Pictures In Reviews Options

[dodge guy]

So I don`t know if this has come up before, but as I read some of the reviews here and when I check out the pics of campgrounds people have been too, I see how nice it is to put a place with a name. So, has it ever come up about being able to put a pic or 2 in a review for or against the reason to saty at a particular campground? maybe bad hookups, poorly laid out park (tight turns), maybe a very clean bathhouse or a very nice pool area, or any other obvious reason! I realise it would make the posting process a little more time consuming, but I think it would be a very helpful tool! just a thought while I`m sitting here checking out reviews and trying to picture what some people are explaining. otherwise this is a great site, keep up the good work!

[John Blue]

Dodge Guy,

The webmaster had this in mind sometime back so it may come to light in a future software update.

Do not back up a lot more in your photo shot.

[kcmoedoe]

It would be awfully hard to separate the wheat from the chaff if photos were included. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but with photoshop, various camera angles and the like, you can make a photo tell any story you want. It think it may skew the reviews rather than help.

[Meyer Camping]

It would be awfully hard to separate the wheat from the chaff if photos were included. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but with photoshop, various camera angles and the like, you can make a photo tell any story you want. It think it may skew the reviews rather than help.

I am not sure how a picture could be more slanted than a review could be. For example, I could write a review of a campground so as to give a wrong impression, either for good or bad. There is no verification process to make sure I am not lying. I am NOT saying there are reviews out there where people are lying or misleading on purpose. I AM saying that individual reviews can reflect facts that, while true, are not indicative of the norm. I think you can see that in the way certain campgrounds are rated quite low by some people and highly rated by others.

I think one possibility for adding pictures without having to deal with the storage and bandwidth issues would be posting a link to a Flickr account or some similar service.

[jamarynn1]

I would love to see reviewers' pictures of campgrounds. Otherwise, I have to rely on the pictures the parks show on their websites. I can't tell you how many campgrounds I've pulled into that bear absolutely no resemblence to the pictures on the website. Or, the website has 12 pictures: 6 of their dog, 4 of the store and 2 of somebody's rig that could be anywhere. The website for one place we stayed showed majestic mountains looming over the campers...apparently they had photoshopped out the 2-story warehouse between the campground and the mountains that were many, many miles away. You could not see the mountains from any place in the park. Same picture was on their brochures. I would just like to see some "honest" recent pictures of the parks.

[Denali]

I think one possibility for adding pictures without having to deal with the storage and bandwidth issues would be posting a link to a Flickr account or some similar service.

If this were my web site, I would be very reluctant to allow reviewers to include links of any kind in their reviews because I would have no control over the linked content.

Even if the link that the user included were to a legitimate picture of a campground, I would have no way of knowing when the content of that link might change to something I wouldn't want on my site--advertising, political content, or worse.

Ideally, the rvparkreviews web site itself would store users' pictures of campgrounds so they could be vetted before they are published and kept safe from that point on.

Shall we all chip in to fund more server space?

[dodge guy]

I would love to see reviewers' pictures of campgrounds. Otherwise, I have to rely on the pictures the parks show on their websites. I can't tell you how many campgrounds I've pulled into that bear absolutely no resemblence to the pictures on the website. Or, the website has 12 pictures: 6 of their dog, 4 of the store and 2 of somebody's rig that could be anywhere. The website for one place we stayed showed majestic mountains looming over the campers...apparently they had photoshopped out the 2-story warehouse between the campground and the mountains that were many, many miles away. You could not see the mountains from any place in the park. Same picture was on their brochures. I would just like to see some "honest" recent pictures of the parks.

Almost sounds as if you are talking about the Butte MT KOA. exactly the reason I would like to see actual pics of the campground.

As far as band with goes, maybe after 2 years the pics could be purged from the sytem. there would probably be someone with updated pics by then anyway. or maybe if there are enough pics posted they could be purged after one year. I`m not a computer expert by any means, but there is always a way to do something.

[Fitzjohnfan]

Forget photo shop or any other fancy means, there would be no way to verify that a disgruntled or dishonist reviewer couldn't take a picture of campground A, and post it with a review of campground B. They could even find generic photos of RV parks online (good/bad) and post it with their review.

It sounds like a good idea, and I would like to see photos as well, but it won't stop fraud and dishonisty.

[dodge guy]

Forget photo shop or any other fancy means, there would be no way to verify that a disgruntled or dishonist reviewer couldn't take a picture of campground A, and post it with a review of campground B. They could even find generic photos of RV parks online (good/bad) and post it with their review.

It sounds like a good idea, and I would like to see photos as well, but it won't stop fraud and dishonisty.

Yes, but the same can be said for regular reviews of campgrounds. I know of a few that you know had an upset guest and it shows in the review! when a review goes from 8`s, 9`s, and 10`s to a 1 then you know there is a problem with the reviewer.

