Originally Posted by
alan s
I've got nothing against CGOAB, but some of the folks who post there are a bit full of themselves. I mean, do you really need to read about someone's detailed planning months in advance? And the catchy titles are just ridiculous. If the posters just stuck more to the facts, and tried less hard to be aspiring travel writers, I would probably use it as a resource more often. I really despise the self-promoting Facebook style of many of the writers.
And what I like about CGOAB is that you get plenty of all kinds of travel logs. Sometimes I look up someone's journal because they're passing through an area I'm interested in, but find I like their writing style, and end up reading their other trips as well. Sometimes what I want is the planning. Yes, some people are more detailed than what
I might want, and I'm sure some people find some of the journals I read too focused on the minutia of how the tour got done, but that's why I like the site: There's a lot out there. Don't like it? Move on to the next. For my part, I have way more time to plan than I do to ride, unfortunately, so reading about planning is something I sometimes enjoy because that's stuff I can put into practice without waiting for the next block of vacation time. And sometimes when I'm looking for information, and not entertainment, being bland and detail oriented is just what I want.
In addition to looking at routes and experience in specific areas, I also like searching CGOAB for equipment options. Think you'll run out of hanging options if you try and hammock-camp in a certain area? Find someone who tried it. Wondering if bike X will do the job? Someone's probably tried it. Sometimes I'll flip through pages and pages of photos internally shouting, "Could you at least once mention what tent that is?" Once I read an author's journals for the sole reason that he was doing all of his riding on a 50 year-old cruiser with a kick back hub.
I've read some really bland journals just to see how someone's equipment held up, and I'm glad they kept those journals. And I've read some really interesting journals about trips that I have no interest in taking myself, and I'm glad they kept those journals as well.
But, back to the OP, I don't think of the kinds of other journals on Crazy Guy as a plus or minus for whether I put my own journal there. I think you decide if you're comfortable with the platform, decide if your tour is going fall within Neil's guidelines, and go from there. Presumably you've already decided to journal your trip, even if not everyone will be captivated by it.
Also, I don't think Neil prevents you from duplicating your Journal elsewhere, but he does have some guideline on this, so that's worth looking into. But I do think it's possible to be part of the CGOAB experience while still keeping a version over which you have complete control. It's just a little more work than doing one or the other.