How To Join a Ride Proposal...

Yesterday I documented how to create a ride using the new ride proposal functionality on the TrailCentral.com trail pages. Yesterday I walked through the flow of creating a ride proposal from beginning to end. Today I'm going to pick up where I left off and document how easy it is to join a ride that has already been proposed.
Assuming a rider has previously submitted a ride proposal for Hall Ranch, a link labeled 'View Rides (x)' is displayed with 'x' representing the number of ride proposals currently active for this trail. By clicking on this link you will be anchored to the Ride Proposals section of the trail page, where ride details including the date, time, number of riders, and ride notes are displayed for each active ride. In addition, two new links appear for the ride and they are labeled 'Join This Ride' and 'View Rider List.'

If you choose to click 'View Rider List' link the page will expand and a list of all riders currently on the ride roster are displayed.

Ride roster includes the riders names, experience level, where they will be commuting from, the date they joined, and contact information. When you are done reviewing the roster, simply leave the page expanded or choose to hide it by clicking 'Hide Rider List.' The page then contracts and leaves only the ride details displayed. If you would like to join the ride, click 'Join This Ride.'

One of the benefits of being registered with TrailCentral and being logged in when joining a ride is that you are able to eliminate a step in the process, which collects the joining rider's information. Since you are registered with TrailCentral your information will be accessed and you will be quickly and painlessly added to the ride roster.

If you are not registered when clicking 'Join This Ride' the page will expand and you will see a form asking for necessary information before being added to the ride roster.

Non registered members will be required to add their name, experience, and email address. If they choose to 'Cancel', the form collapses from view and the roster is not updated. However, if the required fields are entered and 'Join This Ride' is selected, the form collapses and the rider is added to the ride roster.

When the rider is added to the list the leader of the ride will be notified by email if they chose to be notified when creating the ride proposal.

That is all there is to it. This functionality is extremely simple and whatever mystery their may have been I hope the previous documents have cleared it up. I hope the popularity of this feature increases with the new ability for non registered users to create and join rides. More importantly, I hope this functionality makes it easier for you to hook up with other riders who want to ride a trail with you.