No it doesn't matter really... I originally raised it as an aside in one of my earlier (on topic) posts and then only replied when firstly Luci said that the reason mods wait is so that the news is offical... even though their source is Travelmole and mine is the Company themselves in an RNS.
and then when SMA posts about linking to RNS rather than TCG and it not being regulatory..

Sorry, if it's drifted a bit off topic but my point is that the site has become less busy because in a lot of posts people seem to post facts or questions and then nothing much happens... there's no discussion, noone seems to have opinions or be prepared to express them and in some cases the way it's moderated doesn't help.
As an example - the recent news on the Thomascook group (posted by both myself and then a mod) generated NO discussion whatsoever ?? Surely people are bothered about what happens here?
Whereas in general discussions - bags, makeup, hats, packing etc get loads of interest - has HT become a place for a smallish number of regulars to hang out.... where is the 'new blood'.. are the discussions interesting and varied enough to attract and retain new members?

I don't know the truth but I have an opinion

Hello. I posted a thread just last week asking for information on here. It was the first Ive posted in quite a while, and Im a member since 2004 (and the EZboards before then under a different username).

I do browse here a lot - and used to post a lot more than I do - and was trying to think of the reason why.

Couldnt give you a 100% accurate answer, but I tend to veer towards Sanji's post (she will laugh at that I know! )

What I mean is - years ago when I posted in the various destination forums I would have logged on, saw a question I could answer and helped as best I could, but for some reason "then", the threads seemed sort of "friendlier" in content, they might have had a wee bit of banter in them, while generally keeping to the subject at hand - now I find that they are a tad "sterile" (sorry thats not a criticism at the mods, just an observation) :whoops. In some ways I can understand it as it keeps things on track, but because it doesnt "move" so quickly I find it's starting to be "neither fish nor fowl" - in other words, kept a little sterile but not busy enough then to attract those that would go the Trip Advisor route merely looking for facts and information "only" (lol it makes sense to ME anyway!)

But really I think the reason I personally dont post as much is a more practical one - because I use private apartments and book my own flights now where I would have used packages in the past, I am not able to post reviews (understandably as the standards would vary so much on a private complex) , so I tend to google a lot for information.

Also - due to the recession people maybe arent going as much to Spain/Majorca/the less far flung destinations the way they would have in the past, those forums were always SO busy. Or maybe the public have become so familiar and "matter of course" with these popular places that folk just dont NEED the same help they did in the past - and with practically everyone using the internet these days maybe they just google the information they would have come to a dedicated holiday site in the past?

The more "exotic" forums just dont seem as busy- for example the last two years I tended to look for reviews in Trip Advisor for feedback as there was maybe only one post here on the hotel I was going to

It definately seems a lot "slower" than some time back but its still a fantastic forum, and when I do post a query its literally only a few hours before feedback comes in. I wish I could be more help with this issue, and would empathise with Sanji's last contribution on the reasons for less posting, particularly the piece clipped from her post

SANJI POSTED:-
Whilst I agree that the primary function of this site is for the exchange of holiday related information, IMO the pendulum has swung too far and it's now become a very clean cut ‘sterile' environment, and I think the word I was searching for in my previous post was ‘interaction', there is no longer any interaction, it's kindda become robotic in nature.

Someone asks a question, someone answers the question, the OP (if you're lucky) says thanks, and that's it, end of.!"¦Move along now folks and the process repeats itself over and over again with no conversation developing, no community building

Its definatly more difficult to post/obtain info if you go to a kind of non-package tour place. I have just realised that where I came back from was actually on the Spain - Mainland/others forum, not the Costa Blanca as I had thought as it was the Costa Calida. When it is an area that is not popular with mainstream TO's HT doesn't have much information. I have managed to update a few threads, a day trip to Murcia, one about eating out on the Mar de menor strip and one on Alicante car hire. All the threads probably hadn't been posted on for at least two years, so even if I had have found them (I know that was my fault for not fully understanding where I was going :oops:) the info would have been way out of date.

I read some old info today and there had been regulars on that area but they have faded away. The specific forum is probably too quiet to hold their interest long term.

If you don't go to standard places it's hard to join in the general chat and unless you are like Sanji or one of the other regulars say in the Cyprus forum who has extensive and thorough information & knowledge about a specific region, regardless of the accommodation stayed in, you can't help others out either.

Doe

Hi Doe, hope you had a good holiday.

Its definatly more difficult to post/obtain info if you go to a kind of non-package tour place.

