Trail Journals vs. Postholer

[Graywolf]

Just looked at and registered on Postholer, but am a Trailjournals fan for years.

I am curious which ones do you prefer and which is easier to access via a smart phone like an Android?

I just purchased an Android and even though I mentioned many times before about why hikers take phones with them, I now see the usefullness in it concerning online journals.. I want to connect with one or the other and try it out..

Graywolf

[kayak karl]

i just think its hard to navigate postholers. they should get a better web design.

[Graywolf]

i just think its hard to navigate postholers. they should get a better web design.

I have just logged into Postholer with my phone, and even though I had access, the Maps wernt easy to navigate. You have ot have the latitude and longitude to get your location. I keept being put at Forrester Pass when I wanted Springer Mountain..LOL.. Oh well, I do have GPS...Guess that could work..

[Graywolf]

It was easy to acess my Trail Journals so my other question would be, has anyone uploaded photos from your phone to your journal? That would probably be a big one..

Graywolf

[sbhikes]

From what I understand, postholer is easier for the one posting the journal but harder to use for the one reading the journal. I have never been the one posting to postholer, but as a reader I do find it very difficult to use. You can never tell where someone is on the trail because all the entries just have stupid titles that people put in. There's no mileage or location fields to help you place where the person actually is, so if the person writing the journal fails to say where they are, you have no idea what they are talking about. I'm sure there are other annoyances others can list.

Trailjournals is supposedly more difficult to use if you are the one posting the journal, but if you are the one reading the journal it is easier to use. I have found this to be true. My only annoyance with trailjournal journals is how hard it is to get to the year and trail you want if it isn't the AT and this year that you want.

Since I like reading trailjournal journals way better than postholer ones, I thought I would rather endure any inconvenience and post my journal there. Trailjournals has a lot less bells and whistles and isn't quite as smart-phone/high-tech oriented, but then neither am I. If you are more smart-phone/high tech, you'll probably like postholer better.

[kayak karl]

It was easy to acess my Trail Journals so my other question would be, has anyone uploaded photos from your phone to your journal? That would probably be a big one..

Graywolf

two years ago i could not upload to trail journals from phone. i emailed them to somebody they uploaded and i then attached as i entered journal entry.
if this has changed i would love to know how to do it.

[wcgornto]

I used postholer for my AT journal in 2009 specifically because I could post entries directly from my hand held device without having to have someone else transcribe. I used a PEEK, though it would work fine with any hand held email capable device. As for reading a journal it is easy. To go to a specific journal, it's just postholer.com/username. In my case, it's postholer.com/wcgornto.

I would have probably used trailjournals if it had been possible to directly post entries. However, I was very pleased with postholer.

[DrRichardCranium]

From what I understand, postholer is easier for the one posting the journal but harder to use for the one reading the journal. I have never been the one posting to postholer, but as a reader I do find it very difficult to use. You can never tell where someone is on the trail because all the entries just have stupid titles that people put in. There's no mileage or location fields to help you place where the person actually is, so if the person writing the journal fails to say where they are, you have no idea what they are talking about. .

Not quite. Every entry has a place where you can put in your start location and your end location and your milleage. Check out my journal at http://postholer.com/tbrann

Skip past the introductory/pre-hike stuff.

I used a Droid and set up a template document with all the tags in place. Each night I would just paste in the template and type in my entry. You update by just sending an email, and you can attach a photo. No need to even get onto the website.

[malowitz]

I thrud last year using a Droid to do journal updates. So here is another one to check out: postholer.com/malowitz

I set up a template e-mail w/the necessary fields and would type it up at night and mail it off sometime. It worked out very well. When I hit towns, I uploaded photos, but I also, to different levels of effort, kept a tracking map going. W/the tracking map, I could log a GPS location and add a photo or 2. Check out the tracking may link at the bottom of my journal.

[Graywolf]

Thanks Malowitz. and Cranium. I will lokk at these tonight. I have usesd TJ n the past but only from my computer. This is the first to actualy use a phone.

About making templates, thats something new to me. I will have to look into that, Thanks..

Graywolf

[postholer.com]

I am curious which ones do you prefer and which is easier to access via a smart phone like an Android?

If you're looking to access your journal directly, use postholer mobile version. It's designed specifically for small screens. You can add/edit your journal entry directly there or email your journal entry. You can also get instant point forecast, static maps, search for other journals, etc. TJ's doesn't have any of these features.

If you want to see an example of all the fields you can have, start location, end location, daily/trip miles, etc, view the postholer journal page. Not only does it have the above mentioned fields, it has far more than TJ's if you're inclined to use them.

If all you've ever read is TJ's journals, I imagine looking at postholer journals will be different, but difficult? That might be a stretch, but you decide.

Here's the thing. No other journal site, none, keeps the journal reader as involved in your hike as postholer journals, integrated google maps, integrated SPOT, twitter, etc. Your followers can be updated immediately if you choose. Postholer journals has totally nailed it for the journal reader.

-postholer

[Graywolf]

If you're looking to access your journal directly, use postholer mobile version. It's designed specifically for small screens. You can add/edit your journal entry directly there or email your journal entry. You can also get instant point forecast, static maps, search for other journals, etc. TJ's doesn't have any of these features.

If you want to see an example of all the fields you can have, start location, end location, daily/trip miles, etc, view the postholer journal page. Not only does it have the above mentioned fields, it has far more than TJ's if you're inclined to use them.

If all you've ever read is TJ's journals, I imagine looking at postholer journals will be different, but difficult? That might be a stretch, but you decide.

Here's the thing. No other journal site, none, keeps the journal reader as involved in your hike as postholer journals, integrated google maps, integrated SPOT, twitter, etc. Your followers can be updated immediately if you choose. Postholer journals has totally nailed it for the journal reader.

