Trip Reports

Rockclimbing.com has a Trip Reports Forum; it would be good to provide a similar capability on MP.com.

However, instead of having a single forum for all trip reports, I think it would be better to be able to attach a trip report to an area or route. A link should be provided on area and route pages to view any trip reports that are attached.

Adding trip reports to the Search capability (i.e. be able to find all trip reports that are posted to the site which match the search criteria) would also be useful.

That's a great idea Ron.

Question about trip reports vs. comments...

If we add trip reports, people might be confused, i.e. they might wonder if they should add a comment describing the trip or a trip report?

How would we differentiate? Might users be confused? Might people add trip reports for one pitch climbs, which is kind of silly but I guarantee you it will happen.

And if people start adding TRs for routes that have comments, suddenly information is split between comments and trip reports.

Maybe trip reports should be limited to Areas to simplify the experience for a user?

I'm all for this feature, but one-more-place-to-enter-information is only useful to the user if it is clear how it is different than the rest.

I really can't imagine anyone entering a trip report for a one-pitch climb. If this happens, the area administrators should be able to fix this by moving the "trip report" to a comment.

I view trip reports as extended accounts of long multi-pitch routes or multi-day stays in a particular area, complete with photos. I think it is reasonable to allow trip reports to be attached to routes as well as areas. Perhaps a header comment when someone clicks on "add trip report" would be appropriate to let people know what's expected and how the feature should be used.

I wrote a trip report about climbing the Casual Route on Longs Peak 18 years ago; it would be better to attach it to the Casual Route rather than Longs Peak - The Diamond.

Maybe there could be a sub-call on each page for 'reports' like there is for stars and if someone adds one a 'reports' banner is click-able from there. You could store it behind the page that way. It would be like having a url address in the comment, which is what people should do if we don't get the feature added.

The old climbingboulder.com had something that had some crossover function with this concept. It was "side comment" instead of "beta comment." Side comments were not visible when you first clicked on a route/area & its comments. You could click on "more conversation" to access this info. It was used somewhat variably, but comments could be changed to side comments when deemed appropriate.

Given that Trip Reports could be thought of in a variety of ways (as described above), it would be easy to envision multiple uses for such a general term as "Trip Report." We don't all think alike. If this is implemented (if we want MP.com to be like rockclimbing.com), we should be prepared for a variety of interpretations of this category.

If someone wants to submit a trip report for a one-pitch climb, and it's really a trip report in the sense mentioned by Dave, fine. I have no problem with that.

All I'm saying is that if someone uses the trip report feature inappropriately (whatever that means), the area administrator should have the option of:

a) moving the trip report to a comment.
b) moving the trip report to a forum post.

This should be totally at the discretion of the area administrator.

My argument is in favor of allowing trip reports to be associated with routes as well as areas; not to restrict trip reports to particular kinds of routes. Giving the area administrator the capability of moving a trip report, if necessary, would answer the objections that Andy raised to allowing them to be attached to individual routes.

Leo Paik wrote:The old climbingboulder.com had something that had some crossover function with this concept. It was "side comment" instead of "beta comment." Side comments were not visible when you first clicked on a route/area & its comments. You could click on "more conversation" to access this info.

One of the first things I noticed when M.P.com came alive was that my "side comments/more conversation" postings that were on climbingredrocks.com were on the main beta/route info. pages. I was like, okay, my intermittent bizarre musings are all out in the open now, and people will be scared. I thought about deleting them, but my silly comments did mean "something" to me, and of course to my partners, and maybe a few others that enjoy my sense of humor.

P.S.....I really liked the "more conversation" feature on the old site. It was somewhat entertaining to read some of the "hidden" comments. It was like digging for buried treasure.
If you guys come up with something similar, I'd like to bury some of my comments once again, to be found by those who truly want to uncover.

After taking another look at Rockclimbing.com's Trip Reports Forum, I see an advantage to the forum format: some "trip reports" may not be associated with a particular area or route.

For example, A Day With George Hurley recounts the writer's day of climbing at Joshua Tree with a legend of the sport. It's not so much about route or area beta, but about a particular person. Or a trip report could be about an area not covered on MP.com (Mexico, Europe, Asia).

Perhaps a forum format, with the ability (not necessity) of linking the trip report to an area or route, would be a better option.

It still would be great if you could go to a particular area or route, and get a list of any trip reports linked to that area or route.

Gigette Miller wrote:I really liked the "more conversation" feature on the old site. It was somewhat entertaining to read some of the "hidden" comments. It was like digging for buried treasure. If you guys come up with something similar, I'd like to bury some of my comments once again, to be found by those who truly want to uncover.

I agree with Leo and Gigette; the "More Conversation" feature of the old sites was very useful, and I'd like to see it implemented on MP.com. This would especially be useful for printing out mini-guides. Having the option to print the beta comments but not the "More Conversation" comments would keep the mini-guides smaller and more useful.

I'm all for adding Trip Reports, here are some thoughts (summarizing from above, and new)

• they should be attachable to Areas, Routes, as well as standalone
• They should be viewable within the Area or Route, as well as a master list to see them all (along with What's New)
• You should be able to attach photos to them
• People should be able to comment on them
• Admins should be able to move them to a comment if deemed not appropriate as a trip report
• They will automatically become searchable

Look about right?

More Conversation

• They were imported from the c*.com sites correctly (flagged as beta or more conversation)
• We still have the option box when people add comments, so the data is there
• 10% of comments posted since mp.com was born have been "more conversation" tagged - even though some might actually be beta and vice-versa
• Inevitably some people tag these things wrong unfortunately

I really don't think it is a good idea to relegate the "More Conversation" comments on a Route or Area page to a separate page.. they'll just be lost as nobody will click through, also - some people might wonder where their comment is when they posted it

But...

• A quick review of some of the new "More Conversations" posts show that many of them are more relevant than on c*.com - because the random musings have ended up on the forums
• The miniguide could have an option to restrict the comments to just Beta
• Above the comment section on a Route or Area there could be a dropbox filter to see "All or just Beta"