How's this for a problem post?

It's true that i's a mess because of the accents, but it doesn't matter -- it's just spam telling people to stay at a certain hostel.

Not that messy accents isn't a problem, I just mean that it doesn't matter in this specific case.

Yeah, it is a bit disheartening. The LP staff seem to be aware of it, but, alas, it's lower down in the pecking order.

A bit cheerier is that someone seems to have stepped up the "customer service" part a bit and the moderators are starting to post "we hear you, yes we can do this, no we can't do that, here's a tentative timetable" type of posts. Unfortunately, most of these are buried in feedback threads, but it's a step in the right direction. Before, the response was either silence or irritable defensiveness.

I'm discovering that my brain has learned to ignore the right side of the page now. In fact, I can't really tell you what ads are appearing. Rather defeats the purpose--if the ads were at the top of the page, I would probably register them every time.

I really, really miss the "recent threads" on the Today page. There is a promise of restoration, but not until after the holidays. I think the vehemence displayed in the Feedback on the Today page thread was eye-opening for them. It looks like, as one poster put it "someone inside the new or old LP must have oversold the 'social networking' opportunities of this site in a big way," but the responses to the thread were loud and clear that what users want is "dump the dreams of creating your own version of Myspace, Facebook or whatever it is that you had in mind ... and focus on creating a clean, easy-to-use layout where user-generated content and advertising can peacefully coexist. "

To bjd: I realize that the particular post was spam, but the virtual unintelligibility of it struck me, because an honest post either searching for information or answering a request might have looked similar. How do I mention Iguazu falls, or the Galerias Pacifico in Buenos Aires, without the proper accents? It just looks wrong for me to post the names as I did here, and because it was so easy to do it properly before, I miss that.

To nutrax: I tried to give some feedback on the former "Today" page as soon as that thread opened up, but for some reason wasn't able to do so. Once I did get there, I saw that Midwesterner had said just about everything I might have had to say about the old page, then mazgringo and bjd completed that job. The only thing that I disliked about that old page was the fact that if I responded to a thread and later lost interest in it, the thread nevertheless appeared at the top of my list every time someone else added a comment. A very small problem, indeed.

True, they are responding more than at the beginning, but that's all there is to say. Panh, our SiT moderator apparently, has something like "I'm a TT programmer. Feel free to shout at me." in his profile, and he actually responds. But CarolBatLP, the responsible one apparently, is still being defensive and unresponsive. (One answer in four days, only to say that people should not complain?!) I really don't get what the problem is.

(Edited to take rudeness out.)

My understanding of the problem is a medical condition, now rampant among LP staffers, known as cranio-rectal inversion.

I just did some Googling on "Thorntree" AND "social networking" and found some interesting things. As part of comments on the BBC buying LP, I found some analyses that basically said the same thing: From a business standpoint, LP's online stuff was stagnating. They had loyalty in older travelers who did LP-style travel long ago, but who are not necessarily up to it in the same way. But, LP online was not attracting that all-important younger demographic who are used to, comfortable with, and prefer web sites with heavy social networking. "In this context, Lonely Planet’s 4.3 million monthly unique visitors is unimpressive. Not compared to any of a dozen websites where today’s teens and twenty-somethings spend the majority of their time. For a brand with Lonely Planet’s global reach, 4.3 million monthly visitors is anemic."

This, from a Sept. interview with someone else at LP about online publishing is pretty telling
>What’s next for Lonely Planet? You appear to have a loyal fan base and cadre of users/consumer who interact with some frequency with LP. Can you tell us a little about your social networking plans?

Simon Westcott, LP Global Publisher responds: “We have great loyalty and interaction from users of our Thorn Tree community. Every month we break new records for membership and participation. But there's so much more for us to do: group functionality, tagging, more types of user content generation, opening our infrastructure to 3rd-party development, allowing people to create their own trip pages. Watch this space....”

And, this explains the Facebook poll
>LonelyPlanet has launched a Facebook application called LonelyPlanet Trips that lets you plan and share trips, and see the trips of your friends. You can search for destinations, hotels and hostels from this application, and view it all on a map. From the application’s homepage map, you can select what types of items you’d like to show, from videos, to flights, to shopping locations. You can also grab the embed code directly from the Facebook application, to be placed on your website or blog. This application was launched on the heels of the iGoogle and Widgetbox maps upgrade, and in conjunction with the Haystack maps for its online hotel booking service. This is part of a larger strategy for use of its maps across networks.

maybe the point is that teens haven't really started travelling yet, neither

{quote:title=nutraxfornerves wrote:}{quote}
>> >LonelyPlanet has launched a Facebook application called LonelyPlanet Trips that lets you plan and share trips, and see the trips of your friends. You can search for destinations, hotels and hostels from this application, and view it all on a map. From the application’s homepage map, you can select what types of items you’d like to show, from videos, to flights, to shopping locations. You can also grab the embed code directly from the Facebook application, to be placed on your website or blog. This application was launched on the heels of the iGoogle and Widgetbox maps upgrade, and in conjunction with the Haystack maps for its online hotel booking service. This is part of a larger strategy for use of its maps across networks.

A couple of people made the point that teens don't travel much. People who are spending a lot of time in front of their computers mastering the intricacies of on-line widgets and whatnots are also, pretty much by definition, NOT travelling. You're not doing any of THAT in an Internet cafe in Kinshasa or the backstreets of Samarkand, you're doing it in the comfort of your own home on your own computer, while probably Mom and Dad go to work and do the housekeeping and cooking and all of that other stuff that could distract a sensitive child from their social engineering on-line time.

And the people who are spending money on gadgets for their MP3 players and personal electronics probably are not making travel a big priority. If they do travel, it will be at a different level than many of the folks who have been used to buying LP guidebooks or posting on TT. A person who'll kick up a fuss because the MP3 player they got for Christmas was the wrong COLOUR will not be eager to go someplace where there are no toilets, let alone disposable toilet-seat covers.

Maybe they'll grow up and learn differently. Maybe not.

In one of the responses above, nutrax refers to having searched on Google and having found an interview with Simon Westcott, who says

“We have great loyalty and interaction from users of our Thorn Tree community. Every month we break new records for membership and participation. But there's so much more for us to do: group functionality, tagging, more types of user content generation, opening our infrastructure to 3rd-party development, allowing people to create their own trip pages. Watch this space....”

Group functionality? Tagging? I have no idea what those terms mean. Third party development? Could that mean "advertising"?

I'm one of the oldsters who come here to offer travel advice and other suggestions when possible, but with the recent changes it begins to feel as if I am coming to the wrong place now.