-postholer

Thanks. I looked at teh moblile version and was able to get it to come up just fine. Reading Malowitz journal was very informative. I will have to get figure out the maps. I have several GPS apps on the phone that I downloaded. So that souldnt be a problem.

I have 360 days to the start of my thru and plan on doing a section in August, so I will have ot play around with it and get to know it. But dosnt look too bad. I will have to figure out how to upload photos too...

Thanks, Postholer and thanks Malowitz. Great Journal read. I will have to come back to it..

Ive alwasy said I dont like phones on the trail, but this does make it easier to update your journal is your journaling..

Graywolf

[Thrasher]

I prefer postholer and it seems easy enough to use. I actaully like the layout.
My Grandma and Dad could check it online without problems, so I guess it's easy enough to view post.
I tried to put mileage and you can put where you start and end to let people know what section you've done.
I've never checked trailjournals from a phone, but postholer works well enough on a phone.

[walkin' wally]

I'm using Postholer because it is easier for me to post to it directly from my phone. I don't have great computer skills so it "seems" easier than TJ. I started on TJ but changed to Postholer for that reason.

[handlebar]

I continued to post my journal on TJ after I bought my Iphone mainly because the readers in my family were used to it. I used the Iphone's notepad in airplane mode to write my journal at the end of each day. When I came to a high spot where I suspected there might be cell coverage, I powered up, checked for internet coverage, and, if available, did a cut and past from the notepad app into the TJ web page.

I imagine the Postholer app is easier----especially when it comes to posting pics, but I'm a creature of habit and all my other journals are on TJ. Maybe I'll experiment a bit with Postholer next week when I set out on the Allegheny Trail as a training walk for starting the second "chunk" of my CDT hike in July.

[BrianLe]

"I have just logged into Postholer with my phone, and even though I had access, the Maps wernt easy to navigate. You have ot have the latitude and longitude to get your location. I keept being put at Forrester Pass when I wanted Springer Mountain..LOL.. Oh well, I do have GPS...Guess that could work.."

Graywolf, I don't understand the above. Are you saying that you can access maps and navigate to your location on Trailjournals.com but not Postholer.com? I can't imagine that's so, to my knowledge, any sort of mapping support is unique to Postholer.

What I'm suspecting from the above is that you're trying to use postholer maps as mapping software to be used on your phone. As some portable device screens get bigger, maybe that would work for someone, but such a use hadn't occurred to me. I think you would be better of with something designed for that, such as Google Maps or the like.

From the mobile device, post your location if you wish (either direct entry of coordinates or using SPOT), then folks using an actual computer can look at the maps to follow where you're at.

Handlebar said:

"I imagine the Postholer app is easier----especially when it comes to posting pics, but I'm a creature of habit and all my other journals are on TJ."

This is why I think it's good that Postholer is being discussed more these days on whiteblaze --- so many long distance hikers start out with the AT, and in the past at least haven't been as aware of the alternatives available to TJ. And inertia is, indeed, a powerful force.

Come to the dark side, Handlebar --- "we have cookies"! :-)

And I envy you the Allegheny trail trip; as it's looking now I'll probably start on the CDT more fat and less fit than I would like. More for the bears to eat I guess!

[Red Hat]

I've used Trail journals since 03 and will probably continue to do so. Easy enough for an old lady...not especially tech savy

[kayak karl]

Thanks Malowitz. and Cranium. I will lokk at these tonight. I have usesd TJ n the past but only from my computer. This is the first to actualy use a phone.

About making templates, thats something new to me. I will have to look into that, Thanks..

Graywolf

don't hesitate to do test posts from phone. you could always go back with computer and delete or leave for future hikers. leave your phone type and carrier on post.
have a good hike.
KK

[Graywolf]

Graywolf, I don't understand the above. Are you saying that you can access maps and navigate to your location on Trailjournals.com but not Postholer.com? I can't imagine that's so, to my knowledge, any sort of mapping support is unique to Postholer.

What I'm suspecting from the above is that you're trying to use postholer maps as mapping software to be used on your phone. As some portable device screens get bigger, maybe that would work for someone, but such a use hadn't occurred to me. I think you would be better of with something designed for that, such as Google Maps or the like.

From the mobile device, post your location if you wish (either direct entry of coordinates or using SPOT), then folks using an actual computer can look at the maps to follow where you're at.

Handlebar said:


This is why I think it's good that Postholer is being discussed more these days on whiteblaze --- so many long distance hikers start out with the AT, and in the past at least haven't been as aware of the alternatives available to TJ. And inertia is, indeed, a powerful force.

Come to the dark side, Handlebar --- "we have cookies"! :-)

And I envy you the Allegheny trail trip; as it's looking now I'll probably start on the CDT more fat and less fit than I would like. More for the bears to eat I guess!

No that is not what I meant. I know you cant access maps on Trail Journals. I can access maps on Postholer. But they arnt easy to navigate (I need to play with it some). You need to know your Lat/Long. Thats all I am saying. I have Google Maps, plus several other GPS apps for hiking, so that isnt an issue at all. Just using the feature per posthole per sai. Not that I would actually use it. It was justa statement..

[Graywolf]

don't hesitate to do test posts from phone. you could always go back with computer and delete or leave for future hikers. leave your phone type and carrier on post.
have a good hike.
KK

Thanks Karl, I registered but havnt set up a Journal yet. But I have been playing with it via the mobile link to get use to the layout. Dosnt seem bad. i am still back and forth on Posthole and trail Journals. This is a new phone for me which also means getting up to speed on the new tech, so the more I play with it, the more I will understand it..Thanks..

Graywolf