Hitchwiki:Community Portal/2008

Help
If you have any important questions about spots mentioned here at the wiki, or if you need help for cities that are not added yet, don't hesitate to ask here! Just click on the [edit] button just next to the title Questions? Need help?, and you can write down your concern in a little sweet box. Happy hitchhiking, platschi site, wikitalk 14:39, 5 November 2007 (CET)


 * I'm a reporter with a newspaper in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and I'm doing a feature story on hitchiking. I'm looking for thoughts/experiences from hitchhikers and if possible from the person behind this hitchwiki phenomenon which seems to be using the internet to take the art to the entire next level. If you can put me in touch with the person who operates this or if you are a hitchiker who wishes to share experiences, or BONUS if you are a hitchiker from NEW BRUNSWICK, I DEFINITELY would love to chat with you. All, please contact me at chobson@dal.ca and leave me a name and phone number where you can be reached or just write me and I can give you my number. Thanks!


 * Does anyone know how to hitch out southwards of Trento in Italy? Please answer on the Talk:Trento page if you know specific information!


 * Hey there! I'm a newbee with hitchwiki...how can I add a thumb symbol to the maps and write a description in the small box that appears? Please answer at Talk:Varkaus. And how can I add a map to the article about Helsinki? Thanks:) Annika


 * Hi again! well, now I've added a couple of thumbs and my next question is how can I edit the text in the small boxes since I made a little mistake (I tend to mix up the words east and west, which can be pretty crucial when writing these direction ;D). Thanks again! Annika


 * Hey Annika, congratulations :-) I guess you can edit your own points only when you logged in at liftershalte. If you made a mistake just tell me at User_talk:Platschi which point is wrong and I'll correct it for you. Otherwise I think you can just login with your hitchwiki name also at liftershalte the next time, then you can edit your own points just by clicking on the text. (a button "edit" appears then"). Hugs, platschi site, wikitalk 16:30, 24 March 2008 (CET)


 * hey! there s an info i find unclear on the budapest page (which bus stop to get off bus 84 when hitching out) and i don t know who to ask (maybe the one who wrote it - how to find out easily in the history?) or how to write that it needs more precision. any help? thanks! stupidfrog

new creation of a main page
Just created an idea of a maybe somewhat nicer main page at User:Platschi/Spielwiese. Additions, Corrections and Edits are welcome, also please comment the stuff at User talk:Platschi/Spielwiese. Thanks! platschi site, wikitalk 23:24, 11 January 2008 (CET)

Phrasebooks
Hey Hitchehikers,

i would like to contribute on the side: Phrasebooks. I am able to translate the sentences in Italian. But maybe i made a mistake, cause it doesn`t work. I can`t find the button edit. If you would change it, i could continue to translate....

Thanks

infobox country & cities
hey, i just recognized that the infoboxes are not shown correctly on IE 7.0. The boxes are on top of the articles, not on the left side as they should be. Also the borders are not shown correctly :(

hitchplanet
regarding the cheapest hostels.....my idea of hitchwiki: what i missed as a hitchhiker was a kind of lonely planet, but with only the most basic information. would be nice if hitchwiki could provide this. that means we should include border crossing (this makes not sense in western countries of course) and similar stuff (only the important one of course. so if you travel on your own you ve everything you need without bying the planet. wouldn t that be nice? Worldhitch 17:45, 7 October 2007 (CEST)


 * Zac was working on a hitchzine. I think it's similar to this. (And I think planet should be reserved for this idea :) guaka site, wikitalk 17:46, 7 October 2007 (CEST)

cheapest hostels
i think we should include a list of the cheapest hostels in the mayor cities....if you have a LP or know cheap hostels please write em down in the city section under SLEEP.
 * In some articles we already have that, like Hannover or Milano. However, in bigger cities there are usually hundreds of hostels and you can always find the cheapest one via Hostelworld, you can even check wether they have free beds. But if you know good hostels for any towns, just add them. --MrTweek site, wikitalk 09:37, 4 October 2007 (CEST)

hostelworld is not too bad, but especially in south america there are lot of "local" hostels that tend to be much cheaper than the ones for the foreigners.

I m adding active hosting communities and their way of communication. I think thats way better. If there is nothing like this I think it would make sence to add hostels but as a second option! Fabzgy 03:52, 7 October 2007 (CEST)


 * Is it possible to make one template where the links to all hostels / hospitality communities is in? Best would be when it would be flexible and depending of the city name, you would come on the right (city) page. --Alex 12:27, 7 October 2007 (CEST)

Future move to CC-BY-SA
Apparently it will be possible to move towards the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike in the future. After Wikipedia will have made the transition, we can do it as well. That would be great, since it would mean we will be able to copy to and from many more projects. guaka site, wikitalk 17:21, 28 December 2007 (CET)

"edit section" links
I'm currently using IE7 and noticing that the "edit section" links are displayed on the left (next to the heading) rather than on the right - would you think you would be able to upload a better CSS file? (from wikipedia, maybe?)
 * I don't have IE7 here, so I can't test it. This is the default-configuration of MediaWiki, but I'm quite sure, I replaced it everywhere. What is your language setting? Does this also happen in the German oder Russian hitchwiki? Does it still happen, when you log out? --MrTweek [http:// site], wikitalk 14:42, 10 March 2008 (CET)
 * Well, on IE they are always on the left. Stupid browser ;-) You can also go to "my preferences" and set them out, so no more edit links will be shown :) platschi site, wikitalk 16:23, 10 March 2008 (CET)
 * Not the Browsers fault this time. I just realized that MediaWiki has a separate css for IE. I'll try to fix that.

