Record Ideas Keeping etc

[Tripmeup]

Right folks

Some advice please..I have my thinking cap on too, but many hands and all that...

Looking for a no/low cost solution to the following..I don’t mind paying an arbitrary amount per year for the right solution though....

I want to be able to post photos and narrative of produce/progress, ideas, people’s recipes, links that people post etc and have it all in one place and be easily searchable and possibly that can be filtered (not a must have)
For example if I added/posted a pic of my Brown Sugar tomatoes last year and wanted to call up that picture/entry NOW to compare to this year’s Brown Sugar toms etc, then I should be easily able to find that post/entry either chronologically or easy search.
Or if I wanted to quickly find a recipe or similar link...

I don’t mind adding descriptions/short narratives and key words to stuff as I add it to help find it at a later date

Some (all maybe) will suggest a blog I am sure, but the aim here is not for me to become a blogger, but rather to have an easily searched and followed timeline, progress, record etc etc.
But if a blog type set-up is the best solution, then that’s fine and I just won’t worry about the attracting followers part etc..

Should also mention that should be usable from a mobile phone....

Thanks in advance

[scarey55]

My first thought would have been blog. We have one just as a sort of diary to refer back to. We only have a couple of friends following it.

I also use Pinterest, not sure how/if it would work for you but it might be worth a look.

[sparrow100]

If you tag and sort your entries properly a blog would work well. I can't think of anything else format-wise which would do everything you want. A blog doesn't have to be publicly available, if you keep it in private view only you can see it.

[Cadalot]

I have to say a blog, that's what mine is for. The section/ panel on the left has links to useful stuff that I may want to look at again, I've started adding labels to assist in the sorting and categorising of data especially as I now have two plots on different sites. in addition all photos and video automatically get uploaded to dropbox from my phone and I add description to the photo in the name.

I compare what I was doing one year with another and leave myself reminders and record success and failures alike.

[Tripmeup]

Thanks for the replies!
From my own investigations and people's opinions, it looks like a Blog type solution it is so..

Any one any recommendations? I see Wordpress and Blogger up near the top of the common lists.
Go with one of them?

[Cadalot]

I use Blogger it's KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and had it before it was taken over by Google but they both do the same thing. I like the simplicity of link building on the side panel.

[KevinM67]

This thread 'pricked' my interest when I read it yesterday - and the idea sounds fab.

I ended up searching the Web on free database software to download - I've no idea about what the blog stuff offers (will check that out later when I finish work).

I'm looking forward to how this progresses- spamvindaloo had some great ideas earlier in the year on some thread about online mags. Trying to incorporate all this info into some sort of reference journal with your own details, with added external documentation - whether that involved written stuff, pictures, videos, etc. is a fantastic idea.

This is definitely a winter project for me - cheers !!

[Tripmeup]

This thread 'pricked' my interest when I read it yesterday - and the idea sounds fab.

I ended up searching the Web on free database software to download - I've no idea about what the blog stuff offers (will check that out later when I finish work).

I'm looking forward to how this progresses- spamvindaloo had some great ideas earlier in the year on some thread about online mags. Trying to incorporate all this info into some sort of reference journal with your own details, with added external documentation - whether that involved written stuff, pictures, videos, etc. is a fantastic idea.

This is definitely a winter project for me - cheers !!

Good to hear that it is something that interests you Kevin..
Please post any musings or findings here as you progress.....as will I....

[MarkPelican]

Is it just for you or do you want others to be able to read it?

If its just for you then I would have thought any database or even wordprocessor would have had the necessary information and you can keep it on your own computer so nobody else is involved.

If you want to make it available to others then a blog might be simplest but where do you want to take it? You might want to (speak softly here) monetise it, in which case I don't think most blogs will let you do that and you'll need to buy a domain name and find someone to host it - but even that's not expensive, just a few pounds a year.

[Tripmeup]

Is it just for you or do you want others to be able to read it?

