European Diving Guide?

[watersprite]

Thanks for the tips, MonkSeal! very handy, even with ISBN numbers! I will look into them in case I go to Croatia!

Lucky you, you live in Croatia! Must be great scubadiving there! I snorkelled in Istria years ago, when I wasn't diving yet... that was awesome!

watersprite

 

[MonkSeal]

Lucky you, you live in Croatia! Must be great scubadiving there! I snorkelled in Istria years ago, when I wasn't diving yet... that was awesome!

watersprite

It's very nice here. I dive mostly in Istria (almost every weekend). Now we have a new road - it takes me less than 3 hours from Zagreb to Pula.

 

[Juha_Kristian]

I don't have a clue if this is worth the money. I don't have any contacts in this business either and to be honest, I hardly dived in Europe! So, I'm not sure if I'm the person to come up with a proposal...

Anyhow, I am positive about the idea but I suspect that setting up an internet site would be a better idea. I guess it can be sponsored by banners from dive operators, travel agencies, etc.

Since I dont' have a clue about how to set this up, I'm wondering if there's anyone who has some ideas about how we could do this? I don't know how ScubaBoard itself got started? Perhaps we could use some expertise from people here?

And yes, Chris, I could make some translations into some languages (sorry, no Greek though...), French, German, Dutch & English if needed (?).

watersprite

Hi guys!

I think it's a great idea to build web site that lists all dive sites in europe and I could help build that site.
I understand that there are maybe thousands of dive sites but if one starts with few divesites and slowly add more and more dive sites list could be huge in few months.

Basically what we need is one good server at safe hall, DNS name (Eg. www.europedivesites) and good internet connection. That's about it, and of course someone have to write lots of contens from europes divesites

I'm working at IT company so it's no problem for me to get server and all other things needed to build web site.

What do you think. Is it worth list europes dive sites to one web site?

 

[watersprite]

Hi Juha,

that sounds really cool! I have to be really honest with you that I don't have a clue if this has potential... :ne_nau: I am pretty new to the dive sport and I have to say I'm still a sort of "holiday diver".

What does frustrate me is that it takes me quite some searches on the internet to find the info I need on dive locations when I travel in Europe. One other thing that I don't find as practical is that many websites are often not in many different languages.

I would love to see one website with a big map of Europe, on which you can click on a certain areas to go to links of dive shops, info on what the diving is all about, read reports from other divers on dive locations, etc.
A very cool thing would be to be able to offer all this info in a couple of languages so it is available to many people of course!

Perhaps we should make a poll first to see what people here think of the idea?

watersprite

PS. for info on diving in the Netherlands I often use this website: http://duiken.pagina.nl/
it is in Dutch though, but it is a nice example of how they have put links into different categories. Very handy resource...

PPS. this is an international version: http://scuba.start4all.com/
Has anyone heard of this website?

 

[MonkSeal]

Hi guys!

I think it's a great idea to build web site that lists all dive sites in europe and I could help build that site.
I understand that there are maybe thousands of dive sites but if one starts with few divesites and slowly add more and more dive sites list could be huge in few months.

Basically what we need is one good server at safe hall, DNS name (Eg. www.europedivesites) and good internet connection. That's about it, and of course someone have to write lots of contens from europes divesites

I'm working at IT company so it's no problem for me to get server and all other things needed to build web site.

What do you think. Is it worth list europes dive sites to one web site?

The problem with such site is not the HW & SW that site will be run on or the initial content. The problem is maintaining and updating it's content. Initially, many of us will post our favorite dive spots, links and contacts of the nearest diving centers and clubs and probably forget to update that info if anything changes.

If you take a look at this site, you can imagine how much effort (and how much volunteers and their work) is needed for establishing such site.

If you start such initiative, I'll do my best to support you.

 

[watersprite]

hey MonkSeal,

I agree, it would be loads of work... perhaps we should make a choice of which countries we would like to concentrate on. Europe is huge. We would need many volunteers to make this work.

I'd love to "moderate" the Netherlands-part of the site although I have to say I am not an expert (yet?) of dive locations here..

 

[chrisch]

Guys. Your enthusiasm is admirable. As MonkSeal points out it is maintenance that is the problem. Dive shops come and go and clubs close or move their URL. A site with loads of dead links or out-of-date information is worthless.

The way to make this work is to ask people to post details of their favourite dive spot and have forum style comments following from that. There was a similar thing in the UK run at one time by Gordon Henderson (drogon.net) but I haven't seen it in a while. The comments sections soon get overposted and people post duff information (sometimes by mistake - done that myself).

The issue therefore is that we all want this facility but need everyone else to populate it. The traffic will come when there is enough data, so you have a critical mass problem.

We are re-inventing the wheel to some extent.

I still think there is some value in the idea and hope those of you smarter than me can figure out how to develop it!

Keep talking - at some point the solution will emerge.

Chris

 

[hvulin]

you can also try www.adriaticdiving.com if looking for info about Croatia.... (they are building a list of dive locations on Croatian coast)

there is also a forum where you can ask questions (write in english and someone will answer...)

 

[Juha_Kristian]

The problem with such site is not the HW & SW that site will be run on or the initial content. The problem is maintaining and updating it's content. Initially, many of us will post our favorite dive spots, links and contacts of the nearest diving centers and clubs and probably forget to update that info if anything changes.

If you take a look at this site, you can imagine how much effort (and how much volunteers and their work) is needed for establishing such site.

If you start such initiative, I'll do my best to support you.

Hi Monkseal,

I agree with you. There's lots of work and we would need many volunteers for writing contents for the one in question web site. But anyway I think site is possible to build if we can get enough volunteers. Building that website is non profit work for all of us but my opinion is that it's worth it.

 

[draco]

I'm on in helping build a web site on european dive sites, or at least be part of it! It really looks like a great idea! I volunteer! We could start by resarching within the web, translating sites and information and so on. regarding my country I already know somw web sites where I'd look and easily translate in english