User info
Just stumbled upon Danielziom's profile and saw that he visited Romania, and actually came pretty close to my home town. Without me knowing. What I propose is: let's let people know that we're there. For example, at the end of the page for one's home town, one could supply a link to his/her CouchSurfing profile, at least. So when other hitchhikers are in the area, we can have some contact, help with the bonding within the HHing community (or at least the HitchWiki community). Let me know what you think. --TruckThor 21:56, 6 April 2008 (CEST)
 * Yeah, feel free to add yourself to your hometown, like Guaka did it on the Amsterdam-page. --MrTweek [http:// site], wikitalk 09:32, 7 April 2008 (CEST)


 * Hey, me did the same on the Enschede page, just at the bottom added information that hitchhikers can contact me :) platschi site, wikitalk 12:14, 7 April 2008 (CEST)

Good articles
Do we have a category or template for good articles, like they have on wikipedia? If not, I'd like to create one, i.e. for Poland, China, Berlin, Paris. --MrTweek [http:// site], wikitalk 11:41, 16 May 2008 (CEST)

E-road Categories for Britain and Ireland
Hi. I have noticed that the British cities are now in E-road categories (e.g. Southampton is in E05). It's fairly correct from the UN point of view, however... The E-roads are not signed anywhere in Britain and Ireland - so very few people know which motorways correspond to which E-Roads. It would make more sense to create categories with the names of British motorways (e.g. M3) and add all the cities within them. Lnx 14:22 20 June 2008
 * Yes, that's what we thought as well. We just used the E-roads, because it was very easy to extract the data from Wikipedia and write a script that automatically add these articles. We can still add the national road numbers as well (even though this probably requires a lot of manual work). --MrTweek 15:54, 20 June 2008 (CEST)

de:Tramperwiki:Portal

Videos
Hi everyone, as you know a video extension was recently added to this wiki. I started 2 videos on my user page - how to hitchhike safely (I hope we can make this one good enough to fit in the article) and, on the lighter side, a video called "The weirdest hitchhiking experiences". As these videos are supposed to be collaborative, I invite everyone to add to them and edit them, and play around with this tool. You are also welcome to drop a line in my talk page. thx, IdoSet 15:02, 6 July 2008 (CEST)

press release for 1000th article
I started a stub: Hitchwiki:1000 articles press release. --guaka site, wikitalk 16:52, 30 July 2008 (CEST)

How long?
I'm 15, and a highschool student, and I was wondering how long it's possible to keep hitchhiking. I would love to do it for atleast a year. Also, how expensive is it?
 * There are even older people how are still hitchhiking, like Irv Thomas. There are no limits. And hitchhiking itself is usually free, in most countries. Sometimes you might spend a little on bus/tram tickets, but that's not even neccessary. --MrTweek 10:12, 6 August 2008 (CEST)


 * Also check out hospitality exchange. Officially you need to be 18 to sign up but you shouldn't be a verified CouchSerfer anyway... guaka site, wikitalk 20:41, 9 August 2008 (CEST)

Google rank
We're still not in the top 10 when googling for hitchhiking. But we might make it in the top 10 soon in the English language if we get some more mention in the press, possibly through the 888 press buzz :) It would be good to add some more links to hitchwiki from any public page (e.g. your blog). guaka site, wikitalk 20:44, 9 August 2008 (CEST)
 * And it helped! We're at number 8 now, so finally on the first page! --Robino 14:58, 20 August 2008 (CEST)
 * The results can vary from country to country and from computer to computer, because google creates a personal profile and tries to optimize the results for you. From here, when I delete all my cookies, hitchwiki is already on number 4 :D --MrTweek 15:54, 20 August 2008 (CEST)

hitching is not dangerous
I talked lately to some hitchhiking beginners and I realized how annoying can it be to convince your parents that hitching is not lethal. maybe we should create special letter, ready to print, that hitchhikers could show their families?

New Community Portal / Sorting of Categories
Hey everyone, I just played around with the Community Portal and moved stuff a bit, example for this was the de:Tramperwiki:Portal of the German hitchwiki version. It looks a bit more user friendly I guess. Thanks to User:Speckmade for his work! There he also sorted all categories logical and in a good order, so that things can be found easy. When browsing through the english hitchwiki, it all looks quite unsorted and messy at the moment. I want to sort this in the near future, but first want some discussion before on how we could do this the best way.

