Chris’s absence
February 6, 2012 in Latest News by Jim Steele
For personal reasons Chris will not be available to support the website for the time being.
Please contact Jim Steele or Paul Shaw for support – we will do what we can.
Jim/Paul
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by Jim Steele
by ChrisLuv
January Newsletter
January 12, 2012 in Latest News by ChrisLuv
If you haven’t subscribed to our Newsletter then you’ve missed our January News, but don’t fret – you can still see it here – http://eepurl.com/inqfA.
Next month its our 2nd birthday, so make sure you subscribe to the newsletter before the end of the month or you may miss some special birthday treats.
by ChrisLuv
Map a sighting
January 7, 2012 in Latest News by ChrisLuv
We’ve got some new functionality to let people know where your sightings are from, so we hope some of the regular contributors will start using it to give people an idea of where they are writing about. You can only show one marker, but it will give people an idea. e.g. the map below should show you where Shipley Lake is.
We hope to extend the functionality in the future to allow people to look up posts via a map. Watch this space!
Contributors to the site can use this functionality when they write a post by scrolling down to the new “map meta box” when they write the article. Tick the “Dispay Map on Post” option and drag the marker to where the sightings are from, zooming in or out to an appropriate scale – then hit the “Use” button to use that info. The map will show on your post once its published.
We hope this functionality will allow less frequent visitors to see where places are. It still in development, so I hope lots of new features can be added in future.
by ChrisLuv
New Features – a quick guide to all the changes
December 17, 2011 in Featured, Latest News by ChrisLuv
So much to show you in the new site, which I’ve been working on all morning again, and so I thought I’d write a quick article to describe all the new features. Some will come and go, I want to see what you guys think to them, but the majority will stay.
- New Look Site - obviously the biggest change is the style of the site, the new black background is designed to show off those photos, and the featured post slideshow will be used to highlight articles to everyone on the front page.
- Latest Photo Article Thumnails – take a look at the bottom of the front page or the biopedia and you will see the latest articles listed with their photos (I’ll try and remove the tiled effect), hover over them to see a quick excerpt of the content.
- New Header Menu – the new header menu will give quick access to the new social functions on the site and other commonly used features.
- Recent Activity - look under the community menu header and you will see the Activity option. this is a quick way to see all the recent activity on the site in one glance.
- Status Updates – From the Activity page a Facebook style “status” can be used to quickly tell others what you’re doing or where you’ve been, or some quick news about sightings.
- User Albums – Each user now has an Album page accessible from the top menu (My Account -> Album) so you can quickly upload individual photos, other users will be able to comment on your photos if you wish.
- Groups and Group Forums – Will this be a good addition, its something I’m not sure on. I’ve created a few groups with easy to use discussion forums, so users can quickly post and get peoples opinions on topics that aren’t suitable for a new article.
- Friendships – another feature I’m still testing the usefulness of, but you can add friends and quickly see their most recent activity at the click of a button, useful for when the community gets into the thousands.
- New Advanced Profile – Update your profile to let people know about yourself and what interests you. You can also upload an avatar (image of yourself) without needing a Gravatar (My Account -> Profile -> Change Avatar)
- Private Messaging – This is now more integrated into the above features. You will be notified of new messages when you log into the site on the menu bar.
- New Media Uploader – those of you who submit articles will find the new functionality useful, in the old place where you uploaded images you can now drag and drop images directly into the upload screen to add them.
and all the old pages and functionality is all still there!
Explore and enjoy the new functionality. I started a new forum post in the new groups where you can let me know what you think. See if you can find it and let me know what you think 
by ChrisLuv
New Site Look and Feel
December 16, 2011 in Featured, Latest News by ChrisLuv
So, after the survey, there was a definite theme around making the site easier to use, to help people find content and also make sure the homepage had some pictures and text.
Therefore, using some time off this afternoon, I’ve had a quick play and come up with the new theme. There is still work to do, as you can see, but I’m quite pleased with the result. Please let me know what you think.
We can switch back to the old theme at any point if people preferred it.
For contributors to the site then please be aware that if your post includes a photo it would be great if you could set one of them to the Featured Photo (you can do this from the same bit as you add them to a post). This image will then be used in all the links etc.
Thanks,
Chris
(webmaster)
by ChrisLuv
Calendar Previews
November 30, 2011 in Latest News by ChrisLuv
Hi,
I have emailed everyone who wanted a calendar, only a few days to order. If you don’t have an email from me and want a calendar then let me know asap and I’ll contact you. Thanks to all those who have already got back to me.
To preview the use the following link for the £10 Truprint one…..(half shown price using a code), you will have to create a truprint account to view it, but this is free. I will order in bulk to save delivery, unless you particularly want to order yourself.
The photobox ones I can’t share, but they have a much more customizable layouts, here are a few screenshots (ignore the boxes round the rectangles). Unfortunately at £18 you have to pay for the better quality.
by ChrisLuv
Ten quick questions – your input needed to improve EVW
November 29, 2011 in Latest News by ChrisLuv
Hi all. Time marches on and Erewash Valley Wildlife is nearly two years old. Over that time we’ve tried to improve add new features and content but things have remained generally constant. The “group” remains an online community with informal trips organised between online friends.
Over time our membership has grown, we get over 500 people visit the site each month, and have at least ten regularly contribute, with people inquiring more and more frequently about how they can get involved.
So its time for you to have your say, how can we improve the site and community. Please, please take 5 mins of your day to contribute to this survey and hopefully we can improve the site together to turn it into something everyone benefits from.
Any problems let me know using the comments below.
NB – the survey has three pages and ten questions. I’ve noticed some people have only got to page 1 or page 2 then stopped answering the questions. Just click next at the bottom of each survey page to continue to the next page.
by davejsblog
Latest news. Barn Owl at Woodside NR.
November 27, 2011 in Home, Latest News by davejsblog
Barn Owl hunting at Woodside NR on “the hump” showing well just after dusk, plus two more calling.
by PaulS
More Competition Success!!
November 25, 2011 in Latest News by PaulS
Well what can you say about about the Erewash Valley? Not only did it get me a highly commended it’s now landed me in the final of the UK mammals section. Absolutely chuffed to bits with this as the shortlist is only four shots long (although I do think mine is the weakest). The image in question is a humble grey squirrel. I always say on my photographic talks don’t be a wildlife snob and you certainly don’t get much commoner than the old greys bless ‘em. Anyway, the shot was taken in Mapperley Wood from the hide. I’ve exposed for the highlights to create this slightly abstract shot.
You can view the other finalists here…
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/photo/mammal-photos-2011#cr
I’m also pleased to say a friend of mine who I’ve been giving a bit of advice to, Olie Horton, has got an image through to the final of the under 16′s. Well done Olie!!
Once again a big thank you to everyone for the great comments and for keeping the standard of photography on the site high. Here’s the shot I took.
Cheers
Paul
by PaulS
Competition Success!!
November 22, 2011 in Latest News by PaulS
The beautiful Erewash and it’s wildlife have done me proud again. Just found out I got a highly commended in the Wildlife Extra UK Wildlife Photography Competition with this shot taken at Straws Bridge.
There were 17 highly commended shots chosen out of over 2000 entries so I’m pretty pleased with that. You can see the others here.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/photo/wildlife-photography-photos.html#cr
There are still the winners to announce and although I’m not holding my breathe I did enter a few more.
This comp. is probably a step under the likes of UK wildlife photographer and Veolia Environmental but is still a fairly major one so thanks to all who continue to support my photographic efforts. This one’s for all of us love the Erewash Valley!!
Cheers
Paul