If its just for you then I would have thought any database or even wordprocessor would have had the necessary information and you can keep it on your own computer so nobody else is involved.

If you want to make it available to others then a blog might be simplest but where do you want to take it? You might want to (speak softly here) monetise it, in which case I don't think most blogs will let you do that and you'll need to buy a domain name and find someone to host it - but even that's not expensive, just a few pounds a year.

Just for me mainly but I have decided to try out Blogger on Cadalot's advice and am up and running so to speak with a few trial posts/blogs..still need to edit them but I'm out of the traps anyways..

Cadalot, stand by for lots of questions

[Cadalot]

Cadalot, stand by for lots of questions

Happy to help in any way I can, one of the first things to do is pick a template for the arrangement you want, you can alter it as you go but I like the info on the left all my blogs are set up that way. I use blogger for my London Revit User Group web site now take a look at London Revit User Group that one is set up with pages as well as just a diary but for the allotment a single page dairy format is fine.

[SusieG]

Right then, you lot ......... Here goes: Trips first post was very interesting to me as I too would like to 'keep' certain info, ideas, photos, recipes and stuff that I've done and stuff that I'd like to compare year-on-year .........

BUt, and here it is ~ I'm a total tech dummy ...... I don't know what a blog is or how to use one (is that right? use?) and don't use a PC, just my iPad and iPhone ....... so, if anyone can be bothered to explain in stoopid-person English ~ you'd make this techno dinosaur very happy ......!

Thanks ...........

[KevinM67]

Just for me mainly but I have decided to try out Blogger on Cadalot's advice and am up and running so to speak with a few trial posts/blogs..still need to edit them but I'm out of the traps anyways..

Cadalot, stand by for lots of questions

I've not really had a chance to check out any blog type sites - but just wandering what sort of search facilities they may have ??

For instance, if I wanted to check out 'Brassicas' sowed in 2016, and then maybe break that down to cabbages, and then possibly spring cabbages, and the compare results/findings for previous years - would that be possible?

(Obviously, this would be reliant on me inputting all this data - hence, I'm wondering if some sort of database software would be preferable ?)

Cracking thread Trip - I'm needing a bit of brain stimulation at the moment.

[KevinM67]

Yep, Susie - that's my thinking also.

Taking Trip's original post - I really like the idea of a diary/reference journal for the things I grow (or want to grow).

Obviously this would include such things as seed name, date of sowing, soil prep, weather conditions, harvest date, etc. But also the facility to add pictures, Web links, recipes - you get the idea.

However, the main requisite would be the ease of the search (and comparison) function - thus creating my own little reference library.

[craftymarie]

Blogger is good and it is free to use. I've got some of my blogs on blogger and never had any issues with it. You can backup the text content of your blog (if it is important that you don't lose it) but you should always keep your own backups of your photos just in case.

Susie: a blog is a website where people tend to share stuff either within a group of like-minded people or (more commonly) to the public. They might have a website on a hobby like crafts or parenting and share articles, information and photos around their interest/passion for other people to see.

If you just want to share your own photos, then something like Instagram might be worth looking into. I don't know how easy it is to search through your own stuff but Instagram is certainly something you can do with a mobile device very easily.

A blog gives a lot more opportunities because you can add categories to every post/article you make which makes searching for things very easy providing you've added relevant tags or labels in. On blogger, these are called labels. On other sites like Wordpress.org, where you pay for your own website hosting, you can have tags and categories although that starts to get more complex.

For record keeping of my veg growing, I use a spreadsheet and a program called Scrivener which is something I had anyway because I do a lot of writing. A spreadsheet is a fairly easy way to list short pieces of textual info in rows and columns but is not great for adding in images and long pieces of text. Scrivener can handle a vast amount of text which is easy to organize into different folders and files, much better than Word, and I can add in photos and links etc as well.

Blogger is probably better in this particular instance. Scrivener is probably overkill although great if people are looking for something just for themselves rather than an online audience. There is a free trial of Scrivener if it sounds interesting to anyone. Screenshot of mine: