Moderator prematurely shut this down because of a few bad actors. How hard is it to just delete a few offensive posts rather than lock down an entire extremely useful thread for those of us still planning to go to Spain in the next few months.
was it your thread, coldrvr? The only way you know if it was taken down by the Webmaster is if it was your thread. This is apparently your first post?
Sometimes the original poster, for reasons of their own, remove a thread.
Back before the covid the webmaster had time to pick and choose posts in a thread. Since they are now extremely busy they don't have the time to do that and if part of a thread turns septic they just chuck the entire thread. It is sad that people who want to break the rules ruin it for everybody, Same in life beyond the Forums too.
If the thread you are speaking about is the one by Carlos called Travel to Spain 2021: What you need to know https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/travel-to-spain-2021-what-you-need-to-know it is still alive and kicking. Find it in the Spain Forum or click on the link here.
You can't add anything else to it because it has been locked, but you can certainly read it.
You can also start your own thread if you want...
The thread is still there — and anyone could start a new thread if they wished.
Wow, what a thread.
Last week, Covid-19 numbers started declining for most of Spain. The numbers in País Vasco, Madrid, Cataluña, and Castilla y León regions remain very high. If the downward trend continues expect Carlos will start a new thread. In the meantime, this article was in El País on the 29th.
The thread is locked, not removed. Very interesting, but its hard to say that anything good would come out of it. And it might scare off the new people.
I'm glad you (and most likely others) found my thread useful. With so little actually detailed information on Spain's reopening/current status trickling through the Anglo-American press, I saw there was a definite need to share that info with the RS community.
I too am disappointed to see it only took the rantings of a single troll-poster to shut down my thread. Since the situation in Spain is ever evolving (especially during this transition time), I would think it's counter intuitive to freeze the thread and not let me update it with new and more timely information as it comes through.
Carlos: I, too, hope you begin a new thread in the next few weeks as status evolves. Your information is timely and helpful. It is nice to have the "current" information at the start of a thread. And great to have info. from those in place.
Carlos, I too, was following your thread with interest, since we are supposed to go to Spain and Portugal with a tour in October. I found that what the poster who went off the rails with the thread said, was pretty offensive.
I appreciate the time and effort you put in to help those of us looking for information.
We have about 3 weeks to decide if we are going to cancel, in order to get our money back.
Anytime you find a great thread (and there are LOTS) understand it can disappear in the blink of an eye (moderator, OP)…If the thread contains information that you want to use in the future cut and paste the parts you like to your own computer/device in a word doc. There is also the old fashion analog method of hitting “print”. Never expect anything on the web to be available to you in the future. It might be, it might not.
As those of us who still are hoping to go to Spain in the next few months know (it's three weeks out for me) the situation is constantly changing and we are faced with a critical decision. So (personally) I was hanging on every word that was reported in the "What you need to know" thread because it's "beyond the regulations" practical advice from those who've made the trip recently or are already in Spain and know what's going on. Hats off to Carlos from Barcelona and others for keeping us up to date on what's going on. I'd encourage you and others to keep posting Carlos - the information you're providing is invaluable.
I don't want to intrude into Carlos post :).... just to say that for those visiting Catalonia (or planning to), you can follow up-to-date official information directly published by the Catalan Government in the URL I posted here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/infox-new-restrictions-due-to-covid-contagions-in-catalonia-jul-16th