View these events on a real calendar

We are now maintaining a mirror of the events on this board in calendar format on a publicly viewable Google Calendar. The goal of this is to provide a better visibility to upcoming events that may have otherwise fallen lower on the board.

As new threads are posted to this forum, a moderator will add the event to the calendar with a link back to the thread about the event.

Google Calendar has a number of features that allow you to view this calendar in different ways:

Plain HTML (the easiest, most straightforward way):
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?sr ... 0gmail.com

iCal format, for applications that support it, like Apple's iCal:
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lth ... /basic.ics

XML format for feed readers like Bloglines, My Yahoo, etc.:
http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/lt ... blic/basic

Also, if you're already a Google Calendar user, you can add this calendar directly to your own (and have a cool little toggle checkbox to turn it on or off). Just go to Settings->Calendars->Other Calendars->Add Calendar. Search for "LTHForum" and then just add it.

We hope you find this useful.

Best,
Michael
for the moderators

If you haven't checked this out yet, please do. We'd love to hear if people find this useful or not. The calendar has been loaded with items from this board and other events that may not have been announced here.

In my eyes, this calendar is quickly becoming a very useful tool for food enthusiasts in Chicago.

Click the plain HTML (bolded) link above to see the calendar in it's plainest form.

Best,
Michael

This comment refers to the plain vanilla version only, but is there a way to make the text wrap rather than get cut off at the edge of a cell? Otherwise, no comments and thank you for putting this together. With the ever-increasing number of events posted on LTH, this is a very useful tool.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:This comment refers to the plain vanilla version only, but is there a way to make the text wrap rather than get cut off at the edge of a cell? Otherwise, no comments and thank you for putting this together. With the ever-increasing number of events posted on LTH, this is a very useful tool.

Thanks, Jim.

There's no way to make any technical tweaks. This is Google's service, we're just putting data into it.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:we're just putting data into it.

And thank you for doing that!

Yes, thank you. It's great.

Do you wish to be notified of errors, when some are spotted, and if so, how? For example, Irish fest is in there twice, on two different sets of dates. (This is not a criticism, just a manifestation of chronic proofreader's malady.) Such mistakes are inevitable, but not having used the tool myself, I don't know how easy it is to fix them.

Thanks, LAZ.

LAZ wrote:Do you wish to be notified of errors, when some are spotted, and if so, how?

A simple email or PM will do fine to myself, Cathy, or any moderator.

Best,
Michael

I just noticed this. Thank you very much -- it's extremely easy to use and it's going to come in extremely handy. Appreciate the effort much!

Brad

JimInLoganSquare wrote:This comment refers to the plain vanilla version only, but is there a way to make the text wrap rather than get cut off at the edge of a cell?

If you look at the calendar in agenda view, the events are spelled out completely, day by day.

I'd like to import the LTHForum Events Calendar into my Yahoo! Calendar, but it looks like one needs a Yahoo! ID. Any suggestions? And it would be nice to have a toogle switch too. Could one of you techies help?
Regards,
Grandpa Bob

I think this is a great concept, but I have to ask who's keeping it up? It seems like most events, like today's Devon-a-thon, aren't included.

HI,

I was keeping it up, then I let it slide. After a while nobody seemed to notice. I began to assume nobody was using it. If I am wrong, then I will gladly get it up to date.

Regards,

Grandpa Bob wrote:I'd like to import the LTHForum Events Calendar into my Yahoo! Calendar, but it looks like one needs a Yahoo! ID. Any suggestions? And it would be nice to have a toogle switch too. Could one of you techies help?
Regards,
Grandpa Bob

The calendar is a Google Calendar, not a Yahoo Calendar and I'm not aware of any easy integration between the two.

From my point of view, it's fine to let it slide, but then should it still have a stickie linking to it and promising you can "View these events on a real calendar?"

Hi. Thanks for the great work on this calendar!

After the great event this weekend I checked for more upcoming events and there doesn't seem like there is much coming up.

Is it a slow time or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks again. It is a wonderful tool!

Since the Google calendar is no longer being updated, perhaps this notice should be removed?

I agree that if the calendar is going to languish it would be best to not have this be a sticky post in the events thread.

The biggest problem with Google Calendar is that you have to explicitly hand out permission to add events. I'm not sure how many people can add them now, but it is a small list. Should we solicit more volunteers to help add events?

Alternatively, there are public event-posting sites like Upcoming, Eventful or ZVents that might be applicable. I've never really used either that much, in part because I already have more things I want to do than time to do them -- but especially if they make it easy to see LTH events in a logical, time-oriented list, they may be worthwhile anyway. They may also draw in new people who aren't otherwise involved on the board: your call as to whether that's good or bad.

