A gentle reminder from Fodors.com
 

Hello All --<BR><BR>We’ve had a wild week on the Cruises forum, so I thought I’d post this gentle reminder from all of us at Fodors.com:<BR><BR>The topic of the forum is cruise travel. We ask you to keep the focus on cruise travel: tips, advice, trip reports, et cetera; to keep the discussion civil at all times; and to avoid profanity. Disagreement is fine -- we welcome a diversity of opinions -- but rudeness is not. (This includes calling someone an idiot, either in lowercase letters or all caps.) The site monitors have been instructed to delete all posts and threads that are not about cruise travel or whose tone is not civil. <BR><BR>Additionally, we do not allow plagiarism, which includes the cutting and pasting of material from other copyrighted or uncopyrighted sources. (But it’s fine to give the URL of a New York Times story related to cruise travel, for instance.) And we do not allow commercial promotion. This includes plugs by travel agents or their friends/proxies posting e-mail or Web-site addresses. We welcome the contributions of all travelers, regardless of their profession, but this forum is for traveler-to-traveler advice, not commercial promotion.<BR><BR>A brief note about how we monitor this site: We can in some cases "clean up" a thread by deleting a couple of inappropriate posts, but the process simply becomes too time-consuming when a thread has turned into a flame war or is riddled with profanity. We sometimes have to cut our losses and hope the topic will resurface. Our apologies to Fodorites whose legitimate posts or threads get lost in this shuffle.<BR><BR>I hope this clarifies our general approach. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]. As always, our thanks (to most of you!) for making this a great resource for travelers planning a cruise vacation. <BR><BR>Yours truly,<BR><BR><BR>Danny Mangin<BR>Editorial Director<BR>Fodors.com<BR>

Thanks Danny, for a well thought out message. Hopefully my fellow fodorites will abide by the guidelines and stick to the subject.

Danny - worth posting on the other forums.

Thanks to Fodors for cleaning up this board I come here to read about crusing and personal attacks. Please keep up the good work.

Danny,<BR><BR>Yes, we know the postings should be about cruising, travel, trip reports, etc. I have used this site many, many times for travel tips and information from other travelers has been most beneficial.<BR><BR>I hate to admit it, but I have enjoyed some of the "other" posts as well!!<BR><BR>Fodor's rules! Keep up the great work.

Why is it something as good as this message board attracts fools? It's as if they can't abide by simple pleasures like friendliness and politeness. <BR><BR>Thanks, Danny. I hope folks will listen.

Danny why don't you listen to your patrons? You wouldn't have to be going through all this if you would set up a valid registration system.<BR><BR>You have now seen what happens when people like cruzinboy (profanity +) are allowed to come to a board and not be registered.<BR><BR>Stop being so naive! You are dealing with a global system. Use today's technolgy and you won't have to cut and delete.

Thank God, a sensible message from Fodors regarding the Cruise forum. I trust that the editors can and will delete any profanity or other degrading messages. I used to enjoy this forum but have deliberatly avoided it lately. The post from Danny Mangin hopefully will return this forum to it's proper level. Thanks Danny

Thanks Danny for this reminder because some of the post on this board were downright rude and annoying. I hope all will take note and I hope the ones that it applies to read it!

Let me try this again - didn't last long the first time. This board does need cleaning up - a few have gone way over the line and I am glad Danny is doing something about it.

This is all a waste of breath. Once it has started it it will continue until different methods are used to stop the profanity etc..... Deleting is NOT the answer!

Now you're techydude? What happened to Berryberry and Chuck? <BR><BR>Start your own board so you can talk to yourself. Everyone here is sick of your act pal.

BerryChuckTechy - why continue to infest places where you are not wanted?

The funniest thing in his post is the word "humble." The loser is banished from every forum he goes on, and he claims the forums are the problem! His ego is so big he can't even consider that he is the problem.<BR><BR>Thanks CC and Fodors for dealing with this egotist exactly as you have

Excuse me guys. Do not confuse me with these other people. I have been posting on this board from time to time for over a year. As my name implies I am a proponent of using today's technology to solve cumbersome task jobs.<BR><BR>I am glad that Fodor's has taken the initiative to eliminate some of the not so friendly posts. I just feel they are making more work for themselves than is necessary.<BR><BR>Until they do none of this hostile/infantile commentary will stop. There are just more idiots than Fodor's can manually combat.