I think differently to you because I think that is exactly the information this site needs.
I appreciate when staying in a private apartment, you can't give a review, but there is so much information that you can give in a thread on the board.
For example, when I was talking about self-catering in Torremolinos, I wasn't trying to convince anybody that they should do this, the object of the post was to say that IF you want to do it, it can be done and I posted some prices of food.
It's the little things which you may regard as being boring to others, may in fact be extremely useful if they are considering going to the same area and are in a private apartment/villa, and will be doing some self catering.

It's like me saying "I went to Benalmádena pueblo""¦fine I went to Benalmádena pueblo what's the big deal.? But there may be posters who fancy a day out in the pueblo, and people may wonder if the trip is worth the effort, so posting what I did/eat/see and how I got there, can be either appealing to some or others may think "It's not for me, so I'm not going to waste my time", and IMO this information is far more beneficial than any site with a vested interest, hyping it up.
I can't put this information in the reviews because they are set for specific information for those wanting reviews of a hotel or the resort, and they won't want to wade through information about a pueblo nestled up in the mountains from the coastal resort of Benalmádena and me waffling on.

If you don't go to standard places it's hard to join in the general chat

No it's not, it's your opportunity to tell us all about the area and what you did, which may generate the interest and the conversation that IMO this site is sadly lacking, so c'mon, get typing.
Sanji

LOL Sanji
You are right it is the information the site needs.

I think I just felt silly chatting away on threads that hadn't had posts on them for about three years. A bit like talking to myself, probably why I ended up on this thread, musing away as at least it is an active thread. We didn't do much but I did want to mention the few things we did do in case it helped someone.

But it's like Tweetie very eloquently said earlier in the thread if you have been away and had a nice time like we did (or even going away and want a bit of a build up) you kind of want to burbble away about it to someone, or maybe that's just me? I think that is why we get a lot of 'what type of sarong should I take' etc threads. I have no problems with them and like to see the forum active, sometimes I can even join in.

Also or course we do get many, many guest visitors on HT who never actually sign up, so maybe we are doing some good anyway in passing on information. Here's hoping so.

Doe

Our last couple of holidays have been cruises and with all due respect to the posters here, I find I get a lot more information on sites such as cruisecritic. I don't know how we could redress this particular problem without losing sight of the fact that HT is for all types of holidays and not just the one.

I do browse through but unlike in the past when it used to be several times a day often I simply can't be bothered because I know nothing has changed.

LOL well Im wondering now why I typed my post above, however it sort of proves my point, in regard to the movement and interaction on the site even if it did bore the trunks off everyone

That said - it was a genuine attempt to analyse why the decline in postings on here.

Ah well the thought was there - think I will restrain myself in future though!

Well Ive been a member fo a few years and have always been on here to nosey and before I go away,but this year Ive not been on as much as I had left my holiday booking late and plus now aint going till october9th due to not having a job and redundancy..so more or less Il post before then alot more, I am on trip advisor quite a lot ,and also a trip advisor destination expert so you will catch me on there, but I do love HT and some of the banter and it is nice to read stuff..

tootsie wrote:

LOL well Im wondering now why I typed my post above, however it sort of proves my point, in regard to the movement and interaction on the site even if it did bore the trunks off everyone

That said - it was a genuine attempt to analyse why the decline in postings on here.

Ah well the thought was there - think I will restrain myself in future though! :wave:

LOL It didn't bore everyone. I read it all and agreed with it as well, jsut didn't post that I did !

Your eloquence obvioulsy stunned us all in to silence Or we felt you had covered all the points for us.

Doe

Well I had a reason to go over to TA the other day (helping a friend with a query) It is more popular over there I agree but a lot of that is because, I think, they can advertise more on various sites and they do, remember, have a vested interest in bookings. But it's a free internet world and I think you should go wherever you want to get the best information for yourselves

I haven't posted on here for a while, although i do still browse a couple of times a week. I think it's a great forum, but i have been disappointed a few times when I've posted and either haven't received any replies or just one or two.
That's fine when it's just a general post that perhaps does not require an answer - but when you ask for specific information about somewhere or something and get little or no feed back than it can be a bit off putting.

LOL It didn't bore everyone. I read it all and agreed with it as well, jsut didn't post that I did !

Your eloquence obvioulsy stunned us all in to silence Or we felt you had covered all the points for us.

Doe

lol thanks Doe!

I read it back the other day and couldnt believe the diatribe I had written

Saying that though, I do notice that I used to come on here and there was so much to catch up with, these days, for instance I was looking at the Tenerife and Crete forums, and they dont seem to have "moved" much at all. When I see a query, if I can help I will, but these days I just dont seem to see much I can help with (if that makes sense)

I don't post as much because it's too hard to answer the questions these days! People know much more about holiday resorts (especially the ones I have been to) through internet or experience, and many of the questions relate to specific bars/ people/ events that I can't answer. Or else someone beats me to it and posts the answer I would have given! I have only seen a very few posts go unanswered, and there are a lot more members nowadays.

