Ideas for Geograph
Use this page to view ideas for improving the Geograph website. Use the dropdown below to choose a different ordering. Registered site users can vote on and suggest new ideas. Also can View summary of recent activity
Change map entry method in V1 V2 submit to mobile method
The co-ordinate input method from m.geograph uses map-moving in place of pointer-moving on a much bigger map. It is easier to use, much faster, and makes better use of screen estate than the original method. I suggest using it to... (read more)
Automatically removed SD definitions from rejected images
See the forum thread http://www.geograph.org.uk/discuss/index.php?&action=vthread&forum=4&topic=31853&page=0 I have ended up with SDs still attached to rejected images, and because I cannot access rejected images... (read more)
Calculate how many ungeographed squares are just entirely water
Have recently joined and wondered where the 16% of ungeographed squares actually were as seemed a rather high amount considering the amount of squares some people have covered. And turns out a lot of them are just estuaries and the... (read more)
Improve the website 'documentation'
We currently have a 'hodgepodge' of documentation pages, mainly accessible from there https://www.geograph.org.uk/content/documentation.php ... this includes things like the FAQ, as well as number of 'articles',... (read more)
Show larger size images during submission
When previewing a submission in a new window (using method v1 or v2) show a larger size image where available, up to 1024px. This will preview the image as it will finally appear on the photo page. Currently, images are shown as 640px.
Accessability enhancements - Submission
My other comments about accessability give the background. All of which then leads on to the ability to acess, or contribute, images for those of us with diminished motor skills, palsy, Parkinsons etc. A "sticky"... (read more)
Accessability enhancements - commentary
We have an obligation, as web site providers (and probably as an educational charity) to make provision for disabled users. We are not a commercial entity, so the Equality Act 2010 may not apply rigorously, but it might well apply... (read more)
Make YOMP and POTY site features
By moving the competitions out of the forums[1] and onto the maintained site it will raise the profile of both, and give summat fresh on the front page. We could ask the hamsters to tweet/FB/snapchat/etc entries and results.... (read more)
Dump the buckets
The buckets only appear on the thumb icon pop-up, and appear to have limited utility. I bet no-one has ever knowingly searched on them. Just make them vanish. Don't even keep tne existing values, they will be too sparse to be... (read more)
· In ProgressHigher Resolution Photo-Viewer
Many photos have a 'larger' version available, larger than the default 640px version. Currently the only way to really 'view' higher resolution version is to first download it (via the 'More' or... (read more)
Scrapbook additions to main images
This comes out of my response to the Mobile App survey, but I have been thinking along these lines for some time. Consider the following: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5681516 and the two associated photos... (read more)
Expand contact information
We have seen cases where the winner of POTY cannot be contacted to judge the next one. Not, perhaps, terribly important. Other cases might be slightly more. I suggest we give people the opportunity to add more contact details to... (read more)
Contributor Recognition
Following on from [url=http://www.geograph.org.uk/discuss/index.php?&action=vthread&forum=2&topic=28360&dontcount=1&page=0#20]This whimsical account[/url] I would like to propose that we come up with some sort of... (read more)
Retire the grid square discussions
Very few of the grid square comments make sense now, especially as the number of photographs gets into the thousands. I have several suggestions, the powers that be might have others 1. Remove them from individual photo pages, or... (read more)
Submission direct from cloud services
My Phone backs up all my pictures to a google cloud, and can give them links like https://goo.gl/photos/r2XKC3XXJNxoTCj59 I have tried that link in the submit page, and it does not work. Similarly Onedrive can be used to back up... (read more)
Requested photos
I would like to see some photos of a particular place or thing. I have checked on Geograph, and there aren't any currently. So it would be useful to have some way to request photos. For requests with a known location, this can... (read more)
Bulk Extract System
We do provide access to raw data data.geograph.org.uk/dumps/ but a system could be created to export specific extracts on demand. Eg images matching specific keywords, or of particular area. (so bigger than get from search now, but... (read more)
HTTPS support for www.geograph.org.uk
More and more the web is moving to https. Certain browsers features require it, and search engines tend to favour sites with https support. Our server infrastructure needs upgrading to support https across the board. Mainly as... (read more)
· In ProgressMigrate Ireland Photos to use ITM Grid
