3 posts in 12 hours ... this board is DEAD
 

1. NCL Star - Mini-Suites<BR>0 responses; most recent on 02/13/2003, 09:40 am<BR><BR>2. tendering into port???<BR>5 responses; most recent on 02/13/2003, 08:26 am<BR><BR><BR>3. Golden Princess- The Baha Balcony. Is it Private?<BR>0 responses; most recent on 02/12/2003, 09:41 pm<BR><BR>And people are saying registration is a good thing?<BR><BR>

I agree. And why aren't people registering? It's like they are nervous about giving out their email addresses, yet I haven't received any messages as a result of signing up. Hopefully this site will get back to it's old, busy former self.

You can thank two groups.<BR>1. The timid pro-registration crowd who whined and whined.<BR>2. Fodors decision to instantly make every person's posts available by clicking on their names. Now people are afraid anything and everything they say can instantly be displayed, so if they're a little cranky one day and post something they regret it will be there for everyone to rag on them. That's really what killed the boards.

How is being held accountable for your comments wrong? Now no one can hide and/or say I didn't say that, or I didn't mean that.<BR><BR>I like the fact that you can pull up anyone's comments.<BR><BR>This way you can also see if someone has had a &quot;Bad&quot; day by the trend they set with their other posts.

Yeah, the registration thing has certainly scared off quite a few posters, both old and new. It's extremely dull now. I miss the old days where your post could have a dozen hits in a hour or be buried just as fast because there were so many. By the way, clicking on your name will reveal ONLY the posts you've made since you registered....not the old ones.

The board isn't dead, but its dying. Lack of participation will kill the process. Those with questions that don't get answered will quit coming and asking. Those that come here for entertainment have already stopped coming. I give it a month tops and this &quot;cruise&quot; category will be gone just as the TA section did.<BR><BR>I blame it all on registration and Danny M .'s lack of vision. Some of us told him that he had a great thing going here with the entertainment value mixed in with good information. He didn't listen, the entertainment went away and now he's stuck with another &quot;me to&quot; board that can't compete with the big boys.<BR><BR>Shame on you, Danny.<BR><BR>Peter

I don't believe Danny is totally to blame. It is also the constant nagging by some relentless people who have no tolerance and no sense of humor. I'd be willing to bet Danny was under a lot of pressure and basically &quot;forced&quot; to go to this ridiculous registration.....which by the way has not stopped the nasty posts, but surely has put the brakes on the informative ones. What a shame, it used to be both fun and informative here.....and now it's neither.

The only thing imho that registration has done is restrict the ANTIs [anti-smoking, anti-dressing, anti-corporations, etc] from making multiple postings under different names to make it appear their point is being supported. This restriction cuts down on the &quot;buzz.&quot;<BR><BR>Would a poster like Grumpy [no matter what you thought of his/her posts, or believed his statements] post if he knew he could be found. To register does restrict anonymity....<BR><BR><BR><BR>

Here I go, sticking my oar in the water but I was one who wanted registration. I was tired of all the downright meanness and hatefulness that was here (I don't remember it here on the Cruise forum but it was alive and well on the USA and Europe forums).<BR><BR>I'd rather see fewer and nicer posts . . . my preference is for quality over quantity.<BR><BR>I've checked out a few other message boards with all the free time I've had (since there's not too much going on here)and they don't seem to be having much traffic either.<BR><BR>Could it just be the time of the year or the economic situation or the threat of war thing?<BR><BR>Sandy

:)<BR><BR>Lew says, &quot;This restriction (registration) cuts down on the &quot;buzz.&quot;<BR><BR>RIGHT! Fact is, the &quot;buzz&quot; was what kept this site going ... it was fun to log on, laugh at the ongoing skirmishes, check out the serious inquiries. Even if none of the latter were interesting, still one had a little smile from the funny stuff. <BR><BR>IMHO ... the definitive cruise info here doesn't have the breadth and depth of the exchanges found on other sites, so there's not likely to be enough &quot;serious&quot; posts to keep this forum going.<BR><BR>Anyway .. where are Peter and Paul when we need them?????? <BR>

At least this thread is getting some action!<BR><BR>One of the best things I like about Fodor's Forums is the humor . . . some of the posts are so funny I laugh out loud and then have to hide to keep from getting caught (at work, you see).<BR><BR>The couple of threads right now about duct tape and plastic are hysterical . . . and if there's anything we need right now, it's humor.<BR><BR>BTW, what are some good cruise message boards? I've looked at cruisecritic and cruisemates, are there any really good ones?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Sandy<BR>

It's all PAULS fault. Everything that did happen, might happen or won't happen can be attributed to Paul.<BR><BR>Just kidding Paul, as you used to take such a pounding, I thought you might be lonesome for some &quot;flack&quot;.

I agree this board seems dead. I also enjoyed the mix of questions and entertainment. I don't think displaying all the posts by a person has anything to do with it being slow. <BR><BR>Sandy,<BR>There are other boards, but they seem pretty dead. Some get off topic and want to talk about their kids, American Idol etc. I get bored with them. CC and Disney probably have more traffic than all the boards. Trolls and bashers come and go on CC but it can be very entertaining if you can catch the posts before they are removed. It also contains some very good information if you can get by all the roll calls.

