Links Directory 2

[modelbob]

Ok, the votes have been tallied, and not by King County! ;)

The results of my first question, whether to split the links into commercial and non-commercial websites were resoundingly in favor of splitting it into two sections. Seems like a good idea to me, and that's what I'll do.

Sorting the commercial side should be pretty simple, I'll sort it on product.

The non-commercial sites will be fairly easy for the most part too, I'll base it on subject, with categories like electronics, clubs, layout design, kitbashing and structures etc.

However, there is one category I don't know how to to sort... Hundreds, thousands (maybe millions for all I know) have a website about their home layout. Many of them follow a similiar pattern, showing a trackplan and photos and infon on the layout.

The big question is... How do I sort those? Having one category with 500 websites in it doesn't really seem like a directory to me. So I'm trying to figure out a way to split up those listings a bit.

A couple of ideas so far... Sort them out by one of the following:
Theme (shortline, mainline, interurban, logging, general)
Scale / gauge
Era (that could be hard, many don't model any era)
Location (east coast / west coast / international)

Any suggestions? What would be the most useful to you?

[Lady_Railfan]

I'd look for layout websites first under one of two main categories, with further breakdowns within each:

MAIN:
Freelance / Imaginary
Prototypical

CATEGORIES WITHIN EACH:
Scale / Gauge
Theme
Era (perhaps just a breakdown between contemporary and historical)
Location (not sure how necessary this would be, given the other categories)

This way, I could pretty easily zero in on sites featuring G-scale logging operations from the 1920s, or a contemporary big-city HO passenger layout, for example.

[modelbob]

Interesting approach LR, and one I hadn't considered.

What do the rest of you think? Any other ideas I should consider?

[JeffShultz]

I definitely agree with Scale/Gauge, with era as an internal divider to the scale.

[modelbob]

By the way folks, the first half of the project is up and running. I won't say it's complete, since no links directory is ever actually finished. You're always updating, adding new links, deleting ones that have gone away, etc.

However, the framework for the suppliers directory is now in place, and we have over 400 links already. We're adding more each day and I'm hoping to be up to 1,000 before I officially open it.

Everyone is welcome to use it right now. Everything should be working (let me know if you find something that isn't...) and you're welcome to use the directory, suggest sites for us to add, etc.

You can find it at: http://www.modelrailroaddata.com/

There's also a link to it at the top of each page in the forum.

[Lady_Railfan]

Oh yes. I found it already. I'll probably spend more time there than I should! Another good job, well done. Thanks. :)

[CBCNSfan]

Question: Will there be a search within the results function?
That way it could be all together. For instance when I search Google I use one word like "layout", and from then on it's search within the results in one word steps. Just an idea, other than that I like Claudia's suggestion. Kind of thinking that freelance and imaginary are kind of the same thing even though names like CB&CNS are used :D
Cheers Willis

[RCH]

How should I go about suggesting sites? I've got a boatload of manufacturer's websites stored on my home computer.

[modelbob]

Question: Will there be a search within the results function?

Sorry, nothing quite that advanced. But you can use a few things like an "and" or "or" connector in your search.

[modelbob]

How should I go about suggesting sites? I've got a boatload of manufacturer's websites stored on my home computer.

If you're just adding a few, use the "add a link" form.

Truly have a boatload? (shouldn't that be boxcar load?) Then e-mail 'em to me in whatever format you have them in, and I'll take it from there.

I'd prefer them to either be in html format, or better yet, a CSV text file with name, url and suggested description but I can work with just about any format you care to send them to me as, as long as it's some variation of a text, database, excel or html file. (Rather than say a .pdf)