Photos on the Forum
One type of post that regularly gets flagged as Spam are those with photos. Photos weren't something that could be added before the forum redesign in 2019. There's many great photographers on the forum (I'm not one of them) who have some wonderful photos and even videos to share. The problem with flagging the posts with photos is no one understands why the objection since the anonymous flagger won't explain.
Is one on topic photo okay, but several is too much? Is it if it's off topic or not travel related? Certainly humor gets flagged.
Is it that scrolling through a thread with lots of photos takes a long time? No everyone has fast wifi or equipment with fast processors.
Maybe one solution would be to create a separate section of the forum with something called "Tour Albums" where lots of photos could be posted for those who do want to see them but anyone uninterested could just skip.
Comments
Claudia - I would be opposed to your separate section idea for photos. I like things in the proper context, so as to get the most value. Oftentimes pictures can explain something way better than words. I don't want to have a forum design for people with dialup modems. Technology advances, why not use it.
I prefer the solution that you alluded to,
If people don't like photos and some appear then exit the thread and skip the discussion.
No solution needed when there's no problem.
I agree Sam. As they say "a picture is worth a thousand words". I'm not advocating getting rid of photos on the forum entirely.
The albums would be nice for people who have loads of photos of an entire tour. Check out the Rick Steves website our tours section -- https://www.ricksteves.com/tours. You can flip thru the tour Scrapbooks, they have a Scrapbook contest and even tour videos.
I like the photos but I'd appreciate if people would add text with the photo saying where it was taken and any other interesting information about the picture.
Use the photos as part of your story.
I think you are attributing some rational reason for the 1 or 2 idiots who flag posts with photographs. These few are, in exact medical terms, nutso. I truly enjoy most of the photos and really hope you all continue to post them and not worry about those jerks.
Claudia - I clicked on your ricksteves link and tried to see what you were suggesting in terms of tour scrapbooks, but everything I found seemed to be advertisements for different aspects of what Rick Steves and his website have to offer. I didn't find it easy to find a scrapbook. I thought I had found one, a winning one about Ireland, but about one page into it, I convinced myself that it was more of a advertisement about scrapbooks, because the page starting talking about other stuff, not a scrapbook about an Ireland tour.
Anyway, enough about Rick Steves.
I like Mike's suggestion about adding text before and/or after a photo to explain what is shown, why it is helpful, etc.
@Smiling Sam here is the link to the Rick Steves scrapbook. These are from tour members, not Rick Steves Europe, the company. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks
I think some people are clueless and may even flag thinks they like. Maybe they think they can save as you cab save posts in Facebook. The rules and navigation on this forum are not intuitive, Tauck is spending its money elsewhere.
It may be just ONE person, who makes flag #2 signed in under her (his) spouse.
Cathy - The flagger is a sick individual. Imagine spending time going back years through Claudia's posts for the purpose of flagging them. Signing in and out of multiple accounts is nothing, in comparison.
Claudia's post got flagged? when did this happen? If that's the case my upside-down photos will be flagged for sure
but I know who he is... the photo rotation police it's pretty well known...:) 