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Post by tempelton on Jan 1, 2013 8:05:41 GMT -5
@sfgirl, the problem is not finding information about a country I want to go to, that's why I hardly ever posted questions on TT, what was great is that you could read about countries you didn't even think about going to and because of TT you start thinking about it, that is what I miss most. gogo, link doesn't work, just get a not found message.
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gogo
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Post by gogo on Jan 1, 2013 13:52:07 GMT -5
Sorry about that - I don't know why. It does it to me, too, but I found it again. Here's his posting: -
Posted 30 December 2012 - 06:50 PM
"Arguably the most popular and longest standing travel related forum, known as Thorn Tree, operated by Lonely Planet, and since last year fully owned by the BBC, was shut down on Saturday the 22nd of December. The shut down is presumably temporary while necessary measures are taken to clean up its archives, address moderation issues, and likely install software filters to keep the forum from being classified as an "adult content" website.
Almost immediately following the shut down, the internet lit up with numerous news articles, blog entries and posts on various forums, all speculating why the BBC took this action. None of those "sources" provide the truth or the facts associated with this event.
This entire event was initiated by an e-mail dated December 16 to acting Director-General of the BBC, Mr. Tim Davie by a well known writer living on Bali who was preparing an article for the New York Times Sunday travel section. The article being prepared for the NY Times was to be an analysis of several well known travel related forums with an objective rating of each forum based on parameters including popularity, accuracy of information, number of responses to questions, decorum and style. Nine travel related forums had been picked by the writer for that study.
In the course of the research conducted by the writer, it became alarmingly evident that the Thorn Tree forum was full of active and archived posts which would easily classify the Thorn Tree forum as an "adult content" web site.
Mr. Davie immediately responded with great concern to the writer's e-mail and delegated Mr. Philip Fleming, the head of BBC's Communications, to address the issues raised in this writer's first e-mail. Mr. Fleming first contacted the writer on December 17. On that same day, the writer also received e-mail from Mr. Tom Hall, who is the editorial director of Lonely Planet.
On the 20th of December, the writer shared some of the research conducted while preparing the article for the NY Times with Mr. Hall. This research proved that over 43,500 posts in the archives of Thorn Tree included adult material, unquestionably not suitable for a "family oriented" forum. The writer was also able to prove that the vast majority of those adult content posts were on particular branches of the Thorn Tree forum which were for non travel related discussions, and primary among those branches was the Your Choice (YC) branch of the forum.
Also documented was the fact that greater than 83% of the participant posters on YC posted almost exclusively on that branch, and when looking specifically at high usage posters, those with 15,000 or more posts, 97% of their posts were made exclusively on the YC branch.
At the time of writer's study, the number of open topics on YC exceeded that of any of the other specific branches on the TT forum, which at the time of the study, numbered 50 branches. YC currently stood with 76,348 open topics. None of the other 49 specific topic branches, which largely dealt with specific travel destinations, met this number, and the vast majority fell well below the number of active topics on the YC branch.
Understanding that Lonely Planet is a recent acquisition of the BBC, the researcher and writer of the intended article for the New York Times acted in good faith and forewarned the appropriate executives of a problem that they very likely were unaware. At no time, and in no discussions between the writer, the BBC, or Lonely Planet was the topic of Jimmy Savile raised, nor was the issue of the BBC looking for a new owner of Lonely Planet discussed.
Hopefully the Lonely Planet forum will re-emerge shortly and in a revised manner that reflects and satisfies the needs of would be travelers world wide."
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Post by anshjain97 on Jan 2, 2013 2:25:18 GMT -5
Hi sfgirl. Hi tempelton. I recognise you both from the WE branch. I'm missing the people the most- so glad could find you both here. Hope others find this website too.
Seems TT could take a while in coming back...
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gogo
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Post by gogo on Jan 2, 2013 15:58:00 GMT -5
I don't think it will be off the air very much longer. I've managed to track down the idiot who was responsible for complaining to the BBC. Not only that, but I've now got a dossier on him as long as your arm. If you want to look too, just type "Roy Thompson"+Bali (or Ubud) into google. Amazing reading!
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Post by Airbender on Jan 2, 2013 19:02:10 GMT -5
Gogo, yes, there is some amazing fiction to be found on the blogosphere. Obviously you are one who believes everything you read there. However, none of that “creative writing” has anything to do with the topic at hand, that being the truthful reason behind why TT was temporarily shut down.
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gogo
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Post by gogo on Jan 3, 2013 3:44:42 GMT -5
Oh no, Airhead, I dn't believe everything, just the ones that are backed up with documentary evidence (and there's plenty of that, when one takes the time). For example, there's no conclusive proof, as some posts aver, that you were/are a paedophile, but plenty that you're involved in other nefarious matters. And not just a few, at that.
