divewop

I remember a time (when I first joined the forum many years ago) when 99% of the threads were relevant, helpful, worthwhile, light-hearted and even <b>fun</b>! It was a joy to log on every day and spend time with others who had such an intense passion for Africa.

I don't participate that much anymore because of all the endless bickering and folks constantly trying to 'one-up' each other.

I really miss those good ole' days!

Can't we all just get along?

nyama

What happened to all these good old safari camps...? I guess the answer is very similar.

divewop

Then please enlighten me, nyama?

MoiraS

Hi! I haven't been around as long as you have, but even I've noticed that things have changed for the worse...there used to be much more talk about travel and much less bickering...people seemed to be able to agree to disagree about camps and stuff, and everyone just seemed nicer. It makes me a bit sad as I really liked the forum the way it was and I learned so much from it.

Moira

divewop

Well, I guess I got my answer to the question in my O.P!

Looks like those days are long gone!
&lt;&quot;sigh&quot;&gt;

safarinut

Divewop

I am sorry for changing the tone here,there are numerous nice posters on this site and I am sure we can all get along but....

Will you be comfortable giving these clowns( Small,boutique operations or not)
$20 000 for your upcoming safari???I definately wont.

cary999

I'm active on two other (non Fodors) forums. One on photography and one on old cars. I find the amount of friendliness, great advice/help, bickering, and self proclaimed experts about the same on all three forums. Such is life on the free internet. Let the buyer beware.

regards - tom

ozchinois

New to this geographical part of the forum but here's my 2cts worth. It's possible that there are not enough travellers participating in this section compared to Asia and Australia. So the number of travel agents is proportionately much higher. Personally I don't have a problem if the latter provide factual advice. In Asia especially, spruikers for their own travel service can be spotted a mile away mainly because they don't write like a &quot;westerner&quot; or don't know how to establish a reputation first as a Fodorite. It is all very civilised in the other forums. Please travellers don't leave the forum in a huff. You are much needed here.

safari274

Thank you, divewop, for making this thread. I haven't been here in awhile but now that I've returned to catch up (and continue trip planning) I'm truly saddened at what has happened to this forum. Instead of trip reports and other helpful Q &amp; A threads it's become nothing but gossip and, for lack of a better word, crap. It's sad. I've always found the information provided here to be extrememly helpful. Several of you have even continued that help via email off the board and it's been greatly appreciated. I can't imagine that any newbies would believe how helpful and informative - and nice - this forum used to be. I hope that the old forum sanity returns soon.

Matt_from_England

Has anybody seen the updated photos of the little rhino orphan Tatenda on Safaritalk recently?

http://safaritalk.net/index.php?showtopic=1389

and scroll down. Take a look and refresh yourselves: aren't we forgetting what is important?

MoiraS

Hi Matt! Thanks for posting this...it does help to be reminded about the reason most of us joined Fodors, even though the message itself was heart breaking...looking at the pictures of the butchered rhinos makes me feel ill and very very angry at anyone who could do something like this.

Moira

atravelynn

Matt, thanks for the photo link. Quite adorable. Judy and the rhino was just precious.

According to Carly Simon, &quot;these are the good ole days.&quot;

Have you ever spent time watching a baboon troop where everybody is grooming each other, drinking at a waterhole, and feeding on vegetation and fruits? It's a picture of tranquility. Then all of a sudden there is a stir, baboons are screaming, one chases another, several enter the fray, the peaceful group scatters, some running up trees, others into the thicket. It's a dreadful ruckus.

Eventually the conflict dies, and calm returns to the troop until the next time.

Chris_GA_Atl

I agree with Lynn. I have watched this Forum go through several cycles of peace and conflict, several cycles of usefulness and less interesting times. I assume things will become calm again at some point, as they always have in the past.

The nice thing is that the group of people who have been here long-term are still around, still always happy to help when someone wants to discuss something within their area of knowledge. As long as that remains the case, I can ignore things like our current fracas.

Chris

CarlaM

&quot;How about those dogs?&quot;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCuGAmhn9ek

divewop

I've been a member for about 4+ years now, and IMHO things have not been anywhere as bad as they've been in the last 6 months or so.

Yeah, it's like any other forum or family, and differences will arise from time to time. Such is life. People are different and everyone has opinions. I ignore the pettiness for the most part too, but I just thought it would be nice to remind folks of the good ole' days to see if we could try to get things back on track and be a little kinder to one another.

Lynn-
the difference being, that in the animal world the &quot;bad&quot; or &quot;troublemaking&quot; animals are usually put in their place by the alphas or driven out of the group, herd or troup, however you want to look at it. Too bad we don't have the same luxury in the human world!

divewop

troup=troop. Aargh!

Wow, Carla, cool video. Thx for sharing that. I gotta get my butt to Mashatu someday soon!

CarlaM

DW, howzit going in CO? Did you ever get a dog? Still waiting for you to chime in on yours and Cindy's trip report...and where are those camel photos?????

divewop

CO is going OK. Both my injured deer have recovered nicely. No dog yet. Think one may interfere too much with all the wildlife who frequent the yard. Plenty of people around here don't obey the leash law for their dogs anyway. It's terrible!

I'll chime in on the trip report soon.
Cindy said the camel photos didn't turn out too well. I was hoping Steve, the camp manager, woulda at least gotten one good one off. Oh well...

And I still can't view Africam!!!

CarlaM

You think the dogs injured the deer?

Well, Africam and PP have had on/off problems lately which has helped to wean me off my addiction PP will be ending in a couple weeks anyhow.

Too bad about the camel photos. What have you got &quot;in the works&quot; for getting back to Africa?

atravelynn

Carla, The old &quot;How about the dogs&quot; comes into play again!

You mean real camel photos? I thought you were referencing that camel toe nonsense, complete with explanatory pictures.

Perfect question, Carla, because Divewop and I may be teaming up in Aug of 2009 for gorillas. The more the merrier! Interested?