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Post by beardouk on Jan 8, 2013 17:23:13 GMT -5
I wondered whether they had started from the UK and Austalia, and were working out from there - or they don't have any Spanish speakers in the moderating team.
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Post by bystander on Jan 8, 2013 21:24:17 GMT -5
The SA branch is all in English, so they don't need Spanish speakers.
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 13, 2013 4:56:15 GMT -5
I'm posting a new message on TT: Western Europe. I don't know if they're going to allow it, so I'm copying the text of it here...we'll see how they handle it.
"Hi forum members,
I just happened to look at my ID and realised I've lost credit for about a thousand posts! I'm not that active but I was wondering:
First, to the moderator: When we post, we donate our time, experience and thought to the cause of travel. We share and we honor those who share with us. I've seen congratulatory posts for some of the major posters and it made me happy to see the recognition given. Why were the credits (for posts) lost? I could understand that when I bother to tell a first time poster that in my opinion their post is spam it's not a really important piece of advice, and the entire post itself will be deleted...but I did contribute. I took the time and thought to make the call and to help keep the board clean of spam. But for the rest? Makes me feel like a real newcomer and wonder if I should bother since it would appear (to new posters or those who might know recognize my name) that I have no history. If you're deleting entire posts because there's one or two smarmy comments, that's unfair as well. The work that forum members have done, trashed because through no fault of their own, they find themselves in bad company?
Second, to the forum members: Were you aware you were losing credit for posts? Have you lost any? Many? I don't know if it has happened but when I think of all the research I've done and links provided, etc (as so many of you do)....well, it doesn't feel good. And let's face it, there's a lot about posting here and helping others because it does feel good. It's certainly not the pay..."
I'll come back tomorrow with the results. Any one else have any complaints about how things are going (or not...as the case may be...)
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Post by bystander on Jan 13, 2013 15:22:36 GMT -5
I am not that bothered about post counts. I don't think I have looked at mine but most of my posts were in the South America branch and that doesn't seem likely to appear anytime soon. So, if they don't count those, I probably have about ten.
As for how things are going; very slowly, too slowly. I don't know if that is inevitable or not. I don't know, and no one else does, exactly how they are parsing the posts. I would have done it differently: checked through the last month of all destination branches and put that limited amount up rather than have some people waiting so long for any sign of "their" branch. All other non-destination branches could follow later. If there was something you were desperate to get back to, it was likely within the last month. At least everyone would feel they had all been treated with equal access. But, as I say, I know nothing about how they are doing things. Add that to not knowing why they are doing things, and you can see I am confused. I am less frustrated now because I am a lot less interested in getting back onto TT. I doubt I ever will to the same extent as before. I would like to get in and retrieve a few of my favourite posts and some contact info in my PMs, so I check once a day to see how much is on which is new. I could probably cut that to once a week at the rate they are going and that will probably be what happens.
I would think that, destination branches and others (On Yer Bike, Older Travellers etc), will take us into March. As more destination branches go up, more posts have to be checked, or pre-moderated as the fancy term is now. Once the PMs are working there will be a lot more people moving on, I would think, as they contact each other to gather on other forums.
I am betting, sfgirl42, they won't post what you have written.
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Post by markharf on Jan 13, 2013 23:03:04 GMT -5
I feel similarly to sfgirl42: the longer TT is down and the more inept the implementation of unspecified changes appears, the less compelled I feel to participate. Already, the site has lost ground it'll have to regain slowly, painfully over the coming months and years.
I've had previous experience with an unrelated forum which crashed a couple of times, wiping everyone's contributions. The loss of archives felt disrespectful, even callous, and did not encourage thoughtful participation by those who had the most to offer. Eventually, that forum deteriorated and, for my purposes, died.
That's the road LP is on: inadequate investment of time, money, thoughtfulness and other resources over time, coupled with poor communication and other forms of disrespect for the contributors who made it, for all its faults, the best broad-based travel site on the web. I used to imagine that even decisions with which I disagreed about running the forums were made deliberately, by people with expertise exceeding my own. However, it's apparent that the people running the show were always as clueless as they now appear. Since these appear to be the same people who currently claim to be reconstituting everything, it's tough to feel optimistic they'll succeed in any significant sense. I'd be happy to be proven wrong about this.
I remember world travel before there was an LP, and I remember before the TT forums. Information was harder to come by, but travel itself was at least as rewarding. Maybe I'll see some of you down the road, somewhere other than here.
Mark
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Post by bystander on Jan 14, 2013 5:06:03 GMT -5
So we don't sound optimistic, do we? There was an interesting post by persona_non_grata on TT yesterday. It was #520 when I last looked, but posts come and go in the night and it could be a different number now. Worth reading if you can find it.
Eventually, the details of how this started and who pulled the plug will emerge. I have a feeling it will all be pathetic rather than dramatic.
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Post by anshjain97 on Jan 14, 2013 8:46:26 GMT -5
I don't like their age restriction... LIke I don't like the fact that sfgirl's post was locked (fine, not deleted, but even locking it is unnecessary).
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 15, 2013 2:14:28 GMT -5
Here's the response for LP to my post:
Posts on branches that have yet to return and posts older than those currently appearing on this branch effect the number of posts you have. There's a topic on the FAQ branch covering this and other issues so wander over there if you need to carry on this discussion further.
