bye bye Best of China?

Sandman1Sandman1
in General Discussion
Looks like Tauck decided to take down the Best of China forum. I understand they stopped this tour two years ago, but with almost 50,000 views, the forum provided a ton of information for travelers taking the other China trips still offered. Kinda think they didn't want it to hit 50,000 views as they would have no excuse not to send me a Tee Shirt! Bye Bye.

Comments

  • jdurkinjdurkin
    edited December 2015
    Dear Sandman,

    I imagine the raison d'être for the forum is to promote Tauck's travel products. Nothing else. It is not here to provide a valuable resource for committed travellers. These committed travellers seem so few, too, in relation to the hoi polloi (in its strictest sense). You only have to witness the volume of repeats of the same question, or as near to, over so many threads. So many have not used the forums, or even the journey pages, as a resource before posting a question.

    I agree that it is tragic when a repository of accumulated knowledge is lost. One day, not so terribly long ago, the old forum was just switched off and replaced with a blank page. Many blank pages. A whole forum of blank pages. The horror of this intellectual vandalism set many of us to work to try to establish a new collection of useful bits and pieces. Yes, I know the old Ask and Share forum had its issues, but so does this one. Still, a revolving posse of committed correspondents have continued to answer and post, answer and post.

    Why would anyone do this, you have to wonder? Some of us just have to answer questions and try to help if we can. Knowledge is power. Wilful ignorance ... we know where that leads. I feel your pain, Sandman.

    If I could draw, I'd make you a T-shirt, but I can't. Maybe another correspondent is more talented in this area?

    Cheers,

    Jan
  • Sandman1Sandman1
    Thanks Jan; I really have a bunch of Tee Shirts that are really nice and I think it is Tauck's loss. I actually met a tour guide in Shanghai a few weeks ago that was our guide from the Best of China tour (which was great). He laughed at my attempts to earn a Tee Shirt and thought Tauck would never give me one as I could eventually donate the shirt to some homeless guy and what would that say for the brand? Going to Germany with Tauck this year and was thinking about starting a new Forum topic, but I'm not quite there yet. I enjoy reading your numerous posts and agree we learn from the experiences of others and I look forward to more of your posts.
  • jdurkinjdurkin
    Surely the tour guide was joking!! How could donating a piece of clothing to someone who needed it more than you be a bad thing? The Tauck brand (and family) are fairly active in the world of philanthropy. Perhaps it was merely an American location joke. (You had to be there to get it!) We Aussies know all about location jokes!! :)))))

    You will have fun in Germany. The parts I've seen are delightful. Just don't go buying one of those tall, brightly-coloured & feathered German hats! On my first Rhine cruise we had a bloke who bought one on the first day and wore it everywhere ever after. He looked very silly, but at least his wife, and the rest of us, could always find him. Personally, I feel travellers who make an effort to blend in with the locals, where culturally reasonable, have a better plan! It's often a better look, too! By all means, support the local traders and buy a hat, but save it for Halloween when you get home. :))

    Cheers,

    Jan
Sign In or Register to comment.