Ireland have moved to a new standard grid - the Irish Transverse Mercator Grid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Transverse_Mercator When Geograph was launched it made more sense to use the older Irish National Grid,... (read more)
New Gazetteer for Great Britain Locations
The OS released a new gazetteer for GB locations. There ware some advantages to migrtating to it, but its a mini-project to do so! See, http://www.geograph.org.uk/discuss/index.php?&action=vthread&forum=12&topic=27406... (read more)
New Gazetteer for Ireland Locations
The Gazetteer we use for Ireland is an old GNS database (the best we found in 2005), now there are many more alternatives. Most of these alternatives are better, but its a project to determine which one (or even multiple!) to... (read more)
Show a line on the map during the submission process
This was discussed in the forum a few years ago and was not feasible at the time. Time has moved on, so perhaps it is more easily do-able now? During the submission process, when entering/clicking the photographer and subject GRs,... (read more)
Automatically post speculative uploads to social media
How about copying ALL speculative uploads to twitter, facebook, instagram etc. With a canned request to help and a link? Would probably only be around one pervmonth, and you never know
Geograph Profile intergrated Comments Plugin
Currently a number of site pages implement the Comments plugin from Disqus. This is done simply for developer convenience, its easy to implement on a site. But the experience for users is cumbersome and somewhat confusing. Need to sign... (read more)
External link redirect table
If you have a look at http://www.geograph.org.uk/editimage.php?id=1204803 you will see that the Essex wildlife people are forever moving thier pages about. It's all very well for me to suggest an update, but the original link... (read more)
Make downloading Watermarked images the default
Modify the 'how to reuse this image' page so that people access stamped/watermarked images rather than unstamped ones. A stamped image, means the attribution and mention of CC-licence is included in the actual image file,... (read more)
· In ProgressRestart the bulk transfer to Wikimedia commons
Wikimedia Commons have around 1.4 million of our images, and their version of tagging has thousands of those requiring some attention. Some years ago correspondence with them suggested the first batch was sent to them on a hard disk,... (read more)
Sort out the Education and Schools portal
We have an education remit, but make little of it. The odd school has joined in fitfully. I think we need to think about how to improve it, and capture new members thereby. There have been loads of suggestions already, such as a... (read more)
· In ProgressMake the Irish front page more like the main front page
I think that http://www.geograph.ie/ (geograph.ie) needs to come out of Beta, and to look a lot more like the main front page. That should, of course, include a uniquely Irish POTD
Finish the switch from Categories to Subjects and Tags
A lot of work, perhaps, but it makes little sense having different methods of categorising and the conversion needs to be done. Perhaps the low hanging fruit can be converted automagically, and the remainder (as has been suggested... (read more)
· In ProgressOne of everything
Simplify the site! This is the direction development must take if we are to widen our audience, attract new contributors and retain them. Think of the aspirations in the strategy. So... One submission method. One coverage map. One... (read more)
Reverse linking, 'used on'
The chap behind a web site called 'Always read the Plaque' is working on a method of extracting images from our collection to use in theirs. He is doing a good job of the attributions too. See:... (read more)
Camera positions on experimental coverage map
Add a switch to the experimental coverage map to change to a mode where the marker is shown at the camera position instead of the subject position. An added bonus would be if the marker could also show the view direction as on... (read more)
Convert everything to Unicode Charset
Right now Geograph uses a basic charset (Latin1) for storing/processing text, this mostly works, but has limited support for accented characters, ligatures and other special characters, meaning their display is intermittent (sometimes... (read more)
· In ProgressFormalise linking of Shared Descriptions to Wikipedia
In creating a Shared Description I have on occasions merely linked to the Wikipedia article as an alternative to cutting and pasting huge chunks or rewording the article. I thought at the time a more formal method might be neater.... (read more)
Increase the default resolution for photos
It's not 1995 any more. Most people are viewing websites on big, high res screens, so want to see nice looking photos. So increase the default resolution for any photo submissions. Maybe still allow lower resolution for those... (read more)
· In ProgressTag the Forum
Present way of searching the forum is clumsy, haphazard, unrefined. Tag the lot to be able to find all the wit, wisdom, controversy and helpfulness of eleven years.
