+1

Surprising to read the negative feedback about crazyguy site. It seems those who think negatively of it do so because of aesthetics. No doubt many web sites these days specialize in pretty pictures. The crazyguy site, however, provides more than just glitzy photo display, and it seems this aspect is lost to some who visit the site. In terms of useful information for learning about bike touring experience, crazyguy is the best site available. It works and works very well. For some the internet bike-touring experience is all about pictures, and pictures are certainly a key component, but for many the internet bike-touring experience is also about information beyond pictures, and crazyguy is tops in that.

CGOB is operated on a very low budget, almost a labor of love. It is not state-of-the-art web design and that's OK by me. When I am researching a bike tour or just looking for ideas or amusement, it's one of the sites that I always visit. The quality of the journals vary widely in content, writing and photos but that's part of the charm.

Periodically I send small donations to help Neil Gunton operate the site. He funds the site by donations, a limited amount of targeted advertising, and I presume some of his own money. As far as I'm concerned, he's one of the good guys.

Donation sent to Mr. Gunton. Keep up the great work with Crazy Guy On A Bike.

Neil + touring + internet = CGOAB

****.

Principles of web design: whose principles, and what makes the CGOAB design unprincipled?

You point to this above site as what CGOAB could be? Ok, so you want to CGOAB to be a forum?

I think you are missing the point to a degree. I appreciate good web design and agree that CGOAB is not at the cutting edge or even close. However, the site is largely user created almost like a wiki site. It is simple to navigate, post items and search. It has tons of information. I do agree that it could be improved but you could say that about anything. One design feature that frustrates me is having to click through so many pages when reading a journal. Why not just make it one page? I'm sure there's a reason for that, however, such as accommodating tourers who add a page at a time during their trips.

In contrast, I have been to many "well designed" websites that suck in many other ways. They change the design so often that it's hard finding content and various features don't work if you don't have the latest version of some software. The BackpackingLight site that you linked seems to be more of a commercial website with more advertising and writing/photos by professionals. There's nothing wrong with that, but I doubt if they would accept an article by Joe Schmoe about his bike trip along the C&O Canal or Katy Trail -- not edgy enough.

Your landlord's in the prawn industry?

I'm glad he isn't. I might not be able to afford the apartment if he was!

Edit: I think it's best if I keep my comments to myself and let everyone else do whatever they want with their own site. Sorry for causing trouble.

In all honesty, CGOAB is a great site. Sure, it's not perfect, but what is? Somewhat amused that Neil's pride is hurt, and he feels the need to defend himself here. No hard feelings, I hope.

You can change that to whatever color you prefer using the "Options" tab..

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Mdilthey has been missing the point for some time.
He slings arrows and then claims to be Joan of Arc when they come back towards him.

His comment about CGOAB donations should get him warned at the very least.

If you don't like it, you don't have to go there.

I find a lot of the personal websites seem to be used mostly for personal promotion, self-aggrandizement and gathering sponsors. I usually look at them, evaluate, and exercise my prerogative of not going there again.

I like CGOAB. Not every journal is good reading, but that's okay. The site could look better, but really it's just a wrapper for all the user-generated content. Sometimes I'll read about trips I'd like to take. Sometimes I'll find a journaler I like and read their trips. Sometimes I'll see a random photo that intrigues me, and I'll find myself reading about an unexpected location. Sometimes I just want to see who's gone through a certain area and what route they took and what they noticed.

All those things I find easy to do on CGOAB. I can't spend all my time touring. I can't even spend all my time reading about touring, but I can sometimes get a quick fix on Crazy Guy.

All,

I've redacted all my comments about Neil's site, in the interest of not contributing to negativity and unproductive argument on the forum (I'm very guilty of that today). If you'd like, you can picture me sobbing quietly and licking my wounds. Whatever.

I'm going on a bike ride.

wow! good money to make a text page work. maybe the servers are placed far on Ebolonia ...

Always the best idea!

this is a great story, 13 (empty) pages.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/..._id=17520&v=18

CGOAB has a wealth of information about touring destinations all over the world. There are literally thousands of trip reports on the site. As a planning tool, it is superb. I have used it when planning tours in Asia and South America, for example. It's great to be able to get first-hand information from other touring cyclists who have been there. When I toured in Sri Lanka about 10 years ago, I could only find minimal information from other touring cyclists. I see that CGOAB now has quite a few recent trip reports about that beautiful country.

A lot of the negative comments I've seen in this thread have come from folks who only bike in the usual places. If those folks ever decide to venture to less common destinations, they'd probably appreciate CGOAB to a greater degree.

If you were paying attention, you would have seen that the dates for that "story" are in the future. The trip is scheduled to begin on May 7, 2016.

?

Looks like simply a place holder to me, as the dates for each of the pages are in the future.

In any case, this thread has served a helpful purpose, as I never knew of the bike trip portion of the site before! Quite a bit for me to look over, some of it has already been helpful!

Your funny.

Also sometimes folks format a journal ahead of time then don't take the trip or otherwise don't complete the journal for whatever reason and never delete it. I led an ACA TransAm tour one year and we had two members with journals on CGOAB. One fellow was a retired British English teacher. An excellent, witty writer and good photographer. The second fellow was neither. Both journals remain on the site. One was never completed beyond about 2 weeks.

Here's a good one on Mallorca. Lots of quality photos...

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...c_id=8435&v=QQ

It's a cold rainy day here in NH, thus I'm posting a lot rather than being out on a ride!