I tried briefly using Upcoming to create an LTH "group" and post events to it, but honestly, I'm not going to be the one who keeps the calendar 100% up-to-date, and I didn't try a post like this to see if other people wanted to help keep it going. The great Chicago-centric website Gapers Block has an Upcoming calendar which seems to have current events on it.

Does anyone on LTH have experience with other online communities that successfully manage a calendar using these tools or others? Or has no one written the one that would really do what we need with the right balance between effort and payback?

germuska wrote:I agree that if the calendar is going to languish it would be best to not have this be a sticky post in the events thread.

I agree. It's a catch-22. I have the LTH calendar imported into my own Google calendar, but never check it because it's NOT up to date. There is no use having a feature if it doesn't work, isn't timely, etc.

germuska wrote:The biggest problem with Google Calendar is that you have to explicitly hand out permission to add events. I'm not sure how many people can add them now, but it is a small list. Should we solicit more volunteers to help add events?

I'll volunteer to keep up the Google calendar if the powers that be allow me access. Google cal may have its problems, but we can be sure they're going to be around for awhile, unlike the numerous other calendar web apps previously mentioned.

My offer to volunteer to keep the Google calendar up to date has been accepted, and I've added all the events I could find. There were quite a few to get caught up on, so please take a look at any events you might have posted to make certain that they are indeed on the calendar, and with the correct information.

To review, here are eatchicago's excellent directions to use the calendar:

eatchicago wrote:We are now maintaining a mirror of the events on this board in calendar format on a publicly viewable Google Calendar. The goal of this is to provide a better visibility to upcoming events that may have otherwise fallen lower on the board.

As new threads are posted to this forum, a moderator will add the event to the calendar with a link back to the thread about the event.

Google Calendar has a number of features that allow you to view this calendar in different ways:

Plain HTML (the easiest, most straightforward way):
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?sr ... 0gmail.com

iCal format, for applications that support it, like Apple's iCal:
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lth ... /basic.ics

XML format for feed readers like Bloglines, My Yahoo, etc.:
http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/lt ... blic/basic

Also, if you're already a Google Calendar user, you can add this calendar directly to your own (and have a cool little toggle checkbox to turn it on or off). Just go to Settings->Calendars->Other Calendars->Add Calendar. Search for "LTHForum" and then just add it.

We hope you find this useful.

Best,
Michael
for the moderators

When you click on an event, a box will come up showing the details, but it tends to mash line breaks together - this is especially vexing with URLs - I suggest clicking on the "more details" link in order to get a more readable format, with hyperlinked URLs, map links, etc.

Again, please PM me with any mistakes and/or omissions.

Yours in time,

Doug

dfawley wrote:My offer to volunteer to keep the Google calendar up to date has been accepted, and I've added all the events I could find.

Doug,

Thanks for your, and those that kept the calendar before you, efforts. As the number of LTHForum and associated events spin up I find I'm referring more often to the calendar.

Enjoy,
Gary

You're welcome.

I find it handy, too, although I can't attend as often as I like, it's nice to see what I'm missing each week.

Just thought I'd take a moment to thank dfawley for keeping the LTH Events calendar up to date! There sure is a lot going on!

You're welcome, Germuska - it's good to hear people are using it.

germuska wrote:Just thought I'd take a moment to thank dfawley for keeping the LTH Events calendar up to date! There sure is a lot going on!

I'd like to echo Joe G's thoughts, there sure is a lot going on and thank dfawley for keeping up the calendar.

Enjoy,
Gary

You are welcome, Gwiv.

Also, for all event posters, I have not updated the calendar this week. I am in Mexico and have tried to unplug - I will get everything updated next week.

are only larger events added to the calender?

No, I try to post all events? However, I've started a new job with long hours due to a merger happening, and I've only been getting to updating the calendar on the weekends. If Jimswide (or anyone) has a question concerning a specific event, please pm me. Especially during the last couple of weeks, it's very possible I've missed something.

dfawley,

Thank you for your volunteer efforts. It is quite a job you are doing for us. The Events board is more dynamic today than it was even 6 months ago.

Hope to see you at the picnic!

Regards,

Thanks, Cathy.

Jim PMd me and wondered about a lobster boil he posted about this week for this coming weekend. It would normally go up, but since I'm down to only updating on weekends (16 hour days will do that to you), any post that doesn't have a lead time of more than a week is going to slip through the cracks, which I'm not happy with but is the unfortunate reality. Hopefully I can get back to my preferred daily updating soon.

I do hope to make it to the picnic!

LTH,

Just a short note to say I find the calender quite useful, thanks to all involved in particular dfawley.

Enjoy,
Gary