Disappearing posts

Are you sure the OP deleted it and not the webmaster?

Good point, not sure about that.

I commented on it asking for more information; the post wasn't really clear about what the issue was. My feeling is that I am not that invested in commenting on others' posts that I worry about them deleting it at a later time. It's sometimes better to just move on...

I think any poster has the right to delete their post, no matter how many people have spent time reading and responding to it. The readers of the forum spend as much or as little time reading it as they choose. It’s not the poster’s concern how much time folks spend reading their post.

Slate, that’s interesting. I replied to it because I use Booking a lot and wondered why he wasn’t able to access his information. I hadn’t returned to see the post turn a different direction during the day.

Sorry, I don't think I saw that thread. I would have loved to have chimed in on it with my experience.

Hey, I'm a very experience traveler in German, having spent 160, 170 days there in the last 20 some years. I don't think I have ever spent more than $100 per person per day (room, meals, local transportation, i.e., anywhere but flights to and from Europe, and misc), even traveling single most of the time.

The absolute last place I would go to book accommodations in Germany is Booking.com (or any other booking website). I usually go to the town's own website, where they have a listing of available accommodations in that town. As an example, at the last place I stayed at in Germany, I used the town website to find a Ferienwohnung. There were 15 accommodations of all types shown on the town website and five of them were also on Booking. The accommodations shown on Booking were the five most expensive places on the town's website.

I don't avoid places that are listed on Booking, but I don't use Booking to find places, either. In the last 15 or so years, I have stayed in places that were also listed on Booking, but in every case, I got a better deal booking directly with the property than I could have with Booking. One time I got a two night package including admission to the Therme in the town for the same price as two nights alone from Booking. In another case, I got five nights with dinner from the property for the same price as five nights alone from Booking.

I don't avoid places that are listed on Booking, but I don't go first, or ever, to Booking, or any other booking website, for booking accommodations.

Its unfortunate when a thread is deleted that can contain very useful information, not only for the OP, but for other readers in similar situations. I've seen a few new posters who seemingly got what they wanted, then deleted their thread and vanished. I really hate to see that happen.

Rants? I really couldn't care less. Especially if it's a serial complainer. Or someone with unrealistic expectations, a victim of their own lack of due diligence, or who blames a company ad nauseum without providing any details that clarify the offending experience. Just a waste of my time. Delete away.

I find it frustrating when you take a few minutes to add a reply and then once the OP has apparently got the info they wanted they delete the thread. So these days I always click on the user name and if they haven't been a member of the forum for a while or have only 1-5 posts I don't bother replying.

This was the second vent from the OP and different people noted that this isn’t the place to just complain about what you feel is an injustice. Don’t really understand why people come on here to solely complain and then get further upset when people don’t always sympathize with them but ask questions and explain how the situation may have been different if they had________(fill in the blank). There was another one last week, I believe about Viking cruises, maybe it’s the time of year?

OP of the deleted post complained to having access to their booking, and some replies wondered why. I want to share my two cents.

I had such experience abroad, when I was logged out of my banking, socials, emails, even the Booking app. I was asked not to log in, but to change passwords. I suspect that after a 100 per cent phone (IP, wifi, GPS) usage in my home country, a trip across half Europe triggered some security protocols in my phone or some apps? I was recently changing a battery for my old Samsung phone and I discovered I had a ton of autoblocks and disabled options on my phone by manufacturer default.

I always bring printed copies of my itinerary and reservations. I do screenshot them as a back-up.

I think that if someone starts a topic and thus opens it up for discussion, and others present well thought out comments on the subject, those people have the right to have those comments stay on record. The OP can go away, but he (she) does not have the right to essentially censor other's opinions on the subject. I guess if responders get negative and abusive, maybe the OP has the right to delete it, but just because the responses don't agree with the OP's original reason for posting, NO.

Don’t really understand why people come on here to solely complain and then get further upset when people don’t always sympathize with them but ask questions and explain how the situation may have been different

Methinks aggrieved people want to put something on the internet that could be found if a person searches with the name of the hated vendor. Maybe it will cost them future business; that'll show them! The poster doesn't have their own website and anyway they like the anonymity of posting on someone else's website. Then they get even angrier when replies explain the vendor may not be as much to blame since those replies will show up in the same search.

