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New Feature?
After each post there is now a quotation mark followed by the word ‘quote’ to the left of the ‘like’ thumbs up sign.
I fiddled with it and it appears to copy and paste the poster’s note and allows you to add your own comments. I hope this is some sort of error. I know some people like to copy and paste someone else’s post (redundant, impersonal and unnecessary) before writing their own message.
I’m hoping this is just another schizophrenic episode of the Forum. If this is a permanent feature, I am really beginning to question Tauck’s judgement, especially given all the other errors. Just my opinion.
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I actually think it’s a nice option if people don’t use it too much - or quote lengthy passages - sometimes 15 people will add comments and you want to respond to one at the beginning and it’s confusing if you can’t figure out who/what they are responding to. Not sure why someone would think this is impersonal - it’s actually more personal because they’re responding to a specific post. 🤷♀️
We are all different. My preference is to address and acknowledge an individual by name. I have seen people copy and paste paragraph after paragraph only to say a few words. I often wonder if their intent is to show how adept they are at copying and pasting. Merely my opinion.
This is a common feature of most forums. There are advantages to quoting. One advantage is to indicate who and what you're replying to. Sometimes someone will want to reply specifically to what someone posted, and there are several intervening posts. This allows the person replying to indicate what their post is replying to.
Some other forums lock a person's post after a fairly short while (maybe an hour) so that it cannot be changed or erased. Tauck still allows people to edit or delete their posts at any time. If a person wants to reply to a specific statement someone made, it's safer to quote it because that person cannot change the quote. They can change their original post but not the quote.
Some forums allow you to include multiple quotes. So I might want to reply to two people in one post. I'd include the two quotes and put my response after each quote. So you'd see
"Quote"
"Response"
"Quote"
"Response"
Also, notice that Tauck now does like many other forums and only shows the first few lines of the quote. If you want to read the whole quote you can click on the "down caret".
It's just Tauck joining the modern world😊 If you want to do it a different way, go for it.
Just about every forum has a quote feature. It is useful so that when someone comments, you know exactly what they are responding to.
I think it's a good feature. Now if they would only bring back the spam notification flag.
I see they at least truncate the copied post which makes this feature a bit more tolerable. I’ll leave it at that.
The ‘quote’ would have been useful when a regular forum person would make remarks and then delete them after a few days so people’s replies would look odd. Otherwise I’m on the fence about whether it is a useful feature or not. When the thread is long it is certainly worth going back to the beginning to see what the original poster said which I admit I do not always do.
Some other changes I see, the icons underneath in this box as I am writing.
That is not the only changes to the "new" forums and message pages. If you are a fan of emojis, now you have access to multiple libraries of multitudes of smilies and such- animals, food, etc., etc. Also, the text editing features have changed- to make a text bold or italicized, etc. you highlight the text then select the formatting from a pop-up. Also, Markdown code that could be used to add color, underline, font size, etc. to text in the past no longer works. It appears "preview" no longer exists in the forums (it never existed in messages.)
One forum I was on started locking posts bcause one person got upset and tried to go back and delete every post he had ever made - going back years.
So now, you have a certain length of time to make changes and then the post is locked - the poster cannot change it.
If there's really a reason to change a post, the original poster can contact a moderator and request that a change be made. It may, or may not, be changed by the moderator.
It doesn't look like Tauck implemented that, but maybe in the future.
Of course, there is a possibility that Tauck will stop having a forum. I watched this happen to the OAT forum during the height of the Pandemic when so many of their customers were angry and dissatisfied and said so on their forum. I never joined their forum because after one tour with them, I would never use the company again plus indeed, they did treat their customers very badly.This is not what Tauck is doing in the ongoing River Cruise problems. But I found their forum useful and entertaining. I even found a company mentioned there that I now travel with regularly, so thank you OAT.
I hope the Tauck forum continues because in the main, it is full of useful information. Plus of course.Id have to find another forum to read when I have a minute, I’m still resisting Facebook.
I guess Tauck is trying to get up to speed to modernize the forum.
Does anyone know what the little gear looking icon on each thread does? It's next to a star icon. It says it's to mute but doesn't appear to do anything.
yes, it is where you can edit your post, but only you can activate your own ‘gear wheel’
No not that one. Look on the list of threads. In between the Discussion Title and the Started By is the same little gear and a star. If you click on the gear it says Mute or if you've already selected that Unmute.
no idea, but it turns gold when you click on it.
any ideas anyone?
Yes, the star turns gold. I figured that one out. It lets you bookmark particular threads so you can find them more easily. Up by your name in the upper right corner is a star and if you've bookmarked threads and you click on that star it gives you the list of just the bookmarked threads. Handy
In gmail that feature creates a subset of your email messages listed like one of your folders. You can select it and just get those messages. I use that for all emails I want quick access to like travel emails, Amazon return codes, etc.
I routinely remove older posts as a matter of file maintenance and privacy. As the author, it is my prerogative to protect my posts as much as I can. I do not use social media except for this forum. I see no value in them. My opinion.
I do think the message board could benefit from some "clean up." On some of the specific location categories (i.e., Italy, Norway, etc…) there are threads out there from 2014. Perhaps interesting to some from an historical perspective, but hardly helpful to today's travelers…most of those itineraries are changed along with pretty much everything else related to the topic from 12 years ago…
I disagree. Once you post, what you write is in the public domain. Even if you delete it, it's out there "soemwhere" if someone wants to find it (wayback machine, etc.) If you want to maintain privacy, don't post. Deleting posts later only serves to cause discontinuity in the flow of the thread. Just my opinion.
I don't use social media either. To paraphrase Karl Marx, social media is the opiate of the masses.
I don use social media either. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be missing if I had it, but I don’t see any reason why I need to broadcast my everyday living. My universe of people know how to get in touch with me.
I noticed when I read very long posts, and I mean the long ones; the same point could have been made in a few sentences.
I fully understand that posting on social media is not private. I can’t control what others do, but I can control my own posts. As far as removing my old ones, I sometimes do it when the thread turns into something entirely different with the focus on ridiculing, lack of civility and self-aggrandizement. I choose to not be a participant in that.
Thank you, however, for disagreeing respectfully. 🐶
OurTravels34 - I agree with the exceptionally long posts, especially when they are clearly copy and pastes from the internet for a review or an attempt to explain something.
By definition, this forum is a type of social media.
"The four primary types of social media platforms are social networking, media-sharing networks, microblogging, and discussion forums."
And it has many of the same features - connecting people, sharing ideas, and offering opinions that may or may not be well received.
I object to Facebook, and do not use it, because of its revenue model. The goal of Facebook is to get me to disclose more and more about myself so that Facebook can sell that information to advertisers to better target me with ads.
If you use Facebook think about what you post there. I expect Facebook can deduce how many children you have, their ages, your income level, if you drink, what alcohol products you like, where you travel, the kind of neighborhood you live in, what political party you support, what university you attended, who you work for, what your profession is, and a LOT more. You’d be surprised at how much about you can be determined from what you say and post on Facebook.
I don’t know if people just don’t realize that or just don’t care. Perhaps they think the benefits of using Facebook are worth giving all that information away.
Of course, Google is about as bad but you're kind of stuck with them.
[Added note: My life is on the web - I have a travel blog, a woodworking site, and a beekeeping site, as well as my way out of date professional site. But the purpose of those sites is not for someone else to make money from my posts.]
Mike Henderson: WELL SAID.
Facebook is no different than a tobacco company or a casino. They create and encourage misery for those with addictive personality disorder.