# Whither trip reports & blogs?



## DABurleigh

There are many aspects to motorhoming. Much attention is rightly focused on choosing the right vehicle/dealer; acquisition if you like. Then there is choosing the accessories with which to equip it. Maintenance and repair. Interacting/ socialising, whether face-to-face, or online, with like-minded motorhoming friends. But not least is USING it. You might be happy with a routine use, close to home. Or for you the fun might be following your nose and seeing what turns up. But with so many members on MHF, the potential for sharing experiences in order to enthuse and assist others in getting the most out of their motorhome is huge. IF we actually share them .....

So, an aspect of MHF which is arguably underappreciated is motorhome trip reports and weblogs.

Over time we have had the opportunity to enjoy and use information presented in a variety of formats ranging from a succinct list of places visited and an invitation to members to ask for anything more, to veritable tour-de-forces covering every aspect of activity undertaken each day, often with photos. They can be placed in various forums, or in a blog, with or without a forum cross-link. They can take as little time to submit as many a normal post, or take some effort when the campsite database is updated, photos are published, accompanying web material supplied, etc.

*It would be nice to hear from members what they like in motorhome trip reports/blogs, and what they don't like, coupled with what they would be prepared to contribute themselves, and perhaps why they don't do it more often. *

I wouldn't want to lead or constrain thoughts, but to get things going, are you looking for entertainment or long-term reference? How do you find the information, when it is submitted or as a result of a search? Do you prefer it factual or perhaps personal? How long? Should photos be embedded small snaps to give the gist but no more, or able to fill the screen? And so on.

Thanks,

Dave


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## geraldandannie

Good question, Dave.

I like both short, photo-based blogs, and longer, written works too. I try to keep my various blogs up to date, but normal social life and work (not to say MHF) interfere :evil: 

Gerald


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## carol

Dave, I have never (at least I don't think I have) written a report on here, except sent into the downloads places for overnight stops, like the Ireland one we did in 2003.....

I write an email, sometimes every night, and send it to family and friends of where we are, where we have been, etc., but I suspect that is too much information, and unlike a lot of you on here, I am not very good at writing what I think is a really interesting blog....

I like reading them, like Grizlleys...last week...and I have even printed out a couple of yours and taken them with me, not the photos, but the information, as we happened to be going to the Loire, just after you had, and the info you had provided was very useful.

I do think the information of good aires - I suppose sites for those that use them - and price where it is applicable and can be recalled, and trips, either as a small round trip are great...

I also have realised I don't have the technical know-how on how to put together some of these with embedded photographs, perhaps someone could write a HOW TO DO IT article, then I could save it, and go on tell me there is one in the computer section - I better check it out.

Probably factual with the odd personal bit, especially the funny bits 

My tuppence worth.

Carol

PS - Having checked in the computer help and web help I only found how to add one photo or a series, I knew that, but how would you add a photo and then some more text and perhaps another photo.

Also thanks for the link to pixelresizer, it is quicker than my graphic software ...


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## sallytrafic

Well I got the news tonight that the Blog facility on MHF is being improved to make it WYSIWYG but it doesn't support and won't support Safari. 

So I'm moving my blogs to another site where real computers are supported  The ease of use is fantastic I wrote my first blog on the other site as a test, 2 different fonts, a photo and a sentence. All in about 1 minute from the moment I registered.

Now I'm disappointed that they can't be hosted here (unless I continue to have the photos in an album and the text in a blog) but hope that you IE users will be grateful for the changes that I've prompted nukeadmin to do.

My blog button will be back pointing off site soon, once I've copied them over and added a few dozen photos to each of them.


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## DABurleigh

My one allowed bump before it is lost forever.


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## carol

DABurleigh said:


> My one allowed bump before it is lost forever.


?

What?

Don't understand...

Carol


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## geraldandannie

carol said:


> DABurleigh said:
> 
> 
> 
> My one allowed bump before it is lost forever.
> 
> 
> 
> Don't understand...
Click to expand...

Continued bumping of a thread (i.e. just posting to bring it back up to the top of the current threads list) is not allowed on MHF.

However, someone else coming along and posting (like you've done :wink: ) is, of course, allowed.

Dave - have you thought about making a poll? It's nice and easy for members to register their preferences.

