21 April 2010

Readers Weigh In - Open Discussion

So, what did you think about the first five interviews?

I struggled a bit initially with my desire to offer readers an opportunity to interact with the material but not wanting to create a situation where interviewees felt reluctant to be interviewed lest they be required to monitor their interviews for comments or defend their responses.

A reader suggested a means of interaction and between us I think we've hashed out a reasonable format. I won't be offering comments on individual interviews but every 5 interviews I will offer an open forum for responses with the following ground rules:

1) I specifically asked the interviewees to respond from their personal experience and to NOT try to address all possible answers to any given question. Interviewers were asked to express how THEY cruise not how others SHOULD cruise. This is not a complete book on how to cruise but rather a sampling of real cruisers' personal experiences. Please keep their instructions in mind when responding.

2) The interviewees are not responsible for answering any questions and readers should not expect that they will see their comments.

3) I will be moderating the first few rounds of comments. If your comment takes a day to appear, this is why. Hopefully I'll stop moderating after a few sessions.

4) Disagreement is great - personal attacks are not.

5) No anonymous posting.

After saying all of that negative sounding stuff, I very much hope you will add your wisdom, your questions, your feelings and your reactions here. The site receives several hundred visits a day and I wonder what those visitors are thinking. Please feel free to weigh in at whatever level of experience you have, on whatever level the interviews resonated for you.

9 comments:

  1. I liked them, but wanted to see more pictures of the places the cruisers went, their boats, etc. Basically, everyone likes more pictures.

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  2. I love everything so far, so keep it up!

    I'd like to hear more about lifestyle while cruising (i.e. are they working part-time to supplement income?, how do they handle provisioning?)

    Also, while I recognize not everyone may be comfortable talking about it, I'm always interested to hear about the financial burden: how much do they budget/month for maintenance? provisions?

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  3. Great job so far! I second the lifestyle/financial burden questions. Where is this money coming from!?!?!?

    Also pictures would be a great addition.

    Any lesson learned questions are great, I love the little tips.

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  4. It's a great idea and I also like it so far. I'm sure it will evolve and I look forward to that as well. It may be valuable to follow up periodically.

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  5. Very good indeed. If you're willing to sift through the dreamers, loons and extremists on the various forums you can find this kind of balanced knowledge but it takes much time.

    Keep it up!

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  6. I don't think there is any harm in having comments at the end of each interview. I don't mind answering questions people may post to me if it helps them with a decision they are trying to make. I do agree that pictures always help but I think the most important thing with these interviews is the response to the question so please don't lose sight of that. Just keep going as you are, Livia. Great project!

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  7. Thanks to everyone who has chimed in so far. You can see that I've re-written and added some of your questions to the question bank (see top bar).

    If your post has not shown up yet, I received one anonymous post - shoot me an email.

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  8. Excellent format and reading. I'd like to see some shoestring cruisers and their lifestyles, not just wealthy retired types. We're all dreamers at heart right?

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  9. @gathhill - I would love recommendations if you know anyone who fits your category. That would be great. Right now I'm limited to those I can find online or the people that someone has suggested to me. Once I start cruising I hope to meet a lot of potential people.

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