Hello all,

Responses and feedback continue to come in, thank you for participating.

Couple of questions that have come in, in various forms:

Can other people edit the spreadsheet?:

Not currently. The spreadsheet is set to display only. The survey is the way to add. If you keep URL when you submit your data, you can update later, but that link is your only way in.

I did that so that people wouldn't have to sign up for an account to get in. If folks would rather have an account system, we could do that.

If you re-submit your data without the link; you'll show up twice. My plan was to occasionally go through and remove duplicates (using the latest time value); reaching out to anyone who shifted drastically.

I can also pass a link to edit the spreadsheet to individuals, but I'd rather that not go public. Which brings us to the next question...

Where will this be posted?

My intention was to make this a publicly available listing. The shared-weight list-serv is archived online, which means the link to see the spreadsheet is public (if you dig). I've tried to find a way to put a CAPTCHA "I'm not a bot" check on opening up the spreadsheet, but haven't found a clean way yet.

Beyond that, it depends a bit on how many people are on there. With the ~20 folks on there now just from shared weight; it's a collection of nice information. I imagine organizers on this list will note it; and I'd ask that it be cross-posted on the organizers list. If folks start using it, I'd reach out to CDSS about posting the link (to the survey and the spreadsheet) both online and in the newsletter, and share it around on social media.

I'm open to feedback on where it should be, and how it should be accessed. This is still an idea in development
.

How will this be posted?

Again, depends on usage. Up to several dozen, I'll just leave it organized primarily by state and let people filter as needed. If it really takes off, I'll up my coding game and try to implement a front end that does some of the searching for you.

Thanks again to those who have given feedback, taken part, or explained why they declined to do so.

On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 8:17 PM, Michael Barraclough via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Luke - it seems like we can't edit the spreadsheet directly (to update the additional info). If I resubmit does that mean I lose all my previous data or will it recognize me and just take the new/changed stuff?

Michael Barraclough
www.michaelbarraclough.com

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On Sat, 2016-10-22 at 20:01 -0400, Luke Donforth via Callers wrote:
Thanks to everyone who's already signed up. Looks like there's some willingness to try this, and I appreciate it.

I've already tweaked it slightly based on feedback (Gender Free, levels of MWSD). Feel free to resubmit your name if you didn't keep the link to edit your response (and a note to that effect).
On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 4:07 PM, Luke Donforth <luke.donev@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,

When I get an inquiry about calling for a gig that I can't do, I often refer them to the same handful of local callers that I know. But it's not always the most useful if the inquiry came from far away.

I've been thinking about trying to create a caller database; with geographic home-base of caller and contact information.

I know there are lists of callers out there, such as Charlie's excellent contra dance links and Dance Gypsy. I was thinking it would be useful to have it in database format where it could be sorted and filtered.

I'd also like for folks to be able to submit themselves, as opposed to having to compile them.

I've taken a first pass at creating a google form that allows people to submit information; with a linked spreadsheet that would allow people to filter based on what they're looking for (both geographically and dance style). My hope is to eventually develop a front end to help filter that information, but for now I'm just sharing it in a database.

As a caller, would you fill it out? As an organizer, would you use it? Is there any information I've missed that you'd want, or something I've included you'd rather not have?

The survey is at:
https://goo.gl/forms/62beEKCKsyysepGk1

The spreadsheet of (currently sparse) results:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZIWfYyFwMHHm6MpyMCD_N8ssQcOD5s6ynduDDQUvsmQ/edit?usp=sharing

I'd appreciate feedback on the survey; as well as a folks filling it out to see how useful filtering the database is (and eventually test the front end).

Thanks!

--
Luke Donforth
calling.luke@gmail.com

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Luke Donforth
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