Stories
The ability to post stories and pictures of members' holiday experiences for other member's benefit must be a good idea. But I have just tried to post our experience of a 2 month break in the Dordogne and found it so cumbersome and difficult to locate the site; add/amend text; add pictures and delete unwanted posts that I gave up.
Am I approaching my dotage or are others put off by the system?
Comments
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jlseagull
Have you seen this help and advice https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/help/ Just scroll down to the story instructions. I made a second comment of your story before seeing this post but if I can help I will.
David
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jl, I have some sympathy with your view. I've just loaded 2 x stories and had to write them on word, then resize the photo's. Opened the stories page copy and paste the story from word the put on the photo's which I think are spoiled by the resizing. I will think long and hard before posting another story.
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I have sympathy too. Some of us have had a lot of practice I think my first attempt was a photo and sentence, long lost on the earlier web site.
If you can get things ready first it helps. Choose the photos you intend to use and reduce them to 500 pixels.
After that choose whether you'll write a long story then copy and paste it. Or like me write a paragraph that sums up your trip and type it directly. There is just about time to edit and the process requires speed.
Ask for help if you want something removed etc.
Jlseagull you have done better than many so I hope you have another go.
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To add photos into the header strip of five photos you don't have to reduce them in the same way as adding photos into a forum post. What it won't accept is the photo size, in kbs, directly from the camera. They do require a modest downsizing. On my website I use two sizes of photos generally, 1000 and 1250 pixels wide and I find these load in the the header perfectly well without downsizing further. For example the photo of Bridlington in my last story is 1000x750 pixels. I think there are always going to be limits to the quality of the photos because of the restricted viewing size. Now if we could use the full width of the page that would be really something? I would encourage people not to despair
David
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I've just done a test run with photo sizes on the stories section, I stopped short of submitting it. I would stick to 1000 pixels wide due to being rejected several times. I normally reduce to 500 wide.This of course is so frustrating to anyone trying to do this for the first time and with a time out too. I had to do two things at once going from my stored photos, reducing them, then going on to stories, then back to pictures to find the reduced ones etc. This is with a lap top and some experimenting, some haven't got the time or the inclination to go through all this. But it's worth having a go even if you make a mistake, help is at hand.
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Brue
On your point about it appearing elsewhere I suspect that is happening because I moved the post to here as it's more to do with using Club Together. It seems that every time someone adds a new comment it appears in the right hand column as a new post in the original location. Can't explain why as with many things in CT!!!!
Going back to stories, this is my approach. This is in Windows and will work either on a laptop or PC. I tend to sort my photos first. I then copy and paste to the desktop where it is easier to resize them and it allows easier access when it's time to insert into the story. I write the story in Word and copy and paste into the story. I do find that Word double spaces all paragraphs so a limited amount of editing is required. I then add the photos from the Desktop and complete the other boxes and post. Whilst it might seem long winded it is a fair easy process once you get used to it. I do have sympathy with the OP as many other platforms make it so much easier to do this sort of thing but I don't see it changing anytime soon, if at all?
David
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So do I hope it stimulates some action but unfortunately action of any sort to correct the many failings of this forum doesn't seem to be given a very high priority. The story section itself has been ruined because photographs on many stories don't belong where they should be. I have suggested numerous time that if this can't be corrected the stories should be Deleted User leaving those which are complete.
David
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N1805
I have Deleted User as requested. Glad you managed to work through it with a successful result.
David
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How are things in Stories these days?
I fled it at the time when those awfully tedious people called The Meeks were heading for the 200 stories mark. Did they get there? Have they thankfully gone? Or do they have ambitious contenders for their title? In short I haven't ventured into that section for several years. Sheer tedium there I thought.
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The stories section is a great idea, hampered by being difficult or cumbersome to use.
I gave up posting some time ago due to that and other reasons.
Just post onto my blog now
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I agree that beyond the initial five photos it is not easy to add further photos in the text. It can be done but it is time consuming and far from straightforward. I have been questioning the situation of the Story Section for some time but I suspect it is a long,long way down the priority list unfortunately.
David
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