BAEC focussed trip reports.

Old Aug 22, 2014, 3:40 pm
  #1  
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BAEC focussed trip reports.

I apologise in advance if I'm raking over old ground - I'm not the most frequent of forum visitors....

The vast majority of my air travel is with BA/One World. I enjoy reading and very occasionally contributing to the BAEC forum within Flyertalk. I don't frequent the wider Flyertalk forums, and have no reason or desire to do so.

I particularly enjoy reading the experiences of others travelling within the same network that I use. Contents of some such 'reports' may be mundane or trivial, but equally there can be some very useful info for fellow travellers.

Case in point was the 'report' this week from C-W-S. I am shortly travelling through LCY, and found the debate on the thread about transport from LHR/hotel options very interesting. Since the thread has been 'banished' the traffic and exchange of useful info has dried up.

So, genuine question - why the apparent hate amongst the powers that be for 'trip reports'? It's clearly a long standing conundrum, with jocularity surrounding contributions flirting with 'trip report' status and threat of consequent banishment to the obscure corners of the site.

Am I expected to find endless discussions over 241/chase/Tesco/lack of award availability more interesting than the experiences of those actually travelling the routes that I do?
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 3:58 pm
  #2  
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I can help a little bit with this. And I've had a lot of PMs and texts about it from various BA FTers about this (over 50 of them), so you are not the only one to be asking the question.

The Mods were very careful to liaise with me (two of them in fact, separately) that they moved my "trip report" / travel diary simply because there was relatively little BA related content to the banter. If you have a look at the middle sections, that was very much the case. So discussion on cleaning teeth after breakfast predominated over the content of the LCY meal to GRX, to give a very specific example. Consequently the view was reached that the discussion wasn't BA focused enough to justify its location in BAEC but deserved a "wider audience" elsewhere (though I am less convinced by the latter point). I tried to eek out "relevance to BA customers" - e.g. the timings - but not many BAEC FTers followed that chain of thought.

My business travel diary did have a good run on this board, now it is just a click or two away, with multiple references in the new Trip Report thread in this board.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-oneworld.html
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 4:01 pm
  #3  
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There is a dedicated forum for Trip Reports, and as such actual trip reports should be published in that forum.

There is no harm in linking to a report in the BA forum. Special reports eg. special flights or the first report about a new route/product/lounge etc. tend also to be acceptable in the BA forum.

As the Lord Mucci des Contes de Voyages, this post represents the official view of all trip report writers
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 4:14 pm
  #4  
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Thanks for the reply CWS.

All internet discussion inevitably results in huge topic drift. Take look at any thread that reaches multiple pages - look at the last contribution and see if you can relate it to the original post!

I find trip reports that are specific to BAEC travel very informative, and therefore cannot understand why they must be banished to a generic 'trip report' forum full of postings that have no relevance or interest to me.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 4:33 pm
  #5  
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Happy to offer some words of explanation. There is absolutely no hatred toward trip reports by the BA mod team. Quite the contrary, we hold these entries and their authors with the highest esteem and have always treated reports with deference and care, knowing the time and effort expended writing reports is significant.

Travel writing has developed into a highly popular pursuit here on FT, for writers and followers alike. The Trip Reports forum is, and always has been the de facto forum for, well, trip reports. While reports have been aired in this forum until very recently, and stonkingly good reports they too, they are largely invisible to the greater community - by that I mean FT members who do not normally visit this forum. Also, the number of reports posted here has increased over the past couple of years and we were growing concerned the BA forum was becoming, quite unintentionally I should add, a surrogate for the Trip Reports forum. That cannot be healthy, no matter how you look at it.

In light of the opinions expressed by member’s about where reports should be homed, we weighed up the opposing arguments, considered the pros and cons of each. C-W-S’s report followed shortly after, completely by accident but we saw this as a useful acid test. Like other recent reports, this example is beautifully written, analytical and contains descriptive prowess I wish I possessed myself. It is a great read. We absorbed the report like others and diligently followed the discussion. Like everyone else, we had no idea where C-W-S’s travels would take him or by what means. So upon review and apologies if this sounds brutal, the discussion flowed without any real focus on the BA elements of the report. Once upon a time, a live travelogue would have stimulated focused discussion of all facets of the BA service and product. The lack of focused discussion in this report and other recent reports together with consideration to the greater community lead us to a decision that all trip reports would be best placed in the dedicated Trip Report forum.

