Country fact files
 

Hi Grant! Me again!

The story of Peter and Katherina made me think a lot and scared me! A lot! I thought a "Country Fact file" zone could be good, but not only about safety!
The rough guide or lonely planet provide very useful info on each country, but nothing specific to bikers. The "Country fact files" could list what are the "unusual" rules on biking, like what the law say about filtering for example, or police controls on the road stopping foreigners for easy "fines" (and what best course of action then) , what type of robberies/scams are more frequent in this country, thieves disguised as cops (and advice if possible!) etc….Just to have an idea of what *could* happen. The more prepare we are before setting off, the safer.
Again building from input from travellers (with a date to ensure info is not too old). Actually in this you could also include others bits that are already existing scattered through the HU (like carnet info on which organism/address/email to contact to get one), friendly accommodation etc….

Cheers,

Maria

Yep - you're doing well- hitting all we're planning - this is something we've been wanting for some time! BUT it's a monumental amount of work, and all by hand. WE MAY eventually get this in a useable form, but it will be some time - and it may be as an e-book, that you can buy for $5 or $10 per country or region. I don't know - we're trying to figure out how to do it, without hiring all sorts of staff and making the costs of running the site silly.

Volunteers who are doing this sort of thing on their own in order to research a trip, could be VERY helpful, :helpsmilie: and we'd be happy to work out a sharing of profits on the e-book sales. We could provide a standardized format and a database/form to make it all easier. OR a wiki style input system. :confused:

Again - it's definitely going to happen in some form, but time and cost is unknown.

What would YOU - or anyone - pay for an e-book like this? Thoughts appreciated!

Thanks for the detailed input on what YOU want!

Grant

Country fact files
 

Hi Grant!
A wikipedia style would be a good idea.
On cost terms, nothing comes free in this world and I think that soon or later (I am not going to make myself popular with this!) *gasp and horror* maybe you should consider an annual membership fee. After all, all clubs and associations do require a membership fee for running costs. The HU is absolutely unique and provide invaluable information. It could take that if you are a member you can access some restricted areas (like the countries files ) etc.. Maybe non -members could pay a bit more for the HU meetings than members... Maybe you should start a thread on this or do a survey.... Asking a membership fee of say 10 quids is nothing for most people and could make a difference for the site? Not sure what the feeling of other hubbers is on this....

The Katrina and Peter story got me a little freaked also, btw, but this really is not new. Anyone who is considering this kind of trip is irresponsible unless they do their research (This is not to suggest anything about Katrina and Peter).

There is plenty of information out there and LP, Rough etc are some excellent resources on which even foreign correspondents rely. One problem is that rolling into the pueblo on your foreign motorcycle loaded will more stuff than the locales own at home makes you an easy mark. Contacting the embassy in each country you visit is also a good idea.

Grant- I would be willing to help on this as it is something with which I experience, but as you say it is HUGE and it will always be out of date to some extent.

Wow, never saw that before! Even knowing about it I couldn't find it from the home page. Is it one of the links under Planning? I think that many people miss it because they go straight to the HUBB.

Hi Grant

Sorry to harass you so mercilessly, but is the "Get All New Posts" meant to do this, or am I being thicker than usual? I just selected that option and got 497 posts but there have only been about 175 since my last visit.

Regards, Mick

p.s. Squidbrain is meant to be ironic.

another feature
 

On the Triumphrat.com website, i can nip into my profile and it lists my last 15 posts, so I can click on them to see if there has been any follow up. It is easy to forget that you have replied or to which thread... I find this a useful feature.

G'day Grant

I like Old Bmw's suggestion, but I was wondering if it was possible once the front page of Horizons openned to go to the Hubb with one click not two. At the moment you get the Intro page or 24hr posts page and have to go from there. I would like to go direct to the Hubb list of topics if thats poss.

cheers

alec

Thankyou for a fantastic website.

One small detail I'd like to see changed is to extend the yellow preview window that pops up when you hover your mouse cursor over a thread link. It would thus be possible to read a few lines of text of the first post, rather than just a few words that do not really say anything about the thread. I hope this all makes sense.

Once again, thanks for a wonderful motorcycle resource

Newbie section
 

Just thought of another thing...

How about having a Beginner's section, including a New Members Introduction area?

It's already possible - click on the Forums graphic and that takes you where you want to go. :D

the graphic on all menu listings takes you to the index page for the section.

Good idea - but I just had a quick cruise looking for ways to change that, and didn't find it. I suspect it can, but will have to do more research on it.

(puts it on the back burner... )

later...

Sounds like a good idea - but can you please elucidate... (the less thinking I have to do the better ;) )

Interesting idea, I like it - but triumphrats.net is running different software, so it may not be easily possible here - but I review this thread regularly and will see what I can find for something similar.

(put's it on the backburner...)

Note that here you can subscribe to a thread, which may give you similar results, albeit a different route.