Pontus has emerged as one of my absolute favourite restaurants in Stockholm, I was recently there for my fourth visit with 6 of my friends and they exceeded my expectations again. The entrance to Pontus might seem a little small, the Oyster bar and clothing room flank a quite narrow path which splits to some stairs that goes to the dining room on the lower floor and the bar on the left side on the ...
flashpacker column no 1
Welcome to the first installment of the Flashpacker Column! In this space I hope that I can show how to use flashpacker.org and some best practices, give inspiration for new content and highlight some of the new (and old) content on the site.
The core of this site, to add and update travel information, to write articles and show photos, is working according to our vision now. The idea for this website originally came 2 years ago during a round the world trip when we found the lack of up-to-date information to be frustrating. At first we tried using off the shelf forums and wikis but we couldn't get them to work according to our vision. During the last 6 months we've been developing our own system from scratch and now we've finally nailed how to make the connections between the different kinds of entities so that the information can be organized and browsed (and easily searched) in a hierarchical way and edited like a wiki and at the same time dynamic and automatic database connections are made for every entry added!
"edited like a wiki and at the same time dynamic and automatic database connections are made for every entry added"
However, since the threshold is so small to create new entities it's vital that we're certain that the restaurant we are about to add doesn't already exist and that all restaurants get named in the same way so that it's logical when we try to find them. So, the naming conventions we use for different kinds on entries are:
Destinations: For well known cities and destinations, just the name. When there's the possibility for confusion, add the state or country after. For example, Paris in France would be named "Paris" while Paris in Illinois would be named "Paris, Illinois".
Features: Unless it's obvious that the name is unique for a single feature, it should be named with the name and then the destination after. For example, the restaurant Pontus! in Stockholm would be named "Pontus!" while Grill in Stockholm would be named "Grill, Stockholm".
Articles: Any descriptive name will do, just stick to normal letters and avoid naming them so that they can be confused with features or destinations. "Barcelona" is a bad name while "Finding the best Cava in Barcelona" is a good one. Try to find a suitable parent for your article, if you can't your own hometown will do fine.
Photos: Any descriptive name is good, photos won't interfere with the other kinds of entries (they are directly connected in the database, not by name) so they will show up where they are supposed to anyway.
"To add new fields to an existing object, use the drop-down selection box"
To edit and add new information to an existing object is extremely easy, just make sure that you're logged in through an OpenID account and on the page for the object. Then click on the text (all editable text has a yellow background when you hover over it with the mouse pointer) you want to edit. When you're done just click outside the textfield and the new information will be saved. To add new fields to an existing object, use the drop-down selection box at the bottom of the page and fill on the information. Just click outside when you're done (or to make incremental saves) and the new field will be added. At the moment you'll have to reload the page manually to see the new field where it's supposed to be (in the middle of the page usually), but the information is saved whether you reload or not.
The first destinations to have some useful information is Las Vegas, Stockholm, Barcelona and San Diego. Take a look at them and add information there as well as add new objects connected to them and to any other place in the world that you want to endorse or warn other travelers from visiting. Together we will create the ultimate travel guide, constantly up to date and with the best tips from every corner of the world.
Welcome to flashpacker.org!
// Anders Zakrisson, Stockholm
