BYC Breed Pages Facelift - Help Needed - Discussion

[Chickndaddy]

lol Nice idea. I also like the idea of a picture to show what ti expect as far as eggs go. When you go to the one chart (the name has escaped me) and it says Salmon Faverolles lay a small to medium tinted egg people kind of know what to expect.

 

[Omniskies]

Plagiarism isn't necessary. There are a ton of people on this forum who are extremely familiar with their breeds. Why not set this up as a Wiki? Wiki programs can be DLed for free and set up on BYC, then they can be edited by anyone.

Provide a base layout that each breed should adhere to, then let the information be filled in over time. BYC could even set up a whole poultry encyclopedia that way that covers common questions about colors, genetics, etc. It'd be a great, easy to handle reference for anyone looking for specific information before they ask the same questions over and over on the forum.

A great base layout to look at is the one used in Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry. It provides paragraphs of information, then has a quick reference box to the side for breed colors (what color the legs and wattles are for white polish, etc), etc.

That seems a _lot_ easier than having everyone whip up an HTML page and doing all the work solo.

Just my two cents.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

A wiki has been discussed a lot, even from the beginning, and we decided that it wouldn't be a good fit for this site or the community. With that said, the WYSIWYG editor for the BYC Page Creator is super easy... actually easier than most wiki's I've installed and used (and I've installed / used most of the popular ones).

We agree that this needs to be simple and easy for everyone to contribute. Having a tabled layout with "fill in the blank" sections that people can use as a template is a great way to go, so we'll probably start there.

Keep the ideas coming and we'll find something that works best for everyone. The bottom line is that we want everyone to pitch in. If you can't / don't want to create a page, find someone that is and send them some pics and info to add to their page.

Keep the ideas and thoughts coming!

 

[orcasislandchickens]

After the information page for the breed could you have a link to " Extra pictures of _____ breed contributed by members"?

I like the idea of the three pictures and the description and links, but I also love lots of pictures. When I got my birds and was trying to make up my mind as to what kind (becuse I can only have a few) I wanted to see every picture of bantam orpingtons I could find. It was somewhat dissapointing to see the same two or three pictures on every page and site that I visited.

The coops section is great because there are sooooo many. Lots of pictures, lots of ideas. For tiny but expensive suburban coops like mine, inexpensive coops, semi professional coops. You can get good ideas that you can tailor to meet your own specific setup.

Maybe also break the birds into categories "meat birds" and "layers" for sure and possibly have "best bets for pets" sticker or red check or something in a corner of the page to alert newbies.

Extra pages of "great" pet birds like a coop of the month thing, that could just be contributions of realy nice photos of peoples special pets (Kids holding hens, chickens doing tricks etc.)

 

[Stonebriar Farm]

I really like Henderson's chart - I have used it often and the thing I like best about it are the individual requirements and behaviour of a specific breed. It also has great links for additional pics etc.. It would be great to set up something similar along the lines of the coop pages, with categories etc.

The thing about copy write is getting permissions and most importantly correctly attributing sources.

I would also like to see links to members with particular breeds. Because I live in a huge country with a relatively small population, resources for rare or unusual breeds are scarce if not non-existent.

 

[Msbear]

A uniformed template is a must. Herechickchick nailed it. That looks professional and it is easier to compare breeds and eggs with other pages

I do think we need some reference to the standard of perfection. A couple simple phrases relating to "prominent chest" or splashing should consist of equal amounts of both colors...These things help us all maintain our breeds if we choose to do so and, I believe, is very important when discussing individual breeds.

I also think these few exerpts from the standard of perfection might clarify the difference between two breeds that may otherwise seem very similar. Links to the appropriate pages would be great for further info on that subject. ex. bantam association, cochin club etc.

Thanks for letting us all throw in our 2 cents. MUCHO GRACIUS!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Okay everyone, we need YOUR help to make this happen!

Yes, a template is a GREAT idea! It will be easy for everyone to copy and paste a template into their own pages and just fill in the blanks. (Here is the video on how to copy and paste anything into your own BYC page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/media/wink/mypage-quick.htm )

When I took over BYC there was already a basic template here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/orpingtons.html

Here is what we'd like to do:

1) Can some of you create sample template ideas using the BYC Pages tool? Maybe create a page on a breed of your choice... kill two birds with one stone

2) I'll work with my programmer to create something similar to the coops page, but for breed pages. This will help us organize everything in a great way.

3) Everyone PLEASE start collecting information for your own breed pages!!!

4) If anybody that wants to be a Project Manager for this (I'll need lots of help), please send me a PM with your qualifications!

 

[herechickchick]

One thing PLEASE do not call Large Fowl "Standard Fowl", this is wrong. Large Fowl and Bantam Fowl.

I will try one later and post it.

 

[chickenlover98]

I'll do a page on a Buttercup or Speckled sussex!

 

[patandchickens]

It would be nice if there were some mechanism for feedback to correct the information content of pages. I have not looked recently but at least as of a year ago there were some breed pages with factually false information. Not earthshaking but it seems to me it'd be better to get things *right*.


Pat