“**Inappropriate posts are flagged by users who are offended. Simple as that.” **
Not quite as simple as that. There is someone or a few someone’s who go on a flagging rampage from time to time just for their own enjoyment. They tend to pick on certain posters and like to flag photographs.
The Spam flag was supposed to be used to identify individuals that come on the forum attempting to scam or sell something. That used to be a big problem before the forum redesign a few years ago. You'd wake up one morning and the active topics list would be nothing but someone trying to sell fake documents, their travel services, etc. Especially bad on weekends. The 5 flags and gone feature works nicely to let actual forum users clean it up rather than waiting for the web master to do so. As cathy said, a tiny number of forum members use it to reflect their disagreement (or whatever) with what someone has posted. IT'S COWARDLY AND LAZY. If I say something you don't like, have the courage to either post your view or privately message me. I'm a big girl. I can take someone not agreeing with me.
The Report flag is a little trickier in that you actually have to give Tauck a reason you're flagging. For spammers I usually use the Spam flag but have used the report one in cases where some spammer just kept doing it over and over. The person who kept posting random things and the line "student accommodation" was one I reported multiple times. Haven't seen them lately.
And something many don't know is you can remove any flag or reaction you've made if you've changed your mind or it was an accident.
Maybe an alternative to everyone knowing who the flagger is would be to allow the person flagged to find out within their profile page.
I regard abusive, insulting posts worthy of a flag or report which is how most forums operate. Posters should be able to express their opinion without personally being attacked.
I just want you to know that I saw absolutely no issue with your post which resulted in an onslaught of unnecessary, abusive rhetoric. I just shake my head in disbelief sometimes because of the complete lack of civility that is shown herein. Thankfully, the majority are here to share their travel experiences and know how to debate and disagree respectfully and with civility and dignity.
This forum is very tame compared to some I've looked at. I'm a woodworker and a couple of the woodworking forums are really bad. I mostly hang out at SawMillCreek which is moderated and people are (mostly) polite.
MikeHenderson
2:32PM edited 2:32PM
This forum is very tame compared to some I've looked at. I'm a woodworker and a couple of the woodworking forums are really bad. I mostly hang out at SawMillCreek which is moderated and people are (mostly) polite.
Mike, did you ever visit Badger Pond before it was closed by the originator and content morphed into Sawmill Creek? Were you around SMC during the highly contentious early days of dust collection when Bill Pentz, et al were members? I don't hardly go there since it became a for-profit membership site. Ellis Walentine's WoodCentral is much more "polite."
No, I joined SawMillCreek in 2005, which is after all that stuff. I've been to WoodCentral - I think I'm registered there and at at least two more sites - but I don't have time to do too many forums. And just to advertise, my woodworking website is www.mikes-woodwork.com
SawMillCreek is really not "for profit". The site has to be paid for some kind of way and they use to have advertising. But everybody uses ad blocking now so they couldn't support the site that way. Now, if you want all the features, you need to pay - $6/year - which is pretty cheap. I usually kick in a bit more than $6.
I made a lot of contributions, also. I have a number of carving tutorials on the site - back when I was doing a lot more carving, and veneer type tutorials. But that doesn't pay the bills. They need dollars to pay for all the equipment, software updates and the communications line. A high speed communications link is fairly expensive and it's charged each month. I doubt if Keith is getting rich.
For Gourmet Girl - I've followed your recommendation and Reported your post to Tauck. I've also deleted my original objection to it.
If you truly didn't mean to come across as elitist you can easily edit your original post to remove or reword the "sophistication level" comment. For one moment consider someone new to Tauck tours reading your post and worrying that they somehow aren't good enough for a Tauck tour.
Sorry, no. I am not changing my post because you read more into it than was intended. I stand by my review. AFAIK, I did not insult anyone on this thread. You were not on my cruise so not sure how you could construe that I think you are unsophisticated. I was referring to passengers on my cruise.
OurTravels 34: So sorry I did not answer your question. No, I only have (or ever had) but one wife. She was, is, and ever will be my favorite. She's also one of the best people I have ever known. And the fact that she's a great cook has absolutely nothing to do with it!
My Dr. friend who was also a classmate does not wear masks in public either. He recently took his family on a cruise (big ship), and a couple got covid, the rest did not, none wore masks. He pointed out that there was a facebook page dedicated to this cruise, and some people who masked all the time and even avoided using the elevators got covid. I’ve done six trips since the pandemic started, and on the recent ones virtually no one wore masks. It is not just Tauck … very few places require masks. Your choice is not Tauck, or no Tauck. Your choice is to travel or stay home. Anywhere you travel, you will be surrounded by maskless people.
Thanks for sharing Sealord. I will point out that these observations are not scientifically conducted studies. I don’t believe that wearing a properly fitted mask will make you more susceptible to contracting Covid. On a cruise, you have to eat without a mask with others in close quarters and that is just high-risk - possibly the main culprit.
