I have wondered about this topic in the past and thanks to Dan for raising it therefore - I believe that a very important factor in this discussion is the use of photos. Everyone has a digital camera nowadays and the best of the short ride reports include plenty of these; in turn, such threads tend to be very popular - as a random sample, the 5th post here goes to a thread with about 200 posts at present:-

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-4-weeks-31201
(4 weeks - is that long or short?)

As for short Vs long; let the punters decide - if, as Dan suggests, there is a section called ride reports (there could be some sort of advice in the "notes" about "short" if you really want it), then those who post can stick stuff in there or start a "full-on" blog.
I guess "ride reports" should be based on regions of the world - now where did I get that idea??!

Personally, I can live with reading upside down, right to left or whatever, but such reports must have pics included.

"That other site" is good in some respects, particularly for the photographic content, but it is not as truly global as this one IMO and it does contain some material which is frankly childish.

Finally, a few months ago I recall something from Grant along the lines that this site is not only for RTW riders but long-distance riding; are you content with going down this futher road?

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Dave