We can use Category:Browse as the top-level category, and then sorting it into a logical way. Like HitchBiking now appears under Browse, while it might be under General info -> Hitchhiking techniques or something. Suggestions are welcome, ideas, first categoryideas. Will start soon, if somebody has any complaints about it, discuss it here please! --Platschi 13:34, 14 October 2008 (CEST)


 * As a start, I made a little brainstorming, to be found at Image:Cat_brainstorm.png. Any ideas, suggestions? something wrong? I'm sure I forgot things. Let me know! --Platschi 23:47, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

New Main page
He, somehow the mainpage looks like too much text and anyway, it's not really inviting. maybe we can make it a bit more colorful, just tried out to sort out the not really needed stuff from the main page. see User:Platschi/Spielwiese for the tryout and please play around and try out your favourite layout and stuff. Whatever. --Platschi 14:46, 16 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yay, I like it. I think it's almost ready to replace the current main page...   Though this would require some more yays and a bit of work. guaka 17:33, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Bringing vehicles Live to hitchwiki
While i was on the road I came up with this idea and was wondering if it is possible as it would be cool to see implimented and could be used to push alot of traffic to hitchwiki via technology websites. The idea is this...

Wire a GPS & HDPSA enabled laptop into a vehicle and setup some software so that it pings back it´s location on hitchwiki maps as it travels. Maybee there are a few people who would be interested in having these in their cars when going on roadtrips and could also display a plot of their proposed travel route/s.

That way hitch hikers may see where they are and arrange to meet up should they be on similar paths. Sure some people may have privacy concerns, but personally if i had a car and was on a roadtrip i would not mind carrying such gear. giveaphuk 20:39, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Not a bad idea actually. The biggest problem would be implementing a software for mobile phones. You won't need hsdpa, i actually did that with my gprs-only phone, using mgmaps. If you find a open source software, or something that is customizable enough to let it work with hitchwiki, let me know :) We could at least start with a little community map, showing where people are hitchhiking at the moment, and hope that some drivers will join as well. The next problem will be the costs. Here in Germany, people hardly use internet on their mobiles, as it can be very expensive. There are some cheap providers, but usually people don't know their price plans and just thin k it's too expensive, so they don't use it. And if you go abroad, it's definitely way too expensive. But hey, I'll do some research and put it on my to-do-list :) --MrTweek 20:31, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

'Personal Experiences' section
Might I suggest that we group personal experiences when hitch-hiking from places into a separate section? It would make it easier for others to add their experiences without changing more or less 'debugged' content and in case the local situation changes, comments that have become irrelevant(?) can be removed more easily.I've done it for Francisco de Sá Carneiro.
 * Yes, looks good. I find it kind of annoying that many articles have personal stuff mixed inbetween the article. This would solve the problem. Still a lot of work to clean everything up though. --MrTweek 09:39, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Jep, good idea. I guess we did this already sometimes in the past by using Trivia as an header, where people can add their experiences and/or interesting/funny things about the spot. --Platschi 14:56, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Hitchhiking gestures
Thumb up we usually use to stop cars can be understood by some cultures as very serious insult. Signs language varies on every continent/country/culture. Maybe we should create a page to share/exchange this information??? Thanx, Mirto 20:44, 26 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Sure, sounds good! Just start it ;-) platschi site, wikitalk 12:18, 27 August 2008 (CEST)
 * It was one of the things why for a night I slept quite bad during a visit to the Polish-Lithuanian border region, where I was staying with artistic hc-members (professional artists), I was thinking much about creating such info on my hh in the Netherlands site. There are one or two sheets with signals of both hitchhikers and drivers in the nice book Autostop polski which was published a few years ago. http://www.ha.art.pl/?view=news&nid=75 --Fverhart 12:30, 27 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Great idea. Hitchhiking Gestures, I propose. We could start with a gesture, and list the countries? Maybe an idea as well to create icons for the different gestures and to place the appropriate icon in the entry for a country/ city. See also Hitchhiking techniques. --Robino 00:46, 28 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Great! I was thinking more about continents->countries (->regions if needed).That is the way you will naturally look for information. If I am going to south Italy, I will not check gest by gest to know which one is working there. But it shouldnt be to complicated neither.

So maybe you could find a place where we could put ideas about Hitchhiking Traces? I mean things remaining after something as ephemeral as a ride? Postcards we send to drivers, notes we can find on road sines left by other hikers, cardboard sign found at a spot with the same direction as yours... I am sure there are many more of those things! What you think? You know, hitchhiking is an Art. Mirto
 * I like your ideas. For such simple things, don't bother to ask, just start a page. ;) It's very likely, that others will help anyway --MrTweek 10:25, 28 August 2008 (CEST)
 * Cool. But I don't think Hitchhiking Traces is good name. Yet I can't find any better. Anyone?
 * I think it's not so bad. Maybe rather Hitchhiker's Traces? --MrTweek 17:00, 28 August 2008 (CEST)
 * OK, as Guaka has changed Hitchhiking Gestures into Gestures, I think just Traces would be good. Anyone for? Mirto 20:23, 6 September 2008 (CEST)
 * Sounds great, just start it :) platschi site, wikitalk 23:11, 14 September 2008 (CEST)