Questions about external Links

[pjhinde]

I notice you say you do not allow new users to post external links. So I guess my questions are:

1. What does it take to post the link to my blog site?
2. Background: I currently have two blog sites, one for my motor cycle road trips, the second for my Garden Rail system. I have sold my motor cycles and have purchased a convertable for road trips. Not that I may not purchase another bike in the future but it would most likely be a trike as I am getting older and to have my wife on the back of the bike was getting hard.
Question: Would you recommend I create another blog site for the road trips in my convertable, or tack the car rides on to the motorcycle blog. I do not want to spread pictures all over the web hense, why I use a blog versus posting individual pics. I can send you the links via some other media or since you have my email address you can send me a message and I can respond with the links so you can tell the kind of stuff I post, as I understand your hesitation of allowing external links. I can give you other web forums for G Gauge training if you need references.

Pj

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You will never be allowed to link to your blog site. This is a site devoted to exchanging useful RoadTripping information ON THIS SITE. We are not interested in providing you with free advertising to direct traffic to your own site. If you have something to share with RoadTrippers using RoadTrip America, then post it here and it will be judged on its usefulness to our members. If it is of general interest to RoadTrippers and they can get some use out of it, it will be welcomed. If it is nothing more than advertising for your own endeavors, it will be removed and if you continue to try to post such material, you will be banned from making further postings on this site.

AZBuck

[pjhinde]

Well ok, I post my trip reports on the blog as I can share them with mulitple folks and sites such as Facebook from one central location, I do not advertise, etc. So I guess you answered my question. Have a day, and safe driving.

Pj

[Lifemagician]

Why not record your roadtrips in the roadtrip field report forum... then you can put a link in your blog, to this site. You can also direct your facebook friends to your roadtrip report, on this site.

That's what I plan to do.

Lifey

[pjhinde]

Lifey,

Thanks for the reply but to be honest I have tried that twice in the past with other web sites and the experience I had with that is:
1. One very large web site changed their rules so that folks who wanted to see my reports had to become members.
2. Another web site that was fairly popular went under.

So in both cases, thank God I had my pics and road trip write ups in MS Word so when I went to the blog concept I was able to get some back online. I use a blog site that is affiliated with one of the largest longest available WEB companies that owns a lot of web solutions such as a well-known search engine.

My original reason for creating “reports” anywhere was so that if I ever became unable to ride/cruise etc., I could look back and remember the great times I had. Well my friends who found out about my reports wanted to see them. So I put some stuff on FB, and on as I said above other sites.

As I said in my original post I was willing to show in private my blog posts and AZBuck did not even bother to check it out before curtly implying I was looking to advertise something. I clearly stated there would be no advertising on the blog, I am a fully employed IT manager so I have no need or desire to have some kind of side line business. From all the sites I have used in the past I have never run across one like this that it is so strict. I think my contributions would have been beneficial to this site. I notice this is a very large site and a great deal of users, so I guess it is doing well with its current rules and does not need a handful of new folks such as myself with my situation. I only bother to write this long post is to maybe help them in the future re-think some things the first being the tone of the reply I got which I did not care for. I think I have already found another site that I can use that is very willing to work me. I will check back from time to time to see if I can provide feedback on questions as with my age, I have traveled a lot in the US by bike, car, train, and airplane as well as some abroad. Unfortunately many of my trips occurred before the great digital technology we now enjoy was available. I am guessing only a few will see this post as it most likely will be removed.

Thanks
Pj Hinde

[Mark Sedenquist]

I think it could be said with a degree of confidence that RTA's rules regarding off-site linking are among the most stringent on the Web. What AZBuck didn't mention is that off-site linking is an earned right here on the Great American RoadTrip Forum. As members contribute to the RTA roadtripping community, they are afforded more opportunities to link to sites -- including their own blog sites.

RTA has no plans to go away -- but I know that it can be tough to predict the future and every major site has had to deal with programs that have needed to sunset. We used to offer a personal travel blog to our members, but found that it was just too clunky to manage over the long term. None of the content from those earlier blogs were "lost." The content was transitioned to a 3rd party provider who continues to manage those files. By the way, that other site might be the perfect match for you. And I'm sure you know about Pashnit.com? If you are a motorcycle fan, there are few sites better!

On the other hand, we offer two sets of comprehensive photo sharing programs that are fully integrated to the trip reporting software here. Plus, a very active roadtripping community that actively shares information, tips and advice for planning road trips.

Hope to see more of your posts here.

Mark

[pjhinde]

Mark,

Thank you for the informative and gracious reply. I will check out the journel web site you mentioned. .

Pj