This is my last post highlighting different areas of The Conch so I’ve saved my favourite for last.

The top ten list has long been used in the travel media, from websites to newspaper supplements, for journos and editors to tell us what’s shiny and new.  Then (to throw in a few buzzwords) web 2.0 and social networking came along and gave individual consumers a real voice.  So we decided to to apply this to our friend, the top ten list and this is what we came up with…

A snapshot of what’s hot right now!

The Conch top tens use the rating system I’ve talked about before to reflect the community’s constantly changing tastes and attitudes. 

Once a list has been created, any upload can be nominated to drop into that list.

A good example is the top ten action shots.  If you have that perfect skydiving photo or parkour pic, find it on The Conch and then nominate it for the relevant top ten list.

Of course, while we like to make a fuss over the top ten in any given field, we also want to give everyone lower down the list a chance to shine, so be sure to take a look around and keep rating!

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be focusing the blog on specific adventure activities each day, creating a new top ten for each.  If you’d like me to cover your favourite activity, let me know in the comments here or on our page on Facebook.

Third in my series of posts on The Conch functionality brings me to my favourite tool on the site, the Holler system.

A holler is a short audio message you can post directly to your profile on The Conch from almost any phone in the world.   

I like to think of it as a kind of audio postcard.

How it works

When you sign up to The Conch, you’ll receive an individual PIN.  This is displayed on your profile page under ‘My Audio’ along with the number you need to call to record a holler. 

Once you’ve dialled the number, you’ll be asked for your PIN then invited to record up to 3 minutes of audio.

After you’ve recorded your holler you can choose between three privacy settings:

1. Public
2. Friends only (an email is sent to your friends to notify them)
3. Private

I love to hear what my friends and family are up to on their adventures around the world as well as sharing what I’m doing.  Recording a single holler for all my friends is much more personal than those essay length emails describing every drunken antic.  And this way, they can be with me in the middle of the action.  Bonus!

In my last post I spoke about the ranking system that The Conch employs to help you navigate the community’s favourite adventure activities.  You’ll be pleased to know that your community power stretches way beyond this small part of the site.

The idea of a community-powered guide came about as we noticed the sheer volume of stories and information that social networks churn out but often don’t put to good use.  We aim to make that information easily found and easily shared.  Community ranking is at the very core of this.

How it works

  Every upload on The Conch can be rated between 1 and 5 stars.  This rating helps influence the uploads prominence on the search results page.  The higher the average score, the higher up the list it goes.  The lower the score, the further down it drops. 

Members can vote as many times as they want but only the most recent vote counts.

Think how much effort is put into capturing that perfect shot, or writing that rave review.  If you like it, go on and give it your vote!

Everything in moderation

The Conch believes in community power as the first line of defence against spam and offensive content.  That’s why, when you first upload something, only members who are signed in can see it.  For it to become publicly available, an upload must achieve a minimum score, which is set high enough to require more than one person to approve it.  It’s all about having friends, something those filthy spammers will never have.

If you’re signed in and find something you think is unsuitable or offensive, go ahead and report it and we’ll get rid of it quick smart.

And remember, if you want to see the most current content, sign in and have a look around.  Who knows what you’ll find?

Each day this week I’ll be looking at a different area of the site and giving you a quick overview of how it works and how you can use it to share ideas and advice with the rest of the community.

So, what better place to start than the site navigation?

There are four ways to navigate across The Conch:

1. Search (including Advanced Search)
2. Location
3. Activity
4. Tags

Let me go into a little more detail.

1. Search

Unlike most travel sites, The Conch uses more extensive search to help you find relevant content wherever it may be.

One thing that bugs me with some other sites is that lots of useful information gets lost in the ‘dark corners’ like messageboards and group threads.  It can be some time before you know where to look and even then you can’t be sure you’re not missing something.

We’ve opened up our search to include all uploads (audio, photos and text reviews) as well as relevant groups and individual group threads.  So whatever you’re looking for, if someone else is talking about it, you’ll find it…fast.

For really obscure searches, give the advanced search a go.  You can specify the search term, the content type (for example, audio only), upload date or even the member that uploaded it.  So as well as helping you find all the information you could ask for on your chosen location or activity, we’re also well suited for the more discriminating among you.

2. Location

Whether you know exactly where you’re going or just want to get some ideas, you can navigate by continent and country to find what you’re looking for.

3. Activity

If destination isn’t as important you can also navigate by activity. 

The ‘Most Popular’ and ‘Most Active’ options are based on our community ranking system (which I’ll be talking more about tomorrow). 

Most Popular – ranks the activities with the highest average score.

Most Active - ranks the activities with the highest number of scores.

The Conch Recommended - shows a bunch of activities you might want to try – safely and under instruction!!!  No lawsuits please.

4. Tags

Finally, you can navigate all uploads on The Conch using tags.  Tags are keywords, associated to a piece of content to make it easy to share.

You might want to tag location-specific uploads with the name of the country, region or neighbourhood.  Once you’ve got the hang of it, you might want to get a bit more inventive.

See the Wikipedia article on tags for a fuller explanation.

So that’s your lot for today.  Hopefully that’s made things a little clearer.  Of course, finding the best adventure locations and activities depends on someone uploading them.  So go ahead and tell us about where you go and what you do to reach that all important high!