The ships are not full, so it’s easy to isolate when eating right now. The requirements are being dropped because they are desperate to get passengers back.
Sealord makes the most sense to me. Everyone had to do what is best for their own good. Everyone has a choice. No one can dictate to another what they should do or should not do. It’s hard enough doing that before the pandemic. You can’t tell people what to do that you don’t approve of on a cruise ship, in a theater, in an elevator, in an airplane (unless dictated by the airline), at a ball game, etc. The choice is only yours snd you can protect yourself by masking by improving your odds of getting Covid. Do you want to travel and enjoy yourself or not.
My husband is a physician. He went to work 10 or more hours a day all through the pandemic. Saw sick patients and didn’t get Covid. I haven’t either. I don’t know what I did right but I didn’t hibernate. That would have done me in.
For GG: I did not say that I thought mask wearing ‘causes’ covid … just to be clear. And, I don’t doubt that a properly fitted, ‘properly worn’ mask might provide some protection. But, where are your goggles? The virus can be acquired through the eyes. Droplets, or fomite transmission … who knows? And, assuming the mask is doing the job you want, and is stopping virus contaminated droplets … but you touch it when you take it off, and then you put on the same mask. Then perhaps you touch your eyes, or your nose, or your mouth. I think professionals normally only wear a mask once, and throw it away. Most ‘mask’ people wear a mask over and over. When I go into my doctor’s office, they often make me take off the mask I wore in, and they give me a new mask. (Which I take off as soon as I leave the office.). How many people are getting covid because they are re-using what may be a contaminated mask? The virus can live on some surfaces for as long as three days. They do say the transmission via surfaces is less likely, but ‘mask’ people are getting the virus somewhere, and I’m pretty sure it is not always in cruise ship dining rooms.
Just commenting on the observation your Dr friend shared with you and who seemed to indirectly imply that people wearing masks are more likely to get Covid than the maskless. You correctly stated a lot of “what if’s” related to wearing masks but overall the Covid risk is mitigated quite a bit compared with no masking in crowded public places. Along with vaccines it’s the best defense we have.
Sealord: those are great points once again. It's not rocket science. Those in the medical profession do not wear the same mask daily. In fact, they may even be changed more often. I walked into a physicians office wearing a N95 mask in the middle of the pandemic. I was told to take it off and put on a simple surgical mask that was handed to me. Once could argue it was less contaminated than what I walked in wearing. Who the heck knows?
Yes, when I was working as a nurse, we never touched our mask the whole time it was on. When we took it off, there was a certain way and we immediately washed our hands. That is what I did for the many months of the early days of the Pandemic. It’s easy when you’ve been trained.
But it is extreme rare to get the virus from touching something, certainly unless there is a huge number of virus bits in the one place. , it’s just not that virulent compared to say measles. Talking about wearing the same mask. One of the women on our Alaska tour wore the same mask for her entire trip, a surgical one. The paper fiber of it got more and more roughed up and looked rally grubby. it was utterly disgusting to see and yet of her party of six, she was the only one who didn’t get Covid as far as I know, although by that time we were on the ship and I only saw her cough a few times.
British: you made me think of something. When I was at the market the other day, the checker commented how clean my totes were that I bring in for my groceries. That sorta puzzled me because she went on to say how dirty or disgusting some of them are from other customers. The checkers have to our groceries into the bags people bring in. People bring their own grocery totes now because they assume it’s the green thing to do no matter how dirty they are and you get charged 10 cents a bag or even more each time for a grocery bag. Sometimes 25 cents.
Oh boy...you guys are stressing me out! Had a quiet night since my team is out of the running (ALCS). We're taking the Costa Rica/Panama Canal cruise in January - I'm always looking for cruising tips. Our first with Tauck. Didn't know I'd entered the black hole of Covid/masks and levels of obnoxious fellow passengers. At this rate, I guess I should be happy that my "favorite" husband and I still get along! 😉
We’ve taken that tour and really enjoyed it. We loved Panama City. The Costa Rica site seeing was underwhelming compared to what we had seen in Costa Rica with Tauck previously. .It was a new tour. SeaLord went on the sailing after ours and had similar issues. We both had some direct communications with Tauck, they called us both. I presume things have been improved.
On our sailing there was a Wildlife photographer who made films with the BBC, He gave some good lectures and was accessible to all, very friendly. We ate lunch with him a couple of times. This is where I got my reputation as the Tauck swimsuit model because I am featured swimming in the ship’s pool on the promotional video.
Comments
Inappropriate posts are flagged by users who are offended. Simple as that.
