[seasonedtraveller]

Just out of interest, when using the word “bullying”.

I first joined this forum a good few years ago (but I don’t honestly know in which year) albeit under a completely different pseudonym.
After being a lurker for several months, I decided not to contribute mainly based on the ‘holier than thou’ postings of 2-3 members who clearly thought themselves to be of superior intellect and I did not like the overall tone created by these people.

The one & only name I recall was ‘Vintage Krug’ who I privately considered to be an somewhat of an arse, one of the reasons I did not contribute anything.
Since his/her departure, I haven’t seen anything of a bullying nature on here at all. Banter, yes, ribbing, yes, challenging, yes but bullying….not at all.

[WillieWelsh]

[quote quote=802433]Just out of interest, when using the word “bullying”.

I first joined this forum a good few years ago (but I don’t honestly know in which year) albeit under a completely different pseudonym.
After being a lurker for several months, I decided not to contribute mainly based on the ‘holier than thou’ postings of 2-3 members who clearly thought themselves to be of superior intellect and I did not like the overall tone created by these people.

The one & only name I recall was ‘Vintage Krug’ who I privately considered to be an somewhat of an arse, one of the reasons I did not contribute anything.
Since his/her departure, I haven’t seen anything of a bullying nature on here at all. Banter, yes, ribbing, yes, challenging, yes but bullying….not at all.[/quote]

I totally agree with the above, when I first joined the forum bullying by said poster was the norm when anyone dared to disagree with what was being said or the slightest suggestion made that BA did not offer exemplary service to everyone on every occasion.

Some of those threads IMO went beyond the pale when lies were told to support the VK position and truth had no value. I don’t remember many of those threads being closed to a point where I wondered how much BA were paying BT to allow VK to continue to post. Many good posters dropped away during that time.

Now there is a better atmosphere albeit hampered by poorly performing forum tools that make everything so slow.

Perhaps encouraging new posters and also even if a flight review is not relevant to you commenting on the content would help people think that making their contribution was valued – after all you never know when you might need to fly Uzbekistan Airways!

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=802433]Just out of interest, when using the word “bullying”.

The one & only name I recall was ‘Vintage Krug’ who I privately considered to be an somewhat of an arse, one of the reasons I did not contribute anything.

[/quote]

We’ve been asked not to criticise VintageKrug (aka SergeantMajor) as he is no longer a poster and cannot answer back. So he is not to be named, which is fair enough.

Reminds me of Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.

By the way, your use of the term ‘arse’ is a candidate for the Nobel prize for diplomacy 🙂

[DavidGordon10]

seasonedtraveller @ 11.35 – agree completely. Like you, I was here in the days of VK but dropped out when he was once so gratuitously rude to me I thought “never again”. When he went, I came back, and I agree with your comment – banter, ribbing, a little challenging – but not bullying.

I agree also that those of us on the “Provisional Wing” ( = not much BA travel) ought to be careful to post reports on Uzbekistan Airways and all the other obscure travel things we do.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=802452]
I agree also that those of us on the “Provisional Wing” ( = not much BA travel) ought to be careful to post reports on Uzbekistan Airways and all the other obscure travel things we do.

[/quote]

No, please do post. It’s interesting, much more than my 137th trip to Dubai in WTP 🙁

[canucklad]

Actually the whole BA thing, for me sums up potentially, the dilemma that the forum has
In as much, I’m not a BA fan,neither am I a basher, but I still have an opinion,because I firmly believe that BA has a responsibility due to the fact by proxy it’s our national flag carrier.
So some posts that seem to focus on every trivial sinew of failure, and I wonder why it’s worth the effort and don’t respond, other posts that focus on brand strategy I’ll respond with gusto.

I do enjoy reading the forum,maybe not on a daily basis, and certainly not posting as regularly as I used to. And here’s the rub, I probably don’t post as often because a lot of enjoyable and more importantly, informed contributors don’t appear as regularly as they use to. Ian from Hong Kong springs immediately to mind. But,whose to say that Ian’s personal circumstances have changed,meaning his posting habits changed too?

And, my final point, last night I heard terrible news about a good friend. MrMichael’s final journey has become only to real for me this morning. Which means that,in the grand scheme of things, a forum and its nuances is way low on my list of priorities.
And with that , it’s time to get ready to head out and enjoy everything life has to throw at me.
As for anonymity,my name is unique and possibly searchable,so I’ll just say that if anytime in the future I should stumble across any fellow contributors,you can call me Rob.

[seasonedtraveller]

[quote quote=802449]

seasonedtraveller wrote:

Just out of interest, when using the word “bullying”.

The one & only name I recall was ‘Vintage Krug’ who I privately considered to be an somewhat of an arse, one of the reasons I did not contribute anything.

We’ve been asked not to criticise VintageKrug (aka SergeantMajor) as he is no longer a poster and cannot answer back. So he is not to be named, which is fair enough.

Reminds me of Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.

By the way, your use of the term ‘arse’ is a candidate for the Nobel prize for diplomacy ?

[/quote]

FDOS

1 – Did not know that

2 – Diplomacy, like my memory, is not a strong point of mine 😉

3 – I’m from Yorkshire and therefore I can attribute any and all blame to ‘being a Yorkshireman’ 🙂 😉

[FDOS_UK]

1 – Did not know that

2 – Diplomacy, like my memory, is not a strong point of mine ?

3 – I’m from Yorkshire and therefore I can attribute any and all blame to ‘being a Yorkshireman’ ? ?

[/quote]

All the best people are 😉

[MartynSinclair]

“I guess this should really be a Business Travel Forum, not a Brexit debate. The tone of a few posts is more typical of what you might see on general social media.”

