I use FastStone Photo Resizer to standardize the dimensions of my photos and reduce the amount of storage space they take up. I downloaded it for free recently from CNET and have been very pleased. It is extremely simple to use, and can add watermarks and other features.

(I have no stake or ownership interest in the program. I don't even know who the author is.)

I normally prefer the reports that are hosted on the site versus links out to other places but don't object when the author wants to link. I figure that if they want to take the time to author a report then who am I to object to how they choose to provide the content. I'm also not opposed to location reports as opposed to those that are transport centric...it's a trip report forum and IMHO a trip contains many elements, not simply the transport piece.

Trip Reports are far and away the best part of FT for me. I do prefer to have the reports hosted on FT though. Makes it easy to read and to keep track of changes/comments. Reports that are only about the attractions don't bother me at all.

One thing that would be nice is an index of reports. I often want to find a report about a specific airline or class. Search never really turns up anything useful -- for me at least. It would be daunting to create, but the index would be a great resource.

Indeed a daunting challenge...but I agree, this would be a great resource!

It wouldn't be too bad to put new reports in an index - if people submitted their own index terms. Those who have time could also submit index terms for their old TRs

My preference is the TR be hosted on FT. My reasons are as selfish as the reasons others have posted for having them hosted other places'

Coming to this forum is a time luxury for me in the total amount of time spent on FT. When I do get here it is totally ad free as I have an ad free account.

Writing a trip report is an even greater luxury. The last one required me to inform my colleagues in the forums where my time is normally spent that I would have limited availability to assist in moderating those forums. In a perfect world I would be a Trip Report forum moderator. :D

As to content I care not what is offered, trip or destination. Like a menu I will seek out what I like and not waste my precious luxurious time reading what does not interest me even if the report is swamped with views.

Depending on how you want to index, this can be very time consuming.

I maintain the stickied menu index in this forum (I apologise that I am a long way out of date at the moment) and it is fairly time consuming despite its simplicity.

The new Blog forum
 

Some of you may have noticed the new External Miles and Points Resources forum that has been created in the Travel & Dining section of FT.

Please note that the new blog forum is not a place where all threads with blog links will be housed. The new forum has specific guidelines as to what is considered appropriate for that forum. See here.

At this time there are no specific guidelines or rules with regards posting links to blogs on FT. Unless they break any of the other generic rules around commercial links, offensive etc they are permitted.

When this thread was started last year there was a mixed response about if links to blogs should be allowed or not. To help try and achieve a middle ground I have encouraged new posters in the Trip Reports forum to post as much content as they can here and link through to blogs for pictures etc if necessary. I have also moved on some 'reports' that deal with a single aspect of a city or a city report to the Destinations forum.

Unfortunately I am never going to be able to please everyone on this subject. I try as much as I can to keep the reports on here relevant.

I trust that everyone, blogger and not, respect that this is a difficult area to manage and police. If I were to ban outright any links to blogs I would upset as many people as seem to be upset by there presence here.

There are obviously a wide range of opinions on this, and no single magic solution which will please everyone. All I can ask is that if you have concerns, you share them with me. Don't derail threads by diverting them away from the trip report which the thread is about in order to discuss whether the thread is appropriate or not.
I'll certainly listen and consider, but won't always act - but how and what people complain about is important for me to understand where the balance of opinion within the forum lies. Thanks for your understanding.

Please feel free to add to this debate in this thread.

Moomba
Moderator: Trip Reports

I guess I missed this last time around.

Anyway I have posted a few different formats now ranging from posting everything here to the most recent where I posted on Twitter, collated that on my blog, and then posted a link to it here.

My blog makes no money, there are no ads, no affiliate links, and no plans to add them, so there is no commercial reason behind it. I just like having my own labor of love as it were. This latest format was also in particular for me much easier to get out in a timely manner. I will add I still find finding stuff here to the extent I used to struggle to find even my own trip report on here.

If it were changed such that I could not reference external sites, I'd have to make the choice as to where I put them. Well I'd keep them on my blog, so they'd be lost here. Now I am aware my TR's may not be up there with the best but I think banning links would cause many TR's never to show up here.

Personally I am open to all the formats, I enjoy reading a linked report as much as an embedded one.

EDIT: One other thing. I just tried to copy and past the embedded Tweets from my latest reports here. It did not work and simply showed them as text without recognizing the links. So frankly FT does not even support the format I used

as long as links do not generate $$ or referrals etc. and have no ads, no problem linking personally.

Please do not move trip reports that focus on a city to the destinations forum. Trip report are trip reports. If a report focuses solely on just American Airlines first class, why not just move it to the American forum?

Whether it is specific to a city, airline, or hotel - if the post is a report, i.e. a poster takes time to go into detail about the thing or place, let it stay here.

I appreciate the time that goes into trip reports but will skip any that don't have the review embedded here on FT. I won't click on outside links due to iPhone issues with pages loading and makes it more difficult to read.

+1

+1.
Impossible for us going through all destinations forum.
Then, I'm not personally annoyed by TR linked to blogs, as I found out plenty of interesting places in which indulge and spend some time, considering FT as a base for jumping.

Judgement for each case
 

I think there must be judgement for each cases. Personally, I make zero--absolutely zero dollars--from my youtube homepage. I've chosen that because I personally hate clicking on the stupid "x" to stop that ad banner. The money that I would make is miniscule.

That being said, if someone has a blog that is supported with an ad banner--just like flyertalk has these ads on the right hand panel & above the area where you're reading--I think that's okay also. If the guy/gal wants to make a few bucks with their blog, I think that's fine, just like the ads support flyertalk. I doubt that there are really any people making a fortune off a travel blog (except for people like Rick Steves, etc).

However, if it is a link to a clearly commercial spam/sales site, then I think that needs to be banned. If someone makes you click a link just for the purpose of selling you something that clearly is a commercial product, that should be deleted.

Thus, I think judgement for each type of external link, unfortunately needs to be made.