Thanks for seeking this feedback. You raise some interesting and timely questions. This, and the Luxury Hotels forum, are my two favorite areas on FT. We are lucky that there is a culture here of not saying gratuitously negative things. Members of this community spend a lot of time to create these reports, and many people pass a word of thanks, which as an author, I know is much appreciated. If someone doesn't like something, or isn't interested, they simply move on. Factual errors are generally politely corrected.

In considering the questions raised, we should be mindful that some parts of FT, at least, have become very (unduly?) rules-oriented. There are a number of widely varying trip report styles - heavy on pictures, planes/airports only, humorous (to the point of exaggeration in some cases) - all of which sort of come together nicely I think.

Importantly, we have created a culture where people feel welcome to contribute. As a community, we should take special effort to preserve that special feeling. (Regrettably, that feeling doesn't permeate through all parts of FT any longer.) If we get to the point where this forum has a "RULES FOR POSTING TRIP REPORTS" sticky post, that will be a big step in negating the special feel that we presently have. The "Ding Ding! What makes a great trip report" thread of suggestions is much more conducive to the special feeling we have here.


(1) Re posts that merely link to blogs (presumably without any even preliminary content here) / Should reports be hosted on FT.

In general, I'm a fan of having more content here. At the same time, I recognize the significant amount of effort it takes to set something up here (if there are a lot of pictures involved). (Text only reports are very easy to populate here.)

I faced this dilemma last night (before I read this thread). I was posting parts 3 and 4 of a 10 part report (one part had 30+ pictures in it). After all the time spent writing it, I decided I was running out of steam and decided not to re-link all the photos here and simply placed a link directly to an outside blog that I set up where the report was also featured.

I think what I did should be the exception, not the base case, for posters. In my case, if people read down to part 3 (parts 1 and 2 were fully posted here), readers will know if they want to read on or not.

I don't, however, think it should be a "rule" that all content need to be posted here. For those posts that are purely an external link (be it Airliners, Milepoint, SQtalk, or a blog), perhaps we could add a bracketed statement at the end of those threads' the titles that says "[Link Only]" or something. Clicking to Airliners is no better or worse than clicking to a blog.

For those that clicking into a thread to only find a link onward has been a waste of their time, in light of the thousands of hours people put into writing the content here (or on other sites), while you may elect not to click onward, I would encourage you to ask how much time was actually wasted versus the aggregate amount of time people have put into creating wonderful content here. While not everything will be to one's liking,

As to searching, as long as the key messages of a report are captured in the FT post (airlines, cities, classes of service, etc), even if that report then links outward, the FT forum will still be searchable. I don't see search-ability as a big deal.


(2) Transport versus city/attraction:
Everything related to trips should be welcome.

While I enjoy reading about TG F as much as the next guy, the 18th picture of the golf cart picking someone up or of the caviar plate probably doesn't tell me much more than the 17th. (Or the 2nd, for that matter.) If TRs were transport only, barring when a carrier introduces a new cabin (ie: CX's new J), this forum would be extremely repetitive. If we were transit-only, we wouldn't be able to have popular threads like Eightblack's current saga...which has very little to do with the type of champagne served on BA. Nor would we have had Olafman's epic trip...which while did cover, in great detail (and in a good way), EK's showers, was so much more than the transit. (That report brought a tear to my eye, perhaps the most memorable ever here for me.)

To share another approach used in other parts of FT, in the hotel point forums, they have gone so far to create master threads for specific hotels. If we felt this forum was getting overwhelmed, we should create a master thread for TG F - and all reports on TG F should go in that one consolidated spot. (I think creating master threads would be a bad idea - this forum isn't overwhelmed, nor close to being overwhelmed. But if it were, this would be the logical next step.)

Having read trip reports on just about every carriers' premium travel and every airport lounge in the world bar one (stay tuned for my upcoming post on HA's KOA F lounge!), reading about (and seeing) restaurants, sites, and activities is a very welcome part of this forum for me.

I certainly don't set a reminder, either. Perhaps adding a "[Coming Soon]" to the thread title would be a good solution rather than deletion.

Agreed.

+1

Good trip reports come in all styles and flavors. Yours include lots of good detail...don't be discouraged (if you have the time!).