Increase maximum upload file size
To keep up with increase in file sizes on newer cameras. (Not necessarily store larger sizes but allow upload without end user having to edit)
Revamp the Sitemap
Geograph has a sitemap, listing many pages http://www.geograph.org.uk/help/sitemap But it doesn't list every page, partly because as the number of pages increase it becomes more bewildering and ironically less useful.... (read more)
Allow submission of video files
Would have similar requirements to photos, geolocated and dated, and representative of the area etc, just a video file, rather than a single image. Possibly the image used for thumbnail would be a freeze frame from the video.
Make Panoramas a Supported submission type
We do currently do kinda accept panoramic photos, but there is no specialist support. (and only really works for wider than normal angle shots, not for example full 360 degree images) It would be possible to enhance support for... (read more)
Tagging for shared description
Instead of having to add 'grade II listed' tags to individual photos, for example, make it possible to tag shared descriptions. Toggles on search and browser sorting pages to decide if these tags get 'inherited'... (read more)
Collaborative shared descriptions
Allow editing of shared descriptions by anyone using them on their photopages. Original creator to have the option to permit or deny access, or even to have micromoderation rights over changes to the shared description.
Autoposting new submissions to Social Media
Add hamster activity so that contributors could chose to autopost new images (upon moderation) to twitter, pinterest, snapchat, facebook, slack, tumblr, RSS feed, whatever other social media they use - using the contributors preferred... (read more)
Automoderation
Trusted contributors should be allowed to submit without moderation. There should be safeguards: automatic cross-square or zero range detection for sups, randomised selection of images for actual moderation, addition of an... (read more)
Build a complete mapping interface for Geograph
We've experimented with lots of mapping interfaces, built with different technology, but none of them are 'complete', each have various drawbacks (old incompatible tech, missing ireland etc) - non stand out of being the... (read more)
· In ProgressFix issue with replacing Larger Uploads
Sometimes when a new 'Larger Upload' is added (or replaced) on an existing submission, the image can become inaccessible (no 'Larger sizes' link etc) Kind of know the cause, but not the solution.
Show Time Taken on Photos
Photo page to show time taken as well as just date. Time taken could be extracted from the exif data attached to the image at upload. There could also be an option to manually enter a time or not enter any time at all.
Responsive web design
Make the whole website design look good on a variety of devices. From desktops with big, high resolution screen, to tablets and mobile phones. ie resizing text, images, columns etc as required. Not a separate, limited mobile site or app.
Create A User Record Of Submitted Photo File Names
During the submission process, offer to maintain a log on the user's device or on the geograph website (link from profile page) to tie the geograph number of the submitted photo to the name of the uploaded photo file on the... (read more)
Write Proper Documentation for the Geograph API
Geograph has pretty good APIs for searching geograph images, but the documentation is terrible. http://www.geograph.org.uk/help/api This is a suggest to rewrite the documentation, with ready to use examples, and complete... (read more)
Mobile Optimized Submission Process
A special version of the submission process designed for use on mobile/tablet devices. It has to be as easy as Instagram.
· In ProgressMobile Application
A mobile optimized experience for browsing and in particular submitting new images - aim to be somewhat as easy as Instagram, with editing tools within the app. In particular would work offline (lack of internet connection). Could be a... (read more)