Visitors' book

Well done Matthew. A nice new feature! Is the rating supposed to be of the hut only or of the general area experience as well? e.g. there are some not very nice huts that are in wonderful areas. I guess it's going to be quite subjective though some guidelines could make it less so.

OK Matthew. I've digested your reply to yesterday's question about visitor book ratings & will use it as a guide when giving future ratings. Perhaps with huts I've been giving more weight than I should to the surroundings rather than the accomodation? For instance I gave Lonely Lake hut a 4 because of the magnificent surroundings yet the accomodation is basic. (perfectly adequate for me however some may consider it a bit spartan) An anomoly I've just noticed is that you can't give the same thing different ratings. I gave the summer Mt French experience a 3 then a more recent winter trip up Mt French a 4. I thought these different ratings were valid being based on the different seasonal experience. The earlier 3 rating automatically changed to the more recent 4 which wasn't my intention. Can or will users be able to edit/delete ratings they give? Now that I'm understanding the intent of the system better it would be nice to be able to make a few changes.

I'd agree with your earlier assessment of the hut / walk rating system: rate the overall experience, not the just the physical hut. If I look at a rating or a hut or walk, the question I want to know the answer to is: Will I enjoy my trip there? The comments field can provide the specifics ....

I wonder if it'd be useful to show a standard deviation for the ratings, which would give an indication of how much in-agreement people are. ie. A high standard deviation for something with a rating of 2.5 would mean that some people really like it, some really hate it. (It may need a few ratings for the stdev to be useful, though.)

Hi Matthew, I see you can edit or delete visits/ratings now. Thanks! Under the new system I was a bit worried about clogging up the hut visits space. Now it is easy to just leave your first and most recent visit showing or correct any mistakes.

Ha! So personally, I feel that hut books have a sort of colourful anarchy about them and I see the visitors' book area here the same way. I don't think you should worry. But do what you feel you want. Btw I will be changing the look for photos. It doesn't make sense to have something called a visitors' book on a photo.