Techy - The problems on this board have been caused by one person. I hardly think that justifies radical change.<BR><BR>Given your apparent experience you must also know how easy it is to circumvent registration and IP processes. The problem individual is doing this now on another board, where he started the problems several weeks ago.<BR><BR>Fodors is doing the right thing, IMHO.

Roger. It seems to me that there is more than one person causing problems. Or are we dealing with a massive schizophrenic(a joke)? Do you really think there is really only one person?<BR><BR>I don't think using registration systems is a radical change. Even common boards are using them.

Techy the problems here since last weekend have been one person.<BR><BR>I have no objection to a registration process. I just wanted to note that the only problem it will solve is impersonation. My experience is that the problem personalities create dozens of registered names and continue their activities. The moderators end up with exactly the same problems as before registration.<BR><BR>Human behavior never ceases to amaze me, especially on the Internet.

Roger, I really doubt that the problems here have been all by one person. Over the weekend, I recall seeing chuck, cruizenboy, a host of people that beribery said were impersonating him, this berri guy himself and some of his friends among others.<BR><BR>Not saying all of those were troublemakers - but there is no way those posts were all made by one person. Looking at when the messages were posted - it was impossible for one person to do them all. Which leads me to believe folks when they say some people here do impersonate others - which is a bad thing and should be stopped

Your lithium is running low Berry. I do not agree with the approach that Fodors is taking by deleting posts but the majority of the time especially the nasty stuff one person put out was necessary.<BR><BR>My only disagreement with Fodors is that they are doing it the hard way.

Fodors, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

"My only disagreement with Fodors is that they are doing it the hard way"<BR><BR>Agreed. 100%. Now, Techydude, if Fodors initiated a registration process, remember you would be obliged to provide a LEGITIMATE email address,<BR><BR>Will you exit your anonymous state if that were to occur? <BR>

Yes, Fodors, thank you very much. Berryberry, please don't cause anymore trouble here.

Actually Charles I wouldn't have to. Registration is for Fodor's eyes only. They would then in turn e mail an automatic response with a password back to my account that would allow only myself to access their forums under my moniker. Thus preventing other people from using my name falsely, and Fodor's to track and or eliminate my usage on their web site. Simple,discreet, and to the point. Everyon'es happy. No spam to me and no nasty stuff to all of you.

Your egotistical spammer, Berry Berry, having been banned on the www.cruisecritic.com website and on the cruise message boards on the fodor's web site, am pleading for attention.<BR><BR>The common sense monitors, Host Walt on Cruise Critic and Danny Mangin on Fodor's, have decided that they want civility, not a bully making personal attacks and never talking about travel.<BR><BR>Let both of them know that you find my personal attacks and bully pulpit posts suppression of legitimate commentary and how humorous your find my juvenile assertion that banning me is the first step to totalitarianism. Insist they continue their correct actions.<BR><BR>Host Walt can be contacted at [email protected] and Danny Mangin can be contacted at [email protected]<BR><BR>Do it now.<BR>

"Actually Charles I wouldn't have to. Registration is for Fodor's eyes only."<BR><BR>This is contradictory. What I said stands. You would need to provide your email address to participate on this board. I never said you had to provide it to me. However, clearly, you would need to provide it to Fodors.<BR><BR>Again my question. Would the 80-98% of the phony name/emails on this forum be willing to tell Fodors who they really are?<BR><BR>I don't know myself, but perhaps being anonymous, you might have a better idea.

Get real charles. You make it sound like traffic to this forum would come to a grinding halt if registration was commenced. That is bologna. The childish posts would be reduced and useful information would be exchanged.<BR><BR>Certainly some people who frequent this board for fun and anonymous antics would leave, but many more people will start posting (people who have never done so - or those who used to but quit due to the antics over here).

