On 6/14/2006, I had a chance to talk with Pauline Kenny, and the rest of the Slow Travel community. The following is a transcript of that conversation.

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Please note, although the comments of individual authors remain true to the chat, adjustments to the order in which they appeared have been made to group similar threads of conversation together. In addition, apologies regarding double posting, spelling mistakes, and other technical blunders (several of which were undoubtably made by your humble editor) have been omitted.
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Paul Gude: We're here with Pauline, from the Slow Travel forums. Pauline, why don't you introduce everyone else.

Pauline: Chris (“chris from slowtrav”) is my partner running Slow Travel. She does all the database programming and runs our classifieds system. Shannon (“Shannon Slow Traveller”) has been a regular member of our community for years. She wrote a book about restaurants in Venice and is an Italy food and wine expert. Leslie (“LeslieS”) is a relatively new member of the community, but has quickly become a regular and even helps out with editing some of our transcripts and trip reports.

Paul Gude: Welcome, eveyone. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with our readers.

LeslieS: Pleased to be here.

chris from slowtrav: Me too!

Paul Gude: So, Pauline. To start: What is the focus of your community?

Pauline: We are a travel community. We focus on a specific type of travel – Slow Travel – staying in vacation rentals by the week instead of hotels. We came up with the name and definition for this type of travel. Many people were traveling like this already; we just gave it a name and a community.

We are not a general travel site with guidebook type information; instead we are a community of travelers sharing information, reviews, trip reports, and photos. We are not a travel agency; we do not book trips.

We run the main website at slowtrav.com. This is where we collect reviews, trip reports, travel notes, and other travel information. We have over 9500 pages on that website. The main community action happens on the message board at slowtalk.com. And we have a photo gallery at slowphotos.com. We split the site over three domains because of hosting issues (on slowtrav.com we use ASP, so we have to be on a Windows server).


Paul Gude: I'm going to take a second to let that soak in.

LeslieS: It's OK Paul, I'm a speed reader! Lol! But my goodness, some of the members are so knowledgable, they can give information the guidebooks can't.

Pauline: Yes, that is true Leslie - if anything, the message board is more like a guidebook.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Yep... weird questions happily accepted, even encouraged.

Pauline: But the thing I wanted to avoid on the site was having to keep addresses, phone numbers, everything current - like a guidebook. I wanted more "personal experiences".


LeslieS: It's amazing Pauline, the information that I specifically look for, and that I can't get from Google or a guidebook - I KNOW someone from SLow Travel will have (or be able to find) the right answers.

We have special sites for chat on the website. We have a Group Blog where we can chat about our day.

Paul: So, you avoided keeping current information about specific destinations?

Pauline: Yes, I did not want to have a site that became a chore to update. I wanted it to be more of a "how to" travel site.

But the message board is where all the current info is. If you want to know where to pickup a rental car in Chiusi, Italy - someone will tell you how to get there.

Paul Gude: You're getting the information from a live person, rather than a static page.

LeslieS: I love all the talk about luggage and things to "do with" travel, as well as the specific travel information that we share.

Pauline: I love how much info you can get on SlowTrav. We are renting a house in Santa Barbara for a week and one of our members drove by it to make sure it was nice before I sent in my deposit.

You are getting the information from someone who was there last week!!

Paul Gude: That's what's great about having a community of people stretched across the globe!

Pauline: We talk specifics and we talk general. Travelers like to talk and many people are just not interested - in our community we can talk endlessly with each other about trips.

Shannon Slow Traveller: It is kind of addicting.

chris from slowtrav: And Pauline recently slogged through the mud and rain to check out my rental in the Cotswolds!

Pauline: I had forgotten that Chris - how could I?? Such rain and mud!!

Paul Gude: So Pauline goes above and beyond the common duties of administrator?

Pauline: We all do I think.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Pauline is a FRIEND.
LeslieS: She puts in the personal touch. And she has a beaut group of Moderators to help out with any possible query or problem, from how to resize a photo to how to write a rental review to how to find correct information on the site.

Pauline: People really help each other on the board and by writing detailed trip reports and travel notes and reviews.

Shannon Slow Traveller: I have made many, many friends through slowtalk!

Pauline: People in our community meet up for GTGs - get togethers - there are many happening this month because TOMORROW IS OUR 5th ANNIVERSARY of the message board!!

chris from slowtrav: And we're having an online party on the message board tomorrow to celebrate the anniversary!

Pauline: Yes!!

Pauline: Shannon, my Dentist asked me yesterday if you found that cafe he wanted you to check out. I had to tell him that you and Colleen FORGOT!!

