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How do I explore locations? How do I add a location? How do I connect with Facebook? Tell me about the technology behind the site! Why did you drop the idea of countries, regions and ports? What information am I sharing with other users? How is my Logbook shared? What's changed on the site? How do I explore locations? We've designed the 'Browse locations' page to make it as easy as possible to find a location. Start by clicking 'Browse locations' in the top menu bar, and you should see the following page appear  On this page, are 'bubbles that represents a cluster of locations with the number of locations marked on the cluster  Click on a cluster to zoom in. If the cluster is large, you will still see more smaller clusters  Keep on clicking until you have zoomed in far enough to see individual locations, like this  Each locations is represented by a small marker  Simply click on your chosen marker, and a box will appear  And there's your link to the page for that particular location How do I add a location? Firstly you need to find your required location.... do this using the 'Browse locations' menu option, and when you've identified where you want your new location, then single click on the map. You'll see a new marker appear  and below the map, you'll see the Latitude and Longitude for the marker  You can keep on single clicking until you are happy with the location, and then click on the marker, and a box will appear asking you for the neccessary information  Complete the fields as required, and scroll down to the 'Click here to add it now' button  And you are done!.... if you add information that isn't going to work, such as characters that aren't allowed in location names, don't worry... the system will prompt you... You can now create locations with the same name as others (useful especially in Scotland where lots of anchorages are named the same), but the page will prompt you to confirm that you are creating a location name that already exists, so you don't create a duplicate by accident How do I connect with Facebook? Its actually pretty straightforward! First you need to have registered an account on ThreePointFix (and obviously on Facebook too!), next its important that you check that its you logged into Facebook on the computer you are using. The best way to do this, is to log in to your Facebook account before connecting ThreePointFix and Facebook together. Then simply go to the ThreePointFix login page, and enter your username and password, and click on the 'Connect with Facebook' button. This will then prompt you to login to Facebook if you haven't already, and then present a Facebook page asking you to approve ThreePointFix to access your details on and offline. We need this functionality to post passages to your Facebook wall if you ever chose to set ThreePointFix to do so (by default its set to not do) and then upon clicking 'agree' you'll be directed automatically back to ThreePointFix. Occasionally due to a small bug you'll be asked to log back in, but that won't affect the connection in anyway. And that's it! Tell me about the technology behind the site! The core site is written in PHP, with a great deal of Javascript to make the pages easier to use, and a certain amount of Ajax to make the experience a bit more interactive. Behind this, the site sits on a large clustered surver running Linux, and on top of a MySQL database. It is connected via a core internet pipe with extensive peering at various internet exchanges, so should be quick enough!... it also benefits from state of the art security wrap and 24/7 monitoring The Google maps are all hosted, as you'd expect, on Google's infrastructure, and are called remotely from within the pages. Why did you drop the idea of countries, regions and ports? While it was nice to be able to explore by country or region, it caused a certain amount of confusion around the difference for example between a port and a mooring. It also caused there to be a great deal of 'clicks' needed to get to a location and a lot of reversing neccessary if you went down the wrong geographical path. We want the experience of finding a location to be a very positive one, and where you not only got the info you were looking for, but are presented options to see a range of new locations in the area that you might not have seen before. We also want it to be a useful tool for people planning cruises, and it was a bit too 'focused' on finding an specific location, and not helping you to 'explore' an area instead. We really hope that you like the new approach! What information am I sharing with other users? By default, when you register, we create your account with a fairly restrictive set of sharing options. You can chose what you do and don't want to share across the site by clicking on the 'Personal settings' menu, selecting 'Profile detail and sharing options', and changing them to reflect your own needs. Everything can be selected to be shared with 'all', 'no-one' or just 'friends'. How is my Logbook shared? By default, your logbook entries aren't shared with anyone. This means that you are the only one that sees any entries (via the 'analyse my log' menu), and that none of your entries appear on the news feed on the main home page. If you choose to share your logbook with friends, then when they look at your profile page, then they'll see your logbook entries, and will be able to click to view a passage you've entered (but other users won't be able to do either). The entries still won't appear on the news feed on the main home page. If you however, select 'all', then the entries will appear on the news feed, and anyone will be able to see your logbook on your profile page, or view a particular passage. The choice is your as to how you want to share this information. Finally, you are the only person who can view your logbook analysis. This cannot be shared. What's changed on the site? Lots going on! 6th Nov 2010 Added Google map of all created moorings on home page Added notification e-mails for friendship requests and comments left on passages Added basic log analysis page 7th Nov 2010 Added 'Captcha' to registration to improve security Added hotlink to most updated mooring on home page 8th Nov 2010 Added shortcuts to log a passage for last reported location and home berth 9th Nov 2010 Added graphs for 'all passages distance' and 'all passages speed' in Log analysis Added delete passages functionality for registered users 10th Nov 2010 Updated location_profile page where you view a mooring to add better CSS support and cross browser functionality Added Meta tags in a few places Added location name to location profile page title to aid bookmarking Reduced W3C non compliances on location profile page (more to do yet!) Added Google maps support on location page for mobile devices 11th Nov 2010 Updated home page to add better CSS support and cross browser functionality Reduced W3C non compliances on home page (more to do yet!) Updated 80% of remaining pages to add better CSS support and cross browser functionality Reduced W3C non compliances on 80% or remaining pages (more to do yet!) Just personal settings pages remain to change 12th Nov 2010 Finished updating all remaining pages for better cross browser support Updated logged in and logged out menu layouts with better CSS support Added 'watch' facility to notify users when a location is updated Fixed a bug on passage logging with finish dates not working properly Added better logic to stop passages starting at the same time or before they finished! 13th Nov 2010 Much improved error handling on log passages, where error now takes you back to the form, and repopulates the form 14th Nov 2010 Fixed minor bug in location update notification Modified 'view location' page so that it now shows any paragraphs used when submitted Added engine hours, wind and weather to log a passage as optional extra info Added sharing options for logbook Added logbook feed to user profile pages using sharing options Updated news feed on main page to reflect new logbook sharing options 15th Nov 2010 Improved welcome banner for new users Added buttons and banners 16th Nov 2010 Added weather and engine hours to 'view passage' page Added edit passage functionality 17th Nov 2010 Added weather and engine hours to 'Analyse my log' page 18th Nov 2010 Fixed a bug in logbook sharing to ensure that there is no route to a logbook entry if sharing is set to no Added distance and speed reports to log analysis that have selectable date ranges 19th Nov 2010 Improved date handling on log a passage - 'same date?' now auto populates arrival date 22nd Nov 2010 MAJOR NEW RELEASE, complete changing the approach to browsing a location, and much improving the user experience! 24th Nov 2010 Fixed a bug that prevented users from viewing their own passages from one particular page Fixed a bug that prevented passages under 1 hour being logged Fixed a bug that prevented users from rating location profiles Added chart coverage data to location profile page | ||