Trip Reports

[droidly]

I have to voice my extreme disappointment with the management of the 14er.com site (Bill, it’s you). I just tried to upload my recent trip to Mt Bierstadt and it was a nightmare. I tried to upload photos from my iPhone 6 and after going thru the archaic upload process, I was prompted that all my photos were too large. I had to go into a paint program and resize each photo before uploading and then reload it into the report and retype each comment. The process is horrible. I work as an IT manager and I am appalled at how lame this process is. Ten years ago, it was great. Ten years ago. It was nice to have a program that you could at least upload trips/photos, but now, it’s outdated. The process is complicated and I suspect it prevents many people from uploading their trip reports. If your site is not able to resize photos, you should at least give the option to replace each photo without losing the photo comment. I use an iPhone which records images at what I would consider the minimum standard for twenty-first century online photos. I was NOT trying to upload HD images. This is really ridiculous and has a negative impact on the site.

The bigger issue is this: we have all seen a reduction of communication, trip reports, ect on 14ers.com due to the interest in the Facebook site. People flock to the site and upload their trips in an annotated post; mostly a few photos and a “great summit” response. You don’t get the same information as the website. I personally get very valuable information from the .com reports. As an out-of-state hiker I appreciate the detailed information I get from the site in order to prepare for an (expensive) trip to Colorado. If it’s not convenient, people will not post their trip reports. Besides the fact that the 14ers.com Facebook administrator blocks memes, cartoons, ect from the Facebook site (which is what social media is all about IMO), that site is limiting people from getting important information about hiking Colorado’s 14ers.

Bill, you have to change the accessibility for trip reports on the 14ers.com site. It is antiquated and you need to make some changes. I mean, I have to cut and paste the /img/1/img html tag for every photo!?! Is this 1990? That should be a point /click function. Really, you should take a look at this. I think it limits people from providing important information. You have to make it easier for people to use. I hate to say it, but this is killing the site. I love what you do, but you have got to update the process.

[jeffth5]

You could have just emailed him instead of posting a rant. Just sayin'.

[dpage]

I can't believe I'm missing an epic Bierstadt report.

The worst part of the rant is that the OP was successful in uploading the trip report.

[Jon Frohlich]

We have 12,587 trip reports at last count. I think people are doing just fine with the current process. To be fair I'd prefer the process be a bit cumbersome so that the overall quality of reports is higher.

[highpilgrim]

I'm disappointed in your disappointment.

The site works well for many of us.

[JROSKA]

I agree with Jon, about the cumbersome process being a good thing. I like it because it actually forces the contributor to write an interesting story with pictures, which involves some hard work probably at the desktop. That's what trip reports are supposed to be, stories. We have a nice balance. Condition reports and route info for help, trip reports for interesting writing, forum for entertainment, and Facebook for those who want to post easy "look at me" pics. Leave everything as is, please.

[wildsidesky]

The worst part of the process if that it is user unfriendly to those completely unknowing about computers. It's always a little cringe-worthy to open a report that has the "To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3)..."

Otherwise, it sounds like the difficulty on your end is doing it on your phone. It's reasonably straightforward on a PC, why not just do it there?

[droidly]

Well.. I'm not trying to start a big controversy here. I guess i could have emailed Bill directly, but I thought this was a place where one could create a discussion. If I'm the only only one with an issue, then I guess it's just me, however regardless of whether it's Bierstadt or Captitol Peak or whatever, I just think that the uploading process could be improved. I work in a business where we improve based on user input. Sorry if I offended..

[dpage]

Bill posted a response to this earlier this year.
http://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 23&t=50444" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[droidly]

The worst part of the process if that it is user unfriendly to those completely unknowing about computers. It's always a little cringe-worthy to open a report that has the "To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3)..."

Otherwise, it sounds like the difficulty on your end is doing it on your phone. It's reasonably straightforward on a PC, why not just do it there?

I am posting my trip reports on a PC. You have to cut and paste the /img/ tag for each image in a report. I'm just saying that there could be a more efficient way for the user. It's not rocket science. I'm happy to rewrite the code for this site if Bill is willing to contract me. It's not difficult.

[droidly]

Bill posted a response to this earlier this year.
http://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 23&t=50444" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes, i see this as an issue with phones, but my issue is with the basic program structure. The program needs a file limit notification that doesn't eliminate associated input. That is, if the file doesn't meet the limit of storage (upload) then the text associated with it doesn't get deleted. It's a replacement issue. Plus, this can all be done with a button, not cut and paste, which makes it easier for the user. And an immediate notification that the image selected does not meet the parameters of the system upload. Just saying..

[bergsteigen]

As someone with a hundred or so trip reports on this site... I'll chime in.

The process is simple for me, but I am also a web programmer. Writing a TR is almost like writing up a webpage. I keep an empty/blank TR ready for me to fill in, with image tags at the ready. I merely write the story inbetween the images. I also wrote a little script to scale my images for each trip. Though, that's also for my own personal webpage as well.

But I can see how someone not in the web programming world can find the process a bit difficult. It would be nice for those without my particular skill set, to be able to upload an image and have the website do the scaling to the proper size. Mainly because many of us are tired of seeing the posts of 'I would upload a photo, but I don't know how'.