Are forum members really interested in Trip Reports?. - 4WD Trip

23 Nov 2015

Yes I know I may sound like a 'broken record', but for a forum that has numerous trips running on a regular basis, the lack of decent trip reports in the 'Your Trip Report & Experience' is lacking and to be perfectly honest, very dissapointing..... Yes, some use the trip report section in the original trip at times, but as I said in another thread, these are generally 'few and far' between and it is a 'pita' scrolling back through trips just to see if anyone has posted a report. So the questions I ask are;

1. Do members LIKE reading, seeing pictures/videos etc and commenting on trips that have been completed.?

2. Do members think it is soley up to the Trip Leader to initiate the trip report?

3. Do members find the system too hard to post pictures/videos in the 'Your Trip Report and Experiences' section?.

In regard to Q3, I know Allan (BigPig) has mentioned that he has found it difficult to add pics etc and I am sure he is not the 'Lone Ranger' in this regard. I am sure there are many here who would like to see a detailed report with pics etc as I am sure there are many here who have not been fortunate enough to see the many availabe 4wd areas in this state, or interstate for that matter, who as a result would either consider joining a trip or maybe even put their hand up to running a trip if they had some sort of information whether it be pics/video or just a written report rather than just; "thanks for a great trip, really enjoyed it" etc etc.

Yes everyone is different, but 2 reasons I get on this site is to see; 1. Upcoming trips and 2. Read Trip reports and see pics/vidoes of trips that have been completed so I can make a decision as to if this is a area I would like to go 4wding in.

Not sure if many are aware, but this forum got mentioned in Roothy's 'Low Range' publication recently and as a result, I am sure many will have had a look at the site and probably had a look at 'Trip Reports' and probably would have been a little dissapointed as heaps of trips but very few reports.

Anyway, interested to see if other members have similar views and probably more importantly, do they find it all too hard to post pics/videos etc, or as the thread title says; 'just not really interested in trip reports'?

Tim (Tim_Prado)

24 Nov 2015

I do enjoy the trip reports. I like reading the stories and checking out the photos and videos that everyone shares. so yeah keep it up.

Matthew (discomatt)

24 Nov 2015

Yep agree Allan, although I am guilty as charged for not doing much in the way of reports but I do enjoy reading them and looking at pics, video I only watch the ones from hard trips, in my opinion watching a 20 min vidio of some 4bys driving down a dirt road and through puddles a foot deep is like watching grass grow unless the scenery is exceptional.

As far as posting photos and video its a pain in the ass, posted some from our big trip on my home page that was easy and some on earth but posting on the forum has me stumped, but thats not hard when it comes to computer stuff...

Dennis (bigden)

24 Nov 2015

yes i enjoy the trip reports but i do find it difficult to post pics.

i am on a few other forums and dont have the same problems. now i am not the smartest IT person but i think it must be something to do with how we a set up here

dennis

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24 Nov 2015

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25 Nov 2015

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Matthew (discomatt)

25 Nov 2015

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don't worry about that Garry, 1500 members and only 5 could be bothered giving up a weekend to go out and clean up the bush that we all use and love.

Now that is a disgrace and a dismal effort !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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25 Nov 2015

Matthew (discomatt) wrote:

don't worry about that Garry, 1500 members and only 5 could be bothered giving up a weekend to go out and clean up the bush that we all use and love.

Now that is a disgrace and a dismal effort !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey St Matt, some of us see little point in documenting what rubbish is around, like I have stated numerous times I always clean up the camp area I'm at, so if that little effort is done by everyone, there would be no rubbish.

I actually think 4 wheelers should be licensed, just like shooters, if you F up then you lose your PRIVILEGE to participate, and be banned from nat parks/forests. Licence fees could be used to enforce decent conduct and maintain areas.

Getting back to Allans question, yes I like to read reports, to be honest I haven't made a big effort with mine as they are all easy trips that no one is interested in looking at, and the areas have been done to death, so there is little point.

