Messages Getting Deleted -- Again??
 

Several days ago, I posted a message saying that Fordor's did not enforce its own rule against rudeness as noted on the Travel Talk homepage. Mysteriously, this posting has disappeared! Obviously, Fodor's does not like to be criticized, even if it's true!

Fodors has removed a large batch of hateful postings, thankfully. Late, but done. <BR> <BR>They seem, as well to have deleted your posting and one regarding registration. <BR> <BR>Fodors seems slow to remove postings that fan the flames of hate, but quick to remove postings that suggest ways to improve their management of these forums. <BR> <BR>Interesting. Glad they have their sense of priorities.

I agree. But at least they do seem to be monitoring the site and that's what is really needed. Many good travelers have to put up with a lot of hateful comments just to get the information they are seeking.

Where is the Fodor's board located? <BR>I mean in what country, city?

Wondering: NY, NY

How many people are in that group preparing travel info, monitoring chats? <BR>What is their source of income?

Someone deleted numerous good posts this evening. I cannot understand why. But they leave some nasty ones untouched. Who is doing this? I would like to know.

I emailed Fodor's a couple of days ago about what gets deleted adn an email back to me directed me to the home page of these forums and the faqs that link from it. Rudeness, not being about travel, advertising are some of the criteria. So maybe "good" posts weren't about travel. And as someone else said on another thread (that i think was deleted) one person's rudeness is another person s irony. Or was it sarcasm?! <BR> <BR>Caryl

Yes, someone at Fodors has an itchy trigger finger. <BR> <BR>They deleted the post on the US board that was a rational and mature tutorial about the Middle East situation, as some of us truly do not understand the particulars. They also deleted a post that tried to understand the Moslem religion. <BR> <BR>This board is a community, IMHO. Something terrible has happened to the community, and some of us are trying to understand it better. Fodors does us no favors when it deletes threads that are genuine efforts to understand what has happened.

Do they delete entire threads -- perhaps not having capability to delete individual posts? Frankly, there have been some posts that start out fine, then deteriorate as the crazies start responding. It is truly distracting.

I have to agree that I found some of the posts very interesting, even though not directly related to travel, and I do miss them. Where can I go to read similar postings?

I think some of the "good" threads may have been taken down because someone posted an unacceptable (even for Fodor's) post, and a single vile post is all it takes. One bad apple...

Ingrid, I you go to 'clubs.yahoo.com', you can do a keyword search for any topic you'd like to discuss.

As I noted in another thread earlier today, Fodors did last night remove some remarkably offensive words from another thread without removing the thread entirely. So anyone who is reading this and thinks it's possible to sabotage an entire thread with a few ugly words should think again.

Apparently, the offensive posts involved a lament about removing butter knives from the meal service on airplanes, and replacing them with plastic knives. <BR> <BR>I think it's true. When common sense is abandoned, when we are so paranoid about our fellow travelers that we think they could threaten someone with a butter knife, we are letting "THEM" win. <BR>

Topper, clearly you saw the post, as I did. You're also mischaracterizing it and minimizing its remarkably poor taste and offensive sentiments. Had it been posted at an hour when more people could have seen it prior to its deletion, I suspect the poster would be the object now of fairly universal disgust on this board.

when someone wants to threaten (or to act), they don't wait until dinner is served. <BR>

there are some of us regular visitors to this site that are offended by certain posters repeated behaivor. why do i not have the right to put onto this site a simple message that expresses my concerns and disgust. maybe that person will take head and cool it a little. there are a large group of us who feel this way, so why dont you monitors back off a little and let us excersize of freedom of speach.

What do WE think should be deleted? <BR> Me--not very much, I think the process of dealing with being offended etc. can be valuable, and also ignored by those who want to ignore it. <BR> I guess maybe I would delete outright attacks ("you are a _______," etc.). But not much else, certainly not an exchange of information about the Muslim religion or regional politics. <BR> As many people have said, this is a community, so it processes things as a group, and the topic of the world is not unrelated to travel. <BR>

I will agree that after the incident on 9/11, people needed to respond to the incident. Even though this is a travel board, we cannot completely ignore what is going on around us. I don't think that the travel board would have permanently changed to a political discussion board. As we see, people are refocusing on travel in time. <BR> <BR>It is time now to discuss travel issues, although I think Fodor's may have reacted a little too stongly. Some posts, although they were not about travel, were good posts. Some posts were about travel, but they were still removed. For example, there was a posting from an Arab American woman asking a legitimate question about travel in Italy. A few ignorant posters responded, and this thread was removed. This woman had a legitimate question about travel. Why was that removed? <BR> <BR>Fodors, would you care to comment?