Tinling

I am about to depart on a trip that will take me to several cities and regions in France and Italy. I want to do a trip report and I've thought that it would be best to create a separate report for each city or region. Does that make sense?

rex

Use this as your role model - - and then maybe it doesn;t matter; broken up or all in one thread (with multiple posts); not that you could literally create "headers" on each post or even within any given post.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34649542

Best wishes,

Rex

Tinling

Thanks Rex. I like the outline used in the example you provided. I think, however, I will make seperate posts for different cities, unless I hear arguments that deter me.

Mary_Fran

I like reports that post each different city as a "reply" to the same thread,so you keep continuity, and, as important, so that your subsequent posts are brought up to the top and don't sink like stones to the bottom before folks really get a chance to see them.

There is nothing so discouraging as spending a lot of time on individual trip reports and than having them sink individually like stones, without comments, expecially if you live on the west coast and are posting after the east coast folks are tucked snug in their beds.

One thing to be careful of is cutting and pasting your report from word. Beware "smart quotes" and other symbols from word that translate into question marks on Fodors. Preview your reply and clean up the symbols that didn't translate well.

Where are you going?

Tinling

Thanks for your suggestions Mary_Fran.

We are going to Paris, Provence, Riviera, Tuscany, Rome, Florence, and Venice. I've been before, but my travelling companions are new to Europe.

I have been in charge of planning, and I am hoping that the newcomers will enjoy themselves. I have used all the resources that this forum provides.

Scarlett

I will look forward to the trip report, whatever format you use. So many cities!! What fun!

Mary_Fran

Another thing I like about continuous trip reports is that I get "invested" in a particular poster's story and Iwant to see how the next chapter works out, so I start watching for the next installment to pop up to the top so I can catch up on what's happened since the last installment.

BTilke

I'm not fussy about the writing style a poster uses BUT I tend to avoid trip reports that are one long paragraph.

Please put in lots of paragraph breaks and a line of white space between each paragraph.

Also, please put the entire trip report in one thread (you can "reply" to yourself for different segments). Do NOT put different parts in separately named threads. They tend to get separated over time. Keep your report together in one place.

rex

If you decide to make each part a separate thread, then it is at least practical and considerate to (eventually) cite the URL of the next installment, so that a reader can jump directly there.

If you don't understand how to do that, click on HELP (little red letters, upper left hand corner) for the FAQs. It's described there.

The URL for <i>this</i> thread, just to illustrate the point... is - -

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34674047

AJPeabody

Notepad, the world's simplest word processor, is the best place to write your trip report. It has no funny format codes and thus transfers into Fodor posts without ned for editing.

Notepad comes with Windows.

After you write your post in Notepad, select all and copy to the Fodor's posting box.

This also saves online time, if that is a consideration.

Christina

Personally, I prefer it when people keep the various segments of their trip in the same trip report. As someone else said, people tend to write one part, and then &quot;reply&quot; to add the next segment on the same thread. It creates continuity and more interest (and can even have some important points that may affect things).

I could certainly see breaking up the France and Italy segments, though.

Powell

Tinling,

My trip reports are broken up by country, and city if more than one city visited.

I too prefer short paragraphs not stream of consciousness blah.

First time I visit A place I usually stick to a chronological format. When I return to a place I sometimes abandon the chronological format and go to a topical one, i.e., Restaurants; Museums;
Hotel(s); Notable Events. This keeps the reports interesting and more useful to any reader.

I suggest keeping notes only while traveling. It should not divert you from the many pleasures of travel. You will be reminded of things by your notes when you get home.

IMO a vacation should have three parts:
1. Planning
2. Doing
3. Recording

Vacations then become a year-round experience. By the bye, I do not use websites. I use the personal experiences of my wife, friends, the views of Fodorites, my own reading, etc. to shape our travel plans.

(Note: If you are going to Paris consider reading the &quot;Seven Ages of Paris&quot; by Alistair Horn. He tells in a witty way how Paris got to be Paris. Book is a gem.)

Intrepid1

IMO ANY trip report is better than none at all. If it is interesting, people will continue to read, and enjoy, it, regardless of format.

Now, if you become one of the &quot;treasured&quot; Fodorites you could take a dump in the middle of your trip report and nobody would complain.

Jed

Another vote for keeping all parts of one trip on one post. And when there are comments between the parts, it becomes more interesting.

clevelandbrown

If this site is working properly, we can do searches by country. So if one is looking for information on Venice, and you have posted your thread under France, one will never find it, once it drops out of currency.

That is why I like reports broken up by countries, and by destinations within countries. Finding the various country segments of you broken up posting is easy, as we can click on your screen name and see all your postings.

As far as writing a good report, I am wordy, so I write the whole report before posting anything. If you use Windows, Notepad is good for this, but any word processor should suffice. Since a single posting is limited in size, a longer report has to be posted by initially posting the first segment, then replying to that posting with the subsequent segments, hopefully before anyone else has replied to your message.

I have a neat little program called multiple clipboards, where I can copy segment 1 to clipboard 1, segment 2 to clipboard 2, etc., then post them one after the other to produce a report without interruption. I just did this on a report about Alaska, and you can click on my name if you want to see how it looks.

With a multi-country trip such as yours, I would explain in the initial posting where all you were, and where all you have posted, and then the reader could choose to follow the whole report, or just those postings of interest to him.

But there really are no rules, other than don't curse, and don't talk politics. Just do what you think will make your information most useful to the readers.

111op

How come I never get comments on mine? Are they too long?

My threads on my trips invariably sink as quickly as they surface.

beachbum

I don't care how you do it, either. Just make sure it's humorous, interestingly informative, insightful, thought provoking, and has elements of controversy. No pressure, huh!!!

Oh, and make sure to check for spelling and grammatical errors.

Jed

You can post under multiple countries by holding down the control button.

111op - I have the gut feeling that posting a solid long report may turn some people off. Leaving a day between parts makes it easier to read, encourages responses, and, if nothing else, brings up your report on multiple days.

But, each to his/her own taste.

111op

Actually I just give a link to my blog. I don't bother posting the text on Fodor's again.

It takes up too much of my time to write a report.

I wonder what would happen if I were to paste the text here. I still don't think that I'll attract that much of an audience.

yk

111op- you can always pick a fight, then you'll get lots of replies on your trip report.