“**Inappropriate posts are flagged by users who are offended. Simple as that.” **
Not quite as simple as that. There is someone or a few someone’s who go on a flagging rampage from time to time just for their own enjoyment. They tend to pick on certain posters and like to flag photographs.
The Spam flag was supposed to be used to identify individuals that come on the forum attempting to scam or sell something. That used to be a big problem before the forum redesign a few years ago. You'd wake up one morning and the active topics list would be nothing but someone trying to sell fake documents, their travel services, etc. Especially bad on weekends. The 5 flags and gone feature works nicely to let actual forum users clean it up rather than waiting for the web master to do so. As cathy said, a tiny number of forum members use it to reflect their disagreement (or whatever) with what someone has posted. IT'S COWARDLY AND LAZY. If I say something you don't like, have the courage to either post your view or privately message me. I'm a big girl. I can take someone not agreeing with me.
The Report flag is a little trickier in that you actually have to give Tauck a reason you're flagging. For spammers I usually use the Spam flag but have used the report one in cases where some spammer just kept doing it over and over. The person who kept posting random things and the line "student accommodation" was one I reported multiple times. Haven't seen them lately.
And something many don't know is you can remove any flag or reaction you've made if you've changed your mind or it was an accident.
Maybe an alternative to everyone knowing who the flagger is would be to allow the person flagged to find out within their profile page.
My method for dealing with the flaggers.
IGNORE
I regard abusive, insulting posts worthy of a flag or report which is how most forums operate. Posters should be able to express their opinion without personally being attacked.
Right. I’m not talking about simple difference of opinion.
Gourmet Gal,
I just want you to know that I saw absolutely no issue with your post which resulted in an onslaught of unnecessary, abusive rhetoric. I just shake my head in disbelief sometimes because of the complete lack of civility that is shown herein. Thankfully, the majority are here to share their travel experiences and know how to debate and disagree respectfully and with civility and dignity.
Warm regards
This forum is very tame compared to some I've looked at. I'm a woodworker and a couple of the woodworking forums are really bad. I mostly hang out at SawMillCreek which is moderated and people are (mostly) polite.
Mike, did you ever visit Badger Pond before it was closed by the originator and content morphed into Sawmill Creek? Were you around SMC during the highly contentious early days of dust collection when Bill Pentz, et al were members? I don't hardly go there since it became a for-profit membership site. Ellis Walentine's WoodCentral is much more "polite."
No, I joined SawMillCreek in 2005, which is after all that stuff. I've been to WoodCentral - I think I'm registered there and at at least two more sites - but I don't have time to do too many forums. And just to advertise, my woodworking website is www.mikes-woodwork.com
SawMillCreek is really not "for profit". The site has to be paid for some kind of way and they use to have advertising. But everybody uses ad blocking now so they couldn't support the site that way. Now, if you want all the features, you need to pay - $6/year - which is pretty cheap. I usually kick in a bit more than $6.
I figured the contributions I made over the years far exceed what they wanted to charge.
I made a lot of contributions, also. I have a number of carving tutorials on the site - back when I was doing a lot more carving, and veneer type tutorials. But that doesn't pay the bills. They need dollars to pay for all the equipment, software updates and the communications line. A high speed communications link is fairly expensive and it's charged each month. I doubt if Keith is getting rich.
For Gourmet Girl - I've followed your recommendation and Reported your post to Tauck. I've also deleted my original objection to it.
If you truly didn't mean to come across as elitist you can easily edit your original post to remove or reword the "sophistication level" comment. For one moment consider someone new to Tauck tours reading your post and worrying that they somehow aren't good enough for a Tauck tour.
Sorry, no. I am not changing my post because you read more into it than was intended. I stand by my review. AFAIK, I did not insult anyone on this thread. You were not on my cruise so not sure how you could construe that I think you are unsophisticated. I was referring to passengers on my cruise.
Equally rude and disrespectful is to commandeer someone else's post and turn into their personal chat room discussion. Woodworking?
Yep, didn't think you would change it Gourmet Gal.
Ok, I’m going to the theatre, might cheer me up
OurTravels 34: So sorry I did not answer your question. No, I only have (or ever had) but one wife. She was, is, and ever will be my favorite. She's also one of the best people I have ever known. And the fact that she's a great cook has absolutely nothing to do with it!
My Dr. friend who was also a classmate does not wear masks in public either. He recently took his family on a cruise (big ship), and a couple got covid, the rest did not, none wore masks. He pointed out that there was a facebook page dedicated to this cruise, and some people who masked all the time and even avoided using the elevators got covid. I’ve done six trips since the pandemic started, and on the recent ones virtually no one wore masks. It is not just Tauck … very few places require masks. Your choice is not Tauck, or no Tauck. Your choice is to travel or stay home. Anywhere you travel, you will be surrounded by maskless people.
