Thread: Thinking about a trip report app for the forums

What do you guys think about trip report app for the forums for mobile devices. Here are some of my thoughts.
You can build a trip report throughout the day or over a period of days and publish directly to the forums.
Essentially you start a report(can have multiple reports being built at once) by naming it. Then you take photos with your device(app would have a camera built into it) and label them as you go. You confirm that you want them in the report. You can add a text description to your report. Then you publish live.
We could even build a feature where you have a live report going and you update the 1st post of a live TR thread throughout the day. You tart by creating your report, select live TR, and start your TR. Then every time you take a photo and write a description it automatically updates. We could have a little icon that lets people know this is an active live TR and people could watch it unfold.

Thoughts, ideas, input?

How many people post TRs with pictures taken with their phone?

Personally, I wouldn't want to create a TR on my phone since I have multiple windows open and it would be a general PITA. Maybe other people do things differently, however.

Just to be clear, the app would be where you took photos, andit would add them into the TR. The idea would be to keep the process super simple and entirely within the app. We could also call these mobile TR's or MTR's in the thread. Potentially feed them to a forum section dedicated to MTR's if you think it woud clog the main ski/board section. Good feedback though. This is why I am asking. Some mags have told me they thought it would be very cool, but maybe not.

I agree that a lot of people who post now probably use something other than their phone for pictures. However, if designed well this app could make it a lot more likely for those not currently posting them to begin... I think overall it's a good idea as anything that increases the amount of TR's can't be anything but positive. Plus, mobile devices are the way of the future and the phones integrated into them are only getting better...

I think it could be cool. And for those areas that DO get cell reception it would be kind of cool to use the GPS function to track the trip on a map, elevation covered, trip time, miles covered, etc. Then those pictures could be attached to way-points along the way and you can create an interactive trip report map/timeline.

I agree with Brianskis. As a jong who never really figured out how to post pics and link properly, this app would give me the tools to produce a TR. Focus on ease of use and this could go far

It could be cool but I worry about having a ridiculous number of MTRs in ski and snowboard. It would be cool to have a separate MTR page and maybe a sidebar with the most recent MTRs displayed on ski and snowboard.

As a jong who never really figured out how to post pics and link properly

Isn't this kind of TR natural selection? If a bunch of people figure out how to post short cell phone TRs I feel like ski/snowboard will get overloaded with new posts in the winter.

Originally Posted by esales09

It could be cool but I worry about having a ridiculous number of MTRs in ski and snowboard. It would be cool to have a separate MTR page and maybe a sidebar with the most recent MTRs displayed on ski and snowboard.


Isn't this kind of TR natural selection? If a bunch of people figure out how to post short cell phone TRs I feel like ski/snowboard will get overloaded with new posts in the winter.

I think we would go with a MTR forum section based on feedback and logic for this project. It makes sense to not clog up the Ski/board and the master TR's. Geo location is a great idea as well.

I remember when Punani posted the first live iphone tr. It was new and cool.
This is forward thinking and is to be commended for that alone.
Simplicity being the key, I like the live tr app idea. Sidebar shots sounds cool, too.
If someone is out of reception range, would they be able to construct a tr that would be sent and posted as soon as they hit coverage?
It would also work well as an app here on the forum for people who have trouble posting pics.

Originally Posted by splat

I remember when Punani posted the first live iphone tr. It was new and cool.
This is forward thinking and is to be commended for that alone.
Simplicity being the key, I like the live tr app idea. Sidebar shots sounds cool, too.
If someone is out of reception range, would they be able to construct a tr that would be sent and posted as soon as they hit coverage?
It would also work well as an app here on the forum for people who have trouble posting pics.

You would be able to build an TR throughout the day or week that is not live and add photos to that as you go. You could have multiple TR's being built at the same time. Then you select publish when you want to publish it. If you selected a live TR it would be updating throughout the day. Again, the idea is to keep it very simple, as few clips as possible.

^^^^ ditto what spat said ^^^^

good Idea 420 very forward thinking.

Just be sure to trade mark it so when Face Fuck poaches your idea you can become filthy rich for copyright infringement.

CAT

i like the idea...

Just be sure to trade mark it so when Face Fuck poaches your idea you can become filthy rich for copyright infringement.

+1... This!

The MTR idea is good.

But the main page is so fucking cluttered of "useless" shit nowadays (read, local conditions) that posting even a normal TR next to useless. Ad to that 10-20/day of 3 pic MTRs and it will be a shitfest.

1st. Get the "local conditionsr" threads to a different forum. Everyone that uses them, well, uses them regardless where they are.

2.nd. Clean the mainpage of the useless shit that has nothing to do with ski/snowboard.

3.rd. Make the app super simple, there is a lot of peeps that use TGR when roaming (other countries,under wifi etc) so doing the 5-10 pic TRs should be made Über simple.


