New Articles

[Roland]

When I logged-on this morning, I discovered the new articles, shown below:

2,000 Miler requirements

Trail Food Caloeir Chart

Climate and Weather Chart

Driving Directions to Springer

Planning a thru-hike

While others were busy jousting over the usual controversial topics, AT Troll was hard-at-work, ensuring that Whiteblaze continues to be the best source for Appalachian Trail information on the 'net.

Thanks for all you do, Rick!

The collective membership of WB is a tremendous resource. Everyone has something to offer. The next time you feel drawn into an argument about dogs, cell phones, hiking poles, Wingfoot, Warren Doyle, etc., consider following AT Troll's lead. Use your energy to make a positive, and lasting, contribution to the site. Write an article. Don't have any trail expertise? Write an article about the fears of a newbie. Been lurking on WB for a while; tell the newbies how to navigate the site, and where you found the most useful information.

To some, WB has morphed into a quasi chat room, where anything and everything goes. While that may suit some who log-on daily, it does generate a lot of chatter that must be sifted, in order to find specific information. Articles are a way of focusing that information, to make it easier to recall.

[map man]

A great point, Roland! Particularly for folks with a low tolerance for conflict, there are still a couple good techniques for finding a lot of great information on this site without reading through tons and tons of threads (and risking running across more "lively" exchanges than you prefer). One, look at the listing of articles on the left-hand side of the WB home page. Like Roland says, there is lots of great stuff there (including Roland's own backpack comparison chart) -- contributions from a wide variety of knowledgeable people. Two, if you still can't find an answer you are looking for, post a question in the "straight forward" forum. The threads in the straight forward forum are closely monitored to keep responses to the point.

[Roland]

Yesterday, when I started this thread, I assumed that these five articles were authored by AT Troll. In another thread, it was suggested that they were not AT Troll's work. A websearch indicates all five of these articles may have roots at another popular AT website.

I'm not certain who wrote this material, but it is good work. Credit where credit is due.

[attroll]

I will address this topic.

I can and will not take credit or was I trying to take credit in any way for these articles. They were acquired by me with concerns now that Wingfoots web site was now offline for good and that they were very good articles. People showed concern that
I will address this topic.

I can and will not take credit or was I trying to take credit in any way for these articles. They were acquired by me with concerns from other members of WhiteBlaze and TrailPlace who worried that these good articles and would be lost forever since TrailPlace went offline. People showed concern that some of the information that was no longer available on TrailPlace that they should not be lost forever. I thought it would be a good idea to post these 5 articles to help out the Appalachian Trail community. I in no way was trying to take credit for them and I will correct that after I get done writing this explanation here. I will credit the true author.

If Wingfoot is concerned and has an issue with me doing this then I am sure he will let me know. I have emailed him asking for permission. If I here back from him and he ask me to remove them. I will remove them. If I do not hear back from him then I will assume it is OK to leave them up.

[map man]

I think we at WB need Wingfoot's "express written consent," as the saying goes, before we can post his articles on WB. Our own Copyright Notice on our Usage Agreement page spells out copyright policy pretty clearly. I hope he does approve, and it's a good idea to preserve all that valuable info so future hikers can benefit from Wingfoot's advise, but I don't think we should have his work posted on our site until we get his permission, for copyright reasons and for reasons of courtesy.

If he's already given consent, then nevermind .

[Ender]

I think we at WB need Wingfoot's "express written consent," as the saying goes, before we can post his articles on WB.

Agreed. I really hope he gives it, because there's some really useful info there, but we should not assume that silence equals complaince.

[attroll]

He did not give permission as I had hoped. I posted what his answer was in this post elsewhere on the forums.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...1&postcount=12

[Old Grouse]

I'm not sure you should read animosity or any other emotion into a refusal of this type. Copyright protection may require such a response if it's to mean anything. You know, "[i]t's not personal, it's just business."

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Very sad to hear Dan has refused the use of his articles. I guess we need to set about writing articles on these topics for the site as TP is no more.

[emerald]

Information on 2000 miler recognition can be found on ATC's Hike the Trail page. Someone could write a short article that might include the direct link to this information.

[emerald]

This information is likely available on ATC's and GATC's websites as well as in ALDHA's Companion. It's no doubt available elsewhere on this site. It would be a good idea to post it as an article so as to eliminate the need to keep reposting it.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

It will a week or so before I can start (having a new great-granddaughter tomorrow via C-section ), but I would be willing to do an article on the nutritional value of common hiker foods - not just the calories, but the protein, carbs and various types of fat.

[emerald]

ATTROLL, how about a links section for forests and parks along the A.T.? Maybe you could group them by state like you've grouped shelter threads. Amicalola Falls SP's website would surely provide directions.

[Alligator]

ATTROLL, how about a links section for forests and parks along the A.T.? Maybe you could group them by state like you've grouped shelter threads. One that should be linked is Amicalola Falls SP.

Hi Shades,

I used the GIS information available at the ATC site to create a map of major state parks and forests that touch the AT. This map has clickable links. A couple of things to say about it.

1. It only contains those parks and forests provided in the original layer at the ATC site and that intersect the AT. Small parks are not included, i.e. Pen Mar. Larger nearby parks were removed. I could add those back in and turn off the layer .
2. One has to download ArcReader to view the map. It is a somewhat large viewing program available from ESRI(175MB).
3. I could make this a pdf but then I don't know how to make the links work.
4. I may have missed a link or two. Sometimes the polygons are split for a single forest/park.
5. I had to zip it because the .pmf extension is not a valid one for WB.

This was a first pass. I can make corrections or alterations if anyone is interested. I could add additional smaller parks if I had the data. Best if it was already a vector or raster file. If there is anything screwy with this file, let me know and I will do what I can to fix it.

[emerald]

I look forward to checking out your work.

[Alligator]

I look forward to checking out your work.

Hold off until tomorrow to open that map, I apparently did not save it properly. I'm new to this particular ARC format. I'll fix it in the morning.

[attroll]

Gator you could work that up and post it in the artilces section and then I could add it to the articles menu bar on the front page.

[Alligator]

Gator you could work that up and post it in the artilces section and then I could add it to the articles menu bar on the front page.

I am just about to place it in the Articles section where any bugs can be spotted and folks can have a chance to comment. Then if it is working OK, it can get moved over to the released section.