Thanks for sharing Sealord. I will point out that these observations are not scientifically conducted studies. I don’t believe that wearing a properly fitted mask will make you more susceptible to contracting Covid. On a cruise, you have to eat without a mask with others in close quarters and that is just high-risk - possibly the main culprit.
The ships are not full, so it’s easy to isolate when eating right now. The requirements are being dropped because they are desperate to get passengers back.
Sealord makes the most sense to me. Everyone had to do what is best for their own good. Everyone has a choice. No one can dictate to another what they should do or should not do. It’s hard enough doing that before the pandemic. You can’t tell people what to do that you don’t approve of on a cruise ship, in a theater, in an elevator, in an airplane (unless dictated by the airline), at a ball game, etc. The choice is only yours snd you can protect yourself by masking by improving your odds of getting Covid. Do you want to travel and enjoy yourself or not.
My husband is a physician. He went to work 10 or more hours a day all through the pandemic. Saw sick patients and didn’t get Covid. I haven’t either. I don’t know what I did right but I didn’t hibernate. That would have done me in.
I just finished 2 cruise almost 100% full. Silversea Moon and Andorinha so not so easy to isolate when dining unless you only have room service.
For GG: I did not say that I thought mask wearing ‘causes’ covid … just to be clear. And, I don’t doubt that a properly fitted, ‘properly worn’ mask might provide some protection. But, where are your goggles? The virus can be acquired through the eyes. Droplets, or fomite transmission … who knows? And, assuming the mask is doing the job you want, and is stopping virus contaminated droplets … but you touch it when you take it off, and then you put on the same mask. Then perhaps you touch your eyes, or your nose, or your mouth. I think professionals normally only wear a mask once, and throw it away. Most ‘mask’ people wear a mask over and over. When I go into my doctor’s office, they often make me take off the mask I wore in, and they give me a new mask. (Which I take off as soon as I leave the office.). How many people are getting covid because they are re-using what may be a contaminated mask? The virus can live on some surfaces for as long as three days. They do say the transmission via surfaces is less likely, but ‘mask’ people are getting the virus somewhere, and I’m pretty sure it is not always in cruise ship dining rooms.
Just commenting on the observation your Dr friend shared with you and who seemed to indirectly imply that people wearing masks are more likely to get Covid than the maskless. You correctly stated a lot of “what if’s” related to wearing masks but overall the Covid risk is mitigated quite a bit compared with no masking in crowded public places. Along with vaccines it’s the best defense we have.
Sealord: those are great points once again. It's not rocket science. Those in the medical profession do not wear the same mask daily. In fact, they may even be changed more often. I walked into a physicians office wearing a N95 mask in the middle of the pandemic. I was told to take it off and put on a simple surgical mask that was handed to me. Once could argue it was less contaminated than what I walked in wearing. Who the heck knows?
Yes, when I was working as a nurse, we never touched our mask the whole time it was on. When we took it off, there was a certain way and we immediately washed our hands. That is what I did for the many months of the early days of the Pandemic. It’s easy when you’ve been trained.
But it is extreme rare to get the virus from touching something, certainly unless there is a huge number of virus bits in the one place. , it’s just not that virulent compared to say measles. Talking about wearing the same mask. One of the women on our Alaska tour wore the same mask for her entire trip, a surgical one. The paper fiber of it got more and more roughed up and looked rally grubby. it was utterly disgusting to see and yet of her party of six, she was the only one who didn’t get Covid as far as I know, although by that time we were on the ship and I only saw her cough a few times.
British: you made me think of something. When I was at the market the other day, the checker commented how clean my totes were that I bring in for my groceries. That sorta puzzled me because she went on to say how dirty or disgusting some of them are from other customers. The checkers have to our groceries into the bags people bring in. People bring their own grocery totes now because they assume it’s the green thing to do no matter how dirty they are and you get charged 10 cents a bag or even more each time for a grocery bag. Sometimes 25 cents.
Oh boy...you guys are stressing me out! Had a quiet night since my team is out of the running (ALCS). We're taking the Costa Rica/Panama Canal cruise in January - I'm always looking for cruising tips. Our first with Tauck. Didn't know I'd entered the black hole of Covid/masks and levels of obnoxious fellow passengers. At this rate, I guess I should be happy that my "favorite" husband and I still get along! 😉
We’ve taken that tour and really enjoyed it. We loved Panama City. The Costa Rica site seeing was underwhelming compared to what we had seen in Costa Rica with Tauck previously. .It was a new tour. SeaLord went on the sailing after ours and had similar issues. We both had some direct communications with Tauck, they called us both. I presume things have been improved.
On our sailing there was a Wildlife photographer who made films with the BBC, He gave some good lectures and was accessible to all, very friendly. We ate lunch with him a couple of times. This is where I got my reputation as the Tauck swimsuit model because I am featured swimming in the ship’s pool on the promotional video.