TR Forum Feedback Request
 

Fellow Trip Reports lovers we come to you seeking your thoughts on the Trip Reports forum.

Of late we have noticed that the TR forum usage is changing. Your mods would like your feedback on how you feel about this.

How do feel about threads that simply links to blogs/sites?
Do you think the report should be hosted on FT?
Should a trip report contain a transport element or can they simply be a city or attraction report?

We are seeking your opinions on this and if there is sufficient desire to make changes we will post a poll offering options.

Please help us shape the TR forum by posting your thoughts here or feel free to PM us.

Moomba & Swanhunter
Moderators: Trip Reports

I prefer trip reports to be hosted on FT rather than having threads that link to blogs but this is probably just me being a bit picky. :rolleyes:

I don't read reports that focus on cities but I have no problem if other people want to read them.

I have great admiration to everyone who contributes to this forum. It is one of my personal favourites and whilst I often struggle to set aside the time to document my own trips, I appreciate those who do. Authoring a trip report is mammoth endeavour in its own right so I think it is important to acknowledge the immense value reports add to FlyerTalk.

I would encourage hosting all reports on FT. One of my favourite writers, mitzyli hosted her enchanting reports on her personal blog site. These witty and tremendously useful travelogues are now sadly lost in the ether. Of course, the major benefit of hosting reports on FT is that it allows researchers to use the search tool to find them.

Another vote for TRs that are hosted on FT. Perhaps I'm just old and used to the good old FT format.
IMO, while a few of the outside blogs/sites are attractive and well organized (jlisi984's is one that comes to mind), most of them are not.

This is one of my favorite forums. It is an excellent combination of interest, information, humor, and generally all-round entertainment.

I get irritated at having to link to a report on another blog, particularly when it's not nearly as legible as here. Likewise, it's annoying to have to link to flickr or wherever to see photos.

I prefer there to be a transport element. I wonder if cities and attractions could be hived off into a separate (sub)forum?

One area where a useful change could be made is photos. Sometimes these are too wide to fit on any except the largest monitors, necessitating scrolling back and forth to read all text on the page, even in posts which do not contain photos. Sometimes they are too deep to fit on any except the largest monitors, once you have allowed for taskbars, etc, at top and bottom. Both of these are problems when on the road with a small laptop or netbook.
My suggestion is that there be a limit on the size of photos that can be posted, as happens on other blogs/forums. If this is unduly limiting on grounds of quality, then (as in some other blogs) a facility so that when you click on the photo you can see it at a larger size or higher resolution.

I am always disappointed when a post leads to an offsite page. I have no good explanation for why, but that is how it is for me...

I think there should be a subforum for these linked reports; we should not ban them entirely though.

I recently started writing trip reports. I considered writing them on my blog because that would have given me more freedom of design. For example, one of the limitation I found on FT was the number of photos on a post, which would not have been a problem had I used my blog.

At the same time, I realized that if people come to this blog, is because they want to read the material here, otherwise they would just google 'trip reports'. I believe, that in some way, people know that a trip report here is impartial and generally relates to the aviation industry, which is not guaranteed when we go to trip reports on other websites.

And that's why I decided to publish my trip reports on FT. And with all that speech, all I wanted to say is that I also vote for trip reports on FT.

One of the exceptions to the rule would be video reports on YT, although I wondered if those videos could be embedded on this website.

While I agree about preferring trip reports being hosted on FT, I would rather have a link to the outside site as opposed to nothing at all. I realize it must take a long time to post a report on both FT and Airliners.net, for example.

I do wish people would give an accurate description of the report as the title. It helps a lot with searching and knowing what you will get when you click. Also, saying if there are pictures is always good.


But mostly, I am very grateful when people take the time to write us a trip report.

The Importance of Good Formatting and Content
 

What I really appreciate is a well-formatted report that the author has obviously put a lot of time into creating. If the content is good I do not mind where or how it is hosted. Forced report hosting on flyertalk might be a deterrent in my opinion, as it requires the author to make time consuming technical adaptations/tweaks to host their report for each online aviation enthusiast/frequent flier forum.

Unless the trip reports are on a blog I do not read already, I do not read it. I have no particular problem with people doing it—I just won't read it. Same with video reports. I won't watch them, but that is my choice.

As for the content, some sense that a journey is taking place is enough. I enjoy ones that focus purely on the transportation the most, but I do also subscribe to some that are more focused on the location.

In the end, I guess I am saying the status quo is working fine, if only there was encouragement for people to post trip reports here over their own blog.