Areas that are new to me, I would love to see trip reports and pics.

If a trip leader didn't do a report after 5 days, then it's fair game for anyone to do it.

Yes pics are a pain, and thanks for embedding that video on my trip thread Allan, stuffed if I know how you did it though.

Cheers Mark

Allan (Big Pig)

25 Nov 2015

I love the trip reports and I don't mind writing themand would love to include photos easily , I always like to see the trip leader post up first then have the others add their experience.

Matt to label over 1500 of our members as disgraceful is going a bit far , I would say at least 90% of our members don't rubbish and most of them would be willing to pick up rubbish left by the minority.

Matthew (discomatt)

25 Nov 2015

Maybe worded that poorly, wasn't saying 1500 members are disgraceful at all!! But sorry, a turn out of a handfull is not what I would call a great outcome and we all know that a lot of people are all to happy to go out wheeling for a weekend but not willing to do a bit of boreing and dirty work.

Just an observation of human nature that we are all guilty of.

At NO point did I say members where dumping the rubbish, this is about going out to do some good work and move toward removing large amounts of dumped crap by a handfull of pigs.

Sorry didn't mean to offend anyone but if the hat fits...

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25 Nov 2015

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I don't post my ideas often now as it turns to a poo fight.

Just happy to go on trips, I haven't met an idiot on trips yet, so odds are looking good so far.

Dennis (bigden)

25 Nov 2015

() wrote:

I don't post my ideas often now as it turns to a poo fight.

Just happy to go on trips, I haven't met an idiot on trips yet, so odds are looking good so far.

There's lots of forums out there, I am on most of them. Maybe the people on this site just like to get out and do there 4wdriving and don't need to talk about it?

Nothing wrong with that, even though I would like to see more trip reports

I love this site for the fact I can find some one to get out there with but I do most of postings elsewhere

dennis

Kelvin (TREXGQ)

25 Nov 2015

Matthew (discomatt) wrote:

Matt,

I understand what you mean. You know, I joined a trip last year with FWDVIC, 4 of us (including myself) went to participate.

http://www.4wdtrip.com.au/offroad/trip/members.aspx?tripid=186

Do you know how many other club members joined the clean up, less than 20! There are over 100 clubs in Victoria and they all got emails and being asked to join the bush clean up. Frankly I was very proud to represent 4WDTRIP to help out the clean up.

Hope it gives you some perspective.

()

25 Nov 2015

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Allan (allanmac)

26 Nov 2015

Thanks for the replies so far and interesting hearing your thoughts. Like Dennis, I am on quite a few forums and have found with the exception of the Pajero forum, activity is becoming less and less on most. Gazza mentioned that the forum section here is very quiet most of the time but I guess the MAIN purpose Kelvin set up this site, as the name implies, was to give 4wders the opportunity to participate in and arrange trips with the forum section really only a minor aspect of the site. In the early days, many put up suggestions re the forum section that Kelvin implimented, but as Gazza said, none are used all that regularily.

So back on topic; even with 1500 odd members, I believe the large majority are only interested in trips, (again main purpose of the site), and probably only check here when they receive an email regarding upcoming trips, or only log on to see 'Find a 4wd Trip'. In other words, not alot of interest in the forum section as such, as is of no interest to them which is fine. As some have mentioned the posing of trip reports with pics and/or videos in the 'Your Trip Report and Experiences' seems very difficult and fiddily. As I mentioned previously, the 1st couple of times is quite time consuming and you may have to adjust picture size a few times, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy but be prepared for it to take some time for picture to upload, depending on its original size.

Anyway, I hope more members give it a try and take the time to post a report as there seems to be quite a few of us who do enjoy reading reports in the forum section set up for this.

PS: Kelvin does have the process in the forum section, but if he is ok with this I will post the process of how to do both pics and videos in the 'Your Trip Report and Experiences' section for easy reference.