Gerald


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## carol

Or of course if you thought the thread was worth getting a good cross section for an answer - you could always sticky it.... Now how about that one...as it is worth finding out

Carol


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## Hampshireman

For what it's worth, I read some trip/blogs prior to our first major venture abroad this year. After that I have not read any more. I did write a report on our trip, with photos to assist other MHFers and hope it was worth it, as I enjoy writing and communicatiing.
Our next trip, apart from long weekends, unlike some of you will be the annual holiday and we aim to make Italy and back over about 3 weeks in 2008, so no doubt I will start to pick up stuff again nearer the date (which is undecided at present, but definitely out of season)


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## Scotjimland

DABurleigh said:


> to get things going, are you looking for entertainment or long-term reference? How do you find the information, when it is submitted or as a result of a search? Do you prefer it factual or perhaps personal? How long? Should photos be embedded small snaps to give the gist but no more, or able to fill the screen? And so on.


To write an entertaining blog is a gift that very few possess, (the reason I don't write blogs), too many are just mind numbing ramblings, reading a phone book would be more entertaining, I don't want or need to read what someone did every day, when they struck camp, how far/long they drove, where they stopped for tea etc etc.

What I do like is factual, useful information about sites and places to visit with plenty of pictures.. the personal stuff I can do without.


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## sallytrafic

ScotJimland said:


> DABurleigh said:
> 
> 
> 
> to get things going, are you looking for entertainment or long-term reference? How do you find the information, when it is submitted or as a result of a search? Do you prefer it factual or perhaps personal? How long? Should photos be embedded small snaps to give the gist but no more, or able to fill the screen? And so on.
> 
> 
> 
> To write an entertaining blog is a gift that very few possess, (the reason I don't write blogs), too many are just mind numbing ramblings, reading a phone book would be more entertaining, I don't want or need to read what someone did every day, when they struck camp, how far/long they drove, where they stopped for tea etc etc.
> 
> What I do like is factual, useful information about sites and places to visit with plenty of pictures.. the personal stuff I can do without.
Click to expand...

Right Jim so what do you think about this one, now that I've added photos. I recognise some of your dislikes as being there but not too many I hope  >Ireland 2007<


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## Scotjimland

Hi Frank.. 

Thanks for the link to your blog, a good read with a nice balance of pictures and text with lots of interesting observations combined with some personal views.. 
Your observations on the travelers was interesting, they usually only get bad press, recently I was reading an Irish camping forum where they were discussing pub over night stops, the members were totally against making these public for fear of them being used/abused by the travelers.. :? 


Jim


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## sallytrafic

Thanks for those few kind words.

I don't expect everything I say to be agreed with especially about travellers. I once did some research on the subject and thought that both in UK and the Republic they were getting an unfair deal. Certainly on MHF there have been enough threads putting the anti traveller viewpoint so I thought a bit of redress wouldn't go amiss. Anyone who wants to hear what travellers have to say for themselves could start here >click<

Anyway back to Blogs my personal preference is not for a day by day account but if as I do you write a lot of it as you go its difficult to do it a different way.

I am influenced by Pusser's tales that have a theme - examples his toilet emptying and his navigational skills.

Since you read my Ireland Blog Jim I have added more campsite links and there are a few more to do. I'm glad I don't html code for a living.


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## Wanderwagon3

*As Topic*

Good Evening All

A most interesting topic.

I have contributed quite a few accounts of trips based on my daily Log books which have been kept since we started camping as a family in 1961.

I try to be brief and concentrate on accurate facts .
SITE FEES exact at that place and time

ROADS USED

LOCATION as accurate as possible eg 10 k NNE FROM "name of nearest large town "

Any OUTSTANDING POINTS of Danger, Of Interest, Of possible problem are ,or should be noted.

A brief PERSONAL comment. Such as Restaurants,Entertainments etc

These are things I hope to learn when reading other Trip Logs.

And I add a comment that I am willing to answer(if poss!) SPECIFIC questions

Safe Roads to all

Ken...........with wanderwgon3


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## Grizzly

I'm not sure that there is a problem Dave.

There will always be a lot of us who enjoy reading accounts of the travels of others and their day to day tribulations and triumphs, right down to what they had for dinner and where ! If this were not so then there would be a whole genre of travel books sitting unread on the shelves of the nation's bookshops. I'm delighted that people like Keith Ma****er, HD Jackson and Susie Kelly write about motorhome journeys; there are few enough who do.

Again, there are times when I want facts; where to stay, the roads to use, where to eat and I pick the facts from a full-blooded account, thankful that someone has taken the time to make such recommendations.
We've used MHF blogs and accounts this way several times and have never been disappointed.

There is a place for all types of blogs and I'd hate to think that anyone felt they could not write an account of their adventures because it was not the type of blog that was felt "right" on this site.

Carry on writing everyone, please, in whatever format you feel comfortable in.

