Weekly Gems from the TBB Comments section Sept 14 – 21, 2013

We take a stroll through the TBB comments of the past week and pick some favorites, enjoy!

Obviously, if you have been following all the great fun we have at the comments feel free to skip the post.

I added my own comments in [brackets] for additional clarification and bold font for emphasis.

First, a few pics that never made it in the past week:

 

 

 

Weekly Gems from the TBB Comments September 7 – 14, 2013

 

Exchanges between Ingy (Rick from Frugal Travel Guy the blog) and moi TBB. Ingy’s comments are preceded by >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[blah blah blah Same old arguments by Ingy this day!!!]

I have responded numerous times abt the same crap you raise every time. Obviously, it does not get through! We disagree on so many levels. C’est la vie. Thank you as always for taking the time to read/troll/comment/spendsomuchtime in my little blog! I appreciate you contributing to the TBB Mission: to entertain (especially this!), to educate (“it is all marketing”, etc.) and to inspire me to keep going. Thank you.

>>>>>>….saving George is important. Imagine George: Go to your happy place George. Go just one day without trashing others. Try it George. Just be happy

WTF! smh

>>>>>>>>>>>As a member of this community for years I have seen the snarkiness and open hostility increase year after year.

I think this is DIRECTLY proportional to the increase in marketing crap that has been bombing this community year after year. I see it as something completely understandable. It is what it is. I think you are doing MORE to increase this phenomenon with your nonsense you unleash trolling my blog than me “openly fostering hostility” (what? Really?)!!! Just my observation.

 

>>>>>>>>I was brought up with the philosophy if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

I was brought up with the philosophy to do the right thing every time and credibility is indeed the most important asset. I will let others judge who is nice or not.

TBB has used more positive reinforcement in 10 months than what you and FTG (the blog) have offered COMBINED. Puuuuulease!

>>>>>> I have absolutely no issue with FTG being listed as deleting comments. It is acceptable blogging practice to delete negativity and personal attacks.

If FTG (the blog) only deleted negative (really?) and personal attacks we can understand and excuse it. I still remember how FAST Gary Leff’s comment was deleted by doing what the writer had offered! Well, I guess, you do not do it proudly, we give you that.

>>>>>>>>>>>Comments and posts that XYZ has so many affiliate link ads in a post is meaningless and the tone with which it is delivered childlike.

I disagree that they are meaningless. I always get new readers every day so they need to be educated. Plus, I do my best to make my blog posts entertaining. You just can’t get enough of my blog Childlike? Really? I think your comments/rants are childlike. I guess we let readers make up their own minds.

We agree on one thing: We enjoy interacting with harvson3

Newbies need to be educated so they don’t fall for the marketing BS

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harvson3:  

I agree with bluecat above that the Consumer Reports-esque policing function could be developed more. It’s worthwhile to point out where blogs are misleading people. When running yesterday I thought that a caveat lector page might chronicle and link to all past instances of this malpractice, to give readers a sense of which blogs historically are and aren’t reliable. Truth is a defense against libel in this country.

I think I (or anyone) am on shakier ground to criticize blogs for posting nothing but ads, and in this I think we agree. I wasn’t as shocked or taken aback at the hordes of SPG Amex 30K posts, because it’s advertising/marketing. By personal choice one can skip those posts, and those blogs.

The grey area then becomes which blogs are worthwhile (or should be recognized) because they make original contributions to the hobby, and thus have their occasional barrage of ads excused. I think one might develop a positive side of the ledger in the hypothetical caveat lector letter that praises these blogs. Personally, my list of such blogs grows shorter every day, and my thinner RSS feed reflects that.

I think every right-minded person agrees that anonymity on the Internet can put humanity’s basest instincts on display. (On the other hand, your comments here have run into contradictions: you sometimes have said that George and his commentators have had no effect on the bloggers and no influence in the hobby, but also that their comments are damaging and pernicious. Careful not to have it both ways.) I appreciated Faces of Flyertalk, and would be happy to see it resumed. And yes, there are nasty anonymous comments left here, critical of blog authors for sometimes unjust reasons.

However, I think blogs evolve, and I think that this blog has started to evolve a community of regular commentators (like that Canadian kid, and the various iterations of Charles Ramsey) who use a consistent identity and make constructive contributions. In fact, with an anonymous comments, you almost need to develop a consistent handle/identity if you want to be taken seriously. And I think you take the constructive with the destructive when you give people anonymity to hide behind. When allowing people to be critical (and anonymous), you’re going to get the nasties and the angries, but you’re going to get the constructive as well. And I think with time the destructive comments are easily ignored (and I wish they would fade a bit) while the constructive stick. (As an illustration of this, I noted already that, in my opinion, the FT EM&PR sub-forum is undermined and presently moribund by its resident ambassador’s unexplained negative campaign against BA. Also, it’s in the wrong master category of Travel & Dining.)

I think that on balance the hobby is made better by this blog. I think we’re seeing more awareness to highlight the best deal offers and not deceive readers, and I don’t think the relationship is spurious.

So I agree with you that more of the positive should be applauded. I think we agree that malpractice and malfeasance continues, and perhaps diverge on the appropriateness of other authors highlighting this. The comments section, well, I tend to agree with the points made here. Over time real commentators have expressed real concerns, and the angriest angries have unleashed venom. None of the venom lasts. Perhaps the angriest among us feel venting is therapeutic, as George seems to think. But over time actual discussions have developed in this comments section, which can’t be said for many, many blogs. I’ll keep that, even if it means I sometimes have to skip over nasty people being nasty.

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bluecat: