Calling all T.A. Refugees

My view of it

It will only be temporary till they have fixed it.
400 + staff gone before Christmas are not going to be replaced.
All your be doing is feeding Ollie whilst it will be fixed and if they can't fix it the forums will be gone.

Of course Delboy. But…live for today and get back posting again on t.a. You have the advantage of dual membership now and I know from the past you have lots of great information to share (on both forums now) so please don’t deny those asking questions on t.a. the benefit of your travel experience.

Is Ollie really the problem, or the lack of staff? It isn't only the disappearing topics and posts that are the problem on TA. I haven't been "allowed" to post or reply on the forums for 10 days, only write reviews. Despite complaints and being told twice that a "specialized team" will look into this issue within 3-5 working days, nothing has been done.
I will stay on RS and hope that I will be able to help out other members here, who indeed have been very welcoming.

That’s an unusual problem to have Blackbird. Maybe a glitch in the t.a. system somewhere 🤔. Sadly, very few staff now moderating on the ta forums I think. It’s great if you can maintain a presence here and help out other travellers.

Hmmmm. Sounds like good news but I think I will observe from over here for a week or so before hanging out the bunting!

😂😂. I bet you’ll be taking a sneaky peak at the t.a. forums though 😉.

Once we were all valued TA members but now I feel as valued as the 400+ staff they have got rid of.

Don’t we all but wallowing in the past is definitely not my style. We are all just a number, remember? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Entirely up to you Delboy but there are a few smiles on t.a. this morning as we wave Ollie goodbye…even if it’s only temporarily.

Ollie or not, Tripadvisor forums are going down the drain. I am not boycotting it (just posted something on the Crete forum) but I think that it's realistic. And yes, Ollie will come back in some form.

I deleted all my TA bookmarks and I have no intention going back.

I've done little with TA in close to a decade. It was very useful for finding guides at one time, but once it became focused on selling tours, I bailed. What's up with TA these days and why is it causing refugees? It looks like Ollie was an AI aid for travel -- did he decrease activity in the TA forums?

Hi Dave
They have got rid of 400+ TA staff removed pm facilities and programmed this Ollie to moderate the forum and it has been deleted posts wholesale.
There has been nothing from TA and the whole of the Greece Forum had become a mess. Clearly from financial Reports TA is removing not profit making sections. The staff appear to have gone and clearly TA have indicated we like the staff will not going to be required

Got it. Thanks for the response -- now I understand the reference to refugees 🙂.

Very sorry to read how your contributions and the forums are being treated.

Thank you for coming here. I appreciate that almost everyone has included their location, which helps identify you as a local expert. I've seen new names with low counts but informative answers, so I've assumed these were from experienced TA people. Bienvenue.

Ollie may be gone but not deleted posts!

Just received an email on Jan. 22:

**Greetings Tripadvisor Member:
Our moderation team has taken action on a message you posted in the Greece Forum in the topic "Trip planning during crisis?**

TA is not done with us yet!

There will always be a few deleted posts on t.a. Goes with the territory 🤷🏽‍♀️.

"I haven't been "allowed" to post or reply on the forums for 10 days, only write reviews. Despite complaints and being told twice that a "specialized team" will look into this issue within 3-5 working days, nothing has been done."

@ blackbird- I had this issue last year as did one of the other DEs on the Yellowstone forum. She has been blocked twice for about a month each and I was blocked for about 30 days. This was last winter so before the staff was depleted. The last time she got back on the Staff member she had been in contact with told her he thought it was because she was posting too many links in her posts. The links were all relevant (lodging concessioner, drive time map, other very pertinent websites) so she and I have decided we will not post more than 2 links per post as that seems to be tolerated but 3 seems to be the problem.

There was also no notice when we were "reinstated". We just kept trying to post and finally one day it worked.

I actually believe then they have a specialized team looking because I was asked to give more information several times to the person I was dealing with (Samuel). I'm not sure they could ever figure out what was going on to get us unblocked.

Thanks for telling me this, Pam. Blocked for all of 30 days? That's terrible! I hope I won't have to wait that long. I haven't tried to post any links, so that can't be the problem. But if they don't have a specialized team any more, who knows when and if the issue will be resolved.