A new thread containing a growing index of BA related reports was posted here as a bridge to those who do not by their nature venture beyond this forum.

You’ll note that today saw two BA specific flight reports posted in the forum, which we are very pleased to see highly focused responses from BA regulars. Positioning topics of this type would be out of character for the Trip Reports forum and the BA forum is intuitively the best place for these.

I hope this adds clarity.

Prospero
Moderator: BA forum

Edited to add... If you don't visit the Trip Reports forum you'll miss out on all the other fabulous reports posted there. This week, eightblack returned with another rib aching read... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-holidays.html

Last edited by Prospero; Aug 22, 2014 at 4:50 pm
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 4:58 pm
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Prospero - I appreciate the time you have taken to provide a detailed response.

I guess I had not considered the prospect of those seeking to search out general 'travel writing' in a dedicated Trip Report forum. This is not for me, but as you point out they may now benefit from the posts redirected from other forums.

My concern is that this may discourage people from posting less formal travel experiences specific to BAEC in this forum - these are the posts that I enjoy and benefit from.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 5:50 pm
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There was a lengthy thread on the pros and cons of where trip reports are posted just the other day which covered all the same ground as you have raised. Prospero has patiently explained (again) the rationale for the way forward. The consensus seems to be that it is a reasonable compromise.

We'll only see whether your concern is justified over a period of time.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 7:25 pm
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Originally Posted by Prospero
While reports have been aired in this forum until very recently, and stonkingly good reports they too, they are largely invisible to the greater community - by that I mean FT members who do not normally visit this forum.
A question I asked in previous discussions on this topic, which was never addressed, so I'll repeat it.

In the end, what difference does it make to the greater community if a trip report is moved to the TR forum upon its completion vs. moved while in progress? It will still receive exposure in the TR forum, only delayed perhaps by a week. If the report interests a regular reader of the TR forum, they will read it regardless if it's posted this week or next week.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:21 pm
  #9  
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I like having the BA trip reports here, as I never venture into any of the other forums. A few of the TRs raised some interesting points to me that helped me make the most of my BA travel, it's a shame if they won't be around on here any more.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:25 pm
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Hasn't there been enough wailing, gnashing of teeth and general navel gazing on this? One click (or two if you can't work the internet...) to get to the Trip Report forum.

You're not being asked to climb the North face of the Eiger.

Build a bridge and....etc.

Last edited by Kgmm77; Aug 22, 2014 at 8:37 pm
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:33 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by Friederich
Prospero - I appreciate the time you have taken to provide a detailed response.

I guess I had not considered the prospect of those seeking to search out general 'travel writing' in a dedicated Trip Report forum. This is not for me, but as you point out they may now benefit from the posts redirected from other forums.

My concern is that this may discourage people from posting less formal travel experiences specific to BAEC in this forum - these are the posts that I enjoy and benefit from.
It is not hard for someone that is interested in seeing trip reports to go to another forum. Some having an attitude of having no desire to go to the other forum is hardly a reason for one foum to therefore be just a forum where anything goes
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:37 pm
  #12  
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BAEC focussed trip reports.

One click or not, it is more lonely over in the TR forum than here in BAEC, but that is the decision that I have to respect.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:41 pm
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Originally Posted by Tim_T
One click or not, it is more lonely over in the TR forum than here in BAEC, but that is the decision that I have to respect.
Perhaps that just simply reflects the actual interest in trip reports
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 8:50 pm
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Originally Posted by Tim_T
One click or not, it is more lonely over in the TR forum than here in BAEC, but that is the decision that I have to respect.
It's quite the opposite in fact.

There are absolutely fantastic pieces of travel journalism from Seat 2A, SFO777, matthandy, Loose Cannon, Ironmanjt (to pick 5 off the top of my head).

Posts that might inspire you to visit new places or, if you're not that way inclined, simply pass a free hours with great prose and beautiful photos.

Genuinely, it's your loss.
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Old Aug 22, 2014, 9:03 pm
  #15  
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BAEC focussed trip reports.

I can only comment on my own experience - the live TR I'm still writing got many many more comments / interactions from others when it was located in BAEC than it's now home in TR. More people view the BAEC forum than the TR forum.
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