Welcome back to Thorn Tree
Replies: 1,407 - Last Post: Mar 22, 2013 7:37 AM Last Post By: Zabba
jump to
691
Now listen to me Zabba as I will only say this once. Those of us who contribute of our time and effort to post useful information do no appreciate being addressed in this manner. We also do not appreciate being kept in the dark and stonewalled. I would of course have sent you a PM, but........................693
Thank you Zabba. Many here will understand the frustration of people asking questions that have been answered in the FAQs. And are well familiar with frustration in general over the last few weeks.Some of the regular people who answered NZ questions on the Oz/NZ branch are still there (where would TT be without westwood?) but many of the others seems to have been driven away by the poor handling of the situation. LisaMNZ in particular used to give detailed and thoughtful answers of the kind that you just can't provide in guidebooks.
I've been posting a bit on TripAdvisor and the NZ branch there gets lots of questions (and answers) but agree with other comments on this thread about it being by and large itinerary reviews. It's separation of countries to individual forums is also very clunky. Most importantly, however, I have not been censored on TripAdvisor for inoffensive posts.
694
AN OPEN LETTER TO LPThis topic was created by Depressed
By deleting the "Where Are You Calling From?" thread, you have obliterated our history and danced on our graves. That thread told each of our stories and weaved a history of our lives. You obviously have no respect for tradition or the past, and have decided to confine us all to the ashbin of anonymity. Why, why, why have you done this?
Please BRING IT BACK!
695
@ Zabba in post 678Messages supposedly need to be moderated to avoid offensive and off-topic content. "speaks in a dodgy French accent" is both off-topic and offensive as it points out 'French accent' as something shamefull, showing that, in your opinion, French accent is something to make fun of. Are you prejudiced against French people? Maybe mods are in need of being moderated themselves... I am going to report the post, just to see what happens.
By the way, error messages should be changed to become more accurate. "Press the back button and try again, it should fix the problem" (or something along those lines) is completely unacceptable when you know it won't fix the problem as the advanced search feature doesn't work.
It's nice that you are restoring older posts, but maybe you should go another way about it. Restore threads, not posts. It doesn't make any sense to have the answer to a question show up, when the question itself is missing.
I'll keep monitoring the situation here for a while and go looking for another forum in the meantime. If I find something acceptable, I'll leave TT for good. Too bad, you had a great, working forum...
696
Please change the menu selection for countries, as Central America (South of Mexico) is listed between Canada and Caribbean, and the United States, is listed between South America and Central Asia? Central America should be listed just above South America and the USA should be listed just below Canada,Its should be:
Africa should be near Middle East/Western Europe
Americas-Canada
Americas-United States
Americas-Mexico
Americas-Cuba
Americas-Caribean
Americas-Central America
Americas-South America
697
Ansileran,you missed a joke there about the"speaks in dodgy French accent".Several years ago on British TV there was a comedy series called 'Allo allo.It was set in France during WW2.All the accents were cod,all the characters (British,French and German)were all comedy characters which poked fun at stereo typing of all kinds.One of the characters was a French spy and her lines in the show always began with "listen very careful,I will say zis only vance".
I realise anyone who doesn't know or remember the show wouldn't understand this but believe me there was absolutely NO malice in Zabba's comment.Please don't look for offence where none was intended,we have enough doom and gloom around right now.
If you think the cod French accent is bad then you should have heard the British spy working under cover posing as a French policeman.His accent was the work of genius! This was truly a very funny show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Allo_'Allo!
BTW;Zabba,if you can remember 'Allo allo then you're older than I reckoned!
698
Apologies if my Allo Allo reference was missed - I doubt you'll find a more Francophile person in this office. Funnily enough j'arrive à Paris ce soir!
699
Hey SoloHobo, the countries are listed, as they were, in alphabetical order - save for the Middle East at the bottom - and before this sparks another controversy, we are only keeping the exact same layout the forum had before it closed down so it's easier for regulars.
702
Thanks, BOOMER1, this is exactly what I was pointing at. I didn't know the serie but assumed it was some kind of attempt at humor. But again, not every one does, and the serie isn't that well known abroad so this could be offensive. Given the new "delete first, read the post latter" (or rather never) moderation, I found this particularly irritating. If even the mods can't keep to the new rules, I consider it a good sign that those rules should be changed...I liked the old forum, where you could use humor, satyre and so on, and didn't have to go through some moderating bot every time you wanted to post a reply. Reporting offensive posts worked just fine, and there weren't so many in the travel section I checked.
703
What the heck is going on?!?I've just been visiting the Turkish branch - and specifically http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2273889
The first answer, which was obviously the most informative going from the posts that follow, has been deleted. So the post is very little use at all. I haven't read the remainder of the postings on that branch, but if there are others like this - even across the other branches - then your moderation is worse than useless.
Not only that, but all the final postings to each thread on the branch show up as 14 January - thought they have the right dates once you open the thread. This is unhelpful, to say the least.
More and more I'm getting ready to say my final goodbyes here. It's only duty (of repayment) to other travellers that keeps me coming back...
704
I've been hearing all about how this is a free forum, yet my working time charges US$150/hour. The community forums were where I got "paid" for contributing to helping tourists visit the country that I happened to be living in at the time (yes, gasp, some of us move around the world). Now, I look at the forum of the country where I live, and think, natch, no, why should I bother? I'm never going to see or talk or meet with any of these people, they are just too cheap to buy a guide book or do their own research.
