Micro Trip Reports

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Kullaberg63 said:
Nick wants full size reports, guys ;)
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Well you know, those individual threads are such a burden on the website. It's so much nicer to load up one thread with four hundred photos in it instead. :rolleyes:

But seriously, why measure? A report is a report. Burying it in a thread full of random crap is useless and this system is not designed to accommodate it. If you want a thread to post one or two photos from a trip, that's cool. There are lots of threads like that. Anything more than a photo or two should be on it's own.
 
Kullaberg63 said:
Nick wants full size reports, guys ;)
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I guess I'm not done yet. I'm not sure why but this snarky post has gotten under my skin today. I'm sorry for pressing you for more on your Dolores post. Your video screenshot teaser was just such a tease! I mean shit, it had a play button on it! If you don't want to share more, that's just fine. You guys can post whatever the hell you want. My gripe with this thread is not that you don't want to share more, it's that people put way too much into this thread because they don't feel their stuff is good enough and I think that's shitty on a number of levels. I wasn't telling Jackson his post was worthy of a full report because I felt he should post more, I was saying it was enough to be it's own as-is. But just like this website can easily accommodate new threads for those posts, it can also accommodate this stupid thread. Personally, I'll be ignoring it from now on so post full size trip reports here if you want and I'll refrain from complaining about it.
 
Your words are good to read, @Nick. Thanks. I always teeter back and forth between writing a full report and writing one of these when I end up writing one in this thread. I'll just go for the full one if I'm going to make the effort.
 
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I totally feel where @Nick is coming from. I've personally always had mixed feelings about this thread. On one hand I don't like how it probably prevents some posters from posting their stuff as stand alone trip reports. On the other hand, I've been guilty of posting stuff in here myself because I don't feel a lot of the stuff I do on the east coast measures up to everyone else's trips.

But I think Nick is right, we should get over our own BS, stop thinking of our reports as measuring sticks, and use this site the way it was intended; as a place for all to share any and all experiences, big and small, long and short, action packed or just tranquil. I doubt any of us hike, backpack, or do anything else outdoors to get approval from others, especially strangers on internet, so why do we start worrying about it when it comes to posting up our stuff? I personally like reading about the smaller, little adventures just as much as the grandiose, epic ones. I guess because I can relate to them more since most of my trips are small and nowhere near epic. There used to be a guy on here from Texas that posted reports of him taking day hikes with his dog and I really loved reading them. He stopped posting, I believe because he felt his stuff wasn't good enough compared to the other stuff here. So I follow his blog now to read about his hikes with his dog.

I was on a mostly uneventful and unimpressive trip by BCP standards this weekend and was going to post a few pics in this thread at most, but now I think I'll make it a dedicated trip report. We need to lower the bar and try to get more people involved. The bar is set so ridiculously high, I'm afraid regular weekend warriors and novices shy away from sharing and that's a shame. Luckily, I can certainly help lower the bar with my northeast reports. And if people ignore them cause they aren't awesome enough, ehh whatever, at least maybe it'll convince others their stuff is good enough to post.
 
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Right on, @Vegan.Hiker. You hit the nail on the head. I quit all social media (unless you count this as social media) because of the whole "measuring stick" thing, and I like BCP because it's not about who's doing the most legendary, insane stuff. It's certainly not me. I'm as weekend warrior as they come.

I love when a new trip report, large or small, gets posted, so I guess it's pretty silly that I've held some back.
 
Hell yeah. Well said, you two! I even get to feeling a little squeamish about posting my Glen Canyon boat trips because they aren't as grueling as a backpacking trip and I feel a little guilty about it. But every time I still cave and post it, and I'm glad. I love posting trip reports, even if I'm the only one who looks at them! I have changed my user title to reflect my feelings on this subject. Post 'em if you got 'em!

