Keeping a travel journal

[skorch]

Okay here's a shamless plug for my new site, but I believe it to be the truth:

I really hated giving out my email to people I met while traveling. You never know what sort of spam you're going to get when they use some sketchy email service. I also hate getting mass emails from someone:

1) They're impersonal
2) I never remember who the hell is sending me this email
3) They really don't know who I am, so when I send a reply to see what is up with them and to let them know of what I'm doing, they never reply (it makes me sad)

Instead, what I'm going to do for my next journey is hand out stickers (I've got 500 of 'em printed out) for my site and encourage people to sign up. Here's why:

1) If someone really cares about what I'm up to (friends, family, travelers), they can monitor my travel journal and leave comments. I can post pictures if I get them off my camera, stories of what I've done recently and info on where I'm off to next. If you're suave enough, you can monitor an RSS feed.
2) People won't ever get your email address, so no junk emails from people you have no idea who they are
3) You have a searchable archive of other experiences at your fingertips.

A lot of people these days are doing the whole web blog deal. Letting people know what mood I'm in and what my current winamp playlist is doesn't really apeal to me. I personally hate blogs but I feel this is the way internet communication is heading, so this is my compromise.

[nikon]

hey skorch, this is exactly what i'm currently doing - making one for my trip next year, just started on a design and some coding so far.

Same thoughts as you though, mass emails are impersonal and i'd hate that. And most ppls don't really reply back that often, in the end its just more spam. When you get your site up, yell out i wouldn't mind having a look see!!

Here are some of the things i'm thinking of putting into my site:

- a travelogue/blog/journal thing (a run down of what i'm doing too),
- a gallery of some type (also subs as a backup of all my p hotos)
- a travel map maybe (what countries i've been to and where i am),
- comments/shout out page
- mail-list subscription bit (where you get an email saying site has been updated),
- and i can't find my list of others.

[tegan_lala]

I know this is a stuphid qu, but how do u make your own web site??

[nikon]

ummmmm, well this is a hard question now. See for a job i'm a multiimedia developer, so i know how to design and code websites so its easy for me to setup my own on my website, but for a newbie like yourself, it would be rather difficult now, there are a few travel journal/logs websites out there for free - ill post back with a few next week for ya, now its knock off friday arvo time, here comes the pub + beer + girls ohhh yeah

[voyd]

Originally posted by tegan_lala@Dec 9 2004, 03:45 AM
I know this is a stuphid qu, but how do u make your own web site??

Here's the best site I found for noobs who wanna code their own site from scratch: Lissa Explains it All

And, there's also many free templates and such you can use.

Or, if that's too much work, this site that Diorama uses looks real decent for making just a nice travel journal: Get Jealous

[pala4833]

Sorta on the same line. This year for my x-mass cards (which i had printed at cardstore.com) I just listed my photoblog at textamerica.com and my Gallery .php pages at my website. If people really care they'll come and checkout what we're up to. Seems kinda like a cop-out, but if you think about it , it's more personal than writing "wat a wonderful year, hope you're well... blah blah" over and over, same on each card from Gramma to that old girlfriend...

I'm just sayin'...