In the “Getting Together” forum on this site, I wish people would put the city and state (or at LEAST the state) in the subject line of their posts. Otherwise, you have to wade through (pardon the pun) the text of a bunch of posts individually to see if there’s anything going on near you, and even then they often don’t spell it out clearly.
I have a couple of days I could take off this fall and I’d like to find a good multi-day trip within about 5 hours of me, but it’s so hard to tell where these places are, like I keep seeing “Raystown”. Where the heck is Raystown? (Haven’t waded through those posts yet.)
Anybody else frustrated by this?
SP
It’s the coolness, hipness factor
If you don’t know where it’s at … well you don’t know where it’s at. To make matters worse surfers and whitewater boaters use nicknames for places, sometimes to keep the Ninnies out as one of my professors at the U of M used to say.
Seriously I agree with you that people should put more informative titles on the posts including info about the location. Not hard to put an abbreviation for a state etc.
How about…
Posting this question ON the Getting Togeather forum??
That said: Most posters of paddles have an e-mail addy and I’ve always gotten a quick courteous response when asking a question about the posted paddle.
Yes, that makes sense IF
you have a question about a particular posting. But if you’re looking for events within, say 5 hours of you, you’d have to send out a heckuva lot of e-mails to question every single post that doesn’t specify location. Not efficient at all.
Maybe the other poster is right - some of these people WANT their trips to be exclusionary and are very selective about who they want to join them. I guess that’s what I’ll assume from now on when locations aren’t made clear from the outset.
or…
"- some of these people WANT their trips to be exclusionary and are very selective about who they want to join them. I guess that’s what I’ll assume from now on when locations aren’t made clear from the outset."
or you could assume that they wouldn’t mind telling you where and when with a little push on the board every so often and that they’d like to meet a new person and that you’d have a good time joining them.
either way.
On some
of the motorcycle sites I frequent trip specifics are kept to a minimum on purpose. An e-mail or phone call is required to get more info. This is done, as suggested, to keep the ninnies or authorities out of the loop. Police have been known to lay in wait along planned routes for sportbike outings. Don’t know if this really translates to paddlers (hey, you yakkers are exceeding the speed limit!!) but I have seen it elsewhere.
I have asked the same
question for about 2 years now. It does help to know where people are talking about going. What else is a problem is when you read a trip review that sounds great but have no idea what the river, lake or bay is.
Raystown is
in central PA. Sorry, we sometimes assume that “everybody knows”. Shermanpeabody, Come on down!
I do agree with you that scanning the GTAGP forum would be much easier if a state abbreviation was in the header.
Jim
Non Sanctioned Events
I have been known to post stuff like:
“The race will be held the same place as last year”
Some events are sanctioned, some are not. Some are semi-private. Some are locals only.
Some are even slightly illegal, like the Brothers and Sisters Race.
Brothers and Sisters Race?
I never heard of it!
That’s very nice
Sounds like Raystown is a big outing. I’ll have to read more about it and figure out why it’s so popular. And thanks for the invitation!!! It’s a bit far from Chicago but if I’m ever in the vicinity…
SP 
I would think if one is willing to…
drive 5 hours, and spend the gas($$$$$$$), one should be willing to “wade” through a post or 80…
In my case
gas isn’t a big expense. My little car is extremely fuel efficient and hauls one yak just fine.
And I will wade through posts to find a good trip if I have to. Just wish I didn’t have to. I mean, why not make it easy if you can?
Maybe you should …
… try posting a message of your own. I mean if people are making posts and looking for paddlers, and you make yourself known, they could contact you. I realize it is not as easy for you to choose the group/location/whatever, but it shows your desire.
Lou
Yeah, put the state/province on
That’s the least anybody can do, and it only uses a couple of characters in the headline!