I see no reason why there can not be debate on Brexit or even President Trump. After all, these topics do impact our travel strategies. What I find strange is how easily some contributors become wound up and over heated. The ever changing changing economic, political and technological environments, will continually affect and effect the way we choose our travel. Forums like this one, provide a different vision, it will suit some and not others.

I took another look at FT last night and will eventually get my head around how it works. I do contribute, but I find the style very different to this Forum.

I have benefited enormously from this Forum. I have met some amazing posters from around the world (some of us do meet up). The diversity of personalities and knowledge is similar to having access to a human encyclopaedia, but with the personal and social enjoyment factor included.

My travel budget has reduced each year for a similar number of flights and destinations. A big part of this is due to the extremely professional travel counsellor, who posts on here (but does not advertise his services).

There are still many travel tips published on these threads and the contributors do have personalities about what they post about.

I am made to feel by one persons travel posts that I want to follow where they go. Some fantastic reviews and I have stayed at more than one of the hotels written about.

Other posters create threads with humour (where has the Friday thread gone?), whilst others, post on very personal subjects, one especially recently – which really bought home how privileged we all are to lead the life we lead.

Once in a while a thread is opened about how to improve things… my advice, post and create threads that are interesting, serious, humorous, intellectual or silly, (we all need a release) – if they are read, consider them successful.

There should be a balance between debate & travel tips and knowledge.

Unlike posters who feel the BT forum is going downhill, I do not think so, it just needs some new ‘faces’. Perhaps one way to encourage new posters is for the main BT magazine to support/highlight the Forum, with the occasional article (above the one page highlighted threads), especially how to join into the online debate…

Only 2 modifications from me Tom;

1. as most people suggest, the pages need to speed up, especially the search pages

2. its a pity when you are half way through a post, the page crashes and all is lost…

My rant is now over, I managed my first ever sub 2 hour half marathon the other day (aged 55 and a half) and I am now heading out for another long run in the wonderful heat of Florida along the John Young & and down to Sea World… and with my Camel Bak water carrier with electrolyte additives (another top health tip from the Forums, favourite Dr)…

Happy Easter all and I look forward to more interesting postings and hopefully interesting debate…

[FDOS_UK]

Martyn

For the sake of clarity, I was citing the quote (from Faro Flyer) as an expression of how we should conduct ourselves (and frankly mainly do – the forum is a civilised place, most days).

Brexit will affect all of us, to some degree or other and I completely agree it is a legitimate topic – I didn’t like the ‘remoaner/brexitard’ type of (pathetic) name calling that was going on.

In fact I’m generally against censorship, unless there is a good reason.

[FDOS_UK]

Tom

1 – Moderation is a big effort on active fora, which is why they tend to have a team of volunteers to share the burden – yes, there are some challenges in that, but if you want a vibrant forum you need to go back to your thinking of a while ago and appoint some

2 – Alex writes some very good stuff, but I don’t think you got my message (apologies if this isn’t so) – I would love to see an article posted in the fourm about, for instance ‘Are airports contributing to increased air rage by pedantic and inefficient security?’ I suffered from this in Amsterdam this morning, sheer inflexibility and stupidity, fortunately I don’t do air rage, but it is infuriating to experience such dumb intransigence, when you are paying quite a bit for the privilege. I’d be happy to have a stab at it, but if a staffer could write an opinion leader it owuld be much better

[Tom Otley]

All good suggestions – thank you very much. I will summarise them and then post them to see if everyone agrees.

[Johnnyg]

I am a daily reader of the forum and enjoy most topics, however I do not post on a regular basis due to a) not travelling as much nowadays b) not wanting to look an ‘arse (to use a phrase) and finally not wanting to look or feel out of my depth. Maybe it’s a confidence thing I don’t know. The point is that different contributors get different things out of the specific topics. I take out what I want and that includes recommendations that are posted. I am off to Vienna later this year and have acted on a recommendation of Uggboylovestravel and have booked a table at one of his reviews. I have sought out different lounges / restaurants in various airports. I have laughed at some of the comments and like many others on here I literally cried at MrMichaels post.

I also agree that at times the site is slow and is awful on a phone, but only by constant tweaking by considered comments can things improve.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=802504]I am a daily reader of the forum and enjoy most topics, however I do not post on a regular basis due to a) not travelling as much nowadays b) not wanting to look an ‘arse (to use a phrase) and finally not wanting to look or feel out of my depth. Maybe it’s a confidence thing I don’t know. The point is that different contributors get different things out of the specific topics. I take out what I want and that includes recommendations that are posted. I am off to Vienna later this year and have acted on a recommendation of Uggboylovestravel and have booked a table at one of his reviews. I have sought out different lounges / restaurants in various airports. I have laughed at some of the comments and like many others on here I literally cried at MrMichaels post.

I also agree that at times the site is slow and is awful on a phone, but only by constant tweaking by considered comments can things improve.

[/quote]

JohhnyG – it’s great you posted and please do so again. You won’t ‘look like an arse’ and if you want some tips, please ask – there are so many peeps on here with varied experience that you’re likely to get a good response. It’s a friendly forum, by and large.

The poster referred to as an ‘arse’ took great pleasure in putting people down, correcting typos in a sarcastic way and being generally objectionable – he was banned a long time ago and no-one else on here is going to be like that – so join in – as you’ve probably read, we are short of ‘new blood’ and everyone is welcome.

PS: Uggboylovestravel is a great poster, isn’t he? I hope you enjoy your table.

[Tom Otley]

Thank you again – we are meeting the web development team on Tuesday so all this will be included as part of the redesign of the site and the forum – speed of loading is obviously very slow at the moment and we will also look at the optimisation (as they call it) of the site on mobile devices.
Happy Easter

[Author]

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