I wish more people would post trip reports...

On the Graffiti Wall is a section called "share your feedback" on the RS books. It can work as a place to share your experiences and read about others'.

It was a trip report , not a guide book report. There should be a seperate place for it, or they should be allowed on the regular general forums.

Visit other forums,, they do not shunt off trip reports ,, they ARE very valuable information and should be allowed , period.

I have to admit I like the trip reports too - which is why I try to post mine.

Sometimes the discussions they lead to are also helpful.

And I hardly ever visit the Graffiti Wall, but I'm in the helpline daily.

Now I am going to read the Graffiti Wall, since you brought it up.

I too love reading the trip reports and am always scanning the Graffiti Wall for accommodation and restaurant/trattoria recommendations. My pet whine is that many posters don't offer the web addresses for their favorites. When they do, I review the website, decide if it's a place I would like and then add it to my favourites under Travel/Italy for planning purposes. Many thanks to those to do supply web addresses.

Sherry I am one of those posters who does not offer web addresses. I am completely computer challenged and do not know how to post links etc. I find if I offer the name of a hotel , resto or place of interest that a mere entering of the name into the google search page will bring it up,, then just click on it, that only takes 20 seconds, so not that hard for a poster.

Jill, I love reading trip reports too,, but must say this site in particular does not offer as many to read as some sites,, I have no idea why.

From above post: "I love reading trip reports too, but must say this site in particular does not offer as many to read as some sites, I have no idea why."

The Helpline Posting Guidelines address this:

"If you do not have a question but would like to share a travel tip, browse our other boards we call the Graffiti Wall. If you don’t see a board that is a good fit for your tip, please send a request to webmaster@ricksteves.com."

Trip reports posted here, on the Helpline , will probably be deleted.

It's unfortunate that another section couldn't be added to the HelpLine for "general discussion" or "Just Back Reports", a section that was not just limited to questions. That way it wouldn't get in the way of the "questions & answers" part of the HelpLine, but would still allow a Forum for those that want to participate.

This would be a good way to learn about good and bad experiences with Hotels, restaurants, or other tourist facilities.

I find the Graffiti Wall somewhat "cumbersome" to use and difficult to follow the replies. As a result, I don't use it too often.

Cheers!

I'm with Ken on this one.

I do not use the Graffitti board much anymore, alot of it is old info( stuff I have read) so I only pop in once in a blue moon there.. its not updated with new stuff daily like helpline is..

To each his own.. remember, just because the RS website doesn't do something, doesn't mean they shouldn't.

ps Just read a great trip report by "Lauren" wanted to post a thanks and a query, but it was moved.. so does the grafitti wall allow me to respond to Lauren directly?? I have questions for her? Oh bother. It would have been nice to have just left it where it was, see now i have to go and fuss about to look for it.

I too would like to see a trip report section on the Graffiti wall.!!!

And that is a shame,,, I mean it, what a loss. I was going to PM her too, , but now can't even figure out how to Pm her without her name to click on, .. very frustrating.

Lauren if you see this could you please PM me, I didn't write down the name of the place you stayed in Lake Como and it sounded wonderful.

Now,, having that information would be helpful,, on the "Helpline".

I also love trip reports & I vote for a Trip Report section somewhere on this site. Pat I am with you as I knew I should have sent a PM to Lauren earlier today to tell her I enjoyed her report. Oh well...

I'm glad I was able to read Lauren's report before it was deleted. Considering the amount of time it may have taken her to post, it should have been moved to accessible location instead of being deleted.

This would very quickly turn into Facebook if free space was up for the posting of Trip Reports..

However, that might not be a bad idea.

Francis,, I don't know what you mean. Many if not most travel sites have trip reports posted and it does not turn into anything ??

I am not on facebook,, signed up once and then realized it was not my thing,, and I seemed to get too much junk from them, glad I closed my account there.