Any of you TA guys mentioning this forum on other country pages?

Right now our moderator is considering if this forum might double in size and watching YouTube videos on Russian roulette.

@Blackbird - Oh yes, it drove both of us nuts! Fortunately she, the third Yellowstone DE and I have for years been friends and have alternate communication set up. She is the "camping expert" so would post a reply on our chat page and one of us would post it to the forum crediting her. Crazy.

And interesting that you have not been posting links. They finally told me I was blocked because my computer was sending out something like 30 requests a minute to TA and was acting like a bot. Well, even when I powered down my computer, was using only my phone on data not WIFI AND got my ISP to come out and replace our old modem they still could not figure anything out. Finally it magically cleared but I'd not count on the 3-5 day time limit they are quoting you. I would about once a week respond to the email where they said they had the specialized team working on it and ask for an update.

Fingers crossed for you! Have patience!

Thank you, Pam! Yes, I will check in with them once a week. By the way, I get the same error message on my phone, tablet and computer, using both Chrome and Firefox.

Pam, inspired by your last post I thought I'd try using data on my phone. And surprise! I was able to post on a forum! Thanks to your telling me about what you did to get posting again, I now have a solution - not the greatest, but still ...

Wow, I am so glad that worked for you as it did NOT for me, hahaha! Still you want them to clear it up so you can post via WIFI.

Thank you! Yes, I do prefer to post via WIFI, not only for cost and convenience, but also because I can't seem to preview or edit when using data. Well, back to checking this and other forums for topics I can help with!

Blackbird…..It will be good to see you posting again on t.a. ☺️.

@ Mr E. Yes, the R.S. forum has had plenty of mentions on t.a. recently (mostly from those of us confirming we’d signed up and encouraging other t.a. members to do the same).

Unfortunately for me, my travel style and Greek destinations are at odds with what is most popular here so I think it’s rare that I could make any contribution but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this forum in the future. (You are a lovely, welcoming group of people to write alongside too).

Twinkletoes, I encourage you to keep an eye on this forum and don't hesitate to offer suggestions "off the beaten path".

So many first time posters don't know what they don't know. On the Scotland forum, for example, it sometimes seems that Skye and Loch Ness are the only places outside of Edinburgh to visit. They aren't even aware of what is there. Sometimes you need to open a poster's eyes to other possibilities.

Thank you jeanm. I will definitely still be checking here regularly to see if there is anything I can help with and might (when I have plenty of free time) take a look at some of your other European destination forums to see if there is any assistance I can offer there.

Twinkletoes, I have been on TA since 2005 and on RS forums for a few years.

Both have their ups and downs but of course TA has far more downs than ups these days.

I now follow both forums, and Fodors, for my upcoming trips and also for my recent past ones so that if I can help someone I will.

I am putting trip reports on both too.

That’s good to know DebH. Do you use the same profile name on t.a.? (Feel free to pm me with it if there’s any reason why you don’t wish to share it publicly).

I am still limiting myself over there, I’ll answer simply but not the in depth loads of info posts just so Ollie can steal the info (& probably get it wrong :( ) Many of you know me as Yiassas & will know where my strengths lie!

Thank you, Twinkletoes! DebH and sainav - glad to hear that you haven't given up TA - yet!

I’m just the same Yiassas and will help the OP as much as I can without offering Ollie too much supplementary info to steal.

I agree w both of you .... we can help people avoid obvious pitfalls without providing new grist for Ollie.

So yes Twinkletoes, you're right - I have sneaked back on to TA once or twice and all seems well so far. Maybe I will have to retract my dramatic exit after all! I'm still going to stay on this forum though - it has a nice feel to it.

Hi JBMED. I’ll definitely be checking in regularly on both sites for the time being but, as you say, this forum has a very welcoming appeal to it.

Twinkletoes, I am djh1 on TA, for some reason when I joined Rick Steve's I wasn't able to use it so had to pick a different one.

I did wonder who you were on t.a. Perhaps there is already someone with the same initials registered with Rick Steves and that prevented you from using your usual i.d.

Please come back to t.a. and start contributing again. It’s wonderful to know your posts won’t be deleted….for now at least 🤞.