Shannon Slow Traveller: Colleen forgot. Not me!

Pauline: He only knows you - because of your book.

Shannon Slow Traveller: I forgot she was suppose to check into it.

Pauline: Next time!

Paul Gude: Shannon, can you tell us a little bit more about your book?

Pauline: Shannon wrote "Chow Venice" a food and restaurant guide to Venice.

LeslieS: She knows so much about Venice and is able to help so many people with their Venice questions, from where to eat to where to stay.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Paul, my book would not have been possible without the help of the community members.

Pauline: We really use the message board as the focus of our community. We collect reviews and articles and trip reports on the main site, but all the community action is on the message board.

Paul Gude: It sounds like everyone there is a great resource for one another. What other things do use the message boards for besides trading information?

Pauline: We have had two HUGE contests that we held on the message board.

In July 2004 we held a big contest to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. Our advertisers and community members donated prizes – some big prizes (e.g. a villa sleeping 10 for one week, near the Amalfi Coast in Italy), some small (a copy of a book). We had over 50 prizes and a rough estimate of total worth was $20,000. People entered the contest by submitting articles for the site: travel notes, trip reports, photo essays. We announced the winners on the message board and then did a live drawing of the winners. This drawing determined the order in which people selected prizes. This all happened online and took over two weeks to distribute all the prizes. We also had online contests – quizzes, easter egg hunts (hunting for clues thru the website). It was an incredible experience; our members got some great prizes, our advertisers got good exposure, members giving prizes to each other was good for community building, we got great traffic to the message board. It was a true online event.

We did an even larger version of this contest in January 2006. This time we had over 400 entries and 100 prizes. It took over three weeks to award all the prizes. I think the message board moderators, who run the contest, are still recovering from this one. We had about 20 grand prizes – vacation rentals in Europe for a week, free car rental, hotel stays, etc.

LeslieS: This is when I first found Slow Travel and I thought the contests sounded amazing. I read every single one of the Italy trip reports.

Paul Gude: Wow! that sounds fun!

Pauline: It was amazing!!

AnnM enters the room.

AnnM: Hi All!

Shannon Slow Traveller: hi Ann!

chris from slowtrav: Hi Ann!

Pauline: Hi Ann!!

LeslieS: Hi Ann.

AnnM: Can only stay for a minute, I have a meeting in actually 2 minutes, but wanted to see what was going on.

Shannon Slow Traveller: The contests are really fun. There are some killer prizes!

AnnM: Yes, love the contests and am hoping to be among the winners in...2008 is it?

Pauline: Scheduled for 2008 - when the memory of the last one fades - it was a lot of work for the mods.

AnnM: The prizes are incredible.

Pauline: Yes, our advertisers were very generous - lots of one week free in apartments, vacation rentals.

LeslieS: Vacation rentals are such an experience Paul. I have stayed in four recently and it's such a different experience from staying in a hotel or with relatives.

Shannon Slow Traveller: ---> lucky recipient

Paul Gude: The next step is for members in the community who are residents of one area to hide scavenger hunt items for travellers.

Pauline: That is a good idea!!

AnnM: Very cool idea!

Pauline: Sometimes we leave things for each other in vacation rentals if we know someone else has booked the same place.

A real scavanger hunt would be fabulous.

chris from slowtrav: Ooh. Slowtrav scavenger hunts... hmm. We did hide notes for one another in one vacation rental in Italy where several of us had booked the same year.

LeslieS: The ones I stayed in were in Venice, Florence and between Alassio and Albenga on the Ligurian Coast.

Shannon Slow Traveller: In Venice there is NO BETTER WAY.

Pauline: Our month in England would have been very different staying in hotels instead of cottages - I love staying in vacation rentals (cottages).

LeslieS: Let's see what I have to say about a week in the convent! (Don't laugh!!)

Shannon Slow Traveller: I have to say though, not all regions have gotten hip to the vacation rental thing yet. Northern Spain for instance.

LeslieS: It's right near St Marco

Paul Gude: Are you renting the convent?

LeslieS: lol

Pauline: You obviously did not go to Catholic high school, like I did. I could not stay in a convent ...

Shannon Slow Traveller: I would not stay anywhere there is a curfew. EVER.

LeslieS: Just renting an ensuite room right near the main square for ... next to nothing.

Pauline: Shannon, it might be good discipline for you

LeslieS: I will be so sound asleep before they lock the doors. I get up and out early.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Even hotels give me funny looks when I get in at 4 A.M. Another great thing about vacation rentals! No dirty looks!

