Allow activity posting while new route is pending review
For short notice trips and to reduce frustration in posting trips, leaders should be able to post an activity for a new route/place as soon as it is requested. The current wait period for review/approval of a new route significantly discourages posting of short notice trips and adds significantly to the time requirement for posting trips.
Thanks for the suggestion, Will!
We cannot do this for a few reasons, mostly related to the user experience for our members and guests.
Members would get an error message if they try to view a route/place that has not yet been edited an published. This would happen if an activity listing used an unpublished route/place.
If we did allow Routes & Places to be published before they were reviewed, those viewing it would find them lacking vital information.
Since launch, nearly 1,000 new Routes & Places have been added. Some of them have been quite good, but the vast majority were missing vital information and needed a significant update to be ready for our members and guests to view them.
Also, of these new Routes & Places, more than a third of them were duplicates.
I am not sure what we can do about the turn around time for new Routes & places. We advertise 48 business hours, but more often than not, turn them around in much less time, most often less than 24 hours after they were submitted.
I hope this explanation helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks again for all you do!
Jeff
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Will Greenough commented
Thanks for the feedback Jeff. Still seems like we are putting too much of a barrier up for leaders to post new trips on the fly.
Can we set up a generic route for, say "South Sound Paddle" with specific route TBD and posted in the activity details? This would allow more flexibility to post new trips and get them up on the web.
For paddling, there are many directions/destinations that can be accomplished from a launch point depending on tides, currents, party competence, weather, and trip goals. For leaders posting a trip there is still a good chance that a route has not yet been created than even comes close to the plan. This is ok if it is 2 weeks or more out, but if I plan a trip on Sunday or Monday for the following weekend, we will be missing 2-3 days of it being posted and available to member to see & sign up. I can get the info out through other venues to our Olympia members, but can't get it out to the other branches.
I think that this is where the "online guidebook" idea conflicts with rapid and efficient posting of trips. As a leader, I don't find the guidebook aspect useful at all - I will be doing my own planning using known resources. Am I missing something?
Regards, Will