eFestivals 'mobile' website

[eFestivals]

I'm considering doing a mobile version of efestivals, that would be most suited for people using mobile devices (phones, etc) for web-browsing.

Because the idea of mobile sites is that they're cut-down versions of a full website so that they load more quickly, it wouldn't have the full content of this main version of the site.

Does anyone have any preferences for what they'd like included and excluded in a mobile version?

Please give me your suggestions.

[Katster]

Current line-up news for festivals.

Calendar.

Chatroom.

Radio.

That'd do for me

[eFestivals]

Current line-up news for festivals.

Calendar.

Chatroom.

Radio.

That'd do for me

Thanks.

Tho it's not really possible to have eFests Radio on phones, because the phone would need to have a suitable music player of some sort installed on it. What I could do for efests radio is to provide a page where the necessary info about that is supplied.

I presume that when you say "calendar", you mean the festival listings?

It's not possible to have the chatroom within it, as there's not a lightweight skin suitable for mobiles as a part of it, sorry.

[jump]

Is there anyway to be told if/when the rumours section has been updated?

[saratink]

the one that's on the phones at the moment i find really good! I thought maybe you already had one lol

[Paul ™]

the one that's on the phones at the moment i find really good! I thought maybe you already had one lol

Edited February 1, 2011 by Paul ™

[luckysalt]

You could use Twitter more as well, Ive noticed that efests is using it more, but I would like everytime a new rumour is added to any of the major festivals and sponsored fests on the line up page a twitter notification to go out, or would that be too time consuming? Hmmm I don't think it would really.

If the mobile website is for yearly use then the things i want are going to be different to say what I would want to see if I was at the festival, most important thing in that instance is line up changes, cus you always get pull outs and switch arounds

[eFestivals]

You could use Twitter more as well, Ive noticed that efests is using it more, but I would like everytime a new rumour is added to any of the major festivals and sponsored fests on the line up page a twitter notification to go out, or would that be too time consuming? Hmmm I don't think it would really.

if you knew quite how much we get thru here each day, you wouldn't be suggesting further work.

It's something I'd like to be doing, but until I can find a way of fully automating twitter updates (something that that was possible a year ago but isn't now as far as I'm aware, due to changes that twitter made) it's not going to happen.

If anyone does know how twitter updates can be fully automated, I'm all ears. I do have a hunt around now and then to try and find something, but without luck so far.

[Katster]

I presume that when you say "calendar", you mean the festival listings?

It's not possible to have the chatroom within it, as there's not a lightweight skin suitable for mobiles as a part of it, sorry.

[Katster]

It would be good to have news of current festivals too, as in if I was at Glastonbury I get news of something funky happening that isn't on the line-up. But I appreciate you are at most of the festivals and probably often a bit innebriated so not sure how that would work?

[eFestivals]

It would be good to have news of current festivals too, as in if I was at Glastonbury I get news of something funky happening that isn't on the line-up. But I appreciate you are at most of the festivals and probably often a bit innebriated so not sure how that would work?

I'm hoping for efests to be a bit more interactive when at fests this year.

If I'm not asleep pissed somewhere.

[Chiefski]

Maybe a news feed feature (or a 'Your Festivals' section?) for separate separate festivals? e.g. if I say picked T in the Park and Rockness, I'd get feeds on them saying when the rumours page has been updated (this could be every few days/weeks?) or new acts or news features are announced. Would mean that the users can pick out their own festivals and keep up to date on them exclusively rather than every festival going.

[eFestivals]

Maybe a news feed feature (or a 'Your Festivals' section?) for separate separate festivals? e.g. if I say picked T in the Park and Rockness, I'd get feeds on them saying when the rumours page has been updated (this could be every few days/weeks?) or new acts or news features are announced. Would mean that the users can pick out their own festivals and keep up to date on them exclusively rather than every festival going.

A nice idea, but probably beyond what's practicable to do in the short term if I want to get this sorted fairly quickly.

I'll keep it in mind tho when I'm working thru things, and it might happen, you never know. I've done a fair bit of work around this idea already, so I wouldn't be starting from scratch with it.

[eFestivals]

Maybe a news feed feature (or a 'Your Festivals' section?) for separate separate festivals? e.g. if I say picked T in the Park and Rockness, I'd get feeds on them saying when the rumours page has been updated (this could be every few days/weeks?) or new acts or news features are announced. Would mean that the users can pick out their own festivals and keep up to date on them exclusively rather than every festival going.

Just a little more about this idea.....

It's something I've considered doing again and again for the main eFestivals site over the years, but every time I consider doing it one very big problem arises from it - and that's people missing out on seeing other fests which might be to their interest.

If people never get to see what other fests are offering because they have a 'chosen view' of a small number of fests, then that's bad for those festivals which don't get seen, as well as for the person who doesn't get to see details of a fest they'd be interested in if they knew of it.

I've got less of a problem with doing this with a mobile-specific site because most mobile users are likely to browse the normal site as well from a normal computer ... but of course as mobiles become more common for web-browsing, that will become less of the case.

