DING DING! What makes a GREAT Trip Report?

So do I.
I post my reports on here in full for anyone who cares to read them.
Why not do the same instead of providing a link? Don't just use FT to tout your site please.

Because I do my work on my site. A full copy and paste is not possible and I do not like to do my work double. I have trip reports with 40+ pictures. Do you really think that I am willing to work over 40 links only that the pictures can be seen as embedded here? And don't tell me I should keep them as links without being loaded automatially. That's much more difficult to read ( normally I do not read them at all ) than with one link to an embedded version.

My trip reports are all on youtube now. All video. They are 100% commercial free. NO ads. NO pop-ups. NO commercials.

I think if someone has ads on their blogs, no big deal. If the blog site has lots of pop-ups, then

MY bog is 100 % commercial free. Even if I will take some google adds in the near future there will never be any popups or similar. I will try to manage getting my costs for the site back. If it works, fine. If it does not work, I will remove anything again. But as said. I provided a lot of trip reports, which I all linked here ( and did put the full text version here also ) but until now, I am 100 % free of any commercial. It is only that I prefer to write on my own site.

BTW it is the first time ever, that I got a negative comment on the way I publish my TR. No complaint from FT before and zero from A.net ( which generates 10 times more traffic ).

If anybody wants me to stop posting my trip reports here in the way I do it, tell it to me. But don't ask me for changing my way to work.

i think a good TR has a title that tells us what its about, not one designed to be catchy. i think that the first post should have each part of the tr listed with a link to the post(s) for that part. it should have some pctures, but not heavy on pictures. and it ahould be in depth

I just find it's becoming far too common on here to open a trip report thread only to find in order to read it I then have to follow a link to some off Flyertalk site.
I regularly copy and paste my reports over several sites without any problem...only takes a minute to do.

I'd rather open a link to a good TR blog (like Lucky's or Mennix's) than one to a Youtube video. That to me is not at all what the Trip Report forum is about.

I'm with HIDDY on this one. Other than SFflyer123's great youtube videos, I don't like going off site, primarily because most of these sites just are that enjoyable to read/view... arts fartsy layouts, smallish pics. One of the big drawbacks is the lack of comments/interaction with other FTers. Sure there may be some comments, but mostly from non-FTers that don't really have much to offer. If you have an outside site, just copy and paste on FT, make the necessary mods for your photos and be done with it.

Thanks

A very good point. ^

I also don't find them very user friendly. Too much navigating, small text,horrible colours. One click on a FT report and you have it all there in front of you in a easy on the eye layout.....and I don't need to search for my reading glasses.

All my reports are photos based, and it takes time to individually copy and paste each photo to FT. On an average, each one of my photo trip reports has about between 300 and 350 photos.

I think some of the excellent examples mentioned such as Lucky, Mennix, and SFflyer123's links are fine. I agree with comments that if the linked sites are hard to navigate and have too pop-ups and ads, then they are hard to follow, especially if the photos cannot be enlarged.

The interactions between the OP and members in each trip report post also make great reads.

If you write the report as word doc and cut/paste the IMG links from photobucket you can then paste the whole TR into your blog and on here or annette with no extra work....regardless of the amount of pics.....some people seem to place an inordinate amount of importance on their blogs when I feel they should be supporting the FT forums and community......blogs are just a pose I really don't like leaving FT to read a TR on a blog.....you're not special people just coz you got a blog, come play on here with the rest of us :-)

I'd still rather read someone's carefully crafted blog than open a report and see "here is a link to my trip report, I've posted it on Airliners.net". I think that's far lazier.

Exactly and it's one of the reasons why I post my trip reports online. I'm always interested in people's feedback, questions and comments. Like many others, I post my reports here and on airliners and get very different comments from very different people. I don't expect users of one site to use both, nor do I expect them to have to sign up to the other just to post a comment.

Take my recent trip to Costa Rica. On here there is an interesting discussion of F class products. On airliners, one of the pilots who flew me from San Jose to Quepos recognised himself in a picture I took over his shoulder as we came in to land.

Top Ten Trip Report Faux Pas

10. Posting pictures of themselves with censored/blurred faces.
9. Yet another Star Alliance RTW trip report courtesy of US Airways
8. Taking pictures of half eaten food/dirty plates
7. Taking unauthorized photos of the back of random people and capturing the look of disgust on their faces
6. Bringing 20 stuffed animals on the plane to take pictures of them in seat
5. Taking pictures of dirty lavatory toilettes
4. Posting excessive amount of pictures of themselves and their not so attractive S.O.
3. Making the flight attendant pose while holding a bottle of wine
2. Taking creepy zoomed in pictures of other females
and finally…



1. Taking creepy pictures of flight attendants