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670 Posts
Hey guys,
I've been working on a project for a while, but I've run out of time to try and man it single-handedly. I saw a reference in another thread to someone else trying to build out a database of all the manufacturers and models and whatnot; maybe we can join forces.
What I have is the base for a wikipedia-ish site, where hopefully we can try to do a brain-dump of as much information about the hot boat hobby as we can. The key to the site is that it is very hierarchical; information is entered in fairly strict ways. For instance, we start with the Manufacturers- each one has a page. Then, you define "Models" of boats- each model is then linked to a Manufacturer- no typing required. Then you can define a particular Boat (with HIN, CF numbers, etc), and link it to a Model. You can define drivers and owners as people in the system, and associate them with particular boats. Photos are of course supported. It can also track records set with various organizations, so you can put in the world speed record with the IHBA in February 1990 and assign it to a particular boat. This will filter back up the system, so you could find all the records a particular manufacturer had and with what boats- could be very cool.
The really cool thing is that, once loaded, it works as a combination history lesson, knowledge repository, race results record and boat registry. You can do cool stuff like pull up all the 1974 Sanger Flatbottoms in the system and compare them, and then broaden your search to all the boats Sanger made in 1974. Then you can get really fancy and try to find all the builders that made something in 1974... etc. Obviously, it requires having a lot of information loaded in to start with, but after that it should be a really useful tool.
I have some skeleton data in there that I pulled from talking to the guys at the Drag Boat Reunion, and reading this forum, mostly. Some of it may be wrong already. I was trying to just go through the forums and anytime there is a good post about boat history, to translate that knowledge into the database format. I just don't have time to do this, but I think the tool would be really useful for the community. It's totally non-profit; I'm hosting it with no ads, no memberships, etc, because I simply want to have something like this available.
The site is Hot Boat Database. You have to sign up for an account to edit stuff, but it's free and I'm not selling anything. I was hoping to work with some of the other people out there, like wediditforlove.com to get some more base information in place before I announced it, but like I said, it's simply not getting done. I'd rather put it out there and see if people like it/use it rather than have it just sit doing nothing.
If you check it out and have suggestions for rearranging the way it works or adding new fields/links etc, I can do that stuff- just touch base with me here or on that site (61 Snager Hydro), but I can't really be adding a lot of content now.
Hopefully this can be an asset to the hot boat community, that's all I want out of it.
I've been working on a project for a while, but I've run out of time to try and man it single-handedly. I saw a reference in another thread to someone else trying to build out a database of all the manufacturers and models and whatnot; maybe we can join forces.
What I have is the base for a wikipedia-ish site, where hopefully we can try to do a brain-dump of as much information about the hot boat hobby as we can. The key to the site is that it is very hierarchical; information is entered in fairly strict ways. For instance, we start with the Manufacturers- each one has a page. Then, you define "Models" of boats- each model is then linked to a Manufacturer- no typing required. Then you can define a particular Boat (with HIN, CF numbers, etc), and link it to a Model. You can define drivers and owners as people in the system, and associate them with particular boats. Photos are of course supported. It can also track records set with various organizations, so you can put in the world speed record with the IHBA in February 1990 and assign it to a particular boat. This will filter back up the system, so you could find all the records a particular manufacturer had and with what boats- could be very cool.
The really cool thing is that, once loaded, it works as a combination history lesson, knowledge repository, race results record and boat registry. You can do cool stuff like pull up all the 1974 Sanger Flatbottoms in the system and compare them, and then broaden your search to all the boats Sanger made in 1974. Then you can get really fancy and try to find all the builders that made something in 1974... etc. Obviously, it requires having a lot of information loaded in to start with, but after that it should be a really useful tool.
I have some skeleton data in there that I pulled from talking to the guys at the Drag Boat Reunion, and reading this forum, mostly. Some of it may be wrong already. I was trying to just go through the forums and anytime there is a good post about boat history, to translate that knowledge into the database format. I just don't have time to do this, but I think the tool would be really useful for the community. It's totally non-profit; I'm hosting it with no ads, no memberships, etc, because I simply want to have something like this available.
The site is Hot Boat Database. You have to sign up for an account to edit stuff, but it's free and I'm not selling anything. I was hoping to work with some of the other people out there, like wediditforlove.com to get some more base information in place before I announced it, but like I said, it's simply not getting done. I'd rather put it out there and see if people like it/use it rather than have it just sit doing nothing.
If you check it out and have suggestions for rearranging the way it works or adding new fields/links etc, I can do that stuff- just touch base with me here or on that site (61 Snager Hydro), but I can't really be adding a lot of content now.
Hopefully this can be an asset to the hot boat community, that's all I want out of it.
