New 'Trail Name' Application for Facebook

[RoyTruelove]

Stinky hikers,

I've written a crappy-albeit-functional Facebook application that lets you :

* Register your hike with you trail name
* Find other people from your hike by trail name or by real name

This is the first notification that I'm sending out about it so it might take a while for people to really start using it. Invite as many other hikers as you can and maybe in a few weeks we'll have a respectable trail name database. Here's the link :

http://apps.facebook.com/hikerfinder

Thanks!
-Kilgore Trout
GA->VT '06
VT->ME '07
Camino de Santiago '08

[Sly]

Hey, I did it but can't find it on my profile.

There's also a cause on Facebook. Trail Names for Hikers on Facebook. Maybe you can post.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/1496...er_id=18364727

OK, I was able to post a link.

[Sly]

Man, I could only invite 20 friends!

PS. It works when I searched Sly. Good job.

[Mr. Parkay]

Awesome application... this thing is going to take off fast.

[RoyTruelove]

Right now nothing show's up in anyone's profile.. that's a 'Phase 2 enhancement' as we say in the software biz.

The 20 invites is a Facebook thing.. they don't let people send out more than 20 'things' a day to their friends, to limit the amount of crap that flies around.

[Pokey2006]

Hey, thanks for doing that! I was just thinking the other day how hard it is to find people from the trail on Facebook when you don't know their real names. Bet this will be a hit among us hiker Facebook addicts!

[Sly]

Right now nothing show's up in anyone's profile.. that's a 'Phase 2 enhancement' as we say in the software biz.

The 20 invites is a Facebook thing.. they don't let people send out more than 20 'things' a day to their friends, to limit the amount of crap that flies around.

If I click on applications bottom left I can see it. When does Facebook's day start? Maybe I'll try again now since it's after midnight.

[Sly]

Awesome application... this thing is going to take off fast.

Yeah, I just posted to six hiking related groups, AT, AT '97, AT '98 , PCT, CDT, ALDHA!

Hey Kilgore Trout made a Hiker Finder, Trail Name app. Check it out.

http://apps.new.facebook.com/hikerfinder/

[Gaiter]

If I click on applications bottom left I can see it. When does Facebook's day start? Maybe I'll try again now since it's after midnight.

24hrs

[Sly]

24hrs

Just in time to get my Texas Hold "Em chips!

[Bare Bear]

SLYS Excellant adventure! Thanks.

[RoyTruelove]

If anyone actually finds a hiker they've been dying to find please let me know... it would make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[Captain]

now you need to work on putting maps of the trail thatway your other friends can see what your doing and would be awesome it if you could update itand it would color parts of the trail you have already done red,and list mail drops and sort of embed each trailjournals.com entry...i dont know anything about programing so i dont know how much work that would be ,sounds like alot but thats just my thoughts, in either case FINALY a facebook app that isnt just a big waste of time

[Sly]

If anyone actually finds a hiker they've been dying to find please let me know... it would make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Took it for a test search. Broken! I'll not add my info again until a few days.

Edit. It may not be broken. It says no new info added. Yet when I searched for Pooombah AT '97 who was listed last night her name didn't show up.

Edit II. OK when I click on my hikes "find other hikers", I can see who hiked that year. Nice. Still a general search doesn't work.

Edit III. An edit button would be nice.

Good job mate!

[nufsaid]

now you need to work on putting maps of the trail thatway your other friends can see what your doing and would be awesome it if you could update itand it would color parts of the trail you have already done red,and list mail drops and sort of embed each trailjournals.com entry...i dont know anything about programing so i dont know how much work that would be ,sounds like alot but thats just my thoughts, in either case FINALY a facebook app that isnt just a big waste of time

Why not just ask him to put scratch and sniffs of pits and feet so friends can keep up with your hygiene? He stated the goals of his application.

[Captain]

Why not just ask him to put scratch and sniffs of pits and feet so friends can keep up with your hygiene? He stated the goals of his application.

i was just putting my two cents in on what I would like to see not what i expect him to do, im in no mood to argue today so i will just leave it at that

[RoyTruelove]

Hey Sly,

Took it for a test search. Broken! I'll not add my info again until a few days.

Can you tell me where you searched? Right now there really is no search, just a list of the people that you hiked with that year. I plan on expanding that at some point.

Edit. It may not be broken. It says no new info added. Yet when I searched for Pooombah AT '97 who was listed last night her name didn't show up.

Is this on the Welcome page? The Welcome page only shows people that have added since the last time you logged in to the application, so the next time you log in it might be empty. If you want to see everyone from 97 you'd have to click on "Your Hikes" and "Find Other Hikers".

Edit II. OK when I click on my hikes "find other hikers", I can see who hiked that year. Nice. Still a general search doesn't work.

If you're talking about the general Facebook search bringing up trailnames, unfortunately that won't work; I don't have control over that. I do plan on adding some kind of search within the application that will search by trail name, but it will never work in the general Facebook search because of the restrictions put on by Facebook.

Edit III. An edit button would be nice.

Yeah got lazy on that one. Figured since it's rare that people will actually be in here adding hikers (once, 2x a year maybe?) then they can just delete and readd.

Good job mate!

Thanks Sly!

[RoyTruelove]

Any feedback is helpful. I might extend it to be more of a hiker tracker one day but that would probably be in a separate application. Besides there's probably a button on the iPhone these days that already does exactly that

[Sly]

OK, when I search "Sly" on the upper right hand search box my name appears (with a bunch of others) Perhaps that's because it's in "about me" on my info page.

PS Yeah it is, because, I searched a old high school nick name and it showed up.

I like the app. Maybe because I have 9 hikes listed from '97- '08!

[RoyTruelove]

OK, when I search "Sly" on the upper right hand search box my name appears (woth a bunch other. Perhaps that's because it's in my about me.

Yeah, unfortunately searching for trail names in that box will never work because of the way Facebook is set up. Sometime in the next few days, though, I plan on adding similar functionality in the application.

I like the app. Maybe because I have 9 hikes listed from '97- '08!

Thanks Sly, I do appreciate the feedback. I actually just made some changes that might make things a little clearer given your earlier comments.

Take it easy!
-Kilgore