Originally Posted by
tarwheel
Neil, I might be wrong, but I always assumed that most people posted journals on Crazy Guy after their trips were completed, not while riding on a tour.
You can see all the tours in progress here:
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...octype=journal
As you can see, quite a few people posting as they go! Of course not all manage daily updates, or anything close to that. And, increasingly, some people tend to post only pics, but I can't legislate style.
That's certainly what I have done. I've got too much to do on a bike tour to worry about finding a wifi connection, writing a trip report, posting photos, etc.
Yes, I think on my next trip (assuming I ever get the chance to do another tour), I might well just keep notes and write it all up later. It's easy to keep notes - you can do that in any paper notebook, or small tablet etc. While there is something to be said for posting immediately due to the fresher nature of the thoughts and impressions, there's also nothing wrong with digesting it properly and posting later on through the lens of time. This can give it a different perspective. For example, my 1998 journal was posted way after the fact, 2 years in fact, based on my daily diary entries. So while I could remember most all that happened, two things happened: First, I was probably able to put a more humorous face on the bad experiences (since I wasn't currently in the middle of them), and second, I probably didn't express many of the little things that happened on those days, which didn't make it into the diary. So, there's pros and cons to each approach, I think, but basically whatever suits your style.
Of course, there are some people who post on the site while they are in the midst of a prolonged tour, but it would be a simple matter to leave out information identifying your home town.
Yes, of course, though I think people are also rightly concerned these days about cross-linking names with social media like Facebook, which often reveals over time more information about yourself online than many realize. Something else that I intend to implement on crazyguyonabike and topicwise is multiple, possibly anonymous profiles, linked to the same account, so that people can be more private about their real name if they want/need that. Of course I would also put in safeguards against sockpuppet shenanigans, but people can already do that sort of thing, so nothing new there. I think allowing people to have multiple "anonymous" profiles will allow them to be private about their identity when they want, while also participating publicly. Then when the trip is over, you could always link the journal back to your "real" profile. You could link your profiles together either publicly, or keep the links private. This was discussed recently:
Bicycle Touring: Forum: Website: #11869: "Real names, revisited", posted by George Garber*(ggarber) on Mon 9 Mar 2015 11:54 (US/Pacific)
Neil