Something that's not apparent on the surface of the Helpline is: considering the disparity in the amount of money Expedia has to spend on the Tripadvisors website, compared to the resources of essentially one person to support this website, IMO it's pretty nice what the Helpline has been able to make available to us for our enjoyment.

Many of the other travel websites are owned by huge corporations with megabucks to spend on website admin staff, redesign of their websites--for example, Tripadvisor, not to mention Facebook, etc.

The issue of money and company size is somewhat related to some of the limitations encountered on this site--questions about why don't "they" change this or that.

IMO it's nice what one relatively small company has been able to make available to us travel junkies here. This site has evolved, gotten friendlier, and become a better place--thanks thanks to each of you out there and to Rick and the Webmaster, who have all combined to make this a pretty nice little corner of the internet for us travel junkies to hang out.

I have no connection with this site i That said, I don't think its a bad idea at all to create a section for just Trip Journals, but here are some considerations from an IT web-hosting point of view:

Pics would all have to be examined before allowing the post to be online if this site hosted those pics. And pics take up a huge amount of server space, cause people try to post huge photos, and weird photos, so there is overhead and bandwidth issues.

The Internet isn't a nice place and no one should think of it in that way or in an innocent manner. Many posting could be just collections of ads for places to Eat and Stay that are not vetted by Rick Steves. They'll look just like someone took a real vacation. And This Is His Site provided for Free with out general ads to support it.

I've already seen this site pimped out with fake postings to lead people to Hotels, Tour Guides and such that are not in the books. These have nothing to do with the Rick Steves' Enterprise... its just free advertising for these places that Rick hasn't reviewed. This is a major site now to do this in.

Believe me when I say there are armies of people that are paid to post boiler plate ads on sites such as this one. This is a reality of the internet. The problem is one of filtering. You buy the RS guides because someone has been there, and critically passes it as Okay. Who's going to filter all the free postings? As a former SysOP of 20 Years of BBS sites and now Web Moderating on many sites today, I can tell you that its a great deal of work keeping all the spam out. And in its most simplistic terms, a site doesn't want you clicking out of that site to look at something else. This site is VERY generous about this already, and your ability to click out to another linked site.

Anyone can create what ever their travel journal is on a multitude of other social network sites or use you own ISP server space to create "My Family Vacation." Your Profile a

Francis is spot on re his thoughts on the "IT web hosting issues" faced by the Helpline. For example, many of you here now will remember the problems the site went through, in the last 6 months, with users imbedding photos and other graphics directly onto the site--which led to them finally being banned.

I'm not affiliated with ETBD in any way, but am aware of the large amount of work that goes on behind the scenes at ETBD to keep this a nice place for us to hang out.

So thanks to each of you, and to the Webmaster, for keeping this a nice place.

I think trip reports are positive feedback on the help travelers have received here. I don't want to read someone's minute-by-minute blog, or look at their 750 photos, but I do enjoy reading about their experiences and often this leads to my making a note for my next trip. It's also useful to learn what other individuals (not RS tours) have found to be good itineraries.

Many of the posts here are not, in fact, questions. There are travel warnings and alerts. There are also discussions that start with "what was your favorite...." or "how did Italy change your life...."

So, all that being said, look for my Ravenna trip report coming soon - I hope it makes a lot of folks think about visiting!

And I echo the sentiment: THANK YOU FOR THIS SITE.

fodors.com is built for trip reports. I like to read them. The overall travel style on fodors focuses more on haute cuisine and four star lodging, while mine is more budget lodging and picnic foods from a grocery store.

I think a section on trip reports would be great and maybe serve a better use of website space than some of the other offerings on here. Like Chani, I am not advocating a minute by minute blog or needing to see photos. Lauren wrote a great trip report and while maybe a little lengthy had some good information in it. Maybe get rid of an archives section to make room for a trip report section. Anything more than a couple of years old may be too outdated to be of real value to anyone and not everyone knows how to use search features to their best advantage anyway. I, too, am sorry that Lauren's post was deleted. I had hoped to share it with my husband.