Question For Those Refusing To Register
 

Question: Those of you who won't register due to spamming, does that mean you aren't registered on all those other sites: Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Priceline, Amazon, your bankcards, your checking account, etc??? What the heck are you so afraid of? Just delete the stinkin' spam like I do!!!! Take 10 seconds with a decent ISP!<BR>

Did you ever stop to think those who are not registering are the troublemakers, trolls and psychos who get their amusement from slamming and flaming here?

Personally, I would register, but I only use this site between phone calls at work. I am not afraid of spam, it just does not make sense for me to enroll (who knows, I may change my mind later).

Well, AnswerMe, it is even easier to get a free Yahoo! or Hotmail account, use that free email address for registration, and forget about it. There probably are a few people who don't register on the other forums, hence one reason they have been hanging around here thusfar. I suspect it has more to do with laziness or a real desire to be annoying (with constantly changing user names) than with being &quot;afraid&quot; to register.<BR><BR>Andrew<BR>

You people sound like you would have enjoyed living during the McCarthy era or Nazi Germany. I can not fathom why you invite more rules and disclosure of personal information to be placed on you. Political Correctness gone Mad.

That really bothers you, doesn't it Andrew -- 'constantly changing user names'? Do they confuse and confound you, making you waver momentarily from your Priceline mantra?

Personally, I have no desire to register and will stop contributing once it is required. I like my privacy and only give out personal information when I have to. I also don't think registration is going to accomplish what others think it will. I look at lots of sites that already have registration and I still see a lot of insulting posts. Even worse, they are generally dominated by a few posters and are totally uninteresting. Just take a look at Frommers or lonely planet. I believe the same thing will happen to Fodors. A lot of new people won't bother to ask questions or contribute because of the registration process. Its too bad. I really liked the former freewheeling style of this board.

to: AnswerMeThis. No I am not registered on any other sites, no I do not use electronic banking or even ATM's. Yes I am seriously concerned about privacy issues, and these concerns extend beyond the nuisance of spam. <BR><BR>And here' some answers to questions you didn't ask.<BR><BR>No, I do not use this site for trolling, but for providing and receiving travel information. <BR><BR>No I am not confident in the ability of Fodor's to maintain their privacy undertaking to those who register.<BR><BR>And so I won't be.

I've been registered at Frommers site for quite some time, and never received any spam to the eddrress I use for that site. On this site I use &quot;almost&quot; the real eddress of one of my accounts, to foil spam-bots. <BR><BR>What I like about this site is that the most recent discussions are always at the top. Unfortunately the search does not work well when you wish to refer to individual areas. That's what I like about Frommers well organized categories.<BR><BR>Frommers used to allow you to &quot;subscribe&quot; to various categories, and when you visited the site you could easily see new messages only in the forums that interested you .. but they discontinued the feature about a year ago, so I don't visit as often. There is no x in my REAL eddress.

Answered that,<BR><BR>Do you file taxes? Do you own a home? Do you have a driver's license? Do you own a car that is registered?<BR><BR>If you think your personal information is not easily accessable you are crazy. Fodors registration won't make a lick of difference to your personal privacy.<BR><BR>I'm amazed at how paranoid people are and how in the dark they are about what they really ought to be paranoid about!

I registered using this real email address. My isp provides me with the ability to have several email addresses. I set this one up for registering so that if I start to receive too much unwanted mail, I can delete the address without having to change the address I use with friends and family. You can do the same thing with free email addresses as mentioned above. In the registration process I was asked for my screen name, password and email address. There were 2 check boxes for receiving news and offers from Fodors. I did not check them. I then received an email which required a reply to complete the registration process. I assume that is to prevent someone from registering another person who may not want to be registered or to screen out those using phony email addresses. I don't see what the problem is. I'm just hoping that those who post such clever things only loosely related to travel will not be deterred. That is why this board is so entertaining.

First of all, Orbitz, Travelocity and the like aren't forums. Their primary purpose is to sell a product and to build loyalty to the site by offering added content. If you register, you can store your information and retrieve it automatically when you make a new reservation, and allow you to store/change itineraries on line. Some of these sites actually WILL allow a non-registered user to make a purchase -but you'd have to type in all your information with every res and print off your confirmation with no ability to re-access it via the site. Value is added to the service if you do register, though. With Hotwire and Priceline, there are restrictions to how many searches/bids you can make and how soon you can re-search/re-bid, so registration is integral to offering the product/service at all.<BR><BR>I think part of the reason people are confused about Fodor's registration is that it doesn't appear to add any value to the registrant, and therefore some might be suspicious about the change. However, it's certainly the right of the site's owners to impose registration if they choose, for any or no reasons.<BR><BR>RE the spam concern - I think people are assuming that posts made by registered users will display the email address used to register. So far, that's not the case, and the reg form does say that email address will NOT be displayed on line.<BR><BR>Personally, I don't really care. I haven't registered yet, but I will probably get around to it the first time I want to post after Jan 27.

Why are some of you people so worried about those that don't want to register? If you are the kind of people who are registering, I can already see what a boring, officious forum Fodors will soon become.

Yea, J, they're almost as bad as the people like you who are worrying about the people who are worried about the people not registering!!!