BCN Challenge 2014 - 24 & 25th May

[alan_fincher]

 

That dog has you wrapped around his little dew-claw

 

That dog worms his way into everybody's affection.

 

The waitress at the Braunston Mill House has just slipped him a substantially larger chiken breast that I suspect many people got as their main course.

 

 

You'll not be giving him anti-inflammatories then.

 

Correct, absolutely correct!

 

No bloody anti-inflammatory drugs of any kind!

[little duck!]

dogs are good at winding people rounnd dew claws! Hope Odin feels bettert tomorrow, Bella is flat out on the sofa now

[Starcoaster]

Yep but unless I don't get how twitter works (which is probably the case!!!) not starting with a user name will just make certain all your followers see the tweet not just those that follow both you and the recipient, ie it just makes it a normal tweet rather than a reply.

 

There is no way to make a tweet just visible to one person or audience as opposed to all of your followers, unless you either send it as a pm on Twitter, or every person who might wish to view it is following both of the two respective particiants in each convo- at least this is how I understand it unless you know of a way?

In terms of the BCN, not everyone is going to follow both just the BCN feed and every replying person's feed in combination, given the number of attendee's, spectators and Twitter users already viewing. So if that is the case, a lot of people, particularly those just spectating, will likely only follow the BCN feed. If you posted a post with the hashtag, everyone following you will see that, not just the BCN people, which is what you said about not starting with a a username?

I will try and re-tweet ones that don't show, but I am not sure how to ensure it either way... unless people both tweet @ and use the hashtag?

 

 

Also, I am still looking at mapping options, but they seem to be sparse on the ground and I have yet to find one that does what we want!

Edited May 19, 2014 by Starcoaster

[Tom and Bex]

We've finally started our positioning move now. Moored North of Yelvertoft at the moment and hope to be at Braunston tomorrow night Watford locks depending!

 

This whole Twitter thing sounds very complicated to me and I'm normally very good with technology! I might try Twitter but will probably find it easier just to keep this thread updated (or another one opened specifically).

 

We also use Water Explorer as we find it useful for recording our journeys and our friends can easily follow us so will have that running, but some form of group tracking would be good.

 

Look forward to seeing some more boats around this year with the number of entries -just hope we won't have to queue for any of the locks, that world be a first for us on the BCN!

 

Tom & Bex

[junior]

I'm sat here on a night shift trying to get to grips with Twatter, so apologies if anyone wakes up to find I've been spamming their feed or the wrong #'s or @'s.

 

Also, if I've read Twitter correctly there has been another late entry by a boat that intends to tow a day boat around with it. Not sure if they are forum members or not.

 

Having had a further play with Twitter, I have now added all the followers of @BCNChallenge as 'Favourites' this means I get a notification every time they tweet. This should be enough to keep updated next weekend and I will remove them all as favourites after the event.

Edited May 19, 2014 by junior

[wrigglefingers]

We could have a chat with that Potter chappie and borrow the BCN Marauder's Map. Many of the Portals such as Blowers Green Lock and Tipton Pools are shown and it's believed that the Map reveals the whereabouts of the Great Mattress of Tame amongst many other magical beings. The BCN Marauder's Map features in the lost eighth novel - Harry Potter and the Dementors' Weedhatch of Doom.

[Odana]

This twittering is most distressing. The forum will sulk if it feels neglected. And Team Poppy will feel all confusled. Post here too for the non-twittering masses pleeeease?

[alan_fincher]

This twittering is most distressing. The forum will sulk if it feels neglected. And Team Poppy will feel all confusled. Post here too for the non-twittering masses pleeeease?

 

Ah, but to what extent will the challenge have a Facebook presence.

[Little Else]

I have tried this twitter stuff and I don't like it, as PPoppy says can't we just post on here?

[patty-ann]

I still not tweeted either, still as a mere observer not so important I guess cept I feel am missing out, son in late then crashed--this new bird, hmmmm

Still i can always wakey wakey rise n shine or wait for other son whose promised to visit his mum this am---not sussed out Facebook either.

 

Posting on here would be great then I can add helpful(???) coments

Edited May 19, 2014 by patty-ann

[Paul C]

Not going to bother with twitter or Facebook, I'll post in the regular fashion here, so everyone who can read the forum can see what's going on too.

[patty-ann]

Thankee so muchly

[madcat]

Before anybody gets too carried away with all this tweet business just remember there are cats about . Thank your lucky stars the no cat has ever gone hungry on Red Wharf.

[nicknorman]

OK I give in. Telemachus now has a twitter account even though I hate this "soshul meedya" thing. Test post made.