If you can use some of the filters that hipstamatics/whatever use, then it would be dandy.
People that would to the MTRs prolly would use them to take a piss on their buddies, so all the enhancements would be nice...

But, clear the mainpage of the local conditions, it has practically destroyed the idea of TRing during the ski season. All the TRs get bumped down in hours, wich sucks donkey balls.


PS. is there any limitations why you cant make the MTR under the TGRs tapatalk app? it could be simplier if you would be under it... or not... I aint no UI designer...

Originally Posted by Meathelmet

The MTR idea is good.

But the main page is so fucking cluttered of "useless" shit nowadays (read, local conditions) that posting even a normal TR next to useless. Ad to that 10-20/day of 3 pic MTRs and it will be a shitfest.

I agree there's plenty of useless threads on here. There always have been those, but this winter seemed especially lean on TRs and I stopped checking in here because of that.

I'd be fully in favor of a moble TR app. Sure, there will be plenty of shitty ones but plenty of good ones too. In the long run, encouraging contribution and interaction will only be a good thing for the message board. If there's a mobile TR app, it seems like it might not be possible to have a version built into the site too. Drag a photo from desktop to an empty tile on the TR-building page, add caption, drag next photo to next empty tile...

The number of useless threads on the front page is a reflection of the way threads surface on the forum: one new post and they're bumped to the top. I appreciate how democratic and uncomplicated the "lastest post on top" surfacing is, but what about introducing an option that sifts posts based on a combination of newness + popularity? Maybe add an up/down arrow scheme, a la Reddit?

I also like this idea. Seems likely that "proper" cameras (or at least some of them) will be equipped with Android sometime soon so being able to post pics straight from the cam the edit words on your phone would be pretty cool.

"Isn't this kind of TR natural selection? If a bunch of people figure out how to post short cell phone TRs I feel like ski/snowboard will get overloaded with new posts in the winter." - esales09

Yes, but even though one is not tech savvy doesn't mean they don't get after it and take good pictures.

That being said, I agree that making a separate forum page for these so they don't clutter would be important.

Not trying to get on you Tarbs, just saying that I don't want to see ski/snowboard cluttered up with shitty jong TRs next year.

For Clairity. this would be delivered as a mobile app that resides on your Smart Phone, to facilitate the creation and delivery of a TR With pictures. So this would make it eisier to provide an evolving real time TR ?

I would keep it simple-ish. More like a TGR version of Instagram, except with a grouping / album feature so you could keep stuff organized on a per-trip basis.

Originally Posted by esales09

Not trying to get on you Tarbs, just saying that I don't want to see ski/snowboard cluttered up with shitty jong TRs next year.

Maybe there needs to be a How to Create a Killer TR Tutorial.

It would be cool if the MTR could then later link to a proper TR. The MTR would be almost teaser pics and background (GPS) information.

I think a separate forum makes sense as well. As for the clutter on the main page, that is what you get w/o moderation. Greg from AZ could tell you all about what good proper moderation brings to a forum.

i like the idea. i only use my phone. dont own a computer. if this would make it easier for me to post trs, i would probably post trs.

Cool idea, I personally will never use the live TR feature if its in the app and if there is a GPS locator it would be nice to have to option to turn it on or off. A seperate TR forum or a slightly more cleaned up main forum is a good idea I think. I already started a thread in the Ask TGR forum a while ago about it though so Ill just keep my thought there.

Originally Posted by esales09

Not trying to get on you Tarbs, just saying that I don't want to see ski/snowboard cluttered up with shitty jong TRs next year.

Fuck it. Ill take "shitty jong TR's" over half of the stupid crap that pops up on s/s. I mean do you have to have been on TGR for a long time to learn how to write up a readable short story and post some pictures?

FYI Tarbs, Heres how you post pictures. Erase the * and copy and paste the address of the image you want to post between the IMG.

[*IMG]www.Image_URL.com[/IMG]

If you dont know how to get a URL for your images, Go to www.photobucket.com create an account an upload them there. Dont worry, its free.

If you use the "Reply with Quote" button (bottom right of this post) you can see the proper format for embeded photos like the one below.

Its reading TRs that got this euro-jong into following the TGR forums (circa 2005).
Always been my favorite thing about this place... however facebook etc seem to have killed good old fashioned TR's ?
Which is why I reckon a separate 'TR forum' could be a really good thing ?
Ensure the worthy stuff, that people have have put genuine effort into posting, doesn't get immediately lost amongst crap in 'ski & snowboard' ?

i think its a great idea. i think it would encourage more posting of rad shit done by the doers who usually dont have the time or even the inclination to go through the hassle of posting what y'all refer to as a "proper tr" because they are busy doing stuff.