What's next?
I officially announced the completion of PA State Route Ends today. After almost five years and who knows how many photos, announced updates, and contributors, the project is finished, for now. Of course, there will be some new designation added Monday and I'll have a missing route.
But seriously, I'm very proud that the project is done, and very thankful to all those who have help make it a success and very popular.
I started PA Ends two months after I introduced North Carolina Ends. I had thought that NC Ends would be finished much quicker than PA and that I would be lucky to really get contributions living so far away, and that it would take a lot of time to get anything outside of SWPA where I grew up.
That changed when the Bees started to send multitudes of ends. Many of times I would check my e-mail after I got home from work, and get about 20 e-mails of ends from them. It was amazing, andthey really are the ones who kicked started the whole project. By the end of 2001, PA Ends was on a roll! Jason Ilyes began sending photos through the mail, David Brunot started to get areas in the northernwestern part of the state, Tim Reichard was getting in and around State College.
2002 and 2003 saw the competition in the Harrisburg Patriot-News Sports Department between Jay Rotz and tony Perry on who could get the most photos added. They also ended up helping Tim with m-plex.com. Marc Axler hit the Philadelphia area hard, Denis Malvern atualy kept track of missing ends and went out and found most of them. David Saluenwhite on his bike hit the remote area of the state with great photos!
Last year saw a feature article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News from the same staff that had the 'Ends Contest.'
Over the years and even recently as routes change, I will get e-mails from contributors saying they hoped a route would change so they can become a contributor. Or how they were glad to finally be a part of the project.
The Bees - I can't begin to thank enough, they are the ones who literally made the idea their own and because of their enthusiasm everyone jumped on the bandwagon. The success of other projects: VA Cutouts, PA Keystones to name two really are a result of them. If not for their involvement in PA Ends, I would never think doing the other projects could be possible. Plus, the whole end page phenomena is because of them.
Jeff Kitsko and Tim Reichard for their cross links to create blanket coverage of information for all state routes. Jason Ilyes for his patience as he waited for me to sort and scan through over 500 photos. The gang in chat for just being the gang in chat. Everyone for their hard work and enthusiasm.
There are some who have questioned why I announce updates as often as I do, and well if I hadn't who knows if the Bees would have found PA Ends. It was because of announced updates that they became involved, and my annoucement of the constant inclusion of their photos that others got involved, and well here we are five years later...PA Ends is done, I have other projeccts I am working on that I always wanted to do and never thought I would get to them. So annoucing those updates over the years have really paid off.
PA Ends has been a lot of fun...it really has made Pennsylvania one of the most publicly active roadgeeking states within the hobby...it's been a great ride...and a good way to close the year. I'll prolly do a redesign next time PA comes up in the updating cycle and add missing links to Jeff's and Tim's histories and junction lists. But it is done. D-O-N-E Done!
And as I say at work when I finish a large project,
"NEXT!"
I officially announced the completion of PA State Route Ends today. After almost five years and who knows how many photos, announced updates, and contributors, the project is finished, for now. Of course, there will be some new designation added Monday and I'll have a missing route.
But seriously, I'm very proud that the project is done, and very thankful to all those who have help make it a success and very popular.
I started PA Ends two months after I introduced North Carolina Ends. I had thought that NC Ends would be finished much quicker than PA and that I would be lucky to really get contributions living so far away, and that it would take a lot of time to get anything outside of SWPA where I grew up.
That changed when the Bees started to send multitudes of ends. Many of times I would check my e-mail after I got home from work, and get about 20 e-mails of ends from them. It was amazing, andthey really are the ones who kicked started the whole project. By the end of 2001, PA Ends was on a roll! Jason Ilyes began sending photos through the mail, David Brunot started to get areas in the northernwestern part of the state, Tim Reichard was getting in and around State College.
2002 and 2003 saw the competition in the Harrisburg Patriot-News Sports Department between Jay Rotz and tony Perry on who could get the most photos added. They also ended up helping Tim with m-plex.com. Marc Axler hit the Philadelphia area hard, Denis Malvern atualy kept track of missing ends and went out and found most of them. David Saluenwhite on his bike hit the remote area of the state with great photos!
Last year saw a feature article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News from the same staff that had the 'Ends Contest.'
Over the years and even recently as routes change, I will get e-mails from contributors saying they hoped a route would change so they can become a contributor. Or how they were glad to finally be a part of the project.
The Bees - I can't begin to thank enough, they are the ones who literally made the idea their own and because of their enthusiasm everyone jumped on the bandwagon. The success of other projects: VA Cutouts, PA Keystones to name two really are a result of them. If not for their involvement in PA Ends, I would never think doing the other projects could be possible. Plus, the whole end page phenomena is because of them.
Jeff Kitsko and Tim Reichard for their cross links to create blanket coverage of information for all state routes. Jason Ilyes for his patience as he waited for me to sort and scan through over 500 photos. The gang in chat for just being the gang in chat. Everyone for their hard work and enthusiasm.
There are some who have questioned why I announce updates as often as I do, and well if I hadn't who knows if the Bees would have found PA Ends. It was because of announced updates that they became involved, and my annoucement of the constant inclusion of their photos that others got involved, and well here we are five years later...PA Ends is done, I have other projeccts I am working on that I always wanted to do and never thought I would get to them. So annoucing those updates over the years have really paid off.
PA Ends has been a lot of fun...it really has made Pennsylvania one of the most publicly active roadgeeking states within the hobby...it's been a great ride...and a good way to close the year. I'll prolly do a redesign next time PA comes up in the updating cycle and add missing links to Jeff's and Tim's histories and junction lists. But it is done. D-O-N-E Done!
And as I say at work when I finish a large project,
"NEXT!"
Comments
One thing the whole ends movement has done was get some people off of the Interstates and on to roads they may have otherwise not traveled.
Finally, there's the occasional e-mail you'll get, even from someone not involved with the projects, saying that it was cool that they found your site and saw a picture of their house or whatever.