Now that we are past the site rework, we can return to the normal round of updates: going through the headlines, email, and AARoads; what the legislature did; and the CTC minutes. A few final rework notes: I’ve discovered that the site works much better on mobile devices if you use it in LANDSCAPE mode; I haven’t yet found a way to make it scale right automatically in portrait mode. Suggestions are welcome on that. Also, if for some reason you’re still seeing the old site, clear your cache! Lastly, if you referred to hwystart.html, change that reference to ROUTE001.html. The page hwystart.html (which was just a copy of 001-008.html) was a kludge to reflect the fact that I couldn’t predict aforetime what the first highway grouping would be. Now I can.
One additional introductory note: As I was working on this update, a few kerfuffles occurred on the Facebook groups Freeways of Los Angeles and Historic US Highway 99, as a result of people sharing pictures from Michael Ballard’s excellent site without giving credit to Michael’s site (something those of us with long-time sites are sensitive to, as many in the “Internet generation” believe that if something is posted on the net, it is there for the taking)*. Related to this is the disappearance of the FB group California’s Historic Highways** and the self-ghosting of Joel Windmiller. I don’t want to open up the credit debate — credit should always be given, and hopefully I’m getting better on that (and if I err, let me know and I’ll correct); further, with appropriate credit, I believe much of our use is fair use and educational, especially when only a focused portion of an image is used or a segment or summary of text from a site is used with credit and a pointer. Here’s the real question in all of this ⇒ Facebook would allow me to create a group to go along with the page I already have for California Highways. Should I? I would ensure there is moderation that insists on credit and no political discussions; I would attempt to recruit some co-administrators that also have pages on the net, are roadgeeks of long-standing, and who understand the issue. However, having experienced attempting to moderate a FB group in another area (I attempted to move my Mail.Liberal-Judaism Mailing List to a FB group), I know their moderation system is not to my liking (for example, you can’t moderate those leaving comments, and you can’t easily send mail back with the message requesting specific changes). Moderation also takes a fair amount of time (which will be an issue when the world returns to normal), and opens one up to liability issues largely due to the cluelessness or carelessness of others. Please let me know your thoughts via email to webmaster@cahighways.org; and as always when you post on FB or elsewhere, credit your sources.
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[*: Note that these were not formal copyright complaints, and that no one is looking for payment or planning to involve the legal system. That’s why I didn’t use “free for the taking”, as I’m not looking for payment. This is, in a sense, like the Gnu Copyleft, only the basic term is: give credit to the original source. ❚ **: Or at least I can’t see it, which means I was kicked out with no message or reason, which is equally problematic]
Related to the above, and seeing that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are in mid-September this year, possibly before the next big round of updates: If I have used material from your website or a post, and have neither credited you at the point of use or recognized your contribution on my sources page, I sincerely apologize and want to make things right. Please let me know the occurrence, and I’ll make sure that credit is given, or remove or rework the offending material. If you have lifted material from my website, don’t worry. I won’t be coming after you. All I ask is that you credit (by name, and by URL link) to the original source so that readers can investigate my site for the most up-to-date information.
With that said, now on to the updates:
