Splitting Trip Reports -- DON'T !!

I agree! Those kind of trip reports are way too hard to follow so please take Frank's advice and do them all as 1 post.

Agree 100%, good advice.

Pro Tip: Write you review in another program - MS Word, Notepad, TextEdit, etc., whatever you have handy (but not in a browser window for the Forum) - and when your brilliant prose is ready for the world, just copy/paste the first part, post that, then immediately post the subsequent chunks (as *replies** to your initial post).*

Your web browser is really not a great tool for writing long pieces. Get it right as a separate document, use whatever program you want, and then, when you're ready to unleash it on us all, do the copy-paste thing. The writing will probably be better (writing long form text in a browser window is fragile and your work can easily be lost), and posting the sequence allows others to view it all as sort of "chapters" (assuming it's too long for a single post). Posting all the chunks, one quickly after another, allows you to get all your "chapters" in, with less chance for others to jump in, in between (unless that's what you want).

OK, now back to working on my epic trip report over there in that other window (seriously, I got one coming soon...).

Hope that helps.

Will do! I have 3 I will be writing!

Yes! Since I try to stay in Europe 5-6 weeks at a time my trip reports tend to be long. I write the whole thing in Word, then copy and paste until I have it all here. It makes for a long post, but anybody that is interested in reading it is going to skim over the whole thing anyway. I found myself reading a six part report backwards the other day and had to search for Part 1.... found it on another page.
: ( pita

This should be stickied.

Webmaster- yes, can we make this a stickie?

Yes, there are several of these serialized reports on this site now, very frustrating to follow.

I will continue to enjoy trip reports in whatever format the writer cares to choose.

I agree, the easiest to read trip reports are ones that are all posted together in one topic, with the first part as the new topic and then the subsequent posts immediately following. I'd suggest only posting two separate new topics if there is a clear split in the trip. For example, a trip report of a trip that was split between one week in London and and one week in Paris.

Well, I'm one of the guilty parties. Thanks for the advice about how to keep reports from getting split. The real problem, though, is that it isn't possible to upload an entire report (from Word) in one posting. Surely for the Trip Reports section, the webmaster could make it possible to upload more content at one time.

It is a little tricky but not terribly inconvenient for the benefit gained. Just upload a couple of paragraphs at a time. AND - if concerned that someone might sneak in with a response before you are done, then just put some place holders in place. Go to the first response and put Part II xxxxxx and enough characters to be accepted. Do another response with PART III xxxx, and so on until you have reserved enough space. Then when ready to post part 2, you return to your first response, do an edit, and posted the response. Same for part 3.

Thanks, Frank, for the post. I was trying to figure out how to address this politely, but you did a great job. I agree, completely!

I'm not sure that the cure isn't worse than the disease. Delayed composition and additional editing are likely to improve someone's writing. Huge-type subheads (which appeared without my knowledge or intention!) made my separated report easy enough to follow.

I was an offender this year, simply because I forgot! I didn't have time to do my whole trip report on Leiden in one sitting, and when I sat down to finish, I forgot about adding it to the original as a response. I did remember how to do it when I posted my RS tour trip report; sometimes we just need what the Car Talk guys (RIP, Tommy) called a "dope slap."

Webmaster- yes, can we make this a stickie?

What's a stickie and where do you see them?

Maybe should be added to the 'Tips' portion of Travel Forum, Get Started, if anybody actually reads that.

I agree to write the report in WORD or similar to begin with. Then when I am ready to post, I open a new word document and copy and paste a few paragraphs at a time. The word count is at the bottom of the WORD document so you can get close to the 1,000 word max or whatever it is for each segment that you want to post.

I do love to read Trip Reports and will read them in every format! I just appreciate anyone taking the time to write up and post.

Nancy, a stickie is the term for a response that is frozen at the top and does not get driven down by new responses.

I always write my longer posts in Word before pasting them in. As I re-learned today, though, the Word formatting doesn't transfer well, and leaves an ugly mess to clean up using the limited formatting options above. Inserting a bulleted list makes the text wrap oddly, Bold + Italic = Underline, not bolded and italicized, separate paragraphs roll into one...but it's doable and gives a better result to have all related posts together in one thread.

I do the "reply" to continue if needed, but if I went to 2 or 3 countries I will create one report for each as I do appreciate that when reading the reports of others.

I'm commenting just to move this to the top of the Trip Report section again.

Guilty. hangs head in shame

In the case of separated sections of trip reports it's easy to find them by clicking on the OP's name and looking at their posting history.
I'm with Carol...I appreciate the effort put into a trip report whatever the format. Keep em coming and thanks.

Maybe it would be better not to use Word, since the formatting doesn't transfer well.

You could use a simple editor like Notepad or Wordpad and then transfer all your text in chunks. After transferring all the chunks, edit them with headings, lists, links, etc.

Sorry Frank! This was my first trip report, and I was sort of following the format of the ones I had read here, which were kind of separated into chunks by country. Also, before I went to post my rather long report, I didn't know there was a character limit on each entry, so ended up having to guess how much of my Word document would fit in each 'reply'. I will do better on my next one, when ever that is. :)

Back to the top. :)

Well, I was reading spencerstickles reports on his Southern England tour, and all I did was select his name and then all his reports came up in one list. Just an option for looking back at those pesky split reports.

