thanks

crawls away to hide

On the Future Events page I removed the end date and selected 'National' from the drop down list of Event Types. This gave me national events up to 2nd October 2005.

can i just say that i find looking through the future events, not so much confusing but hard work, i think it would be more easier to seperate the national challenge walks from the regional social walks and maybe put the social walks into regions this would make it easier to sort through, as to wether what details are shown be it email, postal address, or phone number, there has to be some contact point, and i've always assumed these details are published with the person concerned, permission.
As for the criminal element i would think most would trawl through the newspapers for news of rich pickings than trawl through the web, and car parks in the countryside are already targeted social walk or not, perhaps getting members to be more vigilant and aware of the dangers would serve better.

We (Norfolk and Suffolk) publish details in Strider and in our newsletter. Our website has walk dates, names and sometimes distances. Some of our new members have found out about us via our website, but then have made contact (via email) and been supplied with a newsletter (before joining) to sample our walks. We get new members in more traditional ways than just the Internet. I'd go for having the details in the members area, and more limited contact details made public. That also forces people to make contact before turning up on a walk ("you do 20 miles in a day !?! - I can only do 4 miles" is quite common when people first contact us. With luck we get them to do the walk until lunch and get a lift home. Some progress to do the full distance eventually, but at least we can filter out those who though we were - dare I say it - Ramblers - before they turn up unannounced)

Chris has raised a topic which I have strong views on. As the Bristol & West webmaster I have adopted the following rules for security reasons. Never publish the leaders full name, only first name. Never publish telephone numbers. This should at least ensure the leader doesn't get home to find his house broken into. Security is a must for any web site but it also concerns me that these details are published in Strider. Although it is a limited publication it still gets into the public domain.
Unfortunately, I don't see how you overcome the car security issue due to start location details being published. Keeping this info in the members only area gives protection on these issues. However, how do you get new members if you don't publish your activities?

Apologies for the previous post - finger trouble, it ended up in the wrong thread...
Just considering Challenges, I'd say that the next few days' events is useful to get last minute entries (though those bring their own problems), and gives potential new members something to try 'now' to see if they like it. If you want to plan ahead you have to join. I think that's the logic.

Having looked deeper, I see that Events can be National, Local or Social. Does 'Social' not involve walking, implying a pub meet, a meal or a quiz ? We consider our Social Walks to be 'Social', as people walk (relatively) slowly, chatting to each other about many things other than walking. In fact, one of the best aspects is that a millionaire can spend all day in conversation with someone out of work and never know. Walking is a great leveller.

I think you have a point there, also what is the point of having "Events" for the next few days open to all viewers, yet the full 90 days of events are for members eyes only?

At the risk of being controversial (not the intention), what views do members have on the availability of social walk details without the need to access the members' area ? There are pros and cons to this. Strider is available to a small number of people outside the membership, the website is open to all. The three points that occur to me are security of parked vehicles in a remote place, publication of walk leaders' details and the 'Country Walking effect'. The latter involves people turning up unannounced who have never walked more than 5 miles before. Walk leaders' details ? Try a google for "site:www.ldwa.org.uk Anderson". What if Bill (Anderson) had an ex-directory phone number - not now ?
I think that walk leaders without Internet access may be concerned - do they know where their information is published ?