Hi,

even I am more on reading here then writing, I would love if the reports will be hosted here.

Btw thanks to all writers here!

It would be a shame if we didnt have city / location reports as well as the flying section of the report.
I have gained useful information which has influenced my choice of location.

I have tried to give some comment on the places ive stayed, indeed in one case the OP commented that it had given him food for thought.

Without this element of the trip reports, i would not enjoy reading them as much.

As for other blogs, i do click over to them if the title is of interest, the decision on whether to read them is based primarily on the content, but also how easy they are to read.

I also do not watch video reports.

This is one of the ft areas that I enjoy coming to. I love travel and seeing new places or reading about them. Its great that people take the time and trouble to make the effort needed to make them special.

Some trips, for health reasons, I will never be able to take. But there are also wonderful trip reports to cities that I have been to. I still enjoy reading about them as well. Their views, the weather when they were there and how its changed since I have been. Everywhere is slowly changing as peoples needs and life cycles happen.

I am not too happy that some link their trip reports onto a blog or somewhere else. FT is a safe site, nearly 99.5% of the time and I dont like opening some sites. You dont know if they have a virus or something. I am sure everything is safe, but I usually come on here when I am tired or wanting to escape from my world for a bit. I dont want any more problems.

I dont mind links to hotels or sites etc. Google does work well, bu sometimes it gets lost in translation.

As for videos. There are vids from the plane. For some reason I enjoy them. It reminds me of better times. But I wouldnt at the moment watch a whole report on video. Compalints about noise in a hotel should be on video though.

I do like to read about cities. People often do different sights that I might have forgotten about. Or they go to certain food places that I thought were no turns out in fact they are a wonderful. Hotels and how people find their stays there is often very helpful.

It also helps to research cities especially when you travel with other people and have to take into account their needs. Cities is where we end up when we travel there. So I feel actually really strongly that city info should be included by people, if they can.

But, thank to everyone who has written a trip report on here. I do personally really enjoy reading them.

Indeed.

I don't mind reports that don't contain a destination report but they do add a little extra to the overall story. I also enjoy reading reports taken by road,rail or water as well....they tend to be the most interesting ones.

I've posted my feelings before on the subject of those who just post links to their blogs or other sites etc. They get a big :td: from me and should be discouraged.

Maybe the ones that are Blog links could have BLOG LINK in their titles so those that don't want to visit blogs don't waste their time clicking? There could also be a blog guide that people could consult if they wanted info on a specific thing.

Personally I like the non-transport content of TRs and I think this can be very useful; I tried to make my TR as informative as possible for anyone who might want to follow in my footsteps. Maybe people could be encouraged to post an intro paragraph about what the TR actually contains?

As a lurker, I suppose I'm ok with people linking to their blogs or including non-travel information, but I think without rules, there are perverse incentives to link as many posts as possible. I hate seeing the same two or three bloggers spam the forum with short and uninteresting outside links.

Agree 100% ^

I concur with the Learned Mod and add the following:

1. If people want to link to their own site or blog, that's fine but if it's not particularly readable, then I won't be reading it!

2. I think that a trip report on here should contain some element of air travel within it.

3. The BA board sticky has a rather brilliant index by class of travel. Though it would be a rather large project, an index by airline and or class of travel would be brilliant given that searching on here (or via Google) isn't brilliant.

This is one of my favorite places to come and get ideas for future trips, and I wouldn't want to do anything to discourage people from sharing.

Although I certainly prefer to read reports hosted here, I am also fine with links to blogs if they are well formatted. Some of the best reports have been links to blogs, and I'd have been very sad to miss them.

People here are great travelers, and some of their best stories may not feature flights - I am fine with that, as long as the title makes it clear for those who prefer flight reports only.

I think that this is a great idea Moomba.

Recently I've found that there are a lot people that have been posting each section of a report in it's own thread. This really is not helpful, because it just fills up the first page, pushing 'combined' reports onto the 2nd page away from people that want to read them. In my opinion, posters should be encouraged to group related posts together into one thread.

With regards to linking to blogs, the content is not in question for me. Some great reports are actually hosted outside of FT. However, I don't really like the disconnect that the approach produces. I also don't like the idea that people won't post directly on FT because they want ad-revenue and to drive traffic to their blogs. That seems a little unfair to those of us that do post directly on FT.
I like the idea of adding '[LINK]' to thread titles where the actual report is hosted outside of FT rather than trying to force people to re-create the report on FT, if this is not seen as practical.