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 15, 2013 2:44:42 GMT -5
I found out two things that made me angy. Here's my post:
"I have reread the new rules including those on the now linked-to BBC site and I wonder how closely the mods are going to monitor links to foreign language sites. My area of expertise if France and there are a lot of websites in French that I have linked to in the past. In many cases there are no comparable sites available in English (even offical tourism sites for some places exist only in French). There are also the somewhat obscure destinations that haven't bothered to create an English version (it is their country, and so their choice) and yet for someone with either a modicum of French or the willingness to use an online translator, the information contained on the site is invaluable. I would have hoped that the mods would amongst themselves have enough foreign languages to be able to determine if a link is 'safe'....if you're going to absolutely prohibit links to foreign language websites then you need to take a poll or osmething to find out exactly what the result of that might be. If it is the intent of the Beeb to make TT anglocentric then I think you may find it will lose its reputation as an international website.
I do hope that the BBC does plan on selling LP; I think it would benefit LP (and the forum members) and would make life easier for the BBC.
And why was it decided that posters had to be 16 years or older? One of our most welcome posters is younger than that (Ansh, for those who know him, as many do) and won't be able to post for another three or four months. His contributions added information, entertainment and helped create a greater sense of community. His posts were never juvenile (except perhaps in asking a question about proper conduct for someone of his age, or about a school trip, etc) and there were many posters three, four, five times his age who were more juvenile in their comments and certainly lacked personal dignity.
I could see that perhaps there were unwelcome posts from other people under 16 on some of the dodgier forums but a quick parse of his posts would show he is a valid and valued contributor to TT. To be honest, I thought of him as a member of my extended family and excluding him probably offends me more than it does him. When/if he does return I hope he will be given the return of all his posts....which number in the thousands."
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 15, 2013 2:56:06 GMT -5
They did post it...and without having to go through the mods...
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Post by bystander on Jan 15, 2013 4:02:22 GMT -5
No foreign language website links is going to be fun on the South America branch. Virtually all the bus websites (favourite mode of transportation in SA) are in Spanish but people can read the timetables or put things into an online translator. They lend authenticity to an answer. It would mean that when answering a question on bus schedules, one would have to type out the schedule or tell people to go Google.
I think I agree: the quicker they sell LP the better.
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Post by bystander on Jan 18, 2013 9:42:30 GMT -5
The first day the South America branch returned, one of the posters had 4 four letter words in his profile. Way to go TT moderation. I look at TT but haven't posted and don't know if I will. Found a decent forum somewhere else and am trying it out. If it suits I won't return to TT.
Happy birthday, Banjanti and Slutty (if you are still tuning in here)!
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 20, 2013 19:17:17 GMT -5
I'm 9 hours behind Europe so I'm not always following threads (on TT) when they're first written so I don't always know what's going on.
I'm copying a recent post because it address concerns I think we all have about what is currently happening and what may happen in the future. I hope the OP doesn't mind my quoting it:
" AGAIN if I'm not mistaken, there have again been threads gone missing (e.g. the aribo thread and probably one of tis46') on this branch today. not strictly focused on travel, yet related to the recent changes - everything in a well mannerd and good humored tone.
in my opinion, the mods could be more lenient towards these kinds of threads, at least for the time being, given that there is currently no way of messaging each other or else. I start getting the impression the community aspect is no longer considered a valuable objective of this board - is this intended?
I hope they'll restore more of the older threads, too, since they contained loads of useful info from plenty of users (kerouac, mtl, badger, arie etcetc), not too worried about the search engine right now, though, there was always the workaround with google...
I guess post numbers will increase once older threads get released, too. regardless the branches being up, there is still a 5-figure sum of topics missing from WE alone.
wonder for how long this will stay on the branch. I repeat that I object to the practice of deleting threads that are not offensive.
@travelinstyle, concerning your question, the mods have made it clear on the Community FAQ thread that they're not going to disclose any sort of timeline or what parts of TT they'll actually restore (or not). " If you're following TT WE you'll know who wrote this. And if it's deleted from TT, there will still be a record.
and as info, your TT screen name comes up with a google search...as does your screen name for TTR...
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 20, 2013 20:37:55 GMT -5
My response to the Navigator (translation of his name from German): "Hmmm...I don't know the posts you're talking about but your posts on other subjects have always been reliable so no reason not to trust you now. Speaking of travel, I wonder how many of the mods have done much travelling, especially the kind we discuss here. how does someone know what is pertinent to a discussion if they've not been a party to a similar discussion. I know I give extraneous details which might not be absolutely necessary but if the OP is looking for something which defines an area, statistics alone can't do that. And other posters: Sometimes it is a humourous approach while encourages or discourages (whatever is intended) more than a factual statement. If travel were logical ONLY I think we would all have stayed home. It is for the illogical, inventive, unconventional reasons that we explore the world or parts of it. How many times have you done a search only to find ten or more different websites with exactly the same information, word for word (with credit to the original site.)? And I've seen this on travel questions as well. That is something that has set TT Forums apart from other travel forum sites: The unique answers and unique characters one hsa found here. A tree, thorn or otherwise needs room for its roots to grow and care for water and nutrients. Pruning the roots too much will stunt the grown (bonsai) or kill it entirely over time. Likewise, a dry soil with little to keep it going will have the same effect. I remember the origins of the "Thorn Tree' on the original LP. One hopes there will continue to be messages on the Thorn Tree, and not just thorns."
Just for the record, posting here.
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 24, 2013 1:35:23 GMT -5
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