Fodors IT team, ITS TIME.

Old Nov 24th, 2016, 11:38 PM
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Fodors IT team, ITS TIME.

I am just as patient as the next person, but this Korean spam is just ridiculous.
It has been going on for way too long.
I know you have promised this will be fixed, but how long are we to wait.

I have pretty much given up on this forum

surely you can block certain IP addresses from posting.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 01:24 AM
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Yes, today the forum is saturated. It's hard on people with genuine queries
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 07:50 AM
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At least those of you in the USA get to miss the worst of it. Those of us in Europe (and elsewhere) get it almost all day long.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 08:49 AM
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Just a thought. I Google translated one of the spams. It's for an online Cambodian casino, if the spam isn't lying. It is clear that spamming this site will be of no benefit to the casino, so I assume they are paying a spammer service and are wasting their money. It may be possible to contact the casino, although not through any links in the spam. and ask that they cease wasting their money. Who knows, there may be a brain behind the bot.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 09:10 AM
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"I have pretty much given up on this forum"

In part, my loyalty was inspired by a sincere desire to support the traditional publishing industry, namely Random House. Now that those days are over, I suspect I will be opening a new door.

My other favorite attraction here was this board's unique "white" user-interface. It sure had its share of problems, quirks, and antiquated features, or no features at all, but, for me, this board has always been easy to read and navigate, without a lot of ugly clutter.

With rumors of switching to vBulletin or phpBB, this board will lose the very user-interface that separated it from all its competitors. On top of that, I feel no need or compulsion to facilitate the financial success of Internet Brands. What do they offer us longtime contributors? As far as I can see, nothing.

It takes a lot of money and IT assistance to keep a unique UI going. I don't see much future here, especially if the spam bots continue.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 08:28 PM
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Is there anyone out there in the IT team that would like to explain to us why this is taking so long to fix??????????
any response would be appreciated.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 09:25 PM
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i think it's pretty clear Internet Brands doesn't care.
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Old Nov 25th, 2016, 09:49 PM
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The longer people put up with an un-useable format, the easier it will be to sell the changeover to that stock standard PHP format like Flyertalk uses.

That UI layout (even if the underlying tools change) has been around forever and it's sooooo cumbersome. Both to surf and to read. I dislike looking at it and when that time comes, I'll probably give it a miss.

If they'd only add a time delay between new user's threads... and maybe check IPs on a new account creation so the same spammer can't create a dozen new ones every time, it would make all the difference. And it's like a day's coding in most environments (may have to create a temp table to hold "last 50 new accounts" or something like that). At least a captcha or something on the new thread submit button. It's only a minor inconvenience for us but a spammer wouldn't like the slowdowns.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 11:38 AM
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Hi everyone,

We have only recently (less than 2 weeks) completed the handover of the old Fodors servers in NY to our location in Southern California. This has allowed us to begin migrating all data handling to the IB team. The team has begun by handling the online travel guide part of the site, and then will move on to the forums, here.

The format that the forums are in is not nearly as updateable, fixable, modifiable, or stable as an actual forum bulletin board software suite would be. This is, in effect, blog software that has been jury-rigged to handle forums traffic.

This forum is feature-poor. That includes things that we consider standard, like automated spam remediation.

Our volunteer moderator staff have been doing heroic work removing the spam left by the Korean botnet. That can't last forever (either the spam or the mods!), and eventually we are going to need to move to a more robust system. That means VBulletin.

If you'd like to get a peek at what a VB forum looks like, you can visit http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ (I manage that one too). Say hi -- my username there is the same as here-- IBobi.

I do not currently have a time frame for the transition to VB. I would expect early 2017. VB comes with very basic and essential features that this forum does not have, such as the aforementioned spam tools; moderator tools that allow much greater visibility into trolling and other misbehavior, and the ability for mods to do more about it that they can now; the ability for members to private message each other, or the moderator team; the list goes on.

