Trip report gating

[BillMiddlebrook]

For a full report versus a mini report, you could just have a cutoff character limit or word count that does the work for you; I think this is smarter than leaving it as an option, and would just clean up the process automatically.

Less than 500 words? That’s a mini report.

^Yup.

Will do something similar for "External" reports, as well as ask the user to include a teaser in the externally-linked ones.

[CheapCigarMan]

Totally agree w/ above. Personally, I only use trip reports when I'm looking for beta on a route that doesn't have a route description. Filtering through loads of unhelpful TRs is kind of annoying, and I dislike it when people treat TRs as their personal blog.

Agreed. Though, as much as I don’t care to read a novel. And I especially don’t care if you stopped to take a whiz as I read in one TR. I just want the data. Class, TH, Standard route, Miles, Gain, GPX, etc. Though, I do understand many like to read a story.

But the Route tab does say, “Sorry, no route descriptions have been added for ‘X Mountain.’
Try the Trip Reports^”

So, I’m thinking TR’s should adhere to being mostly a Route Description as several others have suggested as well. Especially for the peaks that don’t have one. I assumed that was the original intention of having TR’s. Beta for peaks that don’t have a Route Description.

[dr_j]

The TRs are especially useful for the 13ers.

I also like the ones that go beyond route descriptions, but give an idea of the person behind the checklists. I'll admit that some are folks I probably can't really relate to in real life, or are so out of my league that I can't really relate to in any meaningful way.

And finally, the young dudes (and dudettes) really write very well, and put in the time to relay their experiences. They are a pleasure to read.

[BillMiddlebrook]

I have a plan to get working on changes and I'll update progress in this thread. Initially, I've removed the Dislikes column from the main TR list page.

Thanks a bunch to Boggy for kicking this off!

[drop_bear]

I think I've been convinced that the Dislike button should go and that Likes should be good enough.

And what about another type of External - "Full report, but hosted elsewhere." If the author selects "External," I could provide information/examples of minimal information to be included in the .com report, in additional to the external link. And we'd be able to filter to external reports, show icons on the Recent Activity area, etc.

So far, that would include these possible types:
Full - A detailed account of a hike/climb and should be helpful for years to come, with helpful photos and formatting.
External - A detailed account of a hike/climb, but hosted elsewhere.
Mini - A short write-up, with or without photos.

I like the idea of the mini report option. Hopefully it'll clean up some of the condition reports that are basically trip reports about the person's experience rather than the actual conditions of the hike.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Still working on this. I should have a bunch of updates applied by the weekend.

[CaptainSuburbia]

Still working on this. I should have a bunch of updates applied by the weekend.

Thank Bill for all your hard work!

[JQDivide]

Finally got a chance to read through this.
LOTS of good thoughts and potential changes.

The only comment I'll disagree with, can't even remember who said, maybe two people did...

I do expect some good writing and photos in trip reports.
TRs are our stories.
Not everyone is a good story teller, and that's OK. They should just do something else. And that's OK too.
Mountaineers have been telling stories for generations, they have the talent.

I've told people for years, the Route Descriptions are like the sports broadcast Play-by-Play.
The TRs are the Color Commentary: the added content, the deeper details, the thoughts and feelings, the behind the scenes stories to the Play-by-Play.

We have wonderful story tellers and writers in this community. We have wonderful photographers.
I want those people to generate TRs. I want to read their stories, see their photos.

People can learn to write stories and provide good content. So all is not lost to those that are willing to learn.

But yeah, I don't want to see selfies and conditions from Quandary in the TRs.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Ok, I've finished a bunch of changes. By allowing mini reports, we are being more accommodating but what should really help are the (edit page) minimum requirements I've placed on each report type. We can tweak them in the future or I can add more. Here's what I've changed so far:

1. Dislikes are gone, everywhere.
2. When a hiker clicks "Add a Trip Report," a slightly different intro message highlights the three different report types: FULL, MINI and EXTERNAL.
3. On the TR ADD page, they will be asked to select the report type. Help info and explanatory messages that appear based on their selection. Also, to clean up the page, I changed the "peak(s)" selection to show only one peak to start - the user can hit a "+" button to add more peaks.
4. On the TR EDIT page, they can change the report type but when they try to activate the report, it goes through a bunch of checks to make sure the report fits the min requirements of the report type.
   • FULL - 400 words minimum, 0-50 photos
   • MINI - 100 words minimum, 0-15 photos
   • EXTERNAL - 25 words minimum, 2-5 photos
5. On the TR main list page, reports will have a colored "MINI" or "EXTERNAL" tag next to the report title.
6. Also on that page, we can select a REPORT TYPE in the advanced criteria.

Give it a try if you want. If you create an INACTIVE test report, you can always delete it via your Dashboard->My Trip Reports.
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/addreport.php

To do:
On our Dashboard->Display Settings, I'll add an option to ignore MINI and/or EXTERNAL trip reports when viewing the main TR list page.
I still have a few more changes to make so the TR edit page properly checks the min/max photo counts.
Write a quick script to re-categorize all previous report that not fit the "mini" category.

Feedback welcome!

[Skimo95]

Thanks Bill, if I ever climb a route the gatekeepers approve of I’ll try and post a TR.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Thanks Bill, if I ever climb a route the gatekeepers approve of I’ll try and post a TR.

Lol

[two lunches]

Ok, I've finished a bunch of changes.

i really like the redirection based on intent: "We appreciate you taking time to add content to 14ers.com! Please select the desired report type..."

i wasn't bitter about this subject in the first place, but that's an A+ adjustment!

really love the "See some examples..." page and the way it sorts the best-reviewed trip reports. this is so awesome