[Kustomcut]

_{Quick update we took a decorated Carpe Vinum for a little patrol on the Stratford canal yesterday and passed NB Firefly who after we shouted and told them we were on the challenge hollered back, also saw Albion moored up but all locked up so couldn't introduce ourselves.}

_{We have some bits of bunting on the boat so should be recognisable and hoping to have some basic tshirts printed up for the weekend so we will be easily recognisable.}

_{I have looked at Twitter and due to previous usage will probably have a go but more than likely just update my FB feed as and when so the few that have sponsored us can keep track. I will also pop on and off the forum.}

_{But a beer in one hand steer with the other means these updates could be few and far between.}

 

_{I am also wondering where people will be starting on the network and how many are at the bonus start stages?}

_{Salford junction and a dozen boats would be a sight id like to see, I can say with honesty I am not starting from one of the bonus start stages.}

_{Will keep trying the tweet thing and look forward to the activity on here over the next few days.}

[Dave_P]

The pro- or anti- twitter thing is why we need a commentator. They can pool all the tweets, facebook and forum posts in order to post regular updates on the forum. I would be happy to text updates to them directly if needed too. Starcoaster, are you saying that you're going to do this, even while encumbered by the demands of the challenge? Otherwise, we need someone else. I've noticed that a fair few people have posted in this thread but are not taking part. Don't any of you want to be involved in this vital role?

[cotswoldsman]

The pro- or anti- twitter thing is why we need a commentator. They can pool all the tweets, facebook and forum posts in order to post regular updates on the forum. I would be happy to text updates to them directly if needed too. Starcoaster, are you saying that you're going to do this, even while encumbered by the demands of the challenge? Otherwise, we need someone else. I've noticed that a fair few people have posted in this thread but are not taking part. Don't any of you want to be involved in this vital role?

I am at Bumblehole and will be for the next 9 days I have a Tablet,Phone and Laptop so if I can help let me know happy to post pics etc

[nellieD]

We could have a chat with that Potter chappie and borrow the BCN Marauder's Map. Many of the Portals such as Blowers Green Lock and Tipton Pools are shown and it's believed that the Map reveals the whereabouts of the Great Mattress of Tame amongst many other magical beings. The BCN Marauder's Map features in the lost eighth novel - Harry Potter and the Dementors' Weedhatch of Doom.

You won't find any Pools at Tipton! Though the ones at Titford were navigated by about 15 boats on Saturday. See Facebook "Birmingham Canal Navigations Society" page.

_{Quick update we took a decorated Carpe Vinum for a little patrol on the Stratford canal yesterday and passed NB Firefly who after we shouted and told them we were on the challenge hollered back, also saw Albion moored up but all locked up so couldn't introduce ourselves.}

_{We have some bits of bunting on the boat so should be recognisable and hoping to have some basic tshirts printed up for the weekend so we will be easily recognisable.}

_{I have looked at Twitter and due to previous usage will probably have a go but more than likely just update my FB feed as and when so the few that have sponsored us can keep track. I will also pop on and off the forum.}

_{But a beer in one hand steer with the other means these updates could be few and far between.}

 

_{I am also wondering where people will be starting on the network and how many are at the bonus start stages?}

_{Salford junction and a dozen boats would be a sight id like to see, I can say with honesty I am not starting from one of the bonus start stages.}

_{Will keep trying the tweet thing and look forward to the activity on here over the next few days.}

Love your enthusiasm!! Good Luck!!

[john6767]

 

There is no way to make a tweet just visible to one person or audience as opposed to all of your followers, unless you either send it as a pm on Twitter, or every person who might wish to view it is following both of the two respective particiants in each convo- at least this is how I understand it unless you know of a way?

In terms of the BCN, not everyone is going to follow both just the BCN feed and every replying person's feed in combination, given the number of attendee's, spectators and Twitter users already viewing. So if that is the case, a lot of people, particularly those just spectating, will likely only follow the BCN feed. If you posted a post with the hashtag, everyone following you will see that, not just the BCN people, which is what you said about not starting with a a username?

I will try and re-tweet ones that don't show, but I am not sure how to ensure it either way... unless people both tweet @ and use the hashtag?

 

 

Also, I am still looking at mapping options, but they seem to be sparse on the ground and I have yet to find one that does what we want!

The caveat here is that I may be missing some key wheeze that you have picked up on.....

 

The way I understand it is if you start the tweet with a username, as in a reply to someone, that person and the people who follow both of you will see it. If you put the username in the body of a message a "mention", then that person and all of your followers will see it. I agree that it is not really that clear how it works though, but I thought I was correct.

