There's been a recent trend for people to create a post in this forum that provides a link to a blog to view their tips, advice etc.

Although the blogs appear to be travel related (I never click on them myself) I feel they are advertisements and not legitimate posts. If the person posted the contents of their blog in the the Fodor's forum post so Fodorites could read and discuss it here, I woud be okay.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but I feel these posts are an attempt to increase the number of hits to their blog so that two things may happen; the website is higher up in search engine results which in turns gives them more revenue for any adverstisements they have on the blog.

Just wondering how other Fodorites view these posts...

All that I have clicked on have been trip reports with photos , nothing more. It saves the poster the trouble of re-typing the info into the Fodors box.

Well, I've done it myself on occasion:

1. I have a number of TRs on my website that pre-date my discovery of Fodors. If I'm answering a question and think that TR might be useful, I post the link.

2. My last trip included Georgia (Republic of) and Armenia, which seemed of very little interest to Fodors posters, so I just posted a link to my blog. But for the Middle East part of the same trip, I did slightly rewrite the blog posts and put them up here.

I can also see posting a link:

1. If I'm traveling with limited net access and don't want to post in multiple places.

2. If the TR is more photo than text.

You can usually tell from the post whether the website is a genuine traveler's site, or an agency or guide (be very careful with Moroccan threads!)

no I don't have a problem with it. thursdaysd did exactly that when we were talking about packing. It was great information (and photos) that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Yeah I just posted my blog yesterday and my account was suspended and my post was deleted.To be honest I thought it was a little unfair and rude.
I am simply a college student that decided to start a travel blog with some friends, because we are all backpacking to different places over the course of this year. I thought that some of our experiences were pretty interesting, and decided to post a link there, because it was simply easier than reposting every entry here, especially with all the pictures uploaded to the blog website.
I have a wordpress blog, so there are no ads on the blog, and I DEFINITELY do not make money from people coming to my blog. So I'm certainly not trying to increase my revenue. I only started the blog as a fun way to tell people about my experiences. I am frankly pretty dissappointed that my post/account was deleted, and it makes me feel very discouraged in spreading my cheer about traveling.

I see a difference between posting a link to a blog when answering a question, or starting a post with a link to a blog but the original post contains more than just a link versus starting a new thread where the only information in it is a link to a blog. It is the latter cases which I am to which I am referring.

I remember your postlindayin and it didn't contain much information beyond the link itself. The only way that people can respond to posts like are to go to the blog and read them first and then come back to the forum.

I guess I feel there should be enough information in the original post itself to start a discussion.

Guilty as charged

I have been giving and receiving travel advice on this forum for many years, and am grateful to Fodors for providing this venue. However I keep my creative writings on a separate site in order retain full copyright control over my intellectual property. By posting here - at least this is how I interpret the subscriber agreement - we relinquish some of our rights.

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand all the fuss. I post a link to mt wordpress blog for my trip reports. Yes, I guess it helps increase my traffic on my blog (and probably my ego) but nothing else. I have no advertisements on my blog. I know that if I'm researching a destination, I love reading trip reports, whether directly here or as a link to a blog. I hope I'm providing the same service.

It 's not like we are forced to click on a link just because it is here.

I'm more concerned/curious that Fodor's would suspend an account for posting the link to a personal/nonbusiness blog.

There's no fuss.

I view original posts where the only real information in them is a link to a blog as a type of advertisement even if the blog makes no money/has no advertising. It's a way of letting people know about the blog and I have to go to another site to get the "real" information.

Is this good/bad/neutral? I don't know. I was curious how others viewed these types of posts and asked a question.

If a person like Thursdaysd, who is active on the board refers to their blog in answering a query, I'm much more likely to click on the link.

It's different than someone like travellingdad who starts topics to get people to read his blog. Seems a little opportunistic to me. If an act is questionable, I don't want to have much to do with people who try to get over.

I have posted links to my own website many times, but always with some sort of explanation, i.e., 'here's my trip report to Scotland', or 'here's a photo I took in the place being discussed'. Usually for the trip reports, I'll also post the words here, and a link so people can see the photos as well.

I don't have a problem with them, but I do prefer to have some sort of description as to what the link is, otherwise I'm likely to ignore it.

I agree, I'm OK with a regular Fodor's poster doing it. Less so if the person just showed up here to promote their blog.

I don't have a problem w/ regular posters who when answering a question use a short cut to post a link something like >><i>We did a similar trip, and I wrote about getting to 'xyz' on my blog here http: etc etc</i><<

But often, even that would be better to just include the info in the post.

But some seem to abuse it. One has started 20 threads - and each is just one sentence and a link to his blog. Almost no other participation on the boards. More just self-promotion IMO.

But maybe he's seen the light - or this thread shamed him a wee bit. He's actually commented on a couple of threads since this thread was started . . . . and didn't link to his blog.