TA getting nasty?

[keylimejet]

I just visited the Paris forum on TA for the first time in a long time. People were trying to share what I thought were reasonable opinions or trying to pass along information, and other posters were responding with insults and name-calling. In just the first two posts I read, I came across these jewels -

"Talk about petty and self-centered"
"Get a life."
"You are TOO STUPID to be allowed out in the world without a minder."

Wow! It's scary over there now. I think I'll just stick with the kinder, gentler world of Our Paris from now on. We have such lovely people here.

[Ellen]

Hi keylimejet, I guess you're refering to the poster who insulted people who 'fell' for the bracelt scam by saying they were just stupid. I was furious and ended up replying and told the poster what I thought and said 'I'd rather be stupid than bad mannered.
I'm furious with myself now, I fell for it ,. Those comments didn't deserve a reply, but I was so angry. I mean people prepare as much as they can for trips away and if they get robbed or scammed while away it certainly doesn't make that person stupid.
I called the poster a 'troll', as that's what some people spend their time doing, just posting insulting comments on forums, then sitting back and seeing what happens.
I wish I could retract my post though as I should have just ignored it. Oh well!
TA is usually 'family friendly' though, except for today, don't let that put you off returning. Though having said that, everyone here is a fantastic bunch.

Here's me from now on...

[Sandy M]

Unbelievable!! It's hard to imagine what is going through someone's head to be able to respond in such a rude and insulting manner! I fail to see how being so cruel can feel good! I seldom visit TA anymore and the few times I have, I have found insulting responses - and I didn't have to look very hard! It always makes me feel bad for the person they are insulting. It really makes me appreciate the friendly, helpful and caring atmosphere of OPF so much more.

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

incidents of this type account for many "TA refugees" here.

[robandshelley]

I check TA just about every day, sometimes several times and have been noticeing a slip in the attitudes also. I know that the same old questions can get old, but isn't that what new people need to ask?

[Penny]

when I was a TA junkie I got really slammed a couple of times.

Some how a simple question I had asked about a prepaid debit card became a slam about how stupid I was about exchange rate. I finally just gave up on that one.

And my post warning parents about some French TV programs.
"How dare you tell me what my kids can watch" although I did get more thank yous than slams.

Most Paris posters are very nice but you can get some really nasty answers on repeated questions.

I for the most part have given up reading TA after seeing deletion after deletion.
I do occasionally go to a hotel review if I'm entering a sweepstakes.

Three TA things- The Paris forum seems to be the most closely watched one by the censors, rarely do you see a "off-topic/unsuitable" deletion on other cities.

The London Posters are great, they do tea and a pub crawls together often, and invite visitors. The Oyster card question may have been asked a million times but it has been answered politely a million times.

Their suggestion for afternoon tea was marvelous

Lastly- If TA did a Power Search with an explanation of criteria and How To they would have far less repeated questions.

[cigalechanta]

The same things happen on fodors where I go but a few posters there who also went to TA dropped our because of that and several came here. Toxic posters not allowed here!

[Shoesy]

I've often wondered if forum meanyheads are meanyheads in real life as well.

[rssilverandlight]

I was very active on TA (2000+ posts) and then had the misfortune
of runn ing into the "TA know it all" with more attitude than can
be believed. Things got so disgusting that I stopped posting
on TA and have been here ever since.
I have met many of the posters in Paris and in San Francisco
and these are the people I respect. Even though I have been
to Paris 6 times, there is always something new to learn
and these people are the ones from which to learn it.

Best Wishes

[denise]

It's not just the rudness of people to newcomers asking innocent questions but the number of obvious and not so obvious trolls.

The recent S&M B&B scam thread has totaly put me off and I now view alot of posters there as fake. Just posting for the fun of a reaction.

I don't like to be so cynical and it has taken all the pleasure out posting for me.

I can't understand why people do this sort of thing.

Denise
Love from England

[Sarastro]

Three TA things- The Paris forum seems to be the most closely watched one by the censors, rarely do you see a "off-topic/unsuitable" deletion on other cities.

I believe that several of their "destination experts" spend more time deciding whether a particular post is acceptable or offensive than they do making actual written contributions of their own. Doesn't TA rely more upon these "do gooders" and "hall monitors" than upon their own in house sensors to obliterate post after post?

[sunshine817]

The Orlando forum gets dozens of off-topic and offensive deletions every day -- there are a few whose sole existence, it would seem, is to bait people into passionate responses, or to ask absolutely ridiculous questions to see how long it takes to get that thread deleted. (e.g., why is cheddar cheese orange in the US?)

There are plenty of rude people there, although not quite as many downright rude and offensive people as are on the Paris forum.

I think that the veil of anonymity that comes with the Internet gives people the right, they think, to say exactly what they are thinking, never realising that there's a flesh-and-blood person on the other end of that message.

There are questions on occasion that make me *want* to post "what the h*** were you THINKING? Are you STUPID?!"

But I try to work under the rule that if I wouldn't say it to someone's face, I won't post it on a board, either.

I now just keep scrolling past the "Hotels in the Marais", "what to wear" and "transport from CDG" threads, as I just don't have time (especially now!) to answer the same question 100 times. I still enjoy answering/dscussing things that do require a little more than a stock answer, especially if the question is worded in such a way that this person has put some thought and effort into finding an answer, and isn't just asking someone to be a no-fee travel agent.

