A very Happy New Year to everyone! Hope 2007 is a great one.

So the new year seems a good time to stop for a second and take stock. Now that this site has been live for a few months, I'd love to know people's impressions. What works? What doesn't? What would you like to see that isn't here?

Basically, how can wedigvindolanda.com improve throughout 2007 so it's as enjoyable & useful as possible?

To kick off the brainstorming, here's a couple coming improvements:

-- A page with pictures and descriptions of the most common types of pottery found on the site. If you've ever wanted to figure out a bit more about that beautiful piece of samian you uncovered, hopefully this page will help.

-- An orientation page showing overviews, maps, & layouts of Vindolanda as a whole. This will hopefully help new folks first coming over, as well as seasoned veterans who still scratch their heads wondering what's where, and when it was what. Not to mention where who did which things. Confused? Stay tuned.

-- A digger journal. Once the excavation season begins in earnest, this site will hold a space where daily & weekly updates can be posted & discussed.

-- More white pages & at least partial excavation reports. This will of course depend largely on staff time & energy as well as Trust willingness to place reports in public domain. But hopefully we'll be able to add some tidbits that hardcore volunteers will adore.

-- A vastly improved picture gallery system. This unfortunately is out of my hands. But the service provider keeps talking about the great new gallery system they're going to unveil. I'll believe it when I see it.

Anyway, that's a good starter. Thanks again to all who are helping bring this forum to life. Look forward to a great year!

- Harry

This all sounds great Harry, keep up the good work

Duncan

Harry-
Your ideas are brilliant. If any help is needed let me know. How about video clip capability? Most digital cameras come with video options. Is this too far of a reach for the server?
Matt

I really like all of these ideas Harry. It sounds like an awful lot of work for one person though. If you need any help at all, I'd be willing to do a bit. Happy New Year and thank you for setting up this great site,
Kate.

Hi guys. Thanks for the feedback. I think video is a terrific idea. We should have plenty of room to post at least relatively small clips. Maybe 30-second squibs or something like that. If anybody has a video file they'd like to upload to the Photos section, give it a try!

And thanks much for the offer of help Kate. I'm still in that newlywed phase of 2007 where everything seems upbeat, rosy, cheery, and extremely easy. Once I come back down to earth I just might take you up on your offer.

- H

Thanks. These sound good. I would like a short "idiot's guide" to archaeology. I know you could probably read a book beforhand, if you were an organised sort of person, but something specific to Vindolanda would be good e.g. covering the main things we are likely to find -different types of pottery, metals, coins, bones, shoes, etc -and how to recognise them, and some background info.

This is a great idea Marilyn! I remember before I came for my first dig, I had hoped to find something about the strata at least. Just something to get my head in the game. A cheat-sheet with some of the basics would be excellent.

The only trouble might be Andy. Word is, he actually likes saying 300 times a day, "No, that's not one of Hadrian's own personal gaming counters. That's a rock." I've tested this annually, and it never fails.

- Harry

Hello,

I think an intor guide would be a fantastic idea - include tips from the more experianced, what to bring, what not to wear etc etc. As well as the guide to diggin itself.

May as well make the whole experiance from digging right through to the social side more obvious and less hassle to organise your life.

turn this into the site that provides all (most) of the answers.

will help were i can Harry. If i ever get any free time.

Happy New Year Harry - its sounds like you are going to have quite a year!

Love all the suggestions so far for improving the site. A couple of ideas I have though of are: along with the Orientation page maybe a brief run down of the side history with key dates etc. This could also be built into Andy's favourite 20 questions that always get my grey matter going the first morning on site (and invariably I get wrong!).

Whilst the web host comes up with a picture gallery could Flickr be used as a place to host photos? I have an account there and it seems to work very well. We could set up a generic WeDigVindolanda user and point to the relevant picture from the forum.

Also I think that we need a section of the forum called 'The Midden' - maybe rename the lighter fare part :lol:

I also offer my help with anything on this site. I have designed a few websites in the past so might be of some assistance.

Great ideas, Rosie & David! The one-stop-shopping could be a real help to new diggers. And a page with tips from "old hands" would be fab. I love the "20 questions" page. But poor Andy. What will he do when he says, "Who can tell me the dates for Period V?" and people actually raise their hands??

Flickr could be a good place to store pictures until the gallery comes up here. Rosie, would you try doing a post to the "Photos" page here with links to Flickr some time? Let's see how it works.

- Harry

Alright. Time to revisit the resolutions--at long last! Happily, we now have an intro "20 questions" list. The samian pottery guide has been a hit. And the digger journal is up (more posts, more posts! Tell us America-bound folks what's going on!). But there's still a way to go.

So now that the season is well under way, and lots of new folks have joined the site, I'd like to know: What's the #1 thing that could be added that would have made your Vindolanda experience richer/better/fuller? Maps? Site overviews? A comprehensive "What to bring/wear" guide? A broader guide of what you can expect to find? More research reports & official papers as background?

It's great to see so many people joining & using wedigvindolanda.com. And I appreciate everyone who's stuck with it in its infancy & is helping it take a life of its own. I'd love for it to be a place that can give all volunteers & fans--new & old--as rich an experience as possible.

Bring on your thoughts!

- Harry