VE Announcements

swordfish wrote:

intrepid wrote: From the behaviour I've seen on iPad and iPhone in testing this, I think may have to do with not having a suitable app on your phone that can properly read a GPX file (for example OsmAnd) - can you confirm that this is the case? Since a GPX file is just XML anyway, your phone will pick this up, and if it doesn't have an app which has laid claim to open GPX files by default, it may be adding the .xml extension as a security precaution and so that at least you can open the file with your browser (in which case it shows the actual XML).

Unfortunately the problem is not as simple as just a missing app. I have 2 apps on my phone which can read GPX files. I have done some additional testing and with the same phone and same browser, I can successfully download/open GPX files from other websites. Just not from this one. But if I remember correctly, I was able to do so from VE previously.

This issue has resolved itself. We don't know how, but it's nice when problems go away on their own!

Please note that I am a little less active on the site currently because it is summer time here in Canada and we have to make use of the warmer and drier weather which isn't around for terribly long. I always do keep an eye on things though and keep things running in the background.

OK, I will try and post something, even this week has been a challenge as I've been preparing for a long mountain trip, which hopefully will work out well!

An epic clean up of the Drakensberg Hikes category on this forum has been done. This included a lot of re-shuffling and merging threads together under more meaningful topics. In addition, sub-categories have been created according to the various areas making up the Berg as I felt that the number of topics had reached a point where this was warranted. It makes navigating the site and finding things a lot easier, as the topics are in shorter lists which are logically arranged, and this offers better oversight. Some of the new topic titles themselves also make it clearer to the reader what the thread is about.

In the overall index view of the forum and in the index for Drakensberg Hiking , you will see these new sub-categories in different layouts. I have given recognition to the entire Drakensberg, not just the main KZN part of it, which has always been a VE objective. Though the Eastern Cape Berg is a substantial part of the range, the related number of topics will need to grow more before it becomes worth breaking it down into smaller sections. There is a small part of the Berg directly south of Bushman's Neck & Sehlabathebe that lies within KZN province and does not fall into the current sub-categories very neatly - this will also be addressed as the content grows over time. You will notice that I have also distinguished between the AmaZizi and Amangwane areas lying between RNNP and Cathedral Peak. The Mnweni makes up a lot of the  mountainous parts of the AmaNgwane area, which many of us are familiar with, but even so it does not make up the entire area. Ngoba and MaSwazini are two mountain wards that are not part of the Mnweni.

You will also notice that many of the threads in the new hiking sub-categories attempt to follow a logical breakdown such as day hikes for the applicable area, 2 day hikes, 3 day hikes etc, as well as popular routes, or segments of routes or trails. The Injisuthi sub-category is currently the best example of this, but the intention is to develop this pattern for all areas.

The Drakensberg Trips category has also been broken down according to area. The difference between the Hiking and Trips categories is that the former is more technical and academic in the discussions, whereas the latter is more story-based and personal. Both are a very valuable resource. And of course the trips section can include activities other than hiking. The Mini Hike Reports thread has become rather long and will probably also need to be broken up so that it becomes easier to read as a resource. The Passes category I think also has enough topics to warrant such a break down in future.

I understand that though these changes make the site easier to navigate and read, it may make submitting a post require a little more concentration. We have always given a lot of grace in this.  While we naturally request everyone to check existing threads and categories, and follow these as much as possible before creating new ones, members needn't fear that their post will be deleted if it isn't submitted in the preferred format or category. The moderators and myself do tidy things up. Sometimes threads are merged with other ones, sometimes they are split up, or moved into another category, and sometimes they also re-titled.

The discussions on our forum lie within a matrix of parameters such as activity (like hiking and climbing), area (such as Cathedral Peak, Monk's Cowl etc.), geographic features (caves, passes and peaks), and objectives (such as doing a 3 day hike, reaching the escarpment via a particular pass, getting to the top of a peak, or doing a traverse of some sort). While human dialogue easily manoeuvres within this matrix, trying to set up an online forum to keep up with these parameters in an orderly way is not as easy. I hope that our current forum structure, considering that it has evolved over 11 years, is meaning and practical for everyone. I also look forward to the final implementation of the upcoming, new feature I have mentioned previously, because it should greatly assist in indexing all the information on this site. In addition I think it will cope better with the matrix of parameters than the forum can.

That's it for now!

Thanks for the suggestion Neil. The pop-up functionality with the option to suppress it doesn't come built-in to the forum component that VE uses. However you have given me an idea whereby I can display some banner text listing the indexes when you are on the New Topic page. This would show permanently for everyone, but it wouldn't be intrusive.

Announcing 2 functional changes to the site that have already been in place for some time:

1. We have a new private messaging system in place. The old one was no longer being maintained and was starting to produce errors on the system. I think most won't have any problems with the new one but please feel free to talk to me if there are any issues.

Note that when someone sends you a PM, you will get an email notification with VE's webmaster account as the reply address. I can change this so that the reply address becomes the sender's details which may be more useful, however people need to be aware then that if they send a PM, their email address will be revealed to the recipient. Feedback is welcome in this regard.


2. You may have noticed that in the forum we have reverted back to a BB Code editor rather than a WYSIWYG editor as the latter was causing issues with copy-and-paste text and it was also making post edits impossible in some cases. This change also bring back the good old emoticon tool bar. I hope this solves the frustration some members have been experiencing.

We are launching a new and improved index system for Berg passes!

Members will be aware that we have had this old index page running since 2008, which provided a basic index of passes with some links to relevant forum threads / articles. In addition we have some other (very old) pages listing GPS data and heights.

In the new system, we are combining all this info into one table. In addition the new index also provides relevant links to GPS data download pages.

A difficulty rating for the majority of passes has also be added. This rating system is developed and maintained by Stijn, ghaznavid and tonymarshall, who have kindly made the info available for us to use here.

Another new feature is the "Key aspects" column, which is intended to be a simple, concise set of keywords which help paint a picture of what a pass is like.

Instead of listing all passes on one page, the new system will break up the list into separate table according to region. To start off, I have created the index for the Northern Berg, with the others to follow in time to come. Bear in mind that it takes a considerable amount of mouse-clicking to set up these pages! 

You can view the Northern Berg index here ! 

Please read through the notes added at the bottom of the page which goes into details that I won't cover in this post.

To help readers find the index pages easily, there is a link in the footer section of the site called " Drakensberg Passes Index ". Clicking on this link will present a menu of indexes according to region (the future pages are there too, though empty for now). The old index page is also listed there for now and will eventually be removed.
I hope members will use this new index as a great tool for finding information a lot quicker on this site! It is a little step closer to the long-standing intention to get some sort of wiki/cataloging feature going on the site (for example, this post ) . The hold-up with this is a combination of the enormous amount of time it takes to set up and run something like that, in addition to finding the right software to do it with.


How you can help us with this project:
1. Contribute missing data. Every single pass has it's own forum thread and data can be posted there. GPS tracks can be uploaded directly in the Downloads section. Navigate to "Downloads" and hit the "Add" button at the top.

2. Report inaccuracies, typos and broken links

3. Post real-time updates of trail conditions on the passes

4. Upload photos to the Gallery section. We are looking for photos that show what a particular pass is like. Photos that have the route sketched onto them are also awesome! With more photos in the Gallery section (rather than on a forum thread), I have more options to draw from for the image thumbnails in the index tables.
Lastly, for the first two quarters of 2023, we are calling for submissions of photos of passes in the Norther Berg, and will use these submissions as a photo competition at the same time. At the end of Q2 the moderator team will decide on a winner and that photo will be featured on our front page. Photos can be uploaded to this album .