At last! Now everyone can stop e-mailing and/or making me feel really guilty by entering the same portage again. The portage database is up to date.

Next up will be some very nice additions to the album.

To those who participate in the database...
I always enjoy (Simple minds simple pleasures) reading your creatively candid additions. Statements like "The portage... consists of a boulder field punctuated by mud holes." always make me smile. Never been there but done something just like that.

For the dozen or so of you who have contacted me anonymously, bemoaning the fact that you feel the database is a "bad idea." All I can say is, with over 400 additions the only way to "protect" your favorite lake at this point is to add portages to some other lake. You've tried other areas haven't you? No? Check out the database and broaden your horizons. You might enjoy a change of scenery.

If anyone notices any bogus additions that slipped by me, let me know so I can remove them. Keep in mind people have varying perspectives. If your experience is way different - add your perspective. For what it's worth, I also added a "view by author" page.

Behind the scenes...
Since I do a cursory check of most submissions, the Magical Maps program made checking additions for the BW much faster. It saved me hours at the DNR's site. Unfortunately I've yet to modify the database scripts. Links may still allow you to jump vast areas of the BW due to duplicate lake names in different parts of the BW. Now if we could only do that in real life... (BTW - The Quetico version of the program should be available in days. I want to try it before I offer it. I'll post a review. Watch for it.)

Finding Magical Maps was a timely blessing since for some reason, in this round, out of the 80 some portages submitted, I was only able to verify around 50 as being legitimate enough to add. All bogus submissions were for the BW. ??? It was a relief to come to authors who's names I recognized. Their descriptions checked out easily. These are the people for whom this area was intended.

Posted by db on July 15, 2001 at 17:32
From IP address 169.207.71.224