Pauline: Many people have posted about staying in convents - they like it!

No dirty looks when you get up a noon.

Steve (“steve-slowtrav”) enters the room.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Dottore!

LeslieS: I tried it once in Rome near the Spanish Steps and had mixed feeings.

This trip I am also overnighting at a Monastery right next to the Duomo in Orvieto.

Pauline: Okay everyone - behave - Steve is here. Steve is one of our orginal moderators and is my husband.

chris from slowtrav: Hi Steve!

Pauline: Dr. Steve or as he is know in the press, Pauline Kenny's husband.

Paul Gude: Hi, Steve.

LeslieS: G'day from Canberra Steve.

steve-slowtrav: Buongiorno a tutti!

LeslieS: Ciao!

Paul Gude: So, was Steve your first moderator?

Pauline: Yes he was! But he never posts much on the board.

He advises me on "technical" matters and he and Chris do teckie-talk together.

chris from slowtrav: (he does speak English)

Shannon Slow Traveller: and many other languages

Pauline: Steve speaks English, Italian, French, and some German. I am still working on English (only language).

steve-slowtrav: But haltingly in all cases

Paul Gude: Do you ever need to use other languages on the board? I'm guessing you have at least one member for any guest who would be having trouble.

Shannon Slow Traveller: I know how to say Red Wine in over ten languages.

chris from slowtrav: Wow! Shannon, will you teach me?

Shannon Slow Traveller: Sure!

Pauline: That would be a fun travel note Shannon!!

I know how to say "vegetarian" in most languages (surprisingly, it is frequently almost the same word).

Paul Gude: I've heard "taxi" is the same in almost every language.

Pauline: I had not thought of that - but you are right!

Shannon Slow Traveller: Internet is the same in every language. Also "sexy blog."

steve-slowtrav: We have forums for Italian and French language. Both are originally to allow folks to practice but both also include native speakers. I have posted in both and occasionally translated to or from English for these forums.

LeslieS: I have used the chat room many times to speak in Italian to one of the patient native speakers from ROme.

Pauline: Who?

Shannon Slow Traveller: Angelo?

LeslieS: pincopallo - it

Shannon Slow Traveller: yes... that is Angelo. He IMs me sometimes.

LeslieS: we talked a blue streak during April.

Pauline: It is good to see the chat rooms being used.

Paul Gude: What other ways do you use your Chat?

Pauline: We have an organized book club chat monthly. And we are doing regular travel chats with guest speakers.

Pauline: We only started using the chats in the last year.

Paul Gude: Chats are a great way for other members to "meet" each other.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Yes, and I have learned details from my upcoming Spain trip in the chatroom.

Paul Gude: I wanted to let you know, we've got about fifteen more minutes, in case there's anything you haven't covered that you want to work into the discussion.

Pauline: Paul, one of your questions from before was when we started using the board.

The website started in spring 2000 as a hobby website with my personal travel notes. By January 2001, I was receiving a lot of email questions, so I decided to put up a message board to see if I could attract some members.

At that time I was a regular on the AOL Italy travel boards. I wanted to get a few people who traveled like I did and form a small online community. The first message board software that I used was the message board that came with FrontPage. After we had used it for six months (and I had managed to erase the database by mistake several times), I realized we had enough members to justify purchasing software, so we purchased and installed UBB Classic.

Tomorrow (June 15) is our 5 year anniversary from when we launched the UBB message board.As soon as Infopop offered the hosted message boards, we moved over to that. So we have been with you for 5 years.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Pauline emailed me when I was living in Budapest and asked me to join!

Shannon Slow Traveller: She went after people... it was awesome

Pauline: I remember my first email from you Shannon!! I knew her from the AOL boards where she was a "star" - I was thrilled when she joined the SlowTrav board.

Pauline: Shannon, Colleen and Kim were all AOL regulars who came over to SlowTrav.

Paul Gude: So actively hunting members isn't something most people think of doing. That's great!

Shannon Slow Traveller: And now none of us are at AOL

Pauline: I also hounded people to send reviews - now I can't keep up with posting the reviews (and there are 4 of us who do it).

LeslieS: Paul, we have regulars who live in different countries like Italy and France who go "the extra mile" to help others. They have a special symbol after their names.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Also, lots of people post reviews who aren't on the message board. They use the service so they want to contribute, which is really great.

Pauline: You pick good people from other online communities and invite them to your board. We don't have to do this any more - but we did it in the beginning. The moderator of the AOL boards (Mary) was very kind to me allowing me to post about my site and ask people to send reviews. Mary is now a regular on our board and has published a section on disability travel on the site.

