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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on October 27, 2008 at 3:00am

I waved at a few of you at Sunday Parkways yesterday. I love you guys! See you all at Mass. Leah, is there an option to add these other type of bikes???

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Permalink Reply by Dubi Kaufmann on October 27, 2008 at 3:11am

I just added it.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on October 27, 2008 at 3:32am

Dan, can we have a mini intro to them at mass friday? I always wonder about those crazy bikes. Are any built for those in the 4 foot, 10 inch stature?

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Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on October 27, 2008 at 4:34am

Dubi Kaufmann said:

I just added it.

Thanks Dubi. But I think my point still isn't getting across. It's not about adding one more category of bikes to the list. I mentioned at least three kinds of bikes in my original post that still aren't listed. Are you going to continually add new items to the list every time someone who doesn't fit into one of the existing styles signs up? If nothing else, that's an ongoing adminstrative headache. But that's not my main beef here.

Even if you added entries for choppers, penny-farthings, trikes, and anything else you or I can think of, there's always going to be something we haven't thought of. We need to expand our imaginations, but also allow for the possibility that others' imaginations are always going to be different than ours.

As much as computers push us to try to make everything fit into neat, tidy categories, life doesn't always work that way. One of the primary things that those of use who consider ourselves cycling and "alternative" transportation advocates need to do is to get people to "think outside the box" and realize that there are other ways of doing things that they may not have considered. But we first have to realize this ourselves.

My suggestion would be, at the very least, to add an "Other" entry to the list, with a text box for members to describe their own unique velocipedes. But I'd prefer that people's initial introduction to this community would not include having to pigeon-hole themselves into someone else's ideas of what's possible.

Julie Hochstadter said:

Dan, can we have a mini intro to them at mass friday? I always wonder about those crazy bikes. Are any built for those in the 4 foot, 10 inch stature?

I'm always happy to talk about my bike. ;^) I'll probably be wearing the same outfit in my avatar pic on Friday, so feel free to look for me.

Asking whether freak bikes "are built" a certain way for certain people is the wrong question. The short answer is Yes, I've seen all kinds of bikes built for all kinds of people. But the right question is what's possible. The great thing about freak bikes is that there's really no limit other than your imagination. Well, there are those pesky laws of physics that you run into sometimes, but rules are made to be broken, right?

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Permalink Reply by Chucko on October 27, 2008 at 5:27am

Welcome to the forum, Dan! Cool looking tallbikes you have there. I definitely don't think the lack of the tallbike/freakbike/other category is a reflection of any bias on the part of the builders of this site. Since I've been on, the categories have been adjusted a few times to account for things that just weren't foreseen when the site was built. Because this site was designed on a template, the idea for a space to fill in whatever you want might not be possible. I do think the site does the best it can with what it has to work with, though.

That being said, I would say from my experience so far that this site represents a large and diverse group of cyclists, none of whom would think for a second that you were somehow less a cyclist by riding a non-traditional form of two wheeled, human powered transport. I've seen nothing but love for all things bicycle. At any rate, before I digress, welcome!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on October 27, 2008 at 5:52am

Chucko said:

Welcome to the forum, Dan! Cool looking tallbikes you have there. I definitely don't think the lack of the tallbike/freakbike/other category is a reflection of any bias on the part of the builders of this site. Since I've been on the categories have been adjusted a few times to account for things that just weren't foreseen when the site was built. Though I think partly because this site was designed on a template, that the space to fill in whatever you want might not be possible. I think the site does the best it can with what it has to work with.

That being said, I would say from my experience so far that this site represents a large and diverse group of cyclists, none of whom would think for a second that you were somehow less a cyclist by riding a non-traditional form of two wheeled, human powered transport. So, at any rate, welcome!

Thanks Chucko. I'm not really so worried about what other people think of me. My point is that asking that question, and restricting the set of possible answers, may make this community more exclusive than it's intended to me.

I think this is a great site, and I generally don't like to criticize people who take the initiative to do something because it's not perfect, but this is the "site feedback" area. My suggestions are intended to help make this community more accessible.

Believe me, I understand about having to work within the limitations of technology, especially third-party software. And I realize that you can't always anticipate all the possible options ahead of time. But that's all the more reason not to offer a limited list of options and to force people to categorize themselves!

It's one thing to ask people what they ride and give them a limited list of choices. It's quite another to make it a required question that you have to answer just to sign up and participate. So again, I would suggest at the very least adding "Other" as a choice, or not making the question mandatory (*).

From my point of view as a developer, it's never a good idea to create built-in inflexibility. If you're constantly having to update the design or add items to a list because you haven't foreseen something, especially if, even when you do add more options, you still need to add more later, then you probably need to think a little more abstractly and add more flexibility.

So again, why not simply add an "Other" option, like for "The kind of riding I do?" Even if it's not possible to add a free-form text entry field, people can always add more explanation about their "other" kinds of bikes in their profiles.

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Permalink Reply by vxla on October 27, 2008 at 6:15am

Dan - thanks for your input. We will take your issue into consideration and hopefully come up with something satisfactory in the near future. I believe the requirement selection of having the type of bike you ride required can possibly be done away with or made more flexible in the future, and if the site's owner sees it as a good idea, we'll work on it.

I would highly recommend you also check out the Names/Faces/Bikes introductory thread and introduce yourself there so people can notice you around town.

- vxla
(moderator)

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Permalink Reply by Ammo on October 27, 2008 at 7:22am

I agree, my chopper didn't get here recognition for being her freaky little self =(

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