But I do understand that someone who is at a particular festival would want info just about that fest, and would prefer to just get info on that fest. So I'll think thru the various ways it could be done, and try and come up with something that works from both directions.

[jump]

Just a little more about this idea.....

It's something I've considered doing again and again for the main eFestivals site over the years, but every time I consider doing it one very big problem arises from it - and that's people missing out on seeing other fests which might be to their interest.

If people never get to see what other fests are offering because they have a 'chosen view' of a small number of fests, then that's bad for those festivals which don't get seen, as well as for the person who doesn't get to see details of a fest they'd be interested in if they knew of it.

I've got less of a problem with doing this with a mobile-specific site because most mobile users are likely to browse the normal site as well from a normal computer ... but of course as mobiles become more common for web-browsing, that will become less of the case.

But I do understand that someone who is at a particular festival would want info just about that fest, and would prefer to just get info on that fest. So I'll think thru the various ways it could be done, and try and come up with something that works from both directions.

Edited February 2, 2011 by jump

[eFestivals]

You could try balancing it out by having something like watch for this band (or music genre) updates and as long as it isn't big names like Muse, Eminem etc. and smaller bands they can discover festivals that way. That's why I started going to Slam Dunk as I found out Farse were doing a one off reunion for them and I've been going since because I like the line ups.

Or possibly festivals within x amount of miles from their post code.

Genres is an impossibility - it's impossible to categorise bands by genre in a meaningful and workable way. Plus we'd have to find out what the genres were for the (say) 25,000 bands in the fests database which none of here know anything about.

And watching for a particular band is as limiting as being presented with just a user's choice of fests at the end of the day.

The post codes thing is something I've looked into previously and is a pain in the bum to implement for all sorts of reasons. And anyway, most people are happy to travel perhaps hundreds of miles to a fest that interests them, so it again would act as a filter on what they might be interested bin.

[jump]

Genres is an impossibility - it's impossible to categorise bands by genre in a meaningful and workable way. Plus we'd have to find out what the genres were for the (say) 25,000 bands in the fests database which none of here know anything about.

And watching for a particular band is as limiting as being presented with just a user's choice of fests at the end of the day.

The post codes thing is something I've looked into previously and is a pain in the bum to implement for all sorts of reasons. And anyway, most people are happy to travel perhaps hundreds of miles to a fest that interests them, so it again would act as a filter on what they might be interested bin.

[eFestivals]

I ment genre as in music festival genre, so say you click watch genre punk and it'll bring a list of Slam Dunk, Rebellion, Mutiny etc.

it still doesn't work in any good way. Too many festivals are all genres.

[The Nal]

Map of bars food and the like.

[LondonTom]

if you knew quite how much we get thru here each day, you wouldn't be suggesting further work.

It's something I'd like to be doing, but until I can find a way of fully automating twitter updates (something that that was possible a year ago but isn't now as far as I'm aware, due to changes that twitter made) it's not going to happen.

If anyone does know how twitter updates can be fully automated, I'm all ears. I do have a hunt around now and then to try and find something, but without luck so far.

[eFestivals]

... I built one that retweets #glasto tweets ....

when did you do this? Before last September or since then?

Twitter changed things in September, and nothing I've seen since is able to auto-tweet.

[ampersand]

when did you do this? Before last September or since then?

Twitter changed things in September, and nothing I've seen since is able to auto-tweet.

[eFestivals]

there's a tweeter called 'Simon Swears' and i'm pretty sure that something is posted every hour on the hour. also, when someone mentions him, they get a tweet in reply with an automated insult.

i'm assuming it's automated. you have to be a pretty sad twat if it's not.

but then i don't know how it's done so not much use, but it's still going just now.

I've seen stuff since Sept that can be used for automated tweets, but which requires an amount of manual intervention before it can do that - such as a simple press of a button, but that's still manual intervention.

I want something that needs no manual intervention at all, so that it can be totally relied on to always do its thing in all circumstances. I've yet to find anything.

I'm not saying it can't be done - it very probably can be. But I've not yet managed to find anything that's able to do it which I can download and adapt for my own use.

[LondonTom]

when did you do this? Before last September or since then?

Twitter changed things in September, and nothing I've seen since is able to auto-tweet.

[eFestivals]

Last week or so Its a bit limited and I haven't played around much with to get it doing correctly. But the one I've done it is using RSS Feed so i'd guess you need to enter each new rumour or rumour change as RSS Feed?

http://twitterfeed.com/ then used to this pick up the main RSS feed from yahoo pipes (Which put together all the RSS feeds and allows a lil bit of custimisation on them to play the RT and @User ins).(obviously some limits) but even if it picks only ever so often, maybe on seperate account it'd be listing rumours.

check out @RTGlasto

ahhh, cheers, I'll check that out further somewhen.

But it doesn't enable me to do what I'd like to be doing with interacting with twitter. Ideally I want some php code that can do it, which I can then alter to work how I'd like it to work.