New Bike Touring Review Site

Hi Everyone,

I've created a site for cyclists to post and review their experiences
with commercial bike tour operators from around the world. It's a
resource to help you decide which bike tour to take, or in which area
to travel. It's also a place to share your experiences from your own
personal bike tours, and to help each other out in planning your own
trip. If you love cycle touring, come check it out!

The address is http://www.earthtrek.ca . There's not too much content
on the site at the moment, but my hope is that the site will develop
into a cool place for people who love bike touring, as I do, to hang
out and share experiences...come see for yourself!

Cheers,

Jeff

On 4 Jul 2005 04:35:57 -0700, wrote:

I've created a site for cyclists to post and review their experiences
with commercial bike tour operators from around the world.

You're a bit late - the rec.bicycles.* hierarchy has fulfilled that
purpose for many years.


Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"Let’s have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck
in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."
- Earl Blumenauer

Interesting idea, but rather flawed by having tour company adverts. How
could you publish a critical review of a company with an ad on top?

Aside from wanting to collect saleable email addresses, what purpose is
served by asking visitors to register and log in?

George

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Everyone,

I've created a site for cyclists to post and review their experiences
with commercial bike tour operators from around the world. It's a
resource to help you decide which bike tour to take, or in which area
to travel. It's also a place to share your experiences from your own
personal bike tours, and to help each other out in planning your own
trip. If you love cycle touring, come check it out!

The address is http://www.earthtrek.ca . There's not too much content
on the site at the moment, but my hope is that the site will develop
into a cool place for people who love bike touring, as I do, to hang
out and share experiences...come see for yourself!

Cheers,

Jeff

Hi George,

Thanks for your feedback guys...yes, I know this is still a work in
progress, so I appreciate your comments, as I want the site to be a
success!

You're a bit late - the rec.bicycles.* hierarchy has fulfilled that
purpose for many years.

Yes, I know that there are already several places on the web to discuss
this type of info... I'm hoping that my site will be complimentary to
these...plus, I personally just like the discussion forum format of
viewing/discussing topics, it's easier to navigate /understand for me.

As far as displaying the company ads up on the top of the site, those
ads are automatically chosen for display by google, based on the
content or words used on that page. So they are not an effort by me to
promote any particular company. I'm not adverse to changing the layout
for the ads though, if they bother people, as that's not the main point
of the site.

I have now allowed anyone to post a commet without registering their
email...that wasn't to collect email addresses, but rather an effort to
keep spammers and the like off the boards. But I'll remove the
registration for now, and see what happens...thanks for the advice.

Cheers,

Jeff

I couldn't figure out how to remove the email address field in the
forum software, but just use a fake email address if you like...you
don't have to register to post now, and only have to put in your real
email if you would like to receive notifications of responses to your
comments by email, or if you would like to chat with other members.

Jeff

wrote in message
ups.com...
I couldn't figure out how to remove the email address field in the
forum software, but just use a fake email address if you like...you
don't have to register to post now, and only have to put in your real
email if you would like to receive notifications of responses to your
comments by email, or if you would like to chat with other members.

I have found that forums requiring registering a valid e-mail address tend
to be considerably more civilized than those that don't. You night lose a
few extreme retrogrouches who refuse to register for anything, but the
attraction of a web forum is precisely that it's *not* Usenet, and is
therefore susceptible to rational management.

However, I think your site has too many categories and will therefore look
deserted for quite a long time. Fewer topics encourages more interaction
and discussion.

Good luck with your site.

RichC