I agree that seeing the previous posts is not a factor.I like seeing who answered what to what.If I see a post one day and its gone the next,then I can see if maybe &quot;Paul&quot; or &quot;Peter(PumpkinEater)&quot; or &quot;Starfish&quot; or OliveOyl had something to say.i find it an informative tool.I think it might be just a slow time.Who knows

Sandy b-- the best cruise board that I have found is www.cruise-addicts.com-it is constantly moving and has terrific reviews of ALL the ships by real people and not just the people who are PAID to cruise....<BR><BR>Try it, you will like it!!<BR><BR>Also cruisediva.com is good...

Danny, are you paying attention to this thread? Bad decision on your part for registration and the most popular topic has become &quot;what other board can we go to&quot;. <BR><BR>This place is going in the toilet.<BR><BR>Peter

Actually as I see it Peter this site has been pulled out of the toilet. <BR><BR>Prior to registration this site was the equivalent of watching Gerry Springer!<BR><BR>

Interesting observation Techydude, coming from someone who has only posted six times since registration started. It seems to me that you were much more active before registration. Might have something to do with the dismal number of new posts????? There's no doubt that the posts are kinder and gentler; but they're also boring and repititious. How many times do we need to talk about liquor on board, how to get to St. Johns and what to do in Cozumel?<BR><BR>Peter

:)<BR><BR>If it walks like a geek and talks like a geek ...<BR><BR>Why am I getting the notion that Techydude is Fodor's programmer ... he who gave us The Great Registration?

You are right about one thing Borderlady I am a geek. And guess what so is Bill Gates, and all the famous scientific minds since the world began. So thanks for putting me in that category. Nerds outnumber you by 2.1763248 to 1. Sorry geek joke.<BR><BR>And no, I don't work for Fodor's I doubt they could afford my fees.<BR><BR>And other than the registration questions or related issues there hasn't been any technical questions. I admit I don't know that much about cruising that's why I visited this site. I can tell you how the electrical systems work, why certain cell phones work better than others, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you are bored Peter because you can't stir up trouble like you did in the past.<BR><BR>Yes, I was one of the one's that pushed for registration. The majority of the comments though entertaining to some turned away hundreds of others.<BR><BR>This site had a reputation for being a Romper Room of malcontents. Now once it regains some credability there will be others back.<BR><BR>One more thing Peter. The majority of the posts you saw on this web site were the result of a handful of people posing as different people. Thereby giving the illusion that there was a lot more activity on this board then there really was in reality. I'm sure you knew that already Peter. You were one of them.

In my (humble) opinion, I believe the decrease in posts directly relates to user unwillingness to thrust themselves into yet another registration process that ends up feeding them to the spam sharks. <BR>

Techydude says: &quot;Yes, I was one of the one's that pushed for registration.&quot;<BR><BR>Then, you must have been pushing in hushed tones (or perhaps by emails to Danny) because I can't remember ever seeing your nick until your first soothing post. <BR><BR>My recollection is that you became visible AFTER registration had been in place several days and the complaints began to mount. I believe your first post was explaining that any change in a program could complicate other parts ...and would be worked out in the fullness of time, etc. <BR><BR>Anyway, welcome to the board -- diversity of opinion is always welcome. And regarding your field of endeavor ... any tips for a Win98 2nd Edition that frequently freezes whenever a second or third window is opened?<BR>

Who ever said thar controversy and debate on a board is a bad thing. It does liven up the place. Everyone can admit that.

