Tips For Better Visitor Tips Submission
While our editors don’t have resources to individually respond to all submissions, these suggestions for future visitor tips might increase the chances of publishing:
Be Highly Selective
If your road trip takes you to a dozen places already on Roadside America, choose just the best one (1) or two (2) for visitor tip submissions, based on the likely value of an update to our readers, a higher quality photo not seen before, etc. Roadside America can’t post every place every user visits. If there’s little to report about a particular attraction, you probably have another attraction that would be better for a submission.
Obviously Still There
No need to mention an attraction is "still there" if submitting a photo clearly showing it’s still there. If the attraction's destruction is imminent, please provide info or a photo (Is that a wrecking ball? Oh no!) to support the information.
Transient Personal Details
Our editors often edit/remove visitor mentions of the weather or transient/traffic/construction/parking difficulties of a particular day’s visit, since that isn't of interest to readers in relation to the attraction. We may not post photos marred by weather, bad lighting, temporary elements, car window POV, and glass reflections.
Attraction Status Change
An attraction status change (permanently closed, moved, opened after long close) is important to hear and confirm ASAP. Editors may update attraction status without posting the tip that gave them the helpful news. Editors can confirm an accurate status change more quickly by seeing a photo of the spot where the statue, etc. used to be, or a business entrance with a closed notification visible, a local media article link, or some indication it was not a one-day condition.
Useful Information, Not Personal Review or Check-In
Tips published on Roadside America should be of significant value to other readers and users, describing what’s new, fun and interesting about attractions. They're not social media-type posts about personal experiences, or even business reviews of quality, service, pricing, etc. Editors may cut subjective phrases such as "worth a detour," better conveyed by descriptive information in the tip ("Worth a Detour" is one or our own editorial quality ratings, so our editors don’t mind hearing a tipster agrees. They just may not publish it).
[Revised 2022-3-17]