cruise director positions.
Can anyone else imagine that over time these positions will eventually evolve into new moderator positions or the host, hostess, cruise directors will be granted additional powers and providers will have access to our behind the scenes information. If this happens, our biggest fears will come to fruition.
Look, I like the hobby and everything but it is definitely not worth ruining my life over it. It appears all good things must come to an end including my time on this site.
No one who currently spends a significant amount of time on this site (and survived all the previous changes) is going anywhere.
Bet.
Correct on all counts.
I too have also disappeared for almost a year once, due to various reasons.
When I came back, the ones that I can immediately recognize were GaGambler, Little Phil, G2, Bizarrosuperdude, MP67, romeogolf, etc.. Majority were in fact new faces. Some do disappear after a while and come back after a while, like Bizarro.
Give it about a year and tell me which of the top 100 posters are still around. You will realize that you only recognize a handful of names by then.
You just proved my point.
"GaGambler, Little Phil, G2, Bizarrosuperdude, MP67, romeogolf, ETC."
There are at least a hundred handles I can think of off the top of my head that visit here more than the casual user who takes lengthy breaks.
I don't really care. The boards aren't the draw to the site.
The reviews are. I'll find another sandbox to play in if it gets too lame but I have a feeling it won't. All of the people screaming the loudest abou this are the most frequent users...
They aren't going anywhere.
Majority of TER users are LURKERS who basically read and leach off the information that top contributers contribute. Top contributes are of course not the majority of TER users but the majority of board users. Screwing the top contributors isn't very wise and this was my point.
There's a wealth of information here specifically because the top contributes know a thing or two about the hobby and post what they know because they were comfortable posting it under aliases, safety of anonymity.
Take most of that safety away and you have yourself resources that are of lessor quality and accuracy. It's not going to be 'exactly the same' as you make it sound like. Cripple someone's veil of safety and there will be reduction in quality. Of course it's difficult to quantify this since there's no quantitative measurement but the overall effect should be quite obvious.
Many will stick around because they have no choice but quite a few long time contributers have vanished. Voicing their opinions for the better is what makes the site better. Screaming that most long time contributers will stick around is quite pointless because it is obvious but you fail to realize that some changes are not effective.
It's NOT a zero sum game. It's not going to be 'exactly the same' like how you make it sound like. If you know anything about cause and effect, it should be that small changes do lead to noticeable difference in overall outcome. Sometimes drastic, sometimes minor. Sky may not be falling, but quality may deteriorate. If you put a shitty engine in a car then it's obvious that performance will suffer.
If in theory it sounds like something will be affected, then usually an actual measurement can reveal if it has been affected or not. Having access to logs and statistics would know if it's good or bad. Unfortunately we don't have access to that so guys like you can mock people who actually know what they are talking about, through common sense and experience, accusing them of being chicken little.
It feels nice to assume that things will always be the status quo no matter what we do, but it is a false assumption. That kind of logic is what terrorists took advantage of during 911.
You must be the kinda guy who thinks that sitting around doing nothing is going to be the same as "being active and voicing opinions because they won't make a difference". I disagree on that because the top contributers know about the hobby better than the vast majority of the newbies who don't really give a shit about or understand what's really going on.
Reviews are the draw, yes. Which is why I refuse to divulge or risk dilvuging my review-alias. As I understand it, only TER admins know it, not the mods. If I constantly post under that review-alias, someone will recognize my writing style and the veil will be blown.
We'll see how it all goes down, okay Red Alert?
I am giving it a few months and then if things go as I think they will I will move on. Does that count sense my VIP is soon to be no more?
So probably not.
Again, I don't think most of you are going anywhere.
But now that TER has shown its face you guys are seeing what the girls have been screaming for YEARS lol!
Some ladies can be rather .. competitive for the lack of better word.
So what happens when other girls start digging through the archives for gossip and bitch hate material if they can see alias?
This is going to be entertaining!
Hostesses and Hosts will not be able to see behind the curtain. If that were the case you are correct that this would be a huge disaster.
PS: What's weird to me is that one of the things that makes this site valuable as a businesss is the number of posters and hits on the Boards. What the new policy has done will have the effect of reducing the number of posters (some will leave, others will be cautious and post less) and cutting the number of posts (because alias posts will drop dramatically). Hence, the property becomes less valuable to advertisers. Seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Again, the host/hostess will NOT be able to see or reveal the true identities of aliases.
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