Andy Armstrong wrote:
I was wondering if you could clarify this point. You want exploration features, but don't want to publish just trip reports. Could you give us some guidelines as to what separates the two? I usually don't read trip reports about caves I have not been in. What makes a good exploration article more than a trip report?
Andy,
Well when I said "trip reports" I really meant the content and not the style of writing involved. I do try to focus on the idea that it is the NSS "News," so one standard is that something is newsworthy (no
double entendre meant). An article about exploration would almost always meet that criterion because readers may learn something about a cave or caving area they didn't know before. By the same standard, trips that involve science activities and conservation also fall into the same category and are newsworthy. So did the article by Nathan Williams on trying out a new type of photography in a cave. Trip reports, as Mudduck point out, can make great reading, and a good exploration piece will probably read very much like a trip report but with a purpose other than simply touring a cave. Such reports are popular in grotto newsletters largely because readers know the caves and people involved. Although in our grotto newsletter, which has tons of trip reports, I'm probably most likely to read a report about a cave I
haven't been to in order to assess whether it's some place I want to go. I'm hoping other people share that desire to read about caves they haven't been to.
In that regard. I have sometimes run articles about caving in other countries that are in fact largely trip reports but in this case I think it informative because readers can learn something about caves and cavers in a different part of the world than their own, and may stimulate them to travel to those regions.