Still log on every day though for a read, and waiting to find out how van is getting on with his improvements,

kate

I notice back in the thread mention of merged threads.

Playing devils advocate could this be a small issue? - I do understand why its done, theres nothing worse than six threads all asking the same things, but for me, if I see a thread with posts from years ago it "puts me off" a little - would there be any advantage to maybe just merging threads that repeat a lot?

Sorry if that sounds daft, but I do remember thinking a few times that my posts had disappeared when they were merged somewhere else - could that prove confusing to newer members?

Just a thought

re merged threads
i would like to think that anyone who managed to find us did actually look around the site a bit before asking questions.
this may not be too true of anyone making their first post in the complaints section, but i certainly think this is the case on the other boards. however, when i use TA it seems everyone there just starts a new thread regardless that there are 3 mentions of their subject directly below their post, so i might be wrong on that.
when faced with a thread of 100 pages on a subject like "bars in tenerife" or something similar i can fully understand them not reading all the pages before posing a question.
maybe it would be possible to let the new thread stand for a little while in its own right before moving it to the "master thread".
this would make it easier for the initial poster to find, and may encourage a regular poster to respond to a short(ish) thread.
i also think it is a bit more welcoming for a new poster to see a reply to their question in its own right rather than a note that their post has been moved into a huge thread as this looks like they are being told off for not putting their question in the correct place.
going a bit further on this, not every question on a subject needs to be in 1 merged thread, but a few Sticky threads for subjects that come up repeatedly could be used to dump posts eg one thread for transfers, one for weather, one for car hire etc. i am sure the Mods/regulars on each forum would be able to highlight the most appropriate ones.
obviously we do not want the front page of each forum to be full of Sticky threads, nor of one post threads, but there must be a happy medium to which we could aspire.

I do agree with you Jim.

Its important to remember that we are very familiar with the site, being here for years, but as you say, a newbie coming on may not even think of looking around, and maybe just posts a question or whatever.

Not everyone is au fait with technology and internet forums, and it might be a tad offputting no matter how polite the note is that the post was moved.

Im not saying where, but I did notice the other day a completely new person putting on a post and I have to be honest the response in a few cases from regular members was maybe a bit condescending - obviously without meaning to be. Perhaps we have all got so familiar with this place that we think everyone else should "know" what they should and shouldnt be posting and where.........I know if I had got that response I dont think I would have felt terribly comfortable posting again.

i would like to think that anyone who managed to find us did actually look around the site a bit before asking questions.

I would be happy if people just read the page. I have seen cases where someone has posted a query above the exact same question. Merging of threads makes sense. When it is done the Mods always post saying and even leave a ghost thread telling people.

I accept that at times the response to a post may not always seem as welcoming as it might be but then the wording of the question does not always make clear what the question is.
In complaints we often get what can only be described as a rant about a TO or destination. Is it a question? Is it a rant? You tell me. It is not that we are not willing to help but our response only reflects our confusion. It is also worth noting that even when we do try to post to help the OP often does not even come back. If you want proof then see my post here. http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=125156 - Is it any wonder we are not as welcoming at times?

fwh

fwh - I have posted myself on here about people not coming back and either updating or even acknowledging when someone gives them information or advice - its a personal bugbear of mine to be honest - its good manners apart from anything .

However - you mention the complaints forum. What I meant in my last post about folk joining here and not "knowing" what we are about - for instance they maybe think that the "complaints forum" is for a bit of a rant or getting something off their chests - and yes you are right in some cases they perhaps either just want to vent or to have folk agree with them!. Maybe thats their problem for not reading the terms and conditions when they join or the thread titles properly, but not everyone is experienced on the internet, for some it takes a bit of courage to join in and post somewhere.

"We" know that the complaints forum is a serious section where advice is sought - I used to post a lot there myself just to give a bit of empathy with someones predicament even if I couldnt give anything concrete, and sometimes thats just what someone really wants - I dont see the harm in that. If I think they are "wrong" I would usually add it in as tactful a way as possible. A first post on here is often a complaint, someone maybe had a bad experience, wanted to outline it somewhere, and this brilliant forum popped into their google - they maybe just want to inform others and didnt know the "protocol" on here or whatever.

Hope none of this offends, its me playing devils advocate, as everyone on here who gives advice does so of their own volition and to help others, so I feel slightly uncomfortable posting this. What I completely agree with you on though is that good manners costs nothing, and folk should come back to post again when they have received someones time and trouble!

Hi

Any plans to get a sight on facebook at all?