G


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## sallytrafic

A very interesting topic which shows a range of opinion

well worth a bump (from a interested party)

Have you seen how Nuke has improved the blog feature

Now what we need is a search faciity


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## DABurleigh

Well not just in the interest of stimulating a healthy debate, but I for one am unclear on the advantages of a blog over a forum trip report. As you point out Frank, the blog search is inferior. More seem to prefer informative compact reports rather than more lengthy attempts at "entertainment" reports, in order to find relevant material in advance of a trip, not merely to be entertaining during an evening's surfing as they are posted. I'm not sure how blogs help here over a forum report. I am sure the errors of my thinking will be all too obvious to the blog fans, but I just don't "get it" 

And to cover a point peejay made in his recent report, yes, the forum structure is unnecessarily confusing - but easily fixed, nuke! - over UK/Continental/Europe.

Grizzly - you may well be right; all I wanted to do was to gather report users' views better to guide their compilation in the first place. As such, this thread needs no summary or consensus; peoples' views stand in their own right.

And I'm still none the wiser why so few bother, given the clear benefit. Is it really take and no give?

Dave


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## carol

Dave your last point is perhaps because, some do not take copious notes, so can't then write up from memory (me for instance) I take photographs and that is it, how I got there, I know not how.... I am also not much good at writing, BUT I do like to read them.... and I really have not used a blog myself, except to follow links from people's posts, and I like them in the normal forum as well..... the difference, apart from being in different places - is there one?

Carol


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## DABurleigh

I have never taken notes, just photos. Being entirely selfish for a moment, even if I didn't publish a trip report I'd do something very close for my own use. Replaying a trip periodically is the next best thing to going on another one! I have got SO much more pleasure out of photos since digital became a sensible alternative to film (1999 in my estimation). It's not simply that I press the shutter more often; more that it is so easy to look at them.

So, much as I used to replay from memory a round of golf to keep me going 'til the next one, the same applies to motorhome trips! But the ol' memory needs the discipline of a short report to help it 

Dave


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## Grizzly

DABurleigh said:


> So, much as I used to replay from memory a round of golf to keep me going 'til the next one, the same applies to motorhome trips! But the ol' memory needs the discipline of a short report to help it
> 
> Dave


I _do_ take notes. I've kept a diary of our holidays since the late 60s and the big box of filched school exercise books and, later, smart National Trust hardbacked notebooks is a source of pleasure and information.

The photos are there on my computer and in dozens of boxes of slides and prints around the house. One day, if I thought anyone else in the family was interested, I'd put them all together, but meanwhile I write for myself. If anyone else learns anything useful from the blogs then this is a bonus.

The blogs and trip reports on MHF and the internet in general have been a wonderful source of information for our forward planning and my pleasure on days when stuck at home.

Please everyone keep them coming !

G


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## carol

DABurleigh said:


> I have never taken notes, just photos. Being entirely selfish for a moment, even if I didn't publish a trip report I'd do something very close for my own use. Replaying a trip periodically is the next best thing to going on another one! I have got SO much more pleasure out of photos since digital became a sensible alternative to film (1999 in my estimation). It's not simply that I press the shutter more often; more that it is so easy to look at them.
> 
> So, much as I used to replay from memory a round of golf to keep me going 'til the next one, the same applies to motorhome trips! But the ol' memory needs the discipline of a short report to help it
> 
> Dave


Dave I had a camera in 1996 or 7 for work - internet based, and it is laughable now, it only did small pictures but good enough for the net.... and yes, my pictures are all on my computer and they are my screensaver, so seeing them is the best thing, so I must stop typing, then I can see some more.

I agree with Grizzly too, keep them coming, I don't think it makes any difference which way they are done....just do them

Carol


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## sallytrafic

Grizzly said:


> DABurleigh said:
> 
> 
> 
> So, much as I used to replay from memory a round of golf to keep me going 'til the next one, the same applies to motorhome trips! But the ol' memory needs the discipline of a short report to help it
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> 
> I _do_ take notes. I've kept a diary of our holidays since the late 60s and the big box of filched school exercise books and, later, smart National Trust hardbacked notebooks is a source of pleasure and information.
> 
> The photos are there on my computer and in dozens of boxes of slides and prints around the house. One day, if I thought anyone else in the family was interested, I'd put them all together, but meanwhile I write for myself. If anyone else learns anything useful from the blogs then this is a bonus.
> 
> The blogs and trip reports on MHF and the internet in general have been a wonderful source of information for our forward planning and my pleasure on days when stuck at home.
> 
> Please everyone keep them coming !
> 
> G
Click to expand...

Just reread your blog G

especially loved the end bit on stereotypes but why was no one doing what JockandRita do all the time if their avatar is anything to go by.


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## Grizzly

sallytrafic said:


> but why was no one doing what JockandRita do all the time if there avatar is anything to go by.


I couldn't possibly comment but we did wonder if the stabilisers on some vans were up to the job.

G


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