Who wants to help with the Grey Armada?

Right now I need some people to help with the Grey Armada. It is still in very early alpha, however it is progressing well enough I need some help. Any one interested in shaping the future of this site?

 

I guess it should be stated there will not be any programming involved. There will, however, be a lot of learning about different ship classes & their history.

 

That's ok Tuggy... Any takers at all??

 

If I volunteered, what exactly would I be doing? Learning about different ship classes and their history sounds like fun, but I suspect that there's a bit more to it than just the research aspect.

 

Codenamed the "Grey Armada"; it is basically it is a compendium of all that we know about, their specs, a little history, user reviews, photos of both the original ship & models, etc... The idea is to give people a way of searching for, selling, and showing off their ships.


Use Case: new user's view point:

A user wants to know "Which ships are at least 30knots, have 2 rudders
and 9 cannons, at 6+ units?"

They need an advanced ship searching system, capable of letting you
narrow your search priorities until you find a ship(s) that suites you.
Once you have selected a handful of promising ships, you can see ship
specs based on your rule set (IRCWCC, MWV, Big Gun, NABS, Treaty...),
read user reviews, see photos of ships that are already created...
Really get an idea about what you are getting yourself into before you
actually lay keel.

It will also serve as a place they can find for sale, used ships. All
ships will be listed by status, in progress, active, mothballed... and
FOR SALE. A new user can get into the system & browse all ships for
sale.


Use Case: Current Battlers

For current battlers or builders, my idea is something like
http://www.cardomain.com. Captains list their ships, specs, ship
status, post photos, and write a little blog about what they are doing
with it... I have noticed a lot of people love to show off their work,
and really don't have any good place to do it. This will provide a
place for them to show off their work.

----

Right now it is in a very early Alpha release, it really is only
currently capable of searching and updating the historical database. I have started the tables for the rest of the
functionality, but they are not online yet. However, this should give
you a good idea about the framework of where I'm going with this &
whether or not you want to be a part of it. Each class's details page will include more details, photos, reviews, and a link to all models of that class.

Location:
Visit this site

 

Right now the Grey Armada is little more than a historical ship search engine. It has some 500 ships already in it, those ships have some 10 bits of information. Most of the grunt work is already finished.


What I need is listed below, I'm not asking for any one person to do everything, but if you would like to help out with one or more of the below... Please volunteer. We also have the rest of our natural life, so Tuggy, if you want to help out for 30 mins a week... It would make a difference.

Many ship have a rich neat history that I would like to record, some don't. I would like help learning about each ship & giving a synopsis of each.

I would also like help sorting out the differences between ships. For example, there were two scharnhorst ships... one in WWI, one in WWII. I need help sorting though ships, making it clear which ship is which & how things happened.

I also need help with the user interface, I need people to look objectively at the system & say it should have[...] or this is not clear... it should say[...]

I also need help looking at what I have & seeing how to bring it into the future. How do we turn it from what it is to what it needs to be?

I also need help seeing what else I need. Basically, I'm looking for people that jump right in with their sleeves rolled up, people that will really work with me on it and own it. It could really be a revolutionary system if it works...

As you work with the system, I need you to tell me when you are not able to do something that is vital. I can do pretty much anything with a computer.. I just need to know what that something must be. A great example is there is not part for recording the story of the boat... this functionality needs to be added before any stories can be added.

I know some parts are updateable right now, please don't just jump into it yet & start updating... That needs to be somewhat coordinated at the moment since I'm still creating the DB structure.. I would hate for someone to update 12 ships & I come & overwrite all your work. Please tell me that you are interested & we will work out how to proceed first.

 

First, Let's get something clear right now: anything is possible. If you can dream it in a logical way, we can probably do it.

Just list all sources? So, there is an extra page somewhere that you can use to specify what sources you use for your data? That way other people can come back later & say... aah, never heard of that before.

Or, are you talking everything someone makes a change they have to site it? For like, auditing & quality assurance purposes?

 

You are absolutely right Greg,


This concept is something that I wrestled with. I did implement something similar for the photos for my own protection, I record who uploaded what photo & the photo upload section states "THIS PHOTO MUST BE PUBLIC DOMAIN". So if there is ever a problem, I can refer the issue to the person who uploaded the offending photo.

However, citing each and every bit of information? Uggg... it probably should be done, but who is going to write their sources everytime they change something? Personally, I say make it wikiish so that everyone with a user id can change anything. So if they don't like what its set to, they change it. Sooner or later, there will be a concensus; especially if I embed some sort of forum thread (not listed on the forum itself) with each ship.

 

I also like the approach too. I don't use Conways as I find the info in it is not accurate. It may have been accurate at the time it was developed but new info since has made Conways not accurate. I use other sources and I check for consistencies to get it as accurate as possible.

 

Wait.... "new info"? ...On antique warships?

 

Are you guys going to help me? Just pick a ship you want to learn about, look it on wiki, & update what isn't there or isn't accurate.

 

Was the interface confusing or was the "edit link" too small? Where did you initially look to find the edit command? How would you recommend adjusting it so it is simpler?


I am aware of a few fields in the header that are not linked up yet. IF the fields that you are referring to are outside the grey header box (where the photo should be); list them.

Photos:

Photos can be added by clicking "Upload New Silhouette" underneath the picture / where the picture should be. Perhaps "Silhouette" isn't the best phrase... any suggestions?


Please only upload real ships / blueprints in for the "Silhouette". There will be plenty of space devoted to adding models --> as our models are the primary purpose for the grey armada!


Please visit Visit this site for an example of how our models will be added to the grey armada. Basically, you will be able to create your own blog (or simple webpage) devoted to your ship. You will be able to upload pictures, write text... Whatever you want!

 

Right, as I said; things are still alpha. Reviews are not finished yet. I disabled the submit button so people wouldn't spend time writing a review only to find it was not saved.

Congratulations, BTW... Have you ever been an s/w alpha tester before? (I mean besides Microsoft products)