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june2
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Post by june2 on Jan 3, 2013 19:23:20 GMT -5
I see the LP logo on my bookmarks but when I try to login to TT I get that blue screen again.
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Post by Airbender on Jan 4, 2013 8:08:01 GMT -5
Gogo, before you go totally postal, and make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have, you might want to keep up with the discussion here: thorntreerefuge.boards.net/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2&page=2The thought has crossed my mind, and maybe others too, that you might be far better off putting your lap top down, and picking up a pair of knitting needles. Most folks, including me, are not very used to encountering a pit bull grandma, aged 66 or over, anywhere on the internet. How about you bake a nice apple pie, and we’ll all leave your issues with dementia aside? Fair enough?
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gogo
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Post by gogo on Jan 4, 2013 15:11:15 GMT -5
"Most folks, including me, are not very used to encountering a pit bull grandma, aged 66 or over, anywhere on the internet."
More of the pit-bull, less of the grandma. ;D Have you had your rabies shots. Airhead?
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Post by spunky on Jan 4, 2013 20:14:31 GMT -5
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Post by anshjain97 on Jan 4, 2013 20:49:09 GMT -5
New update: QUOTE
UPDATE 4th January 2013
Dear Thorn Tree User,
Thank you for your patience and understanding during the forum's temporary closure over the Christmas and New Year period. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you but we felt it was important that any inappropriate content was removed and that we could put in place some additional moderation to prevent certain types of language and themes appearing again on Thorn Tree.
We'll be reopening Thorn Tree branches over the coming month, beginning with a number of our destination related branches over the next few days.
On behalf of the entire team, we really appreciate your continued patience and hope you will continue to make the best use of Thorn Tree as a trusted travel resource.
The Lonely Planet Team
UNQUOTE
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Post by slutty on Jan 5, 2013 11:52:38 GMT -5
What a lot of trouble has been going on at you know where!! My word! It has been a bit rough. I had totally desisted from bad language and was being very nice. I even gave up on writing about my itchy private parts. They still banned me even in my polite style. What comes out of the TTYC closure remains to be seen but I bet there wont be a Your Choice thread. Anyway, I'm glad I found the refuge so I guess I might find some new topics to post about. I have had to use a grumpy face today because my private parts are more itchy than usual. Peace. Best wishes. Serenity.
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Post by sfgirl42 on Jan 8, 2013 6:28:01 GMT -5
My home, Western Europe is up (also UK) but each post is approved before being posted online. I hadn't followed anything on non-travel forums so must have missed most of the questionable stuff. Serenity, I know you're not looking for practical advice, but for one of your possible problems, yogurt has been proven to be helpful. Reducing the amount of sugar in your diet (sucrose, fructose, etc) has been shown to reduce the incidence of such problems. More drastic situations require more drastic actions and medical assistance might be useful. Since most of the people who have posted here have a genuine interest in the real, travel TT, I'd honestly just suggest you find a forum more sympathetic to your particular tastes and interests. Thank you.
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Post by bystander on Jan 8, 2013 14:49:20 GMT -5
Nicely put.
I am of two minds; part of me wonders why they didn't get the South America forum up as soon as possible considering it is a major travel destination in Jan/Feb and leave Europe (apologies to those focussed on Europe) which is not right now since it is winter, and the thought that maybe I am just no longer interested in going back to TT anyway.
The lapse between answering a question and having it posted it just out of the question. People do that on blogs but never on a forum. Perhaps it is temporary. If so, I will wait until it is gone. I personally never posted anything anyone might consider less than the best advice on travel of which I was capable. I deeply resent being treated as if I am untrustworthy. I could tell you right now who made problems on the SA branch and the moderators should be able to do that too, remove them and let everyone else get on with things.
Late at night if I had exhausted every other website I could think of, I would look at Get Stuffed and I sometimes looked at that one for techie things to find suggestions for apps for my iPod Touch. I have asked some questions on the USA branch and had incredibly useful answers. They were more about living than travelling, but I suppose you can't do that anymore. Other than that, everything I had is now archived and I can't get at it. Every day that passes makes getting at it less relevant. I had watches on a lot of threads and, it appears, one is going to have to wait even longer to get those back, if ever.
I have been exploring other travel forums and some I think I could help on. So I am really undecided about returning or not.
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gogo
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Post by gogo on Jan 8, 2013 16:05:43 GMT -5
If anyone would like the listing for the site to where most of Women Travellers have migrated, please send me a PM. Natrurally enough, this invitation does not extend to Airhead.
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