I think this thread deserves a replacement for just super brief postings though. 1-2 pics, I went here and did that kind of things. That's what I do like about it. I think we should start one up called 'Where ya been?' or something like that and use it for that purpose for those who want to post a quick teaser for upcoming report or for things that will never be posted as a full report for whatever reason. I'll start it unless someone else beats me to it. I'm going to close this thread down soon.
 
I am pretty sure not many of us feel unworthy to post trips as full size reports. There are likely other reasons to use something like this thread.

Lack of photo-documentation. Just one killer shot from an uneventful trip. Say none of photo threads work, but one is really wanting to share.

No time in a busy life, but one do not want to loose the community connection by staying away. Putting something up here is a quick, feel-good move. 'Hey! Still out there hiking. Here's a pic.'

One could really, honestly feel that a certain outing is not significant enough to post full size. That's a choice the OP makes. Fair enough. But we still want to see it.

How about substituting this controversial thread for a generic photo thread in 'general discussion' and calling it 'One shot, one paragraph - from your last trip'. Would that work? And then get after the scofflaws posting more than that. If it's a quick teaser prior to a big report, even better.
 
Kullaberg63 said:
I am pretty sure not many of us feel unworthy to post trips as full size reports. There are likely other reasons to use something like this thread.
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You are wrong about this. I hear it all the time. People don't post because they don't think their photos are nice enough. Or someone else has already posted a report from that area. Or they just don't think they're good at it or something. 99% of the traffic to this site doesn't post a damn thing. And even amongst those that actually participate, many of them never post a photo or report whatsoever. You do amazing trips and reports that put us all in awe and you obviously don't think much about it from that perspective, but I promise you, it's a real thing. People definitely feel 'unworthy' posting along side great photographers and great adventurers, even though their stuff might be just as interesting and they don't realize it.

Kullaberg63 said:
One could really, honestly feel that a certain outing is not significant enough to post full size. That's a choice the OP makes. Fair enough. But we still want to see it.

How about substituting this controversial thread for a generic photo thread in 'general discussion' and calling it 'One shot, one paragraph - from your last trip'. Would that work? And then get after the scofflaws posting more than that. If it's a quick teaser prior to a big report, even better.
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I couldn't agree more with all of this, and this is why I suggest we replace this thread with one that is less ambiguous as to it's real purpose. One photo is definitely better than nothing, and it's also cool to hear where people have been and what they've been up to. It's WAY better than the people who just ask for help on routes, gear, etc. and then never post anything of substance or report back on their adventures. So that's what we'll do. If anyone has a clever name for this new thread, post it.
 
I'm certainly one of those that you're talking about
  • doesn't think that most of his trips are cool enough to deserve a post
  • there's already a ton of reports from that route here
So, I'm thanking everyone for the encouragement to post anyway. Honestly, I come here to look at everyone's pictures and it doesn't bother me if its a picture of something I've seen before. While there are gifted writers and photographers here, I still really enjoy reading the reports and looking at the pictures (and wishing I had been along) even when they're not technically great. Plus I like to be thorough if I'm researching something. I'll read every thing I can find. I don't pass over anything because it looks like there's some repetition of something I've already seen. I guess I need to look at my own stuff in that light.
 
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I wonder if there should be a sticky post in the TR forum, not with rules or anything, but more like expectations. Stuff like, "trip reports can be as long or short as you wish, dozens of pictures and long narratives are great but so is just posting a picture or two and a few sentences" and stuff like "we encourage you to share regardless of whether the area has been covered on here before, as everyone's experience is different and it's great to see multiple points of view". Also maybe something like "while there are some very skilled photographers on here, the overwhelming majority of us aren't, so don't refrain from posting because you don't think your photos are good enough, most readers just want to visualize your experience and don't pay much attention to the quality of the photography" etc.
 
I am glad we had this discussion :twothumbs:

Seems that there was some pent-up fury now vented (or is that "flatulated"). :rolleyes:
 
I'm old. So off to the Urban Dictionary for interpretation...

