Is it just my imagination

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Bill B
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Is it just my imagination

Post by Bill B »

Or does it seem that we are suddenly getting a lot of glowing reports on accomodations from unregistered first time posters? I would think that the only people who would file a report here, after returning from Tobago, would be those who had posted previously in anticipation of their trip. Are these posts legitimate or are they "shills" trying to make places look good?

Bill :?:
Can't wait to be "limin"

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Gill M

Re: Is it just my imagination

Post by Gill M »

Hi Bill

Yes, I have noticed that too :?:
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Steve Wooler
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Hi Guys

I'm not sure what/which reports you are referring to, so I can't really comment. Can I ask you to point me to a couple, either here or in an email to me, so I can check that nothing has slipped past me without me seeing it.

'Guest' reports are posted in the accommodation section, where readers don't need to register a full forum account (although they must declare their name and provide a valid email address - so effectively the same as a forum account). Any over-the-top or seriously negative reports are checked out. The IP address is checked to ensure that the post is coming from where the poster declared and compared to the owner's IP to make sure its not the owner hyping their own property.
Steve Wooler
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Bill B
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Post by Bill B »

Steve,

Here are a few that look suspicious to me:

Beach House by Joanne Grose on 11/1
Tree Top by Dr S Harding on 10/30
Lippy Lodge by Len Gray on 10/24
Mangobird by Ric Gethin on 10/23
Sea Breeze Villa by Harry Stokes on 10/31

As I said earlier, I find it hard to believe that people would search out and post a report on a forum that they weren't actively involved in prior to their trip.

Bill
Can't wait to be "limin"

Tobago 2007 Pictures at
http://billbrunner.myphotoalbum.com/
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Steve Wooler
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Bill

Four of those properties, and the owners of three of them, are VERY well known to me. There's NO chance that they would risk having their myTobago reviews pulled by doing something as stupid as hyping their own property. I'm certainly not prepared to risk my name and reputation by recommending bad property - what would be the point when there's so much good accommodation on Tobago to choose from?

I have also had communication with one of the five posters and can assure you that they did stay at the property concerned, although I have had no personal contact with them since that time. However, I have no reason to dispute their post.

I am further VERY familiar with Sea Breeze Villa. In fact it was on our review list for 2007. However, the villa had no availability at the time we need to visit, so we shall only be doing a mini-review next year and then subject to availability anticipate a full review in 2008.

Having intimate knowledge of those properties, I saw absolutely nothing wrong with the reports as they only confirmed what we knew to be the case about the properties. I receive an immediate email copy of all reports filed and fully investigate them if anything is suspicious - such as the email address failing validation (immediate deletion of the report, good or bad), if an IP trace indicates that the poster is not physically located where they declared on the post; and or if their IP address comes from the same block as the owner of the property.

What is so unusual about people filing reports about the accommodation they stayed at? How do you think sites like TripAdvisor.com and WhereToStay.com survive. They have considerably more holiday reports that we do and NONE of those posters have had the opportunity to be involved in any forum. We actively encourage readers to add reports.
Steve Wooler
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Bill B
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Post by Bill B »

Steve,

Thanks for your response and reassurance. I've been following and posting here for close to a year now and have felt very comfortable that the info I was receiving was valid and non biased. All of a sudden I started to get a funny feeling that maybe it wasn't so. I suppose it's just jitters as our vacation time draws near and we start to worry that we've made the right decisions.

Aw - who cares. Even a sh**ty day in paradise will be better than the best day ever at work :D

Bill
Can't wait to be "limin"

Tobago 2007 Pictures at
http://billbrunner.myphotoalbum.com/
Gill M

Post by Gill M »

Hi Steve

Thanks for your reassurance. Whilst I only "joined" 6 months ago, I do admit to using the forum before that and really felt guilty by not "officially joining" your excellent forum as I was really benefitting - it was really just a case of privacy on my part so maybe others feel that way too. Having said that, I think that I would take more notice of reports from a registered member.
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Steve Wooler
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Hi Bill and Gill

No problem! Believe you me, nobody goes over those reports with a finer toothcomb than myself. I'm probably hated and loved in equal measure by Tobago accommodation owners (and others).

Believe you me, there's more than one or two owner's who have fallen foul of the rules. The "Add Report" page in the Accommodation section makes it perfectly clear that owner's must not post false recommendations of their own property or even post genuine comments and endorsements received from guests who have stayed with them - the guests concerned must do that direct. I have regular correspondence with lots of owners and once or twice a year I send out newsletters to every property, giving them information like enquiry statistics, etc. I bang on unmercifully about the importance of getting guests to file reports on myTobago and other sites.

Carrying on from your own point, Gill, registered users represent only a small portion (about 10-15%) of our actual forum readership. Have a look at the "On Line" box at the bottom of the Index (first) page of the forum. You will see how many registered users are on the forum, as opposed to non-registered. Some people are shy; some concerned about privacy. Others simply have nothing to ask or add. Look at our Competition winners - how many names do you recognise?
Steve Wooler
myTobago.info - the definitive Visitor Guide to Tobago
Gill M

Post by Gill M »

Hi Steve

Yep, I get the message. Seven users on line at the moment and I'm the only one registered!!! I really thought there would be alot more actual registered users! (And I like privacy too).
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Steve Wooler
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Post by Steve Wooler »

Leaving aside the 2-3 spam accounts that I delete each and every day, I also have 'purges' every three months and delete old accounts with no postings and which haven't been accessed for a year or more. This frees up user names, apart from anything else. As a result of this, you will regularly see the number of registered users take a sudden dive - I typically remove 50-100 at a time.

I would hope that the information on the main site, and here in the forum, is exhaustive enough to answer the questions of most users. Therefore, I wouldn't expect to see a huge number of users. Its also surprising how many people are nervous of using the forum - even for reading. I get an average of one email a day from readers asking me questions, despite the note on the "Feedback" page warning that I can no longer answer private postings. I really hate sending an automated reply back pointing this out and asking them to post their question in the forum. My estimate is that less than 10% of those people actually post their question? Why. Yes, if it's a question like the lady who wrote asking if there were any "adult swingers clubs" on Tobago, I can understand it, but 90% of the time they are normal-type questions that most of our readers could answer.

There's nowt so funny as folk! :cry:
Steve Wooler
myTobago.info - the definitive Visitor Guide to Tobago
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Bill B
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Post by Bill B »

Steve,

Are there any? :lol:

Seriously, you do an excellent job on this forum and your efforts, I'm sure, are appreciated by a lot of people even if they don't post a thank you.

Bill 8)
Can't wait to be "limin"

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Brian Taylor
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Post by Brian Taylor »

was not able to watch the forum for a while, so only stumbled over this thread now.
sometimes there are guests who only read the forum before they come here, they know everything that is going on, know all the names and so on, but never felt like posting anytjhing because their questions are answered by the existing threads and they have no answers to offer. some of them tell us when they are here, that they plan on writing some reports to let other people know how much they enjoyed their holidays. until a short while ago even I did not know, that you can just post a report without becoming a member, and I thought I know my way arround in the forum by now... :wink:
maybe you cen email concerns over certain posts to steve direct and he can check it out so they don't get a bad name by beeing mentioned without actually having done anything... :wink:
by the way, how many "sea breeze" properties are there on our tiny island... I better go check... :lol:

keep checking guys...

STEPH
David Watkins
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Post by David Watkins »

But there is only ONE that matters :roll:
David
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