Alternatives to trailjournals.com?

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

I need to find somewhere other than trailjournals.com to do an online journal for my upcoming hike. Any suggestions for good ones?

RST

[Hammock Hanger]

I need to find somewhere other than trailjournals.com to do an online journal for my upcoming hike. Any suggestions for good ones?

RST

As far I know there is no other site that is 95% hiking journals and visited as often as TJ.

The other alternative is to make your own. Something I am to lazy and dumb to do.

I understand the site has been lacking of late.

[MOWGLI]

Journals used to be unique. In 2000, there was about twenty journals on Wingfoot's site, but he pretty much stopped them after that. Now everybody keeps a journal, and the majority of them don't seem to be kept up-to-date. Many folks simply stop posting in their journal, and don't explain why.

I like keeping an online journal, but I made a decision not to keep one on the JMT this past summer. I kind of regret that decision, because I've already lost track of where many of my 600 photos were taken. I guess I'll just have to hike the trail again someday!

I suggest you start a blog. You could add an entry for every date spent on the trail. THere are lots of options for free sites including http://www.blogger.com/start.

Good luck!

[Pacific Tortuga]

[quote=

I like keeping an online journal, but I made a decision not to keep one on the JMT this past summer. I kind of regret that decision, because I've already lost track of where many of my 600 photos were taken. I guess I'll just have to hike the trail again someday!

IGood luck![/quote]

You had great weather in Cal didnt you? I would love to see the JMT photos. If you could have only left them stinky trail shoes else-where, we have too much pollution already ;)

[Michele]

Pocketmail is offering a journal site now. www.pocketmail.com (http://www.pocketmail.com) It's not just hiking, but more for the users of pocketmail.

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

I understand the site has been lacking of late.

Yeah, I hate to complain, it is free after all and the owners do seem to have put a lot of hard work into providing this for the hiking community.

But there are just too many major hassles with it. No idea why, but you aren't allowed to change/edit your own avatar/"about" picture. You have to personally email them and ask them to do it for you, manually, which, in my experience, has taken DAYS. The poor site owners must be deluged with requests and are backlogged. I'm just puzzled why they set it up this way so they have to do so much unneccesary work. You're also apparently not allowed to delete your journal either...only make it "inactive".

Like I said, I really do appreciate them providing this, but I'm not comfortable putting personal info on a site if I'm unable to control the content.

[TJ aka Teej]

I need to find somewhere other than trailjournals.com to do an online journal for my upcoming hike. Any suggestions for good ones?

RST
Post it right here on WhiteBlaze in the "Member Forums and Trip Reports" forum.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=66
I'm kinda surprised no one has done so yet!

[Sly]

www.postholer.com (http://www.postholer.com) So far it's just CDT and PCT but if you email Scott he'll set it up for the AT also.

http://postholer.com/journal/ (http://postholer.com/journal/index.php?sid=c51c57706bbdf06eba74cb9a6eca4e2a)

It's a pretty slick site which allows posting by email, pocketmail etc.

[rafe]

Most ISP (internet service provider) accounts include a personal home page and a few megabytes of space for web content. Simple HTML can be mastered in a day... or you can download any of dozens of web-page-creation packages.

[postholer.com]

It's a new feature to the postholer.com site this fall with features you won't find anywhere else. Here's a sample journal entry:
http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?entry_id=126

Here's a list of features:
+ Add journal entries/photos by email!
+ Spell Checker!
+ Extended journal information for keeping track of everything
+ Guestbook for your visitors
+ Advanced editing features
+ Integrated journal & forum accounts
+ Presentation of the authors avatar
+ Multiple journal handling that will blow your mind!
+ Automatic bookmarks for readers - up to 200 journals

Check it out, you'll like it!
-postholer

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Yeah, I know I could do a blog or website or even myspace or something. But I like the idea of having it on a hiker site, where other hikers can view it. Trailjournals.com is/was a great idea, it's really is a shame about the setup/security issues.

I'm checking out postholer now, looks awesome. Wonder if they'd add an Allegheny Trail area? I know that at 330 miles, it's not as long or impressive as the big three that are on that site now, but it's still a long-distance trail and there seems to be a lot of interest in people thru-hiking it this year.

[postholer.com]

The Allegheny Trail has been added!
:sun

[Chaco Taco]

Post it right here on WhiteBlaze in the "Member Forums and Trip Reports" forum.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=66
I'm kinda surprised no one has done so yet!

I agree here. Im going to post mine when i get back from my section. I will also be posting on trailjournals since I just got mine up.

I also agree that people just stop posting on there. I really enjoy readinga nd looking at the pics.

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

The Allegheny Trail has been added!
:sun

Wow!! Thanks!

I just registered, just waiting for my activation key and I'm ready to switch all my info over to postholer.

Thanks again! :)

[jlb2012]

RST - are you hiking the Allegheny Trail or the Appalachian Trail?

