Your suggestions, please

[gothwalk]

inranelagh.com is up and running. There's some activity on the message boards - mostly me, admittedly, but there are two other users registered. There are some business listings in, and I'll be hunting for more.

What else is useful on a local site? If you live in or near Ranelagh, what information would you expect to find? If you don't, and you're visiting, what would be useful? What's on local info sites wherever you live? Should I concentrate on adding funky cutting edge stuff like tagging and feeds, or should I work on more mundane content first?

Comments

[arken-thell.livejournal.com]

Ehm do you have luas times? that would be handy for people near by and bus time tables.....also cool and cutting edge stuff is nice too :) looks nice btw

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Bloody websense sees that page as "Sports" so I won't be looking at it now but assuming they are not already there:

Maps - my sense of direction is grand, my sense of streetnames is diabolical
Star ratings for eateries as given by michelin and whoever else does star things. If businesses are going to list there, the restaraunts could post sample menus?

Concentrate on content, you don't *need* funky tagging and functionality until you have loads of content.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Yep, concentrate on content. Tagging etc is fun, but pointless without stuff to tag.

I'd like cafe opening times, so I know if there's any point looking for a coffee on a Sunday afternoon.
Bus times as mentioned above.

[ocultado.livejournal.com]

Obviously you've been doing a lot of knocking on doors, and most of my suggestions are just more of the same, which you probably have lined up already. Things I'd like to see on a site like that are:
Doctors
Dentists
Nearest garda station, fire station, hospital with A&E
Nearest 24 hour shop
Letting agencies/estate agencies (for people planning to move there)
Schools within walking distance
Beauticians

Also helpful might be reviews of restaurants/beauticians etc.

[ocultado.livejournal.com]

Oh, one other addition - local charity shops and the kind of donations they accept?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Excellent suggestions!

[loupblanc.livejournal.com]

It probably doesn't make much of a difference but as far as maps are concerned, one thing I would have done is get a Google Map API key and integrate the map within the web page itself, and even possibly add relevant pointers to landmarks, rather than link to google maps.

But like I said it doesn't make much difference :)

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised you could do the Google API thing; I'll look into that soon. Being able to hook each business listing to its position on the map would be the business.

[loupblanc.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's quite handy. Here is an example of custom placemarks on a defined map.

[cpio.livejournal.com]

One thing I would find very useful and haven't really seen done elsewhere (possibly because it's an awful lot of work) is a map of all the on-street parking spaces and what costs and times they run to/from. Useful for someone say going to a party or market in Ranelagh and looking to see where they can park their car without having to walk for miles.

Other things that might be of interest to Ranelagh residents would be information on proposed developments in the area and details how to contact their local representatives, though that's more straying into local newspaper territory than a straightforward listings service. Also, info on local recycling points would be useful.

I think the look of the site is super clean and this is a good thing. However, a little stylesheet magic could warm up the site without making it look too busy.

As shop and service listings come in and InRanelagh fattens up a bit (and moves up higher in search engine rankings -- have you looked at SEO?) the extra momentum will drag people onto the boards sections and this may be a good place to get new ideas for things people are interested in and what could be included on the website.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Parking spaces sound like genius; I'll have to look into the Google Maps API and see if I can tie it in.

Developments and local rep stuff are not impossible, either - it's all information.

The look is going to evolve as I tinker with it - at present I'm forcing myself to work on content and backend, and leave the style stuff 'til later, because I've seen too many sites get bogged down in the nebulous matter of looks. Since making designs work is what I do for a living these days, I have to concentrate on not concentrating on it. :)

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

As to SEO, I've done some preparation, but as yet, I'm barely in the search engines for anything but core terms - although I'm ranking 27th in google for "ranelagh" which isn't bad for a two week old site. More work will happen over time - the opportunity to do SEO work is a major motivator in getting the site running. sportsinteraction.com runs in frames, mostly, which really limits what we can do wrt SEO.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

A suggestion from Lovely Man - the locations of bus stops on google maps, displaying the routes on the map and also searchable by route. It would also be handy to have the locations outside Ranelagh for the routes that go through it, so you know where to go in town, or whereever, to get to Ranelagh.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Also location of taxi ranks/good places to get a taxi