 

Using a hash tag, then anyone on twitter can search for that hash tag and see all the related tweets from anyone, they don't need to follow any particular person. If they follow your feed then they will see your tweets, only if you retweet everything will they see it. For example put in the hash tag "#bbc" and you will see all the tweets where people have used that hash tag, it matters not about who follows who, it is the "subject" of the hash tag that counts.

 

Perhaps some of the twitter applications let you do automatic re-tweeting, but that in not something that twitter automatically does. You can not send a tweet to, or mention, somebody and have all their followers see the tweet, but would be anarchy. So ootb all that including your username will do is make it so you get it, so you can possibly retweet to your followers.

 

Happy for people to use the hashtag, but remember I am doing the challenge myself on the run and so am not really up for searching and re-tweeting potentially hundreds of tweets over the course, when anyone who wants to see all of the tweets in one place can look on the feed for people's posts.

Perhaps if Richard does get the commentator he's still after, they can do it?

I had not seen this yesterday, which is probably our disconnect. How are people other than you going to be able to post onto your users feed, there is no way to do that or else you could put anything onto anyone feed, like celebrities etc...

[john6767]

The pro- or anti- twitter thing is why we need a commentator. They can pool all the tweets, facebook and forum posts in order to post regular updates on the forum. I would be happy to text updates to them directly if needed too. Starcoaster, are you saying that you're going to do this, even while encumbered by the demands of the challenge? Otherwise, we need someone else. I've noticed that a fair few people have posted in this thread but are not taking part. Don't any of you want to be involved in this vital role?

 

 

I am at Bumblehole and will be for the next 9 days I have a Tablet,Phone and Laptop so if I can help let me know happy to post pics etc

To me that is the difficulty of posting on the forum, I will try to do that thouigh. But to post picture an video to the forum, particularly from a phone, if not that east with one hand while steering. Twitter and Vine make it very easy to do that.

 

You can reference the twitter images from the forum.

 

No sure if you can embed Vine videos into the forum though, I think the forum software needs to be configured to recognise the url as media as it does with youtube, but you can at least link to a Vine video, here is one of mine as a test

 

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B5AC4010DD1049015300961579008_1e4955c138e.4.8.2866802834976085915.mp4?versionId=IMfZXr5.eyU6hwJJLL265EPhfoe6891Y

[RLWP]

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B5AC4010DD1049015300961579008_1e4955c138e.4.8.2866802834976085915.mp4

 

Looks like Vine videos don't work

 

@nbtawnyowl

 

Twitter links do though

 

The icon next to the Font box on the toolbar has a selection of BBCode things, Twitter is one of them

 

Richard

 

@bcnchallenge

Edited May 19, 2014 by RLWP

[cotswoldsman]

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B5AC4010DD1049015300961579008_1e4955c138e.4.8.2866802834976085915.mp4

 

Looks like Vine videos don't work

 

@nbtawnyowl

I do not do Twitter but happy to upload any videos sent by email to Youtube and post on here or anywhere else (BCN Facebook page) just send them to me by email Edited May 19, 2014 by cotswoldsman

[Odana]

 

Ah, but to what extent will the challenge have a Facebook presence.

 

Nah, my Facebook deliberately not linked to this forum or any other organisation either - will be very grateful for anyone Facetwitterforumphotopostingliterate who has time to commentate for the masses.

 

Boat decorations being prepared, route planned, crew limbering up, and all we need now is to plan the catering.....

 

Counting sleeps!

[john6767]

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/B5AC4010DD1049015300961579008_1e4955c138e.4.8.2866802834976085915.mp4

 

Looks like Vine videos don't work

 

@nbtawnyowl

 

Twitter links do though

 

The icon next to the Font box on the toolbar has a selection of BBCode things, Twitter is one of them

 

Richard

 

@bcnchallenge

Yep the Vine has to be just a link I think. I tried the link on PC and iPhone, and it works on both but I don't think you can embed it, but the link is not too bad.

 

Edit to add: just tried pushing a video from my phone to youtube with the youtube capture app, and that worked reasonable well, and did as set to do an automatic tweet, so it is available from twitter as well. Not as integrated as Vine, but certainly do'able

Edited May 19, 2014 by john6767

[wrigglefingers]

You won't find any Pools at Tipton! Though the ones at Titford were navigated by about 15 boats on Saturday. See Facebook "Birmingham Canal Navigations Society" page.

Love your enthusiasm!! Good Luck!!

Ha ha! I love the Perils of Autocorrect first thing in the morning!