your speculations and ideas for what looks promising and what is obvious but doesn't go: things that are vital to future expoers. And please, pleasedo lots of sketches in the logbook.
<p>We now [September 2023] have an online form for uploading logbook entries (text only, and HTML links to images) for the 2024 expo at <ahref="/logbookedit/">/logbookedit/</a>.
<h3id="rig">Initial rigging guide</h3>
<p>The logbook is also the place where we record the rigging of caves as we discover them. You will manually copy the notes you made underground into the logbook.
<p>Writing up this and the final rigging guide is an important part of the Expo cave exploration process and is documented in <ahref="survey/newrig.html">a specific "rigging" section</a> the survey handbook.
<p>In recent years we have seen an admirable increase in the number of people writing up their trips and experiences on social media and in particular on the UK Caving blog, see <ahref="https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=25249.0">2019 Blog</a>. But please, please also make a handwritten entry in the logbook saying you have done this so that the text and pictures can be transcribed later. It is too easy to lose these: in 2018 there were two blogs in operation and most people didn't know that.
<p>The UK Caving blog is mobile-friendly and it is very easy to add photos. So if you discover an entrance with a distinctive look, then this is the easiest way to record it and upload the photos.
<h3id="form">Typing your trip report - using the online form</h3>
<p>If you have online access, then the best way to type up the text for for logbook entry is using the <ahref="/logbookedit/">online form</a> (you will need to log in using the usual cavey:beery password for user 'expo').
<p>This will present no problems for newcomers, but old hands may find it a bit perplexing as it <ahref="computing/logbooks-format.html">seems</a> to be too simple.
<li>Enter the date of the trip in ISO format, e.g. 2023-07-30 (year-month-day).
<li>Write in your name: you are the author of the piece. Use any of the <ahref="/aliases/2023">troggle-recognised aliases</a> (which are specific to each expo). On the 2023 expo we had three people called 'Adam', but in other years the name 'Adam' would be unique.
<li>Then write in the name of everyone involved, whether or not they were actually going underground, e.g. "Ash, Mealy, Jono, Flo, Hagrid", with the names separated by commas.
<li>Then where it all happened. If you went caving at all, then use the cave name (Fishface) or cave id (1623-290) as this will be specially recognised and indexed.
<li>Then the title of what you did, e.g. " I drank Beer"
<li>Then the text of your logbook entry. This can be as short or as long as you like, and can contain HTML code if you like. Otherwise, just use a double newline to break paragraphs. (If you have scanned diagrams or photos then you will need to properly know how HTML works and need to contact a nerd to move the image files to the right place.)
<p>The page willl refresh and at the bottom will be a rendering of what your logbook entry looks like. Check through it for typos etc., make the changes in the form and click the big button again until you are happy with it.
<p>Alternatively, if you are sitting at any internet-connected laptop, inlcuding the <em>expo laptop</em> in the potato hut, you can use the online form <ahref="/logbookedit/">expo.survex.com/logbookedit/</a>.
<p>As handwriting can be very bad, please try to type the text, print it and stick it in the logbook, adding any sketches by hand.
This will save someone (probably you) deciphering your handwriting and typing it up later. Scanning is not good enough yet to read handwriting or to interpret which scribble relates to which sketch.
<p>
Type the text, but still do lots of drawings in the paper logbook.
<p>The first challenge is to find how to start up the text editor. The <em>expo laptop</em> is running debian Linux. On the Desktop is an icon labelled "Text Editor": click on it.
