I'm hoping the moderators knocked off early on Friday, and will correct this injustice promptly on Monday morning, if not sooner.

I trust the lamb was tasty.

Some people know to stop posting when they no longer travel and have nothing relevant to say. Some don't.

Lamb goes on the altar with wine, silly.

Dayenu:

Now you've done it. Started a global war on Fodors as to what wine varietal to serve with lamb.

elberko: I had just taken a gulp of red wine when I read your post -- dangerous. snort >)

Considering some of the insane posts I have seen in recent dsys, I absolutely cannot believe that Ira beat any of them.

Pal, I agree with you that the Lounge should be closed, but I do not believe for one second that its sad denizens would flock to the other boards to give sage travel advice. They would slither off to Facebook or some other land of triviality to keep nattering and sniping world without end.

In the meantime, ignore the crap you'll get for your post. They are addicts, and they will say anything to defend the ridiculous Lounge.

For god's sake, don't kill a baby sheep.' that won't get you back in .
meanwhile .. what could you have said that was so awful ?

They are addicts, and they will say anything to defend the ridiculous Lounge.>

and that is their right - but I just don't see how it fits in at all with a Travel Site - do TripAdvisor and other sites have places like the Lounge. And if Fodor's has it why is it limited just to a dwindling few and not all?

<do TripAdvisor and other sites have places like the Lounge.>

Yes.

<if Fodor's has it why is it limited just to a dwindling few and not all?>

Excellent question.

PalenQ, On Trip Advisor the branch is called "Off Topic Chatter" and it is WAY crazier than The Lounge ever thought to be.

suze - that is a frightening prospect - wonder if they go tell folks to stand in the corner for a while like our Lounge.
Surprised to see janisj such a big booster of the Lounge! Hope he/she/it don't spend too much time there and not give sage travel advice 24-7 - to illustrate how the Lounge could well hurt contribuations to the travel forums!

If ira was locked out by an automated spam filter, I'm surprised the moderators haven't let him back in yet.

If he was locked out by a human being, I'm surprised he didn't get an email telling him why. (And unless I've missed something, I can't imagine why that would have been merited.)

Very strange.

Hope Ira is traveling. Why do the moderators have to spend a lot of time on the lounge, it's a closed forum, who cares what's posted there?

I haven't posted on the travel forums for quite awhile just because of what elberko said, I have nothing recent to contribute. I'm checking back in now because I will be traveling next year and know pretty much what I want to do but also looking for some ideas.

(One extremely obvious piece of advice that ira, I'm sure, doesn't need: check your spam folder.)

PQ seems to have forgotten why Fodor's started the lounge - to get the chitchat off the Europe board. They were tired of policing so much chat on the various travel boards.

<i> first it drains their time monitoring the often irreverent tones found there but more importantly it has caused valuable Fodorites like Ira who for years gave short and sage European travel advice but after being sucked into the Lounge and its adolescent maturity level at times he rarely gives travel advice anymore</i>

Lurking, I see, in the Lunge, no less.

PQ seems to have forgotten why Fodor's started the lounge - to get the chitchat off the Europe board. They were tired of policing so much chat on the various travel boards.>

Then why is it closed to all but a relatively dwindling few? You can't say it belongs in the Lounge anymore if say someone is notone of the chosen few allowed in. either open it to all or close it down IMO.

Pal, I don't understand your hostility to the lounge. You used to start all sorts of threads there and participated in many others, including some of the most contentious. OK, so you have lost interest in that or something, but not everyone has, and I don't see why you care whether others post there. Just about everybody who posts there would rather see it opened to all, but it is not in the posters' control.

There are many many worthwhile things one can learn there, not the least of which is a lot of insight into human nature in general and the nature of the posters on this message board in particular.

I don't see it draining anybody's energies, sapping anybody's strength. It has encouraged many. It has created communities of people who meet in the real world around shared interests and has given birth to friendships that I value both on this message board and in real life.

I for one would not be better off without it. And I do not believe that nattering and sniping are my activities there, nor trading insults. And that is true of most people as well. Most people do not display adolescent maturity. And we can handle discussions in which some people do.

I agree with Nikki.

Most of us look at the travel forums and help where we can AND spend some time in the lounge. They are not mutually exclusive.