[Lindsay Richards]

The ability to put in a link to a photo in our own website would be nice and could or couldn't be used depending on what the viewer wanted. Strangely enough even though we have now been in all 48 continental states, we rarely take a photo of the campground even though we have over 9,000 photos on our website. We sometimes take a photo of the view from our site if it is exceptional.

[Meyer Camping]

Yes, but the same can be said for regular reviews of campgrounds. I know of a few that you know had an upset guest and it shows in the review! when a review goes from 8`s, 9`s, and 10`s to a 1 then you know there is a problem with the reviewer.

I would certainly agree with dodge guy here about having a problem though in fairness it might not be the reviewer that has the problem. Maybe Mother Theresa never had a bad day and snapped at a customer but I am willing to bet the rest of us have.

[J Miller]

I, for one, would welcome the idea of photos. While I do think it is up to the reader of a review to determine the validity of the review, I think a couple of photos to bolster a reviewers comments would be greatly beneficial.

As jamarynn stated in an earlier post, you certainly can't always trust the photos on a campgrounds website. I'm sure there are a few people out there who are savvy enough with photoshop to generate a fairly deceiving picture. However, I would guess that most of these would be easily debunked with a keen eye, just as its easy to spot a campground owner writing a sparkling review for their campground which has received no reviews higher than a 2.

As far as storage goes, that could get tricky. Of course "the cloud" is the latest and greatest technology, and that could work. The pics are stored in the cloud and can be set up to be deleted after x amount of time. I believe the cost is dependant on either a: the amount of storage space "rented" or b: the number of times the data is accessed. Perhaps this is something that could be put to a board-wide vote to determine if we campers would be willing to pony up for the service

[Denali]

The ability to put in a link to a photo in our own website would be nice and could or couldn't be used depending on what the viewer wanted. Strangely enough even though we have now been in all 48 continental states, we rarely take a photo of the campground even though we have over 9,000 photos on our website. We sometimes take a photo of the view from our site if it is exceptional.

After the first couple years of fulltiming, I started taking a picture of every campground and RV park we stayed in. It helps us remember what a park was like when we return to the area a few years later. One picture is enough to trigger our memories of a park, either positive or negative.

[Meyer Camping]

After the first couple years of fulltiming, I started taking a picture of every campground and RV park we stayed in. It helps us remember what a park was like when we return to the area a few years later. One picture is enough to trigger our memories of a park, either positive or negative.

Denali, this is an excellent idea and I shall steal it and claim it as my own. Actually, as I was reading this thread I was thinking that this would be an excellent idea. Addig a tag in Photoshop of [campground] would make it very easy to find and refresh my memory. It seems that the campgrounds that I remember the best are always the best or the worst ones with the vast majority being relegated to a muddle. Well, they say the first thing to go is the...

[highmaintenancecamper]

I have used this site for many years to help determain where our family should go on our next adventure. Even when we have no specific destination in mind I will review campgrounds and say, "Let's go... ...here!"

I was planning a trip to the Florida, Keys for our son's birthday. I found a campground that had EVERYTHING!! On the website it looked and sounded incredible. A couple of not so great reviews, mostly noise related. But maybe it would be ok. When I called the staff openly admitted to loud partying and music all night long throughout the CG. As this is NOT what we wanted I found a different place. When we got there, WOW! What a great campground! Not one of those live-ins they call a campground. As we traveled through the Keys we saw the first campground and OMG!! It looked like tent city with tarps, sofas, chairs etc. all over the place! Then people where telling us that at night you have to secure and alarm ALL your belongings or they grow legs and walk away!! (Bathing suits included!!) A posted picture of this campground and it would NEVER have even been a thought.

We all know "a picture is worth a thousand words". Although it's true someone could submit a photo that is inaccurate because they work for/own the campground or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it really is no different then what someone can write. With all the reviews that the admin says come in daily, shortly there would be someone to dispute the photo or review. When searching for a campground I check the ratings, if they have gone from 9's, 10's, etc. to a 1 that kind of tells me something. MAYBE it's the reviewer. If I read a negative review I always check for additional reviews submitted by that RVer. If they are all negative... well they must always get out of bed on the wrong side. But considering we have enough sense to drive and manuevering big rigs, fifth wheels, etc... (ok maybe not me, I go along for the ride ) we should use a little common sense whether we are reading reviews or looking at pictures. Look at the campgrounds website, look through images on a Google search. We Google satelite a campground before we go to see what we can see. If good campgrounds are important to us then we can't JUST rely on the opinion of someone else. These reviews should be thought of as a "helping hand" but an opinion nonetheless.

We unfortuantely are not full timers (yet) so when we can get away it is important to me to go somewhere our family will enjoy. As true and honest reviewers we should post positive AND negative. What may not matter to me, might to the next reader. A campground owner is not going to want to post any negative, as it may deter potenial campers. As a p/t camper I want to know both so I can determine what is important to me or not. Since we enjoy camping and the relaxation it provides, look around... see what you can see... then let us know. And I say post a few pics.
Happy RVing!!