UKClimbing logbook for cavers

[jharlow]

I've always looked enviously at my UKClimbing logbook and wanted something similar but for caving, so I figured I'd try and do it myself.

I've spun up a pretty basic proof of concept app and would love to get some feedback on it. It's probably close to, but not totally ready for real users yet. What I'd really appreciate if anyone has five minutes to spare is if you could:

- Sign up
- Try adding subsystems/locations to your favorite cave
- Try playing around adding a log
- Just play around - I'm interested in any feedback/confusion you have navigating around

I've tried to build things to be pretty modular/easy to change, so if I can get any feedback/feature suggestions in this thread I'll triage it and start building it into the system.

Finally, if something like this met your needs, and you could export your data (coming soon-ish), is this something you would be interested in using?

https://alpha.cavelog.org/

Edit: just again to reiterate, I'm going to try and maintain data-integrity with changes going forwards, but for now I'm wanted to make quick, destructive changes so don't add any logs/data you wouldn't be happy to lose!

 

[hannahb]

There is something potentially similar already in existence: https://caves.app/

 

[jharlow]

Yes! I did not know that caves.app existed/it didn't come up in my Google searches! Thanks for pointing that out, I'm going to plug away at this as a personal project but that looks incredibly fully-featured!

 

[TLH]

There is something potentially similar already in existence: https://caves.app/

Thank you for this! I'm not going to bother transferring from my current excel sheet, but have signed up and will be using this going forward.

Adding photos and the cave map is a great feature too!

 

[TLH]

I've always looked enviously at my UKClimbing logbook and wanted something similar but for caving, so I figured I'd try and do it myself.

I've spun up a pretty basic proof of concept app and would love to get some feedback on it. It's probably close to, but not totally ready for real users yet. What I'd really appreciate if anyone has five minutes to spare is if you could:

- Sign up
- Try adding subsystems/locations to your favorite cave
- Try playing around adding a log
- Just play around - I'm interested in any feedback/confusion you have navigating around

I've tried to build things to be pretty modular/easy to change, so if I can get any feedback/feature suggestions in this thread I'll triage it and start building it into the system.

Finally, if something like this met your needs, and you could export your data (coming soon-ish), is this something you would be interested in using?

https://alpha.cavelog.org/

Edit: just again to reiterate, I'm going to try and maintain data-integrity with changes going forwards, but for now I'm wanted to make quick, destructive changes so don't add any logs/data you wouldn't be happy to lose!

I like this approach, but I don't find it flows very well on my phone at the moment. Though, when it does, it's throwing up my Norton protect for some reason.

I like the idea of both of these and quite like the idea of being able to export the log. To be able to add photos or links to documents might be useful perhaps?

Quick question. Is each location, as listed in your examples, show to all? So if I added a cave, it would show in the same list and meaning that my log would essentially disappear into the depths?
I haven't had a real play as yet, but my concern is that I may call is something different, or spell it wrong and therefore duplicate a site?

Tom

 

[cavingbiker]

What is wrong with a book and pen.

 

[andrewmcleod]

What is wrong with a book and pen.

You can lose a book

You have to actually have the book to update it (I have my log in Google Sheets so I can update it using my phone while away for a caving weekend

 

[wellyjen]

You can lose a book

You have to actually have the book to update it (I have my log in Google Sheets so I can update it using my phone while away for a caving weekend

I know people who have caving log books from fifty plus years ago that they still refer to. How likely is a spreadsheet, or app to still be usable decades hence? Dead tree format wins for simplicity, robustness and proof against bit rot.

 

[cavingbiker]

You can lose a book

You have to actually have the book to update it (I have my log in Google Sheets so I can update it using my phone while away for a caving weekend

Yes a book can be lost, so can a phone. Also anything connected to the internet can be hacked, regardless of the level of security.

 

[JoshW]

Yes a book can be lost, so can a phone. Also anything connected to the internet can be hacked, regardless of the level of security.

Yeah the route to getting into the bank of englands accounts is definitely via my digital caving log

There are advantages and disadvantages to each method, obviously, but the idea that someone is going to want to hack into your caving log and that’s a disadvantage is laughable

 

[snebbit]

Yeah the route to getting into the bank of englands accounts is definitely via my digital caving log

There are advantages and disadvantages to each method, obviously, but the idea that someone is going to want to hack into your caving log and that’s a disadvantage is laughable

You never know how desperate people might be to win Wezzits - DSC_02_11_2024.jpg plus access to their log = lvl 89 wezzit lord

 

[jharlow]

I like this approach, but I don't find it flows very well on my phone at the moment. Though, when it does, it's throwing up my Norton protect for some reason.

I like the idea of both of these and quite like the idea of being able to export the log. To be able to add photos or links to documents might be useful perhaps?

Quick question. Is each location, as listed in your examples, show to all? So if I added a cave, it would show in the same list and meaning that my log would essentially disappear into the depths?
I haven't had a real play as yet, but my concern is that I may call is something different, or spell it wrong and therefore duplicate a site?

Tom

Thank you for the feedback Tom. Yes, exporting your logs is next on my to-do list.

Also yes, locations are visible to everyone. I think this could end up with some level of duplication, the positive side being that I'd like to add a ratings feature so you can see other users "tier ranking" of a spot, as well as seeing location "popularity" (how often does sump 1 get visited vs sump 2). Wha do you think of that?