Ok.... Since this comes up over and over again, maybe we should try to talk about what constitutes "commercial promotion". For one, I'd suggest that if you post you own web site, that's commercial promotion. But if you just mention a hotel or location by name, that's not. It's gotten to the point that if you post anything about Hawaii you get bashed. I'm beginning to think that all this Hawaii bashing is a Florida travel agent conspiracy!

You're right, it's me again, faking you all out with Hawaii posts so you'll be so turned off that you'll contact me for a wonderful Caribbean vacation instead! Gee, what gave it away? At any rate, those Hawaiians will just take your money and run, you'll get a much better value for your dollar on a Third World Caribbean island! Don't worry about the natives holding those machetes, they're just there for tourist photo opps. E-mail me and let me see what I can do for you! Jamaicawakawoo!

This is all just the work of one or two disturbed minds. Ignore them and they'll get bored when they finally figure out no one cares. People like that have very short attentions spans.

This, too, will pass.

Mys attentions spans is justs as goods as anys travels agents.

This is: www.noach.com

To the Real Noach-Knock it off you idiot! Noach has apologized to the forum and has explained his personal situation which is/was sad indeed! While Noach still has his opinions he has toned down his posts considerably and is making an effort! Which is more than I can say for you! Lighten up on Noach will you! It is not funny to make fun of someone who has had a hard time in life!

He/she is still out there harassing Hawaii posters! Does anyone else want to weigh in on what's commercial promotion? Hawaii gets a lot of posts because it is the fourth-largest US tourist destination, behind Las Vegas, Florida and California. (I don't know where New Orleans falls.) If you look at the posts here, it's about the same. I agree that the Noach bashing could stop too. He's been acting much more responsibly.

I think commercial promotion is listing a website or an establishment in which one probably has a vested interest. Trouble is, how can the reader know whether there's a vested interest?

When I see a group of websites that all do about the same thing, I'm more inclined to think it's a "real" post, although on occasion, I've discovered that they are all gateways to essentially the same place. When someone says, "we stayed at X and had a great time," I'm skeptical unless they give details specific to their own stay and maybe include some less than positive comments. But PR people have become masters of "objective" information that is really puffery.

Repeated posts about the same estab. over and over again are suspicious.