[Ansteorra] Event Calendar

[Bree Flowers]

> Are we operating in the same universe? Every event between now and Candlemas
> has a link on the Ansteorran Calendar website
>  (http://calendar.ansteorra.org/) which tells you the weekend it's
> happening. Clicking on those links gives addresses, schedules and site and
> feast fees for each of those events. I'll grant that *sometimes* an event's
> website is less-than-helpful, but those occasions are, in my experience, vey
> much the exception, not common practice. (And I've seen similarly bad event
> announcements in the Black Star--like the classic "see last year's Black
> Star for a map to the site.")
>
>        -Tivar Moondragon

Candlemas is only a month away. One month may be a lot of lead time to
you, but some people need to give more notice than that if they want
time off. The earlier you get your information out there, the better
the chances of people attending. As soon as you know the basics
(where, when, how much) you might as well get started on the website.
Details can always be added later (though again, the sooner the
better).

I don't see the harm in modifying how the calendar information is
displayed. Instead of posting the dates for the whole weekend, how
about posting the actual dates of the event? You don't need to post
the site open and close times, or whether camping is allowed or any of
that other info, let the autocrats put that on their own website. But
the change from the F-Su to actual date listing (including the detail
that big wars are not a series of isolated weekends where everyone
goes home on the weekdays - and I know you might laugh, but that's how
ren faires work so new people might get that impression) would be very
helpful to many and not that much work to implement. After all, by the
time the autocrat is up to submitting their information I should hope
they've decided how many days their event will run ;) You could even
keep most of the format the same, but list the details of dates at the
end of the entry (like has been done for Gulf and Estrella, but oddly
not for Pennsic).

While we're nitpicking the calendar page... is there any chance that
all the info-dump about calendar policy at the top of the page could
be moved elsewhere? I've always found it annoying that I have to
scroll down more than a full screen to get to the very first event
listing. Let's be honest, most people going to the page are just
random populace members that want the event info and are not autocrats
that need the calendar booking info. If it could be linked to, like
this page: http://www.avacal-sca.org/events.htm or even just moved to
the bottom, it would be much more user-friendly.

On the note of bad directions:

Autocrats: when you are writing directions, please take the time to
actually drive the route and ensure that your directions match the
signage.

The last event I went to, I got off the highway at the exit indicated
and was told to go North, but according to the signs the road had
either East or West options. As it turns out, if you go west the road
veers northward, but it is still called "blahblah road WEST". Locals
may know the road turns a mile down, but those of us who actually need
the directions end up flying blind and wasting a lot of time. Please
provide a map or take the time to actually go through the route to see
that your directions are accurate. Especially if, as in the case of
this location, it could not be found on google maps.

~Eve