Sometimes a thread moves off the original question TC as this one has. One things leads to another.

As for being available 24/7, some people do indeed feel it is necessary, business people for example as I noted above. You have to decide what is a valid reason, what will it cost you and are you willing to pay that cost.

However, the 'average tourist' as I said above, does not need 24/7 access. Turning their device on once every day or two in a free wi-fi enabled hotspot is good enough to check e-mail and make a Skype call to someone.

sparkchaser's amazon link looks like a good solution. It looks like I could use it for my iPad2 and my iPhone5.

I think Fodors needs to open up the Lounge to new members again...

Hell NO!

>>I think Fodors needs to open up the Lounge to new members again...<<

Oh = puleeze NO! We need one place of refuge >)

Clearly, Fodors closed their lounge following the Lonely Planet debacle. Surely you all realize that.

They will not be opening it to new members and in fact will be hoping it dies a death as quickly as possible through attrition and eventual lack of boredom. That they even kept it open for old members is a risk.

Thanks for the FYI Imp. Truly, we had NO idea ;)

nov_moon: Don't feed him.

Don't know know how many more lectures/rants he's allowed before the powers that be get tired of it . . .

I look forward to the "eventual lack of boredom"!

Typo Tabernash. I would imagine it is already pretty boring. Two women exchaning chicken dumpling recipes.

<i>Clearly, Fodors closed their lounge following the Lonely Planet debacle. Surely you all realize that.</i>

What was the LP debacle? I'm still pissed off that they disabled private messaging.

Are you truly not aware sparkchaser?

Just Google 'Thorntree shut down' and you will get hits. Read several to try and glean a better understanding. While you can read the party line the BBC gave out, it seems someone did more than just 'report there was porn related threads and inappropriate language'.

My belief is they were sued by an individual who was smart enough to know you can in fact sue for defamation on an online site. Both the person doing the defaming and the site are liable. Anonymity online is an illusion.

LP had to make changes and other travel forums followed suit.

I took a LP Thorn tree hiatus for a while and while I was gone all of that went down. I came back just as they nerfed the forum and right before they deleted the PMs.