Border Lady. How much RAM do you have? You can find this out by right clicking on the my computer icon and selecting properties. Under general description it should say about the eighth line down RAM and then a number like 32 0r 64 etc... There are many variables that will cause multiple windows opening to cause a crash. The most prevalent is not enough RAM. This is a temporary storage place for your computer to place things so it does not have to constantly revert to the hard drive when you are multi tasking.<BR><BR>Also, you may want to consider upgrading to windows XP. It is only $100 for the upgrade. My wife is not technically proficient, but she is a quick study. Both of us have found this software to be a happy compromise to both our styles.<BR><BR><BR>Ooops is it a lap top or desk top?<BR><BR>And yes I pushed by going to their (Fodor's Publisher) parent company. I find that presenting factual information to upper management can be much more effective than whining. I chose not to participate in the squabbles of some of the more insincere people that frequented this board in the past.<BR><BR>Hope that helps answer your questions on all fronts.

~~~~ Many thanks, Techydude, for your prompt and pleasant reply. And again, welcome to the board. <BR><BR>Currently under System Properties, it says:<BR>Memory: 96.0 of RAM<BR>System Resources: 50% free<BR>File System: 32-bit<BR>Disk Compression: not installed<BR>PC Cards (PCMCIA): no PC Card sockets are installed.<BR><BR>Your system is configured for optimal performance.<BR><BR>Which brings another question: what percent of System Resources should be available? Should one do a reboot when it reaches a given point? I'm not a game player .. surf a lot, but nothing more than web pages. I find my resources down into the 40's quite frequently. (That doesn't seem related to the freezes, though.)<BR><BR>*laughing* I realize this isn't cruise talk .. but I do appreciate your insights into a problem that's mystified me and several local techies.<BR><BR><BR><BR>

No Problem BL. Okay it would be advisable to upgrade your RAM. You can get up to 512k RAM for around $80.00 in current pricing. More than that and they are taking advantage of you. Do you have a computer chain store around you? I ask because if you are unfamiliar with installing it they will usually do it as a free service or maybe around $30.00.<BR><BR>In the meantime until you have some cash available have you ever done a &quot;System Defragmentation&quot; to your computer. I will work under the premise that you haven't. All those out there that have computers this is good for you to and will not damage or lose any data from your computer. For those of you who have never done this it may take a couple of hours the first time for it to go through this process. This essentially organizes all your files in neat piles they way they were meant to be. Thereby making it easier for your computer to access them and make the computer operate faster.<BR><BR>OK here we go. This is done in two parts.<BR><BR>Part I<BR><BR>1. left click on start button<BR><BR>2. left click on all programs<BR><BR>3. find the program at the top or near that says accessories<BR><BR>4. put cursor (arrow) on it (do not click on it) another little bank will show up to the right with more programs. You should see program called system files. Slowly move the cursor over to that now. yOu should now see the final part of our journey. <BR><BR>5. you should see two programs that are important to our procedure. The first is &quot;Disk Cleanup&quot;. Left click on this. When it asks do you want to do this click on the &quot;ok&quot; This may take several minutes or more to clean out old garbage.<BR><BR>Part II<BR><BR>The tedious long winded go out for a movie or Starbucks part.<BR><BR>1. do all steps 1 - 4.<BR><BR>2. Now left click on defragmentation. And click on &quot;OK&quot; to get started. <BR><BR>Remember if you have never done this it may take several hours, but it is well worth it. You will notice a difference when it is done. When it is done it will say that it is finished.<BR><BR>Now Restart you computer. This should help all of you tremendously. This applies to all all windows programs and not just Windows 98 except for NT for you other &quot;Geeks&quot; that may want to correct me.<BR><BR>Ok what does this have to do with Fodors and cruising? Ummmm your on a computer. Right? <BR><BR>Hope I wasn't confusing. BTW I am an broadcast engineer by trade but we all love computers hehe. <BR><BR>For the rest of you if you have technical questions don't be shy I will try to anwer them if they are related to cruising issues. If I don't know I will say I don't know or try to point you in the right direction. <BR><BR>Hope all that helps.<BR>

Hi Techydude ...<BR><BR>What nice simple instructions! Thank you very much. When I post this, I'm going to begin with the Disk Cleanup and then proceed on to Defrag. I'll just go to bed and leave it to its own devices. Hope there's no explosion! <BR><BR>I've verified that the little menu drops down with the choices you promised ... funny, I never paid any attention to those .. about the only thing I ever use on Accessories is WordPad.<BR><BR>More later about that. <BR><BR>Now *koff koff* -- about cruising! We love it and have been lucky to go 4 times in the past 12 months. Coming up, we're booked in June for a QE2 crossing (I'm veddy veddy excited about that!) and a HAL cruise back to the eastern Caribbean in August. <BR><BR>If you have any questions about cruises from Vancouver BC via the Canal to Tampa, the Baltic or east/west/deep Caribbean -- we've done them very recently and would be happy to chat. <BR><BR>I'm off now to begin the computer maintenance. Thanks again! More later ~~ <BR><BR><BR><BR>

Before you all start your maintaince work out it may be a good idea to run &quot;scan disc&quot; between disc cleanup and defrag operations.If you have an error on your disc it will shut down your defrag and you'll need to start all over again.Scan disc can be found listed with the others in accessories.

Thanks Charlie. He is right. I forgot about that procedure.

Thank you, Techydude<BR><BR>I followed your instructions exactly as ordered ... and Charlie was right! ... after just a minute of Disk Cleanup, it said &quot;There are errors ... run ScanDisk&quot;. So I did it, which took a very long time! Afterwards, I did a successful Disk Cleanup and the Defrag. <BR><BR>My computer is definitely running faster this morning .. and so far, no freezes with 4 or 5 windows open. WoooHOOO!<BR><BR>I appreciate your help ... thanks VERY much!

Thanks Charlie. And Glad to be of help BL. See another positive reply (nudge nudge) haha.

Your welcome Techy,glad to be a small measure of help.I know how it feels to sit through 3/4's of a defrag only to start over again.

This site has really slipped. Things have become so bad that now, instead of posts about cruising, there are ones about maintaining computers. While its certainly nice to help fellow posters, it just shows how dead this site has become. Let's face it. Registration sanitized this site, but it also killed it. I really miss the old Fodors, even with all its faults.