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Hog, I'm doing a thru of the Allegheny this coming spring. I just moved to West Virginia and am excited about walking the length of my own new state!

[jlb2012]

OK now it makes a lot more sense - thanks for the clarification

[Sly]

The Allegheny Trail has been added!
:sun

Hmmm... That was quick. I haven't seen the Grand Enchantment Trail added yet! :mad:

Edit: Apologies to Scott. I found it. :o

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Just want to report that I am very happy with the trail journals at postholer. I was able to re-create my journal there quite quickly and I do actually prefer their layout. My avatar is up, pics were a cinch to embed and it looks great!

Thanks so much Sly and Postholer for the info!

RST

[Tipi Walter]

Questions: Can a person's trail journal be on two different websites? What's the best place to start in setting up a personal backpacking web site(with alot of storage space for text and pics)? Such a question is probably outside the intent of this thread.

If I did set up my own website with all my trip reports, would my Trail Journals account have to be deactivated?

And finally: On the Whiteblaze Member Trip Reports are they locked up from new accounts? And are they strictly for AT hiking and not general backpacking reports?

[ed bell]

And finally: On the Whiteblaze Member Trip Reports are they locked up from new accounts? And are they strictly for AT hiking and not general backpacking reports?That's a good question. I think you have to submit a report to the admin in order to get a forum opened, but I'm not sure. That section of this website is not utilized too much. I suspect that more manpower is needed to keep up with some of these extra features of the website. I think the place runs great, but I was just commenting on this little corner of the site.

[eric_plano]

In response to Tipi...you don't need to shut down your TJ if you have another site running.

I decided to write my own this time around so I could just pass the link to friends and family instead of the entire world. Plus it is good practical application for learning more programming for jobs later on. Having a good knowledge of software,SQL etc helps. If you don't there are plenty of blog sites available that are nice.

Feel free to have a look at my test journal. It is still 'in programming' :)
It isn't viewable from the rest of the site yet since I don't want work to know about it
http://www.ehike.org/journal/journal/jview.aspx
(if you break it tell me what you did hehe)

[postholer.com]

I decided to write my own this time around so I could just pass the link to friends and family instead of the entire world.Exactly! When I wrote journals at postholer.com I knew that some folks didn't like sharing their experience with the entire world; it was a personal thing. In fact, this is what I do with my trail work journal. It's no ones business but my own.

At postholer.com you have the ability to 'hide' your journal, meaning it's not visible in searches or anywhere on the site. The only way to access your journal is through your personal link, ie, postholer.com/Stick (http://postholer.com/Stick) This is the link you'd pass to family and friends to share your personal experience.

With that said, *nothing* is more personal than building your own web site to present your journey, as many folks do.

[Cherokee Bill]

:-? Went to "Postholer" and see no section dedicated to "AT" hiking!

TJ has been around a long while and that is the first place folk go to check on folks currently hiking:D

So, TJ although not perfect, is still the best overall place to post a trail journal :D

My 2-cents

[Tipi Walter]

Yeah, I hate to complain, it is free after all and the owners do seem to have put a lot of hard work into providing this for the hiking community.

But there are just too many major hassles with it. No idea why, but you aren't allowed to change/edit your own avatar/"about" picture. You have to personally email them and ask them to do it for you, manually, which, in my experience, has taken DAYS. The poor site owners must be deluged with requests and are backlogged. I'm just puzzled why they set it up this way so they have to do so much unneccesary work. You're also apparently not allowed to delete your journal either...only make it "inactive".

Like I said, I really do appreciate them providing this, but I'm not comfortable putting personal info on a site if I'm unable to control the content.

You might not be able to delete your entire Trail Journal at once, but can you not edit each entry and erase it one by one? It would take a while I guess. BTW, when a journal is "inactive", can it still be read by the public?

[Twofiddy]

I need to find somewhere other than trailjournals.com to do an online journal for my upcoming hike. Any suggestions for good ones?

RST

Why not start your own BLOG and get a domain name like RufousSidedTowhee.com and post your own info there.

If you want some help with this I'll help you set it up in return for a linky linky to my website.

It will cost you about $10 for the domain name, and about $20 for blog package without advertisements on it that will look real great. I'd be willing to chip in on the costs in return for a banner ad being placed on there to my e-store.

Let me know if you are interested.

In my opinion, this is a much better way to go. That way if you have to have a sit in with the Stratton ME Police because the Post Office Clerk is having a bad day, you can write all about it and not get guff from others who think that you are writing a bad journal on TJ.

[Earl Grey]

What I did was set my own up.

Dreamhost www.dreamhost.com gives you a free domain name with a web hosting plan. In addition to this you can add unlimited subdomains/domains under the one web hosting plan. For instance right now mooncube.org which is my "general" site will be hosted in addition to a site im making just for the AT hike this summer (ive already registered the site, TBA). I started mooncube as a place to tinker around with and ive learned alot so I suggest you take the initiative and set a weekend aside and you can learn alot. I setup mooncube + photo galleries all in a weekend and its been great since. Dreamhost offers one click installs on wordpress, joomla, gallery, phpBB and many others.

