Jeff

Good point.

When I think about some of the stuff which goes on in this newsgroup due to
unrestricted access, I can see why you need some controls. People pretending
to be other people gets really old; expecially when it's yourself whose
header they are spoofing.

This does look like a very worthwhile effort.

I avoid marinas as much as possible, however. Sights not to miss and danger
spots would be a nice addition. There is a cliff on an island off Portland
where you can see about five different faces at least as realistic as the
late Old Man of the Mountain of NH although smaller. The slack tide
predictions for Hell Gate can be way, way off., Etc.

Maybe little exclamation marks on the charts for notes like these that
people want to add. Maybe another icon for sea stories people would like to
post (like being rolled by a 20 foot breaker off the Cuckholds, Southport
Island, Maine.)

--
Roger Long