As part of a 'transport' based report, time on the ground should absolutely be encouraged. Part of the fun of reading the reports is not about the travel, but the very reason that people have taken the journey in the first place, to visit cities and attractions. I don't believe that a purely non-travel related report is right for this forum.

I think that this is a great idea. I always limit photos to a maximum width of 800px. Using code, it is very possible to link to a larger image by clicking on the smaller one.

It might be a good idea to post a short guide that explains how to write a trip report (the technicalities, not what to write). I tend to write the report in Word, using FT markup and then I can post it directly into a new thread. I wrote a very short guide for a fellow FTer so that he could write his first report. I'd be happy to submit that as a starting point if desired.

Thanks for bring this up, Moomba! ^

This is a tough one. I'm in general inclined to avoid rules and regulations that would discourage people from posting their TRs. While I agree with those who point out that there's something annoying about having to click through to another site, the alternative is, what, for that person not to share their TR at all? It seems to me that it should be allowed.

However...

I draw a distinction between people who host TRs on their own blogs/sites for the sake of convenience and those who effectively post links to their TRs as a means of drawing traffic to their commercial blogs or sites. If someone is making money from ads on their site, then I don't care for them using FT in general or the TR forum in patrticular to boost their take.

And one other thing: For me, the main reason I dislike TRs hosted outside of FT is that it makes it difficult to discuss using normal FT tools. You can't easily link-quote specific parts, and it's certainly not there for easy reference for others to see. And what happens if, for whatever reason, that person closes down their site? Then the TR is gone forever.

So I guess I don't like it, but I'm not sure I would take the step of banning it.

Honestly, I've managed to live pretty well with the status quo, but, since you've asked ~

How do you feel about threads that simply link to blogs/sites?

I don't care for them and 90% of the time I won't even bother reading them. As a result, I'm probably missing out on some good trip reporting but there are more than enough good reports right here on the Trip Report Forum. As was also pointed out, reports are archived here and that makes them alot easier to find later.

Additionally, I don't do videos, though I could care less if they can be posted somehow on the Trip Reports Forum.

Do you think the report should be hosted on FT?

I would prefer it

Should a trip report contain a transport element or can they simply be a city or attraction report?

Despite this being FLYERTalk, there are plenty of members here who could care less about airplanes, First Class comfort/meals/entertainment, etc. They're more about BEING there than GETTING there. As such, I've always thought we should have two separate sections - one for reports that focus primarily on GETTING THERE (i.e. First Class on LH to HKG) and one for reports that focus primarily on BEING THERE (i.e. Two weeks in Beirut without even a single BBQ Pork Sandwich).

Many longer reports are not purely about one or the other. For example, my reports focus primarily upon getting there, but there is also some information included about being there. So, even though my report might contain a few paragraphs about my time in say, Johannesburg, since the primary focus of the report was about getting to JNB, I would post it in the GETTING THERE section.

Finally, one thing I would love to see the moderators remove/disallow is posts that advertise upcoming trip reports (i.e. I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be going to Indonesia and Israel next month... blah, blagh, blaaah) Posting reports incrementally as you go is just fine but please, I don't want to read about anyone's trip until they're actually on it or done with it.

I agree 100% with what Seat 2A posted.

I'm also not keen on reports hosted elsewhere, particularly when it appears that what's really going on is an attempt to drive ad views on a private blog. Seems in poor taste.

I'd like to see some kind of feature where the thread for a given report offers the option of filtering out replies or chitchat, so you get only the posts specific to the report itself. Perhaps via some kind of tagging function, or by keeping new threads locked to everyone but the OP until they are somehow marked as 'finished'. I understand that Q&A sometimes filters back into subsequent chapters but since not everyone does placeholder empty posts at the start of their new threads, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track.

twj

The TR section is a trove of great information as well as "where to go next?" brainstorming playground for me. In addition, some posts are just downright entertaining (and hilarious). One of my favorite sections. Makes me wish I write better ...

Specifically, prefer the posts be hosted here on FT. Maybe it is formatting, maybe it is me just disliking links.

Transport (rail, plane, car, bus ... ) or just plain old destination only info are both ok. Really depends on where and how the "trip report" was written up. I find both equally useful. Perhaps a specific way to label the title the TR would help. For example "TPT : J class SQ NRT - LAX" vs "DEST : 3 days in LAX".

I'm not sure if that is 100% practical. For me, since it takes such a long time to put together the reports I prefer to post as a go, rather than reserving posts (since that also restricts you to a set number of posts and images). The other issue with 'reserved' posts is that any updates will not be highlighted as a new post and will not move the thread to the top of the forum. This also means that those people who have subscribed to the thread will not get an update notification since updates do not count as new posts.