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

You might not be able to delete your entire Trail Journal at once, but can you not edit each entry and erase it one by one? It would take a while I guess. BTW, when a journal is "inactive", can it still be read by the public?

Yeah, that's what I eventually had to do after repeated ignored requests to the site owners over a period of several weeks to please delete my journal. I finally had to manually delete every single journal, gear, maildrop, and guestbook entry, as well as all my photos.

I think they should at least have a warning/disclaimer on their site telling people that once they start a journal they can never delete it.

p.s. I just checked, my journal is still there...:mad:

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Thanks for info/offer, Twofiddy, but I'm actually totally pleased with the trail journaling over at postholer.com. I highly recommend them!

[Sly]

We Sponsor Whiteblaze.net

I'm sure your advertising dollars are welcome, but isn't it disingenuous to say you sponsor Whiteblaze?

[Jaybird]

I need to find somewhere other than trailjournals.com to do an online journal for my upcoming hike. Any suggestions for good ones?RST




Why???? did u get kicked out?

hehehehehehehehe:D

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Why???? did u get kicked out?

hehehehehehehehe:D
Huh? :confused:

[Overpass]

That's messed up. What is their reason for refusing to let you delete your journal?

And Jaybird: whiskey tango foxtrot? Did you even READ this thread? Or did you just read the subject line and do a dumbass drunken driveby?

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

That's messed up. What is their reason for refusing to let you delete your journal?

No reason is given.

Things just got even lamer over there. I just tried to log in and it appears that the site administrators have locked me out of trailjournals. This is undoubtedly due to my comments in their support forum expressing my frustration with not being able to change my photo or even delete my journal, and finally stating that was taking my journal elsewhere.

Fine, lock me out, I don't care! Really and truly, I don't want my journal hosted there anyway. Except... they still refuse to delete my journal!. :datz I'm just glad I got all my personal info off there when I had a chance. Now it's just sitting there, like a car up on blocks, stripped of all useful parts, just taking up space on their servers. I'm not allowed to delete it and they refuse to do so.

Oookaaay then. They sure showed me who's boss! :rolleyes:

[postholer.com]

Fine, lock me out, I don't care! Really and truly, I don't want my journal hosted there anyway. Except... they still refuse to delete my journal!.

Content is king.

You can't attract advertisers if you don't have content. The more, the better, whatever it takes. Allowing folks to remove their journals reduces the amount of content.

And if you're selling that content to advertisers or asking for donations, well, you just can't allow folks control and stay in business apparently.

On the other hand, if they have security issues, a removed journal is a journal that may need to be restored from backup, which creates work. The solution: no content removal. This would seem like a quick fix and not a long term solution to a security problem.

Obviously, there is a logical reason for their behavior, but it sure seems to be a big secret to this point.

I'm just speculating or talking out of my a**. Seriously, does anyone know why they won't give you control?

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

Thanks for the explanation, postholer.

Trailjournals should be glad I didn't take my friend's advice the other day and just post a bit o' porn on the journal. But that would have made that Incredible Undeletable Journal go bye-bye in a hurry! :D

p.s. Thanks again to the folks at postholer.com for offering excellent trail journal opportunities.

[Rufous Sided Towhee]

BTW, Postholer, is there any way to add the Appalachian Trail to the top banner of your site so people will realize it's not just a left coast thing?

Right now it looks like this:


Pacific Crest Trail Continental Divide Trail Journals Forums Site Information

It would look even better like this! ;)



Pacific Crest Trail Continental Divide Trail Appalachian Trail Journals Forums Site Information

[postholer.com]

BTW, Postholer, is there any way to add the Appalachian Trail to the top banner of your site so people will realize it's not just a left coast thing?

Absolutely! Just as soon as they install snow sensors along the AT. :-?

Those links direct you to snow pages. (ie, postholer.com) A network of monitors operated by a government organization called 'SnoTel' has sensors located in strategic locations throughout the west. The postholer site uses these sensors to monitor conditions along the PCT (http://postholer.com/cgi-bin/postHoler?trail=PCT) and the CDT (http://postholer.com/cgi-bin/postHoler?trail=CDT).

For a CDT hiker the snow in Glacier National Park to the north or the San Juans to the south can be a huge factor deciding when and what direction to hike. The same applies to the PCT.

While the east coast gets some serious snow, I'm not aware of a sensor network like snotel. If one exists, please point me in that direction and you will definitely see a snow page for the AT! There is plenty of good information about the AT that could be posted on such a page, post offices, interactive map, gps, etc.

While it may seem like a bias towards trails, I assure you it is not. :D

Maybe a little bit of sloth, though. :D