Spammers again

Claudia Sails

Once again the entire current topics page is blanked out with posts for fake documents. (Like anyone who has the money to travel with Tauck would need them). They managed to fill the page in about 15 minutes. I reported several as abusive but assume that given it's after 6pm in Connecticut no one at Tauck will see it until tomorrow morning.

I went back to look at our previous posts on this topic and it's been almost a year since we were promised a solution. Am starting to collect screen saves. Maybe its time to elevate this so Tauck management puts the resources toward solving this.

Tauck Emily

Hi Claudia Sails,

Thank you for your feedback, currently there are 3 Tauck moderators who look after the forums. We try our best to eliminate spam in a timely manner, I know the spammers are very annoying and our IT department is still looking for an optimal solution. I see that you are collecting screenshots, might I ask you a huge favor? Can you please send your screenshots to esupport@tauck.com? This is one way our IT folks track and prioritize what needs to get fixed on Tauck.com. If they see an increase forum spam, they may make it a priority to find a solution.

We appreciate your participation on the Travel Forums.

Thanks Again,
Emily

Claudia Sails

Thanx Emily, glad to know you guys are trying. I took a shot this afternoon when the entire active topics page was from that one scammer which I will I'll try to send. Wish they'd stop wasting all our time on this.

When one of us reports a post as "abusive", what happens to that? Or in other words, does it help for users to do that?

Richardb

Claudia and Tauck Emily
This is always a difficult one to solve. To be able to post on this forum one must register first, and I have just looked at the registration criteria. I note that an "optional" item is a booking reference. If that were made obligatory each new registrant could be checked against the Tauck database before acceptance.
Each time we regulars sign in Tauck checks us as a valid correspondent against forum membership lists with our password, so it cannot be beyond the means of Tauck IT people to have a one-off check at some point when we sign in to make us input a valid Tauck booking reference of one of our tours just to validate our credentials on that occasion, and once done don't ask again.
Just an idea.
Richard

rabo

Many have used these forums to make educated decisions about booking their first Tauck tour. If a booking reference was a requirement of participation, they may not have that opportunity.

AlanS

Some forums use a two-step registration process before they can post. First they provide full identification info including email address. Then an email is sent to the address to ensure it is valid, The potential new member must respond to the email and must use a temp password before he is allowed to join.

Claudia Sails

Interesting comments folks. Note the response from the Moderator Emily to send my screen shots to esupport@tauck.com and why. I did so last night along with a few paragraphs explaining what was happening and why it's annoying. I'd suggest you do so as well. Maybe the more voices they hear the more likely something will get fixed.

[Deleted User]

Claudia Sails wrote:

Interesting comments folks. Note the response from the Moderator Emily to send my screen shots to esupport@tauck.com and why. I did so last night along with a few paragraphs explaining what was happening and why it's annoying. I'd suggest you do so as well. Maybe the more voices they hear the more likely something will get fixed.

It's hard to imagine how our taking the time to send a screen shot to Tauck accomplishes anything. They can see the exact same thing. Presumably the moderators are reporting these spams as they delete them. That can only suggest that the Tauck IT folks either don't believe Emily and colleagues or they aren't convinced that we find this annoying.

Ask yourselves why you don't see the same problems at other major travel web sites (FlyerTalk, CruiseCritic, etc.)? That's because there are technical solutions to this (email verification of registration like AlanS suggests, quarantining first posts for a human review, etc.).

I am somewhat amused today because we now have (the appearance of) a spam reply to a spam post.

British

I rarely use other forums, but don't they have ads and so on that help to pay for the very expensive experts who maintain and design this type of communication. I have said before that Tauck provide this forum as an extra little service. I still think it is used by a very small number of their customers, that's pretty clear because many participants are asking questions here that are already on the website and they have not been able to find them. Tauck has actually done a good job in the past couple of years in improving quite a bit of the information about their tours that has been lacking in the past, maybe because of the same questions being asked on the forum, maybe from phone calls they get, who knows. Probably the easiest and cheapest thing for them to do is suspend the forum. I do not want that because I learn so much from the forum. On the other hand, if it costs money to fix the problems, then I do not want the expense passed on to me in the form of a more expensive Tauck tour. So, as annoying as the spammers are, I'll take that as an alternative to no forum. By the way, does Viking provide forums, just going to check.

judy05

The bottom line is that Tauck cannot make it more clear that the forums are not a priority. This is not even a value judgment -- simply a fact. Unless and until that changes -- nothing else will. I read a lot of message boards and forums -- and I'm sure all of you do as well. In my personal experience this forum is the only one that has this issue. Given that virtually every company and service -- big or small -- has some kind of well run message board -- it is hard to imagine that it adds appreciably to the cost of doing business. Alan S offered an easy solution. Yes -- the general public would not have access to the boards -- but it would certainly be a quick fix to get rid of spammers until Tauck chooses to do more. JMO.