"Get real charles. You make it sound like traffic to this forum would come to a grinding halt if registration was commenced. That is bologna. The childish posts would be reduced and useful information would be exchanged."<BR><BR>Kerrie, I must not have made myself clear. I agree with you 100%. I'm challenging Techy who clearly is unwilling to provide a legit. email.<BR><BR>Registration is the ONLY way to go...but Fodor's won't do it. Wish someone could explain why not?<BR><BR>

Charles all people will do is create anonymous e-mail addresses and a bunch of registered names. It won't stop the idiots for a second.

Charles the use of real e mail addy's on an open forum is not smart. You may find this out when people start spamming your email addy.<BR><BR>As I stated there is no need for posting your real addy. The only people that would need to know it in a registration system would be the one's monitoring the site. Fodors. <BR><BR>And yes it would slow down but not halt all "Bad" emails. But at least that's a start in the right direction.

"Charles all people will do is create anonymous e-mail addresses and a bunch of registered names. It won't stop the idiots for a second."<BR><BR>Not true. If Fodors does a real registration, you apply for membership and create your Fodor's Forum name. You send it with your email address. Fodor's sends you an email with a temporary password to access the forum.<BR><BR>If you have a phony email, you'll never be permitted to post because you won't get a password to access the forum. <BR>

"Charles the use of real e mail addy's on an open forum is not smart. You may find this out when people start spamming your email addy."<BR><BR>I've used my real email address in several forums for years. Never got any significant amount of spam. Even if I did, that's why there's a delete button.<BR><BR>

Wow. We had no idea over on the Europe forum that you guys exist, nor that you fight it out like this, requiring papa Danny to send you to your rooms!<BR>

Give em Hell Techy. When will Charles learn. I can be a boorish fool here just like I am in real life

I think what Charles meant was if you send a real email address to Fodors, it wouldn't be revealed to the boards so the threat of spam is eliminated. Fodors would send a password to your real email address and you would use that to sign in to Fodors with your choice of a userid. Then, presumably, if you are deemed to be unwanted by Fodors because of your postings, they would cancel your id privileges so that the next time you tried to log on, you couldn't authenticate.<BR><BR>The problem with this approach is that you simply change your email address (easy enough on yahoo or hotmail or aol, etc) and re-register.<BR>

I must try to make sense out of this Godawful mess. I am BerryBerry and have been posting as such for a while. My only interest has been to share my experiences with fellow travellers, not to make trouble.<BR><BR>Someone stole my name and stirred up a heap of trouble over at CruiseCritic.com without my knowledge, then came here after he/she was banned and started making trouble on this forum.<BR><BR>At least on CruiseCritic I was able to deal with the problem because I am now back on with a new name and password. No one can impersonate someone very long on their boards. (Incidentally, Host Walt was a true gentleman in helping me to straighten that mess out.)<BR><BR>Over here at Fodor's, however, there is no protection at all from imposters. It's their loss because they'll lose legitimate travel enthusiasts to the other boards and be left with imposters like mine.<BR><BR>The only ray of sunshine is that the imposter who pretended to be me was not mean spirited to anyone nor did he/she put anyone down or use profanity. For that I am grateful.<BR><BR>Farewell, Fodors. May you some day become enlightened.<BR><BR>Farewell Forum participants. I'll miss you. Perhaps we'll meet again in another forum someday.

A search on BerryBerry or even on Berry retrieves no old posts.<BR>

"A search on BerryBerry or even on Berry retrieves no old posts."<BR><BR>True. But it doesn't even yield the current posts either. <BR><BR>I have been following the Australia forum and have seen some very good posts by BerryBerry about both Australia and New Zealand. Tried to find BerryBerry in a search and nothing. Nada. Zilch.<BR><BR>The posts are still there so something must be screwed up with the Fodor's search engine...or, more likely, I'm doing something wrong.<BR>

Fodors will never learn until their publishing comapny stomps on some toes up there. Danny!

Welcome back BerryBerry