I think that if someone starts a topic and thus opens it up for discussion, and others present well thought out comments on the subject, those people have the right to have those comments stay on record. The OP can go away, but he (she) does not have the right to essentially censor other's opinions on the subject. I guess if responders get negative and abusive, maybe the OP has the right to delete it, but just because the responses don't agree with the OP's original reason for posting, NO.

I agree - in general. In this specific case, it would help to know if the person deleted the post or if the post was deleted by a moderator.

Moderators have a tough job on any popular website, but it would also be nice if the community could know if a post went poof because the originator deleted it or because the mods deleted it. Likewise, if the mods have the power to do so, I'd rather see selective deletions - ie individual replies within a thread marked as deleted by a moderator vs a whole thread with reasoned replies by other contributors deleted en masse because of a posting by one person breaking the rules.

Not sure what happened to the thread folks remember, but I hate when useful info that others spent time posting disappears - whether via a delete by the originator of the thread or via site moderation.

Either way, I am a big proponent of Booking, used them for years, and they give me good rates. I move so often during a trip that a stack of reservations on one site is great for organizing, too. When I send a question to a hotel or B&B through their site, I receive a response within 24 hours, And the time that I had a family emergency mid-trip, the ease of being able to go into just one site and hit the “cancel” for the subsequent lodging reservations was so appreciated.

Speaking only to the topic of deleted or edited posts, yes, it is failing of this forum that "things just disappear"'

An original poster can just delete a post, with no trace, most forums indicate the page and that the post was deleted by the user, sometimes even preserving the comments made.

Same with comments from a poster, they can delete the comment, or edit it, with no indication that they did. Many forums will at least indicate that the comment was edited, and courtesy rules dictate that you should indicate what or why you edited,

The webmaster can also delete entire threads, edit the content, plus with comments to the thread, edit peoples comments or delete them entirely, with no indication that it was done, or notifying the person that posted the topic or the comment.

You can invest time in a well thought out comment, come back in a few days, and what you wrote is nowhere near what you said, basically because someone complained and did not like the tone of you comment.

But those are the rules we agreed to, so live with them.

I certainly don't mind my comment on that thread being deleted - it was nothing that would be helpful for the ages. It was astonishment and disbelief that the poster was charging that the Forum members who were commenting on their post were probably working for Booking.com ! I thought that was pretty outrageous and said so.

I will confess. I have deleted a thread where I was the OP before. The reason, the thread moved far off topic and some of the posts were quite unkind. I realized I had unknowingly created a monster. It certainly wasn’t because I don’t value the input of posters on this forum. I have learned so much from you over the years. I just couldn’t stand something associated with me going quite so far afield.

Well, maybe people should not spend a great deal of time responding to first time or second posts where people are merely venting about a bad experience. We do have a choice to just move on instead of feeding the bear….

Lot of good opinions on the "deleting threads" topic. But there's no solution that would satisfy everyone without taking up a whole lot of moderator time.

1. If the OP wants to delete the thread, it's good if he/she has the ability to do that. And I assume it's pretty easy to do. But they will especially want the thread title, and their username, to be deleted. Any solution where the thread title is retained, so as to leave selected posts there, would not be deleting enough. And how can you leave some "useful" posts without having the original post title?

2. If the webmaster sees a thread getting out of hand, he can delete the whole thread in seconds, or he can spend a lot of time reading through 50 posts to delete only the offensive ones. Might not have all that spare time.

So, I don't think it's the webmaster's job to selectively delete specific posts.

An exception to that is if someone reports a single post for being offensive, then that one can be deleted, no problem.

In summary, I think the current system works well enough... And thanks, webmaster.

Speaking of disappearing threads - looks like the Avoid Frankfurt airport rant has poofed.

I might have had something to do with the Frankfurt Airport rant being deleted, I reported it to the webmaster as a 'first time review / rant'. Then again, maybe a bunch of us reported it.... (I thought about noting that I was reporting it, but a few times the OP has come back and given me grief!)