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Cloudbirders Trip Reports - getting taken over by Tour Reports (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

Discovered this thread by coincidence today...
As pointed out by temmie, there is a filter option today to hide these reports, but it's not very easy to access.
So for convenience, we just added a button to the site (at the top of the Filters section) that will exclude/include the tour reports with a single click.

cheers
the Cloudbirders team (Wim & Hans)
 
Thanks Wim and Hans.

By the way, sorry if I seemed critcial with my OP, Cloudbirders is simply superb for information, and I use it & visit it regularly.

Your efforts are very much appreciated here.
 
No worries... we are actually keen to get feedback, as it helps us to make improvements.
FYI we're currently working on a major revamp of the site as the underlying technology is getting somewhat dated. It will launch in 2019, but no specific target date yet.
 
wimheylen said:
No worries... we are actually keen to get feedback, as it helps us to make improvements.
FYI we're currently working on a major revamp of the site as the underlying technology is getting somewhat dated. It will launch in 2019, but no specific target date yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for maintaining the site and especially for keeping and allowing reports from tour companies, which I find useful for various purposes. I mostly go on commercial tours internationally because I don't have the time or inclination to deal with all the travel logistics. But I still frequently use your site, e.g. to help me decide where I want to go and determine just what I'm likely to see on a specific tour at a particular time of year. The commercial tour reports are often more helpful for that purpose because they follow standard routes, make consistent effort, and one knows the quality of guiding will generally be good.
 
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While they may be advertisements and sometimes quite annoying when you spot deliberate attempts to obfuscate key information, some of them have very useful information and some give a pretty good feel for the place (because of elaborate text and photos). Actually I often read BQ trip reports and if written well then even RJ. And there are LOTs of birders who would want to read trip reports even if they are visiting the area with an organized tour - they should not be left out. So I feel it is best to have them there - they do have value.

And of course there is the other matter of not clamping information because we may not agree to it or be the type that is not ideal for a specific purpose or simply has an ulterior agenda.
 
I'll offer a suggestion: split the site into two areas. One for "corporate" group tour reports and one for "individual" or small group trip reports.

I agree that both have value, but I use each of them for different reasons as enumerated above.
 
Jeff hopkins said:
I'll offer a suggestion: split the site into two areas. One for "corporate" group tour reports and one for "individual" or small group trip reports.
Click to expand...

Btw there is a clear marker in every row for trip type and the "Bird tour company" type is indicated by an intuitive icon.
 
temmie said:
On request, Hans and Wim have created a simple filter button in the top left on the trip report page:

https://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport

I hope this increases the user-friendliness of the site.
Click to expand...

Hi, a useful addition, but I would recommend it is slightly changed - "hide tour reports" is not very clear (all trip reports, from companies and private, are tour reports in reality). Although longer, I would suggest adding one word "hide tour company reports".
 
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Jos Stratford said:
Hi, a useless addition, but I would recommend it is slightly changed - "hide tour reports" is not very clear (all trip reports, from companies and private, are tour reports in reality). Although longer, I would suggest adding one word "hide tour company reports".
Click to expand...

Did you mean 'useful' by any chance? ;)

Agree that adding 'company' would make it clearer.
 
Jos Stratford said:
Hi, a useful addition, but I would recommend it is slightly changed - "hide tour reports" is not very clear (all trip reports, from companies and private, are tour reports in reality). Although longer, I would suggest adding one word "hide tour company reports".
Click to expand...

To fulfil your special request, Hans has modified the button:
https://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport

He asked if you could, in favour, write some more excellent reports and post them on cloudbirders ;)
 
I stopped perusing Cloudbirders because of this and then played about with the filter which does work but i think it could be tweaked with a lead option for either and/or birders or trip reports and then the existing filter system which would give you the 2 main choices of report before filtering... As already stated the annotated lists can be very useful and some trip reporters are ‘better’ than others. I understand that certain types of birders have limited time and do not wish to spend both time and money mooching around but c’est la difference:t:

Good Birding -

Laurie:t:
 
One very helpful feature could be rating reports you have read (or better: used in the field).

At this moment, even the best-rated or most read reports only have like 5 ratings, while sometimes, more than a 1000 people have clicked on the link to the report (I realize not everybody who will click on the link, will read it and will go there, but still).

If e.g. reports get 50 ratings, and especially if more reports have ratings (most don't have any at the moment), the filter settings could be more useful.

ps: this is NOT an attempt to get my reports better rated; to the contrary: some should be even downrated imho! ;)
 
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