What to do with the old Digihitch content

[Evs]

I've copied a ton of it, but as far as I can tell, without Kasha's help a lot of it is not salvageable. I'll keep grabbing as much as I can.

We'll have to decide what should be published... Hitchhiking laws (would need to be reviewed), stories and their original comments, pictures, language guides, etc.

Should there be a dedicated Historical section? Should it be integrated in with new content?

All of this will determine how much formatting and organizing we'll have to do.

Your ideas?

[roaddog]

Thanks Evan for getting as much as you can. We can forget about Kasha's help at all. If she has a change of heart, then great, but we shouldn't depend on it.

If it is relevant then it seems better to integrate it into the new content. If not, then a historical section would be appropriate.

[lightfoot]

Thanks Evs for your efforts to keep the site going forward. Maybe someone can figure out a way to upload the old member database and get some kind of mass email going. Morgan had many great ideas and hopefully his spirit can guide how this thing goes. The old site really burst out at the seams with all kinds of links that one could easily trip on. If you were planning to hitch through Nebraska, you could pull up a page where 14 hitchers shared their Nebraska recollections. If you wanted to talk to someone who hitched across Nebraska 7 times, that could easily happen. If you wanted to read well-written stories about hitching through Nebraska, you could do it. Maybe this site can evolve into something like that again.

Roaddog, you spent many hours trying to get that site under some sane, adult control, and your efforts should never be questioned by anyone. I only mentioned your name to Fruupp when he was working out his exit strategy. You were persistent when people did not want to be bothered and you were resolute in not letting up until you at least got an answer. Anyone who willingly volunteers to jump into that bitter family morass deserves a lot of credit. You obviously are a masochist.

I really do not want to moderate any more. It was not anything I ever wanted to do. If there is any way I could be excused from moderating, that would be great. My mother can write you a note.

I taught English for 14 years and I enjoyed the old story section most. If there would be any way I could be involved in building a new story section, working with writers, editing, giving positive feedback, that would be something I would be excited to do. Morgan believed every story was worth putting on the site but sometimes the shitty stories would drown out the great stories. Maybe the new site won't feel obligated to publish the shit stories.

For introduction's sake, I caught my first ride the summer after 6th grade when I was 11 years old. I hitched to high school 2-3 times a week from sophomore year to graduation. That was kind of my hitchhiking laboratory. My first big trip was during freshman year of college. The following year, and for the next five years, I had a lot of great hitching adventures. When I was 22 years old, I had hitched about 23,000 miles in 31 states. By 1992, I was up to about 58,000 miles, including Canada. These past 3 years, I've done about 2,700 miles. California is my number one state for mileage even though I haven't been to Yosemite yet. Oklahoma is my least favorite state. One of my most epic trips was with a friend. About half a dozen times I was fortunate enough to hitch with a woman. I had a 1,850 mile ride once and also a 1,650 mile ride. On about 75 occasions, I've caught rides in 18 wheelers. When I was a kid, I had my bedroom wall covered with warning "Pedestrian on Highway" tickets the cops had given me. That was a nice mosaic. One time in 1979, I hopped a train 575 miles from Klamath Falls, OR to Bakersfield, CA. That was a beautiful ride and I recommend that trip to everyone.

I first got laid while hitching, first got high while hitching, and first got arrested while hitching. So yeah, I kind of identify with hitching. Like we all do.

Evan, I would avail myself in any way that I could help. I still have all of my old hitching stories, but would feel self-conscious dropping them on any site in a big text dump. Some of them are pretty good.

[walkoflife]

I do vote we keep the old hitchhiking topics as shown now; they were effective, and sorta 'cataloged' the posts where they could easily be found.

[raus]

Honestly, I don't care much about the forums being left intact on a new site. But the stories and photos made up a large part of what digihitch was to me. I would love to see all of that old stuff archived on a new site. If possible with whatever you've got...

[Deleted]

I think that with the great wealth of information contained within the forums, they are too valuable to not save. I would be quick to agree with a scaled-down version on the new site as there are some less relevant topics that have not been touched in years. Guaka from Hitchwiki saved a great amount of content when the site crashed, including the North American stories section and said to me he would be willing to set up an archive.

[thewindandrain]

Sept 4, 2013 11:00:38 GMT walkoflife said:

I do vote we keep the old hitchhiking topics as shown now; they were effective, and sorta 'cataloged' the posts where they could easily be found.

I disagree. I for one would like a simpler range of forum sections, the old digihitch had something like 64 that were redundant, and most went unused. I think the new digihitch could function with way fewer sections. As an example the sections could look like: Sandbox(free for all), Talk about your trip/check in, Guides/FAQs/Tips/Resources, Rideshare/Find Someone, Trainhopping/Other alternative travel, Stories/Polls/News Discussion, Hitching Events/Gatherings, USA, Canada, Central & South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, Mod Discussion, Website Questions/Comments, Announcements.

Sept 2, 2013 14:33:32 GMT -5 Evs said:
We'll have to decide what should be published... Hitchhiking laws (would need to be reviewed)

I can take that part on. I have done a LOT of research since the original guide including calling courts and spending weeks digging through online codes to build the current guide on hitchwiki. To put it all into one place as a printable guide would be fantastic. The only question would be about how much to include. I did not publish pedestrian laws on hitchwiki; should those also be included in the guide, or should they be part of a seperate guide?



Another thing: fresh content on the front page updated regularly such as polls, news, events, etc is critical to keeping the image of the site form stagnating. I would be willing to submit these things regularly.

[benwanderer]

Bring back the stories section for sure. I mean, half the reasons new comers look up hitching on the web is because they like the idea and want to hear stories for entertainment/inspiration. I totally agree with TW&R on simplifying the new site as far as categories go. It was always a drag scrolling through 10,000 categories to get to check-in or what not. Though I don't necessarily agree with blending find someone and travel partners together, as those are two different things entirely. We should also bring back as much stuff from the sparkies section as possible, as those are the questions that will be asked a bunch of times on the new site, like they were on the old.

[thewindandrain]

Sept 7, 2013 22:24:36 GMT benwanderer said:

We should also bring back as much stuff from the sparkies section as possible, as those are the questions that will be asked a bunch of times on the new site, like they were on the old.

Agreed. Some of us got real sick of hearing the same questions OVER and OVER--just as many of us do with the people who pick us up..aghh.... A well organized FAQ of archived posts would be useful.