I don't think stickies are worthwhile. Most people don't seem to read even the basic instructions, based on some their postings. I do think you've done well to remind us of the best way to post a trip report.

I will add that I find it more useful to post the reports in the country forums. If I'm planning a trip to Portugal, I'll go through the threads on that forum and that's where I'd like to see people's experiences. Combing through myriad threads in the Trip Reports section is an exercise in futility since it's a hodge-podge of all destinations and the majority of the posts there aren't trip reports but traveler's questions that should have been in the country forums. Apologies for the rant, and by the way, I am planning a trip to Portugal, so please post a trip report if you've been there!

Chani

You may recall that I visited the Algarve and Lisbon on my trip in 2015. There were a few tips and recommendations made in my trip report, for which you graciously responded. I love reading trip reports and find myself seeking them out at least once a week. 😀

Split reports are very annoying and I hesitate to get trapped into following them,

So I followed Frank’s advice. I tried to write good reports, but did not get a lot of readership so to speak.
I wonder why some trip reports get like 50+ comments (like the Scotland Sticky Toffee Pudding report) and others see much less readership.
After doing 3 reports on Norway, Scotland and Ireland this past summer, I felt that I did not get enough readership to warrant the time and effort I put into the reports.

So, why are some trip reports widely read with lots of comments and others (like mine) crash and burn out quickly???

Edit-I don’t mean to sound 😫 whiny. This is a serious question I have.

Well, diveloonie, you hit me fair and square. I read many trip reports (though not all) in a hit or miss fashion and often don’t comment. That is for a couple of reasons, I guess.
1. Sometimes I read them long past the time they were posted. Sometimes I read them when I am starting to think about a particular trip of my own - and a comment would just bring an old thread back to the top. (And this type of reading is where putting reports in the same thread is really useful.)
2. Sometimes I don’t feel qualified to say anything - here’s where I could really do better and acknowledge in some way that I read and appreciated the effort and information!
As far as I know, there is no way to tell if reports are read - only if one sparks a discussion. And that can depend upon many factors.

Edit to add* Your Ireland report was one of those! I read, enjoyed, and didn’t comment!

Thank you for that thoughtful explanation Travelmom.
I wondered if some read, but didn’t comment.
I love reading trip reports and I always try to leave a comment to show appreciation, although I did go back many pages on this forum and some are too old to comment.

Time to bring to the top again?

I think so. A lot of multipart split reports lately.

....So, why are some trip reports widely read with lots of comments and others (like mine) crash and burn out quickly???.......

That is because we don't like you. You are not part of the inter circle so we ignore you. You are not an "in girl." Seriously, there is no reason but I think it could be generational is that a lot of older posters here (self included) are not a part of the facebook era where it is important to collect large numbers of "likes." Many of us are not in the habit of reading something and then posting a "like" or some other comment. I don't judge my trip report by the numbers of comments I receive. I will comment if I think a report is exceptional well written but that harkens back to my professorial days of reading student papers. For me the number of comments that a trip reports generates is unimportant. It is not a popularity contest. And most times I rarely look at the comments. And sometimes the number of comments may indicate a poorly written report not easily understood and the report may make some dumb statements that readers feel a need for a response.

You could have the most popular trip report here but no way of knowing since a count is not keep of viewings. And -- personally -- never thought that was very important. But for some, I can see where that could be. Just keep writing -- some of the greatest writers were not well recognized until they were dead.

@diveloonie I read each and every trip report you wrote and loved them all. I am guilty of not replying a positive comment for sure, but that didn’t mean they weren’t enjoyed. Puh-leeze don’t stop!

I love getting comments when I post a trip report, so I try to comment when I read one. Even a simple "Thank you" makes me smile.

I, also, am guilty of reading a lot of trip reports and not always responding. Sometimes it's because I'm rushed, or I didn't think I had enough knowledge about the area. I do read many, many when I'm looking at a certain area that we have either been to or are interested in going on our next trip.

Thanks for letting me know that it means a lot to the writer that people have responded. I will do that more often in the future!

And thanks for writing a trip report!
Mimi

@Frank-lol. No, I didn’t take it personally!

And thank you luv2travel, Jane and Mimi for understanding. I have noticed that trip reports written about RS tours do see lots of comments. So I will do a TR on our first RS tour to Greece next October and see. I won’t stop writing trip reports though as it is nice to have notes/record of the trip for my own sake.
I was actually contemplating writing one about my recent dive trip in Indonesia. Ha! I bet that would be the first dive trip report on this forum!

I bet that would be the first dive trip report on this forum!

Diveloonie, put "Dive trip" in the search box. You're not the first!

With about a million postings here, it is hard to the first on anything.

With about a million postings here, it is hard to the first on
anything.

Now, that's a pretty interesting thought... how many threads are here on the forum.

I searched "the" in the search bar... 163,436 threads with the word "the" on the forum.

How about a search with the word "a"? 151,065.

There are actually 12,000 threads that contain "the" but not "a"?

I wonder if I'm the first to post on searching for "the" and "a"........

Interesting curiosity you have, but I think the results that showed up on your results are having such "the" and "a" on the forum titles? That's my guess