I am trying to post a trip report on my trip last week to Italy and Switzerland, as I got a bit of help from these forums.
However my report is obviously far too long, and it won't let me post it all.
It also states that links can't be posted. What is the best way around this, break it into sections and reply to myself or is there a better way?
Replying to yourself is definitely the way to go.
Indeed break it into sections, and reply to yourself.
Then those who read it will find it all in one place. It doesn't work very well when people make each section of their report into a separate posting. It’s really hard to find all the pieces then.
Thank you for taking the time to write a trip report !
Many people have been able to include various links in their postings (and replies), but maybe it depends on what’s in the link. Some may be accepted by this Forum and others not. Are the links to photos?
Yes, you will need to post as much of the report that will fit in your first post, then immediately reply to yourself with the rest of your report. I suggest writing your entire report first in Word or something similar, then copy and paste your report into the forum.
I found it’s helpful to read the draft of your report first so you can see how it will look once it’s posted. Sometimes the formatting and line spacing will need to be adjusted.
I also post links regularly.
Hi, DebH, yes, generally the rules are that you cannot post links to a trip report. That is really to stop businesses and bloggers from promoting websites that generate income for them.
However, many of us here do post links to personal blogs that do not contain any affiliate links or ads or photo sites like Google photos, etc, which have been allowed.
I find it useful to draft my trip report in another app (I use Google Docs) so that I have it all laid out and ready to go. Then I just cut and paste. Generally you should be able to get around 3500+ characters into each post, so you can calculate that ahead of time, which makes it a bit easier.
Here's an example of a trip report that includes links. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/7-august-nights-in-stockholm-during-kultur-festival I believe the comment regarding links means that you shouldn't link directly to a trip report you wrote that is on another platform (e.g., a travel blog). It doesn't mean you can't link to sources such as hotel websites.
As suggested, I'd write your report in a separate document, then copy and paste into a post, then start adding the remainder of the reports as replies to the first post. You can edit your posts to add links, so I'd put in the text first then go back and add those. I've seen people put in multiple placeholder replies to themselves first, and then go back and edit to add the content. That way all the report posts stay together at the front, and then people's comments on your report come after (the example post above shows how that works).
Above is what I did. Always overestimate the amount of reply spaces you need to hold, as you can always delete the extra. I just write my trip reports directly into the Forum.
Looking forward to reading yours.
Thanks so much to everyone for your assistance.
I had already written the report in Word so that was easy.
Unfortunately, I now see how terribly long my report is, and most people will have died of boredom before they are half way through! I do apologise in advance and hope that some can find some value in it.
Before our next trip I need to learn how to waffle less.
one antiwaffle pill for DebH
haha
we can all rattle on a bit. Better, much better, than writing in twitter speak
I happen to like lots of words. But I also like paragraphs and sections and some bold to help me see them. Lol!
