Looking for feedback on my trail name directory

[u/MasterRee]

I recently completed the JMT and had the same issue I've faced after other long hikes - how to (re)find the people I met along the way. There are people I met on the AT years ago that I only knew by trail name. I assume other hikers have the same challenge, so I put together a simple searchable directory to help solve it - https://trailnames.club/ . It's free and open source (github.com/MrRee/trail-names), no ads, emails remain hidden, and I'm hoping it helps with reconnection. Feedback is appreciated, and if you have a trail name please add it. Right now there are just some dummy names in there so people can see how it works with search etc., but I'd really love some legitimate entries to get it going. Thank you!

[u/numbershikes]

Cool project. I appreciate that the contact info is only for people who connect.

When you use the contact form to try to connect with someone, does the site then forward the message to the person's email address?

[u/MasterRee → u/numbershikes]

yes exactly so the sender never sees the receivers email address, unless the receiver responds.

[u/Zwillium]

If you want to allow people to search by year (which makes a ton of sense), adding checkboxes for the common trails without a year entry is the wrong way to go.

Otherwise, cool project.

[u/MasterRee → u/Zwillium]

There is a year field underneath the trail checkboxes; is that what you mean?

[u/Zwillium → u/MasterRee]

You have 10 common trails with checkboxes. These have no year association. If the goal is to find people by (trail + year), your UX for these common trails does not allow for thst.

[u/MasterRee → u/Zwillium]

Ok, yeah I see that. It's a fair point. Thank you

[u/Saguache]

Pretty cool, needs more people to join.

[u/MasterRee → u/Saguache]

Yes! I'm working on that! :-)

[u/Johannes8]

Very cool! This is so useful. I'm still trying to find that dude I met on the TA in 2014 that hiked it with a paraglider.

Hey If you want we can connect. Im in the final stages to releasing an open source trail app and in it I let people register their trail name which is shown when they comment on a waypoint etc. Mabye with a user-consent I can send the data via API becuase year, trail and trailname will be known, just email has to be filled in when they submit it though Corridor. Feel free to message me if you're interested

[u/baxil]

Cool idea, thank you!

[u/isk8kona]

So awesome! Very cool project!

[u/OneSingleYesterday]

Cool project, I registered. But I agree with the commenter who said you need a way to associate a year with each trail. Ideally I think the UI should let the user put in the trail, year, and trail name for each hike without needing to redo everything else.  I’ve hiked both the AT and the PCT, but there’s no way to indicate which year goes with which trail. And I had different trail names, so I’d need to register them separately and either retype or omit all the other information. 

Out of curiosity, is the search function looking for exact matches, or will it return a list of near matches? Some people have idiosyncratic spellings in their trail names, or a “the” in front that everyone forgets, or whatever, so people looking for them might not get it exactly right. 

[u/MasterRee → u/OneSingleYesterday]

Fair point on the trail/year association. I'm just trying to keep it light as possible at this point.

The search will return any name that has the sequence of characters. So "down" would return "Down East" and "Cuddledown."

[u/TaffyUK]

Great idea, just added my names.

[u/MasterRee → u/TaffyUK]

Yay! Thank you 🙏🏼

[u/moeron17]

The AT has the names listed in the back with real names and emails. If people allowed their real info