British

Phew, as I take q break from prepping for a family gathering!
I looked at the Viking website as an example. They do not have a forum. I am not on Facebook, Instagam etc etc. so I do not know what the traffic is like for Tauck customers. The worst spam I saw on this forum was someone posting a photo of themselves in the identity column and it was a a picture of the Boston Marathon bomber. I was on vacation at the time amd I immediately emailed Tauck and someone got back to me fairly quickly with thanks for spotting it and it was deleted.
So maybe my frequent viewing of this forum is worth it. The forum is so good for information, I also can post my opinion amd my experience on my latest Tauck tour. Someone can add, disagree, or ignore what I write. For us, Tauck has been a great company for helping us have great adventures without all the planning, that's what they should stick to, not try to have the latest chat fest capabilities. Can you imagine them making improvements and putting ads everywhere to pay for it, no thanks. I also agree that with those who think that only letting people with a booked tour use the forum is the wrong way to go.
Does anyone remember when you could click on someone's profile to see all their past posts? I found that useful. It almost seems that the old 'Ask and Share' was better than the current forum. I also don't know why one doesn't get a response to the 'Watch' icon if you ar looking for replies to your question.

Claudia Sails

I’ve been thinking more about this the last few days and what exactly is the goal of the website and the “Community” section. How do they fit in with Tauck overall? The primary goal of the website ought to be selling a product to travelers. It needs to be visually appealing, informative, easy to use and last (but not least) secure. It also needs to reflect what Tauck is all about – quality . Or as their mission statement says, “By exceeding customer expectations, we continually build a loyal and dedicated following.” Overall I think the website does an excellent job on this.

The goal of the Community section I’m not so sure of. Is it to provide additional information? Is it to foster a community spirit? Does it encourage first time and repeat business? Does it reflect Tauck’s quality?

I agree with British that the website overall is getting better at providing additional information. The “Before You Go” section is a wealth of information and sadly it appears underutilized. I just noticed recently (maybe I missed it before) that on the Community page a FAQ section has been added. Solving the spammer/scammer problem does have a certain cost, but then eliminating the Forum would push more phone/email inquiries to Tauck’s staff. When you think of it, Forum participants are providing free labor answering questions. In some cases, I think we provide information that the phone staff may not know because we’ve actually been on the tours/cruises.

I think the forum does foster a community spirit. And in turn repeat business. I find myself reading threads about trips I haven’t taken and thinking “yes, add that one to the bucket list”. I also learn a lot of non-Tauck specific travel tips. The recent thread about Global Entry/TSA Pre is a case in point. I’ll also note that this is the only forum I participate in although I read quite a few. In general people are very helpful and courteous here. No trolls allowed.

Does the Forum currently reflect the high quality we’ve all come to expect of Tauck? No, I don’t think it does. Imagine a first timer’s thoughts if they open up the forum and the active threads are a list of fake document ads. Not a great first impression. Would Tauck allow a tacky ad for something to be included in the lovely printed brochures we receive? I don’t think so.

Bottom line, I think it’s worth Tauck’s time and cost to solve this.

British

Claudia, what an excellent piece you have written. I'm speechless, well almost, your closing statement has made me change my mind on this one. Thank you for continuing to enrich this forum. When I get to go on one of the river cruises, maybe you will be there. Just about 18 months to my husband's retirement. So all we have to hope for, apart from good health, is that we can eake out our cash to continue to enjoy Tauck tours and get to those European rivers, without him saying, I'm too busy on such and such a date to commit to a tour then, oh and I have to be in the office on that date, and so on and so on.

Claudia Sails

Darn jobs. They just get in the way of fun.

After the Seine next Jun we only have the Danube left. Maybe do it for a Christmas Market cruise. I agree we'd enjoy a great happy hour cruising down a river.