Oh. I love you too, Oh Admin! You make good points and looks like many wanted feedback.

As always, thanks for all the good moderating and work you do for this community. And to help along I just posted a not-quite-micro trip report but one much-less-long than my usual long winded buffoonery. I had been planning it for a long time and just kept putting it off.
 
Artemus said:
I'm old. So off to the Urban Dictionary for interpretation...
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You crack me up. No urban dictionary needed. Just say it out loud, but with fierceness! RAWWWR! :) I'm going to go peruse said report immediately. No thanks needed for my half assed administration. I'm not doing a very good job of it lately. I think we're like two updates behind on the system software, not to mention all the wish list items that have been accumulating. :(
 
Nick said:
You crack me up. No urban dictionary needed. Just say it out loud, but with fierceness! RAWWWR! :) I'm going to go peruse said report immediately. No thanks needed for my half assed administration. I'm not doing a very good job of it lately. I think we're like two updates behind on the system software, not to mention all the wish list items that have been accumulating. :(
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It's summer. Chill. I mean go outside and put house maintenance off until winter. :moses:
 
Vegan.Hiker said:
I totally feel where @Nick is coming from. I've personally always had mixed feelings about this thread. On one hand I don't like how it probably prevents some posters from posting their stuff as stand alone trip reports. On the other hand, I've been guilty of posting stuff in here myself because I don't feel a lot of the stuff I do on the east coast measures up to everyone else's trips.

But I think Nick is right, we should get over our own BS, stop thinking of our reports as measuring sticks, and use this site the way it was intended; as a place for all to share any and all experiences, big and small, long and short, action packed or just tranquil. I doubt any of us hike, backpack, or do anything else outdoors to get approval from others, especially strangers on internet, so why do we start worrying about it when it comes to posting up our stuff? I personally like reading about the smaller, little adventures just as much as the grandiose, epic ones. I guess because I can relate to them more since most of my trips are small and nowhere near epic. There used to be a guy on here from Texas that posted reports of him taking day hikes with his dog and I really loved reading them. He stopped posting, I believe because he felt his stuff wasn't good enough compared to the other stuff here. So I follow his blog now to read about his hikes with his dog.

I was on a mostly uneventful and unimpressive trip by BCP standards this weekend and was going to post a few pics in this thread at most, but now I think I'll make it a dedicated trip report. We need to lower the bar and try to get more people involved. The bar is set so ridiculously high, I'm afraid regular weekend warriors and novices shy away from sharing and that's a shame. Luckily, I can certainly help lower the bar with my northeast reports. And if people ignore them cause they aren't awesome enough, ehh whatever, at least maybe it'll convince others their stuff is good enough to post.
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:twothumbs:

Nick said:
I think this thread deserves a replacement for just super brief postings though. 1-2 pics, I went here and did that kind of things. That's what I do like about it. I think we should start one up called 'Where ya been?' or something like that and use it for that purpose for those who want to post a quick teaser for upcoming report or for things that will never be posted as a full report for whatever reason. I'll start it unless someone else beats me to it. I'm going to close this thread down soon.
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I've actually thought the "Campsites" and "Bag Nights" threads, and many other album threads, were good at serving this purpose. But hey, I'm all for a "TR Teaser" thread or something to that effect. The Before/After thread from @Vegan.Hiker might fill that role well though too.
 
Artemus said:
It's summer. Chill. I mean go outside and put house maintenance off until winter. :moses:
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I fully intend to do this. Seriously, I bought like $200 worth of electrical parts and pieces to move an outlet out to our pond a month or so ago. There are bare wires hanging from the roof of our deck that will connect to all of this. I just need to run conduit, install a switch, bury a line, etc. This past weekend we took it all back to Home Depot because I realized that I need to get out there and play. There's no way I'm wasting my summer doing that crap when there's a big, awesome world out there that needs exploring. I've got some of my priorities straight. :)
 
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