Bygone Era / Archive Re-launch
Bygone Era / Archive Re-launch
Discovering the Past: An Archive Dedicated to the North East
Explore the North East's history; with timetables, route maps, faretables and other bus memorabilia.
To celebrate reaching 1000 'likes' on our Facebook page, we have re-launched the Bygone Era. We've chosen to give the Bygone Era a new name - simply 'Archive' - in line with its new look.
Previously held as a feature on the forum, this is now a standalone feature (like the news page, photos page and fleet lists). This allows more stability and customisation, as well as allowing opportunities for integration with other site features.
The new feature is available on the link below and the navigation bar at the top of the site has also been updated to include a quick and easy link to it:
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/archive/
When you first load up the page, you'll be shown 'Highlights'. This will show a different year every day, with our top ten downloads for that year.
Clicking 'Timeline' shows a calendar, with each photo tile depicting a year. When the year is clicked, all of the content from that year is listed. The categories on the right hand side of the page can be used to filter downloads to your particular interests.
All of the photos contained in our Archive section come from Flickr - with each photo linking back to the original source. If you wish to contribute any photos, please add them to the group in the link below:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/3090938@N20/
Our only condition for photos being added to this group is that the photo MUST have been taken on the date Flickr shows it as being taken on (i.e. you can't scan in an old photo without changing the date taken for it on Flickr, as it would show as being taken in 2017 when the photo may have actually been taken some 20 years ago). If you don't have an exact date for the photo but know the approximate year the photo was taken, you have the option of showing the photo as being taken "some time in xxxx" (where x represents the year). Please don't be offended if we don't accept your photo - we need to have the approval just to make sure that the Archive stays clean, accurate and relevant.
This feature is still very much a 'work in progress', and we're looking to complete all of the work behind the scenes in the coming weeks. Adding the content will take a little longer - a sizeable amount of content for Go North East has now been added, though there's still a fair bit left to add.
Some of the work yet to be completed is:
- the inclusion of a search bar, allowing users to search for a specific download quick and easily
- 'tags' - i.e. all related downloads could be tagged with the same word or phrase, allowing users to track changes over time on a certain service or corridor.
- a new blog-style 'comments' section for each download. Giving a timetable as an example, this will allow users to read up on what changed in that version of the timetable, giving an opportunity to track changes over time.
- further integration with our archive fleet list information, i.e. if a timetable change saw the introduction of a new vehicle allocation, this could be included within the 'comments' section with links provided to the relevant fleet numbers and/or news story.
Appreciate any feedback at this early stage, and if you have any ideas for future development, please just drop us a note in this thread or PM me, and we'll see if it's possible to include your suggestion.
