Whenever The Keepers disappear a bit and our postings become sporadic and pointed, you can bet we’re either out riding our bikes or we’ve been busy working away at new features for the site. We have a number of features in various states of completion, and we’ll be rolling them out over the course of the next few weeks and months as they reach maturity and we become convinced they’re working reasonably well.
The beautiful thing about a word like “reasonable” is that it contains within it the perfect amont of vagueness while giving the impression of specificity. After all, there’s no universally agreed-upon reasonable degree of reasonable, meaning that what seems reasonable to me might be completely unreasonable to others. Take, for example, the number of times the word “reasonable” appears in this paragraph. Completely unreasonable.
Back to the point, when I say our new features are working reasonably well, I mean to say that three requirements have been satisfied. First, the vision for the feature is well understood. (The vision does not need to be realized in the release, but it does need to allow for it to become realized at some later stage.) Second, the initial feature set is working sufficiently well that I got tired of testing before I found any major problems. Third, it looks good.
At this time, we’re releasing two new features, both of which represent an initial iteration which we plan to expand on as the features grow and the community adopts them (or not). As we gather feedback on what new features would be helpful, we’ll incorporate it into the subsequent releases (or not).
The VVallpapers
Velominati is founded on the idea of sharing with each other the little things about Cycling that make this sport so amazing. On that premise, providing desktop Wallpapers or, indeed VVallpapers, has been part of the envisioned feature set from the beginning; to select photos from our collective archives within the community that represent Cycling in some way, and provide a specific place to share them with each other. But, like so many other ideas we have kicking around, there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to make everything come to reality.
However, a discussion last week spurred us into action, and we present you with The VVallpapers. We haven’t really found a good home for them yet, but for the time being at least, they can be found through the footer and via The Keepers. The same principle applies as elsewhere; post your suggestions for additional photos for inclusion, and we’ll update the main list with the best ones. Several initial wallpapers have been added already as a start.
The Community
As we know, there is great sense of community on Velominati, and increasingly we’re seeing the desire to know a little bit more about our fellow members. To that end, we’ve put together a Community page which provides a mechanism to share some background information and posting activity. Obviously, we wanted to provide this as an option to people who wish to share information, but still make sure that people who want to stay anonymous can do so. To that end, people who have an account at Velominati may log in and update their profile, sharing whatever information they are comfortable sharing, including a bio, their location, and various social networking coordinates. For those who don’t have a Velominati account or who don’t fill out their profile, only a very basic amount of information is shown along with their posting activity. The fundamental idea is to allow people to choose what they’d like to share; only the handle, photo, and website are shown by default.
To access anyone’s profile, simply click their name in the posting threads. The only downside to that is that in order for you to access a member’s profile, they need to have posted at least once; there are loads of members who have never posted any comments. Unfortunately, this release doesn’t provide a mechanism for viewing their profiles.
To that point, however, is the notion that The Community in particular is viewed by us as an initial iteration; we have a mountain of ideas that we think will help foster a sense of community here, and we’re sure you do as well. With that in mind, have a look, fill out your profile (or don’t), and start using learning about the community. If you have ideas or suggestions, we’d love to hear about them.
Thanks as always to everyone who comes here and makes this all worth while.
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View Comments
@Marcus
Not meaning to be glib Marcus, but apologies if taken as such. I have two boys with Asperger's so I'm well aware of what I was saying. One has Tourette's as well.
The Aspergery end of autism it has been described as 'the essence of maleness' i.e. we all have it, but to different degrees.
Cycling is I think something that genuinely appeals to that male-autistic streak.
It requires very little empathy or intuition - unlike rugby or football for example where the best players 'know' what other people are going to do.
I would be very surprised for example if Brad Wiggins was not somewhere on the spectrum.
It also lends itself to introspection and solitude if desired, and to lists and facts, which was what I was specifically referencing.
You know how they say you can tell an extroverted audaxer - he looks at YOUR shoes while he's talking to you.
@ChrisO
Cool mate - know what you mean...
@ChrisO
My 4yo daughter has ASD too and I identify with your observations.
My wife tells me I 'see' autism and autistic traits too much, but I always maintain that the spectrum is so broad, for sure it crosses over into the realms of 'normal' society and produces behaviors that can be considered obsessive.
Like engineering- and IT-type careers, I'm certain that cycling is definately a sport that is attractive to the selfish/obsessive/single-minded traits of autism. When necessary, it requires no social interaction and little imagination. Indeed, the longer one hammers away at the road, the better one gets! Perfect!
It's always comforting to be reminded that we are not alone in with the trials that ASD presents.
Cheers,
mrhallorann
@G'phant
Steampunk likes your post.
@itburns
Wow! Sounds like you climb well for your weight!
Of course, any distance log should be measured in vertical meters, not horizontal kilometers.
@ChrisO @mrhallorann
My eight year old son was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia (childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) in America) and his brother also shows some symptoms of if. Dysphraxic kids often show autistic and dyslexic traits. Left to his own devices he'll leave all his kit at school and come home with items of clothing inside out or back to front but his bedroom is always beautifully tidy, pencils ordered in a pot on his desk and toy cars lined up in neat rows.
He's lucky in that he's very aware of what make him different from his mates and never seems to get frustrated by not being able to do things that they can, it just spurs him on. He's also lucky that while he likes to spend time doing his own thing, he's also really into his team sports and social groups - rugby, football, cub scouts etc. I suspect that he'll make an excellent cyclist.
@mrhallorann, I think your certainly right about there being a broad spectrum, I can see elements of these thing sin all of of my kids, in myself and elsewhere in my family. Our kids are lucky that they live in an age where these things are more likely to get properly diagnosed and support provided rather than being labelled an idiot or a retard.
From nipple lube to an insightful and heartwarming discussion on autism. This place is the best. You guys rulck. This is so much better than picking up the paper in the morning.
@Marko
By the way, there is a group of Velominati over on Strava for those of us who like to lie about our stats.
@Marko
Running a class called Global Perspectives at school. We're looking at pop culture right now and kids asked what TV I watched. Just showed them the 'bikes' folder in my bookmarks and explained that largely, rather than TV I'd rather read blogs and sites like this.
Actually, this topic will be hard to teach in an international school, as the kids have no shared pop culture to reference and they're being led by an old man of 36 who has all but given up on mass pop culture. Cynical lessons ahead.
On the topic at hand, I was thinking exactly that nipple lube to autism (yep, as a teacher I have some first hand experience of full blown and 'spectrum' cases) makes this place very cool.
@Marko
The problem with the Strava thing is that it doesn't work too well if you don't use a GPS device. It doesn't allow you to click your way round a map to create a route in the same way that say ridewithgps does. I find that useful not only for logging my rides but planning them as well. I can set up a route, get an idea of the elevation profile and if it's a bit complicated print out a set of intersection instructions. I find it's also good for working out rides to do when I'm on holiday, no wasting time doing recces, just head for the biggest hill and mash it.