I DO wish that TA would make the search box and the Insider Pages easier to find -- along with a short tutorial on how to find things...it would make the forums work much better, although the cynical part of me wonders if they resist doing those things simply because it, by definition, boosts the traffic on the forums.

[suzanne]

Who is that person who called the poster stupid? He/she has been there forever and has a history of rudeness. I tried looking at the profile but there is nothing there. I tried to look at the apartment scam posts because a friend had a similar experience with an apartment she rented in New Zealand. Turned out to be the same guy. She googled the address and caught him before any money was lost.

By the way, Sarastro, thanks for the Raclette recomendations.

[Penny]

I'm sure most of us (well probably all of us) know that TA is part of one of the largest on-line booking companies.

I posted a very positive review for the hotel I stayed in in London. TA reviewers had been trashing it partly because it did not have the amenities listed on 'that' booking site and it really was perfect hotel for my needs/wants.

Well, duh, if you look at the amenities for the majority of the hotels in Paris at the online booking sites they all read the same regarding amenities. And excuse me, how would someone who has never been to Paris know that very, very few hotels have pools?

Which is why when I finally culled my decision down to about 10 I went to the hotel websites and emailed with questions regarding certain amenities.

I booked through the hotel website at very good prices and was very happy with both my choices.

So never relie (sic) on one source. I researched ratings and reviews from about 4 places primarily looking for specific things.

Which is why I would never post anywhere "if you had done your research" if someone hated their choice.

What most people think of when they think of Paris is the Eiffel Tower, Arc, Louvre, the things they have heard about, so they have questions. Where do I buy tickets, what should I see, is it safe, etc. they don't want to get there and appear totally ignorant and lose valuable time wandering.

;D although there are some places/things I would never comment on except here as we have to have our secret places.

Gitte- I would have to stay a year to check out all the passages.
and I would have to win the lottery big time to eat at all the restaurants mentioned

However if I see one more picture of creme brulee my monitor and keyboard will short circuit from the drool (sorry to be so graphic )

[Sandy M]

I agree about the post on TA making the search box and Insider Pages easier to find. When I first started on TA, I was also pretty green on the computer so a lot of the search options were really foreign to me. I had asked what I thought was a pretty basic question without knowing that several million people had also asked the same thing - believe me, I was chastised pretty badly and didn't go near the site again for a long time. I seldom even check the site anymore as it is disheartening to find so many rude people. As others have said, if you can't stand yet another person asking how to get to Paris from CDG, just skip over it and don't even bother making the rude comments.

[Anne]

Aug 27, 2008 13:26:15 GMT -5 Penny said:

I'm sure most of us (well probably all of us) know that TA is part of one of the largest on-line booking companies.

Well, I had absolutely no idea Penny ... Which company is it ?

I was for a few months a regular contributor of the Paris forum and then I left and wowed never to post back there anymore, I explained in my last post/thread how fed up I was to see so many posts or threads deletions . My thread surprisingly survived several hours before being deleted too ;D ...
And I agree with you that the other destinations' TA forums that I visit/have visited in the past years are faaar less censorial than the Paris one . Does Sarastro mean that the "Destination experts" are actually able to delete posts by themselves

What has been bothering me for a while is that, since TA created a French website, they desperately try to direct as much traffic as possible to this site (same must be true for the German, Spanish, etc ... sites) . So very often when visiting TA I get a window saying that since I am located in France, do I want to visit their site written in French ? And although I ALWAYS click on "NO", I often directed to this one . And I can type the ".com" address again and again, I get automatically redirected to the ".fr" one . And I WANT to stay on the .com, there is far more info there, especially for example for the London forum, where I want to read the answers/advices of Londoners, not of French tourists !

[Penny]

anne Expedia

go to TA click on the About Trip Advisor on right.

Read the last three lines of paragraph.

[Sarastro]

Does Sarastro mean that the "Destination experts" are actually able to delete posts by themselves

It is my understanding that posts are not deleted simply at TA's discretion but rather posts are deleted in response to a "complaint" by a third party.

TA makes it very easy to complain about posts someone may not like or agree with. There is a report inappropriate post link at the bottom of each entry. It is my opinion that the France forum contains a number of "self righteous" regular readers who are all too eager to report that which they do not like.

This perhaps explains why contributors in various forums appear to have their comments judged differently than those in the French forums.

Recently, I read a "destination expert" (or perhaps is was just a frequent poster) who had written a comment that he/she was unable to qualify certain elements of his/here complaint when reporting an inappropriate post. Another expert responded that she was still able to detail her recent complain. It was after reading this exchange that I made my earlier comments here as a quick observation of perhaps why so many posts are deleted.

____________


The company that owns TA ( Expedia, Inc) also owns Virtual Tourist, Seat Guru, and numerous other websites. One could logically conclude that their primary interest is the revenue generated by advertisements on their websites and not in offering a free public forum as a goodwill gesture to the traveling public.

[Happygoin]

How very cynical of you, Sarastro

[Penny]

saratro- I did not even think to do that to the meanyheads who replied on my prepaid debit card question.

I posted very few questions on the Paris forum before my trip last year.

My question regarding the top of Arc was probably the only one I got polite and informative answers to, and comments from other on thanking me for posting the question.