This is going to be a necessary, and somewhat awkward step for the Fodor's forums. I will do my best to ensure that the transition is smooth both technically and from a UI standpoint. My plan is to provide a temporary "VB version" of the Fodors forums that we can all try out for a while before we actually migrate everything to it. This is a nice way to get used to the "where the heck is this button now???" newness. It allows us to answer questions and alleviate the stress that comes with adjusting to a new format. I guarantee you, there will be people who think this existing format is perfect, who will hate the new format; and there will be people who jump into the new features with both feet. And everything in between. It is the nature of change.

Meanwhile, we have some help on the way in the form of moderators who will be watching the forum during the A team's off hours (while we are sleeping), when a lot of the Korean spam tends to show up. We will beef up our efforts to remove it as it is posted.

Please bear with us during the transition. It will be very much worth it!

Best,

Paul
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:06 PM
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Oh man. Thanks for the update, Paul.

As I said above I figured it only made sense you were going to standardize. Just not a fan of y'all's tools and features, unfortunately. Can't seem to read it well - too much clutter and small print for me, same user info tacked on next to every post, etc. The quotes that people requote and you keep seeing the same text and photos over and over, etc. It kind of operates like an IT person designed it (I was one for decades) Just from a user, or this user, it makes it hard to follow and doesn't flow well. Which is why I spent time on Fodors at first and dropped Sl. And I've owned several forums with similarly laid out software as FT, so I get the advantages... just can't stand to look at more than a page or two if I absolutely need info. Sorry, just one last chance for this long time user to get some last feedback in. Good luck with it though.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:33 PM
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Dang, but that is one butt ugly site!
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:40 PM
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Ugh, maybe I'll get used to it.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:41 PM
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There's a long post and explanation on this topic in The Lounge from the editors. Unfortunately not everyone can get to that forum to read it.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:43 PM
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If you guys, with your fresh eyes, have suggestions that we can implement to make the Fodors VB implementation better, please let us know! I will do my best to get as many of them in as I can!
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 12:45 PM
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Oh FYI that butt-ugly site has 600,000 members and 30 million visits a month

VBulletin is not perfect, but it is the industry standard. It works! And more people equals more expert travel info...

Paul
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 01:23 PM
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early 2017 ?
Means 5 weeks from now at the earliest, but usually 'early 2017' means Q1 2017.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 01:34 PM
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The Flyer Talk layout is like that of Cruise Critic. I go back and forth between CC and Fodors with no problems. And I"ve never seen spam on CC.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 01:53 PM
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Flyertalk looks to be a fairly standard forum layout. Easy enough to use once you are used to it, though it did crash my phone!
It will be an improvement on the current forum layout, as it should allow editing for instance.

Will you keep the Lounge, and will it remain closed?

Will we be able to post photos (within reason - I don't mean 40 photos to go with a trip report!) in a thread?

Thanks for all the work going on to clear the spam. It is frustrating for those of us in Europe especially.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 01:59 PM
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Oh dear this is NOT good news.
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Old Nov 28th, 2016, 02:30 PM
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CounterClifton, you sound like the fabulous Clifton from way back when. I have a feeling you are that person, and it's good to see you here once again, making sense.

Well folks, we all knew this unique UI gave Fodor's lots of issues through the years, and they clearly weren't prepared to deal with those issues. From an all-around big-business perspective, it certainly makes sense to go with an "industry standard."

"Oh FYI that butt-ugly site has 600,000 members and 30 million visits a month"

Yes, the media also believes in the all-important numbers, and look what's happened to the quality of most journalism. More hamburgers sold doesn't mean McDonald's offers the best beef.

vBulletin is feature-rich. Perhaps your numbers will reach FlyerTalk's. I'm not a member there. I'm not a fan of the look of vBulletin. If I wanted to dress like an "industry standard" IT guy, I'd shop at Land's End. Many on this board will make the transition just fine. They love Land's End.

Where is the Apple of travel sites? All this vBulletin crap looks like a 1980's PC. I'll pass.

I finally made the decision to join some of my favorite European boutique hotels and joined Trip Advisor. I'll be posting there as NYCTravelSnob. So far, the Senior Specialists in Customer Service have been 5-star professional. Fingers crossed.
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