Ride report postings

[Richard]

Guys - I would ask your indulgence on an issue that seems would be better located under the weekly lunch ride. The subject is the ride reports. This topic.... general discussion..... is being neglected or misused in my opinion due to the postings of numerous ride reports when we have the perfect venue for the reports....the ride announcement itself. If you, or I were to want to look up something about a lunch ride, the perfect spot don't you think would be on the ride announcement itself. Seems logical to me! I would hope we try to do our postings under the weekly ride. We can all still find it easily but it holds it in the area of local interest. General interest topics such as spring/summer/fall outings of wider general interest seems a better place here but please, not the local area rides. Thanks....just had to get that off my chest. Richard

[Klem]

There are pros and cons to everything. The negative thing about attaching a "ride report" behind the post for the ride is that do to the nature of the forum and all new replies bring the post to the top of the posting in that category. As riders add to the "ride report" as they should it will bring the report to the top of the weekly ride. If this happens after the new ride has been posted it will be on top or out of sequence. It is human nature to assume that things are in the proper order and often we don't look at the actual date as we should. This will result in the more casual user of the forum to end up at the wrong destination. By posting ride reports on the discussion board it leaves them open for discussion without the chance of confusion.

We need to bear in mind that there are large differences in the skill levels of our members when it comes to computers. I prefer to continue to post the report in discussions to avoid any possible confusion in the weekly ride area.

Don

[Richard]

Don - Sorry, but I don't by into that argument. If you look through the postings about the rides they all have been done hours or days of a lunch ride. By the time a new lunch ride is posted, all discussion about that ride has pretty much run its course making the move to the top argument moot at best. Granted there may be a laggard here or there that may affect it but as administrators of the ride area location this should be easily dealt with.
Granted, one would have to go to that particular location to read a report rather than just hit on the the post but I think our guys are savy enough to do this and it will quickly lead them to understand that this now is truly a Statewide organization rather than just a loose group of local riders.
Posting everything onto the general topic in my opinion just loads it up and defeats the interest in other subject items.
I hope you will have a change of attitude on this matter.

[Klem]

I doubt if I change my attitude about the matter. I have watched your ride/ride report and have seen that scenario happen on occasion. You are right that probably it isn't a big deal, but I prefer the way I do it. Makes it handy for others to add pictures and comments. Also I have changed my ride reports to indicate the destination instead of the date, making it easier for someone that wasn't on the ride to identify . But it's all choices.

As for computer savvy, i personally have little understanding of the gadgets. I get by on the basics ok but don't even try to pretend that I know computers. I know that we have people in our group that are professionals with computers and others that are stumped after they hit the on switch. There are people, especially our age, that have never had reason or desire to use computers. I want to keep things as straight forward as I can for them. As we all have discussed, eventually we will probably all quit sending the email notice and use the forum only. When that time comes for me I want the riders interested being able to find the ride easily, without the possibility of a comment bringing a three or four week old event to the top of the list and them not notice.

I prefer to keep the Ride notice just that, a place to post the weekly ride for this area. The report to me fits in discussion so if people want they can add, comment or post pictures. Not a big deal, but it just makes more sense to me to follow that format.

There is also a major difference in the what you and I post as a ride report. The report I put on the forum is usually more concise. I use the emails for story telling. I figure someone looking in really doesn't care if Denny had a screw in his tire, since he doesn't now Denny. But might be interested in the food and service. Again all choices. Your email and post are the same for both notice and report. Mine are different for both. I figure the emails are going to friends and the post are for anyone in the world to see. The interest of the reader could be very different in the two cases.

Don