The interspersed comments provide feedback and encouragement as well as keeping the report 'alive' on the first page of the TR forum. It takes many hours to put together a report and if the writer has to wait until the end to receive feedback then the motivation to finish could wain.

Not a fan personally. If someone is posting a link to somewhere else to read the report I'll generally not click on it and move to the next report.


Yes.

I quite like to hear peoples journeys in their entirety, flights, trains, sights, accommodation, etc.

Should be a rule that all TR's must include a certain percentage of pictures. :D

How do feel about threads that simply links to blogs/sites?

<JHIN Writes> HATE IT NOT A FAN :td:

Do you think the report should be hosted on FT? <JHIN Writes> YES ^

Should a trip report contain a transport element or can they simply be a city or attraction report?

<JHIN Writes> I think it SHOULD include the cities as that's half my reason of interest, next IMHO FT should provide a way that auto indicates in the thread title if the trip report includes pics. Heck I'd say Make it a mandatory field where the user must indicate if pics are used, cuz if you post a report without pics I'm 99% LESS likely to read it. Lastly each thread should include airline indicators after all FT is about flying the airlines.

Thanks for the survey

I don't like reports that are only links to blogs/sites. I do think they should be mostly hosted on FT.

I do understand when a TR has A LOT of pictures and the OP shows a few and has a link to an online gallery to see more pictures, just so that it cuts down the work for them to have to link so many photos in one post.

Seeing as this is FT, I think there should be some transport element in a report. It's fun to see what's in a city as well, but that isn't the main reason I read these.

Separate the two
 

I agree entirely. I have seen some phenomenal TR's that are on other websites besides FT, and it would be a shame to miss them. On the other hand, I can see how the FT purists really want to keep the TRs themselves on FT, which is totally understandable.

I will agree with others in that writing a TR takes a lot of work. It can be a tremendous time sink, and to keep re-writing a TR for each separate website can be extremely painful. I can make a lot of sense to just write the TR once, and link it from other forums.

My suggestion is to try to have our cake & eat it too. Create two forums:

1) one specifically for FT-based trip reports with no linking to outside blogs

2) one TR forum dedicated to outside blogs/links, etc

People who don't want to read these outside links never have to click on them; they can only read the FT-specific TRs. People who want to make sure they see what's out there and not miss anything, just go to the subforum that has only links to outside websites. I think this subdivision breaks it up, sort of how OMNI and OMNI/PR have been broken up. If you want to go there, click the link. If you don't, just ignore it.

I'm with JHIN on this.

I tend to skip the destination reports myself, but I understand that they're important to many readers.

Inappropriate example IMHO :td: :td:

Can I just add, I dont mind online picture sites. They are usualy okay like Flickr or something. If people want to show bigger pics thats great.

I still love pics of big cities like New York or Hong Kong etc.

The less rules the better then more people will share.
I enjoy reading TR even non airplane ones, I prefer words to pictures but pics do add to the content
Don't mind going to a blog, I read mainly on my iPad so pics can be a bit fiddly.....

I love this forum, but as I read them mostly via my iPhone often outside links don't work, or the text format is not readable on a mobile device.

All reports should be posted here and then if they have a blog they can promote that in their signature

I am guilty of posting long photo trip reports here, and also may put a lot of emphasis on the destinations than transport.

I love this forum, and I will make changes based on feedbacks expressed here.

Just as a reference point:

I don't like links to other sites, but they are tolerable.

links are fine in my view. some sites are much easier for some than this site.

i also have no issue with long photo reports.

i do not think any rules need to change. in fact, i would have a major issue with that.

Don't stop. Your photo reports are excellent.

This is perhaps the best forum of them all and I don't want any rules that restricts people from posting their experiences whether they are travelling in SQ F or US Y or domestic in Congo or from their destinations or whatever. That said I prefer it when the poster has an idea of what they want to say with their posts and photos instead of just posting anything they can think of and any photo they took.

1. I think the TR should be hosted here on FT, though I think there are some exceptions. Lucky is an established Trip Report writer and I have no issues linking to his blog. Ditto the guy based in YYC who posts Air Canada reports a lot, can't remember his handle. But I think in 95% of the cases I want it hosted here. I especially don't like being linked to Airliners.net. That strikes me as lazy.

2. Yes, see above.

3. I think there should be a transport element. After all, this is a trip report. I especially don't like when people break every activity they do into separate reports. E.G. Hong Kong Skyline report, Hong Kong hotel report, Flight to Hong Kong report etc.