Halloween Graveyard

Bridget Carson, costumed, led us on a history tour of the Catholic Church cemetery.

Autumn's Awesome

Weaverville, looking south...

Swift Creek, Trinity Center...

Ycatapom Inn, Trinity Center...

Highway 3 near Hayward Flat...

Mill Street, Weaverville...


Crushed. i wasn't chosen to develop the Historic Weaverville website. On the other hand, i will be doing updates to FirePreventionOfficers.org... gratis.

Another Big Autumn Weekend

Trinity can be a Happnin' Place. Live music at an undisclosed location...

And the One Maple Winery Crush Party...

Payday

Attended TEDC's meeting. They paid me for the 'Visit!' work, and seemed pleased. Thank goodness! (I will of course continue working to improve the site.)

Per discussion at that meeting, and later at the Trinity County Chamber meeting, i should add a way for folks-out-there to get on a mailing list, so they may periodically receive info about Trinity County events and happenings. Also, there should be a 'Gallery' where folks can submit their Trinity County photos.

My little brother Scott's a Fire Prevention Officer in the Bay Area; the California Fire Prevention Officer's Association needs someone to maintain their site. I sent him my information.

Weaverville History

Submitted proposal for new Weaverville History website. Will hear back next week.

site map, fixing 'search', and so on

To 'Visit!': Added a user-accessible site map, plus worked on a special site map for Google Search. (Unknown if i did any good, it takes a while for it to take effect.)

Also, with much frustration, i managed to limit the vertical size of the 'boxes' each site gets listed in. Before, if there was a long description, there was a long box. Now all boxes are uniform height; if you want to read the whole long description, just click on it. This somehow also magically fixed a bug: before, IF there were multiple paragraphs in a description, the last line of the first paragraph had a greater space above it than other lines; unknown why!

Voice

What should be the 'rules' for the description on each business's 'Visit!' page? So far, i've either just made up a short line or 2, often based on their sign out front, eg for an RV Park, something like: "Full hookups. Tent sites. Pool. Store. Propane." I like it because it's short and hits the highlights. For more details, folks can go to the actual business's website, the link is right there, or they can call the place, etc.

In a few cases, instead of he very brief description, i more-or-less copied paragraphs out of their website homepage. Later, as I thought more about this, i came to the conclusion that the 'voice' of the 'Visit!' site should be different from that of the typical business site: The style of the Chamber's 'Visit!' should be 3rd person, impartial, informative, like how one would write a 'review'; whereas the 'person' of the typical biz site is 1st person, the tone: often gushy. That hypothetical RV Park cited above might want their page to say: "Everything for every visitor to beautiful Trinity County. With 40 years of experience at this location, we stand ready to attend to your every need. Camping, hiking, bird-watching, wildlife, swimming, rafting, and the Trinity Alps Wilderness lie within a short lovely walk. Just let us know what we can do to make your vacation here one that you and your family will remember for a lifetime." Now i'm not saying there's anything wrong with that statement or its sentiment, and it's surely fine on the enterprise's own site; i just wonder if it's appropriate on TrinityCounty.com.

On the other hand: i had the idea a while ago that i would set this all up so that businesses could write their own descriptions, and in fact CHANGE the info as often as they cared to (for example, changing business hours, prices, the weekly dinner special, whatever). But if i let them do that, am I to review every change for tone and proper '3rd person' voice? Yuk, that's more than i can realistically handle! And i'd be arguing with folks constantly - creating hard feelings. It's a real dilemma.

Moving on, small changes to:
Aven Estate
Trinity River B&B
Six Rivers Lodge

Attended the Dutch Oven Cook-Off at the Jake Jackson Museum...

...and the Salmon Festival...

And added Google Search to 'Visit!'. Thought briefly about programming a Search feature myself, but there's too much to do, and i knew Google's reliable. Purchased ($100) and installed now, isn't working as expected. Dang.

another post

Lately, regularly updating Weaverville Fire's site with news & new photos.

Chamber-'Visit!'-site-wise, added Aven Estate.

i'm making it up as go along. Today I realize that the info at the 'Trinity: Visit!' site is almost of solely individual businesses; it says VERY little about Trinity attractions In GENERAL, eg little about Trinity River fishing or Weaverville history. But Trinity's GENERAL ENVIRONMENT is truly a critical element that will attract folks here. Must do more on that.

More uploads

Added/changed sites re: uploads, for example: Trinity Treasures & Treats, Butter Creek Ranch.

Misc Minor

Misc minor additions & changes to TrinityCounty.com/Visit. Then added a big link to it at the Chamber homepage. I'll change that picture occasionally, for variety.

Plenty to do in Weaverville

A Disaster Drill, very colorful!...


Quilts!...




Visited Weaverville Antiques, lovely!...


and Highland Arts Center Meadow...


Art Cruise...


And evening live music at an undisclosed location...

1 Dissatisfied Customer

I'm told that 1 merchant complained (to another) that i didn't spend enough time talking with him re: what should be on his site. Let me repeat what i told each merchant, orally and in writing:

1. This is free.
2. Look at your page after 10/1/09. If there's anything you want changed - name, description, photo, contact info - tell me, and i'll change it to whatever you want.

It really bothers me that folks complain about a deal like that.

(Coincidentally, this very day, i get back an evaluation form on work we did in my other job with the Weaverville Fire District's Hazard Reduction Program. The anonymous reviewer clearly is angry about the amount on the 'bill' i sent. But every bill states: "You are not expected to pay the full value of the service. Truly, you may remit whatever you feel is appropriate, given the work done and your own financial circumstances... The critical thing is reducing fire hazard. Improving Defensible Space should not be limited by a person’s ability to pay." In this particular case, they got work done, and they chose to pay nothing. How can they then complain?)

Post:

Me, on the web, i click recklessly at everything. A friend tries out the site, SHE, timid, as if 'fraid something'll break. Good came from this. I eliminate the 'picnic', 'hike', and 'XC-ski' categories; not that these aren't important to tourists, but rather because i have so little there. (My focus has been on Trinity County businesses, but these critical tourist attractors are all USFS/BLM.) And I add tooltips (the little box that pops up briefly when the cursor 'hovers' on something) to invite the user to 'click for more'.

Oh, and today i update Weaverville Fire Dept & Trinity Chamber of Commerce home pages with new happenings.