Paul Gude: Many people open a community, sit back, and wonder why no one is joining. That's going to be my first piece of advice. "Find the people you want to participate, and ask them!"

Which is, of course, not the same as spamming a list. You have a personal touch to your requests that really comes through in the way people talk about you asking them.

Pauline: We get 20,000 - 30,000 visitors per day to slowtrav.com . I think 1,000 - 2,000 per day to the message board. Many people use the site but do not come to the board.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Also the slowtalk board is moderated, so there are no meanies there. It's "safe."

AnnM returns to the chat room.

AnnM: Okay, back from my very short meeting, but I have another in about 10 minutes.

Pauline: Thanks for dropping in Ann!

AnnM: I joined the board in February 2003, so about 3 years ago.

LeslieS: We also have so many people, like Shannon, with expert knowledge on specific places, like Venice, Umbria and Cortona.

chris from slowtrav: Our message board was lively and active from the very beginning.

Pauline: We have 9 moderators who run the message board. 6 of us have been there since the beginning. The other 3 have been moderators for 2 or 3 years. All the moderators work together to choose other mods when needed. We select regular members from the community who work well on the board and have contributed to the site (reviews, trip reports). We try for “variety” in lifestyle and location, but we currently have 8 out of the 9 mods based in the US, and 7 of the 9 are women. We all met on the message board.

Shannon Slow Traveller: And there are GTGs all over - many of us flew to NYC for the 3 year anniversary GTG.

AnnM: The information from this board has been key to three successful trips to Italy and one to France.

Pauline: I use the board and site to plan all my trips - I cannot imagine doing a trip without getting first hand advice on the board.

Plus, when Steve and I travel now, we meet people on our trips who we know from the board. It makes a big difference - you don't feel so "alone" out there in the traveling world.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Man, I could not keep up last time in Venice. I met so many people from the board, like EVERY DAY.

AnnM: At the Vancouver GTG the other day someone mentioned that there is no question that you can not get an answer to from the Slow Talk message board. From taking care of aging parents to aging pets to whether you should let your teenager attend a coed sleepover. Of course the travel advice is paramount!

Pauline: Ann, that is probably true. Maybe not a correct answer, but you will get an answer!! And several of them. And sometimes all different.

chris from slowtrav: Everything but religion and politics, which are forbidden.

Paul Gude: Always wise when trying to avoid flame wars.

Pauline: Right, we do not allow those topics because they always get UGLY.

LeslieS: They get out of hand and incite riots.

Pauline: We do not allow flame wars. Some people say we are "school-marmish" - but we end up with a nice feeling on the board.

AnnM: that's true. However, the mods do a good job of keeping every thing cordial.

Pauline: Those topics also leave bad feelings among members.

You have to be a bit thick skinned though, to be in an online community.

Shannon Slow Traveller: That is why everyone should belong to the Church of Rock n Roll like me.

AnnM: Shannon, sometimes I read your blog and think I want your life!

Pauline: I read Shannon's blog all the time - www.poptarticus.com

AnnM: Okay, off to my other meeting. It's been real!

AnnM has left the room.
Paul Gude: Is it usually easy to diffuse a situation before it starts?

Pauline: No, it is not easy. We edit the post, email the poster and if they do it repeatedly, put them on moderation.

LeslieS: It's the Moderators who keep the beautiful tone on this board.

Paul Gude: So, you make good use of the approval queue?

Pauline: We don't use the approval queue at all - we do our editing after the fact.

Shannon Slow Traveller: They usually bring in moderator Amy when things get out of hand. She teaches little kids and puts up with NOTHING.

chris from slowtrav: Amy is our secret weapon!

Shannon Slow Traveller: Man. Don't mess with Amy.

steve-slowtrav: We always ask: What would Amy do?

Shannon Slow Traveller: Whoop some b***

Paul Gude: Pauline, we're nearing the end of the chat. Anything more you want to add?

Pauline: I would like to thank Groupee for hosting this chat and for providing our message board software. I know I can complain some times, but really the message board is the glue that holds our community together and we all appreciate all the work you do at Groupee.

Shannon Slow Traveller: Yeah, come to one of our GTGs sometime!

Paul Gude: Pauline, your community is a great example of what Groupee is all about.

We are proud to have your community hosted with us.

Pauline: Thanks Paul - we have grown steadily in the past 5 years and are now getting really great traffic and good media coverage.

End of Chat
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Thanks to Pauline and the rest of the gang at Slow Travel. It was the most fun I've had at work in a while.