Posts by ruggedseal19

You clearly have no clue.
Let's get one thing straight: volunteering isn't even free anymore. I mean, sure, it can be a total grind, but international volunteering almost always comes with some kind of symbolic pay. And if you're talking about specific programs, like certain UN initiatives or professional volunteer roles, those people are actually getting paid pretty damn well.

Professional volunteers are on a salary 365 days a year. They have set hours, benefits, and all the other contractual obligations you'd expect,
plus there's this whole corporate volunteering thing where big companies hire help to organize their events. Honestly, that’s one of the most ridiculous parts of modern volunteering... and yeah, that applies to the US too. So, the comparison between war and peace isn't just obvious—it's the entire foundation for understanding the issue. But hey, you probably just whipped that little response together in two clicks because you got all worked up over nothing.

(This is a response to an edited part of the post that disappeared in the meantime)

Of course the analogy makes sense. That was the whole point! I’m comparing two totally different extremes just to show how ridiculous this entire debate about tourism has become.
Look, just because one person travels to a war zone and another travels to help a community doesn't mean volunteering belongs in a tourism thread. One's framed positively, the other's negative, but they both fall under the same umbrella. I don't get why this is so hard to grasp. Do you seriously not see the difference between a traveler and a tourist?

In both scenarios, the person is basically sightseeing during their downtime away from their main job—which isn't tourism, obviously. My post, which you deleted by the way, was meant to highlight exactly that. It wasn't some political rant. So, I think you should either restore my post (if you actually want to keep this tourism thread alive) or just move the whole discussion to a more appropriate sub-forum. Moving it would definitely be the better call.

Look, in the good old tradition of being totally clueless, you clearly don't get what politics even means, let alone what it looks like when someone starts playing political games. It feels like that same old soft-handed moderation from before, just wrapped up in a shiny new package. Like, I already said in my post that volunteering basically doesn't count as tourism—except maybe for that tiny part where someone wants to act like a tourist during their downtime (whether they're volunteering or fighting a war, honestly, it's the same thing), which obviously isn't a "tourist trip." The whole topic has nothing to do with tourism. And that's enough for you to delete my post? Seriously? Fine, either restore the deleted post or moderate properly by moving this entire thread to the right sub-forum.

Maybe someone actually in charge—someone who actually understands what politicization is or how tourism works—should take a look at this. You admitted once before that you don't know anything about this field. Now, I'm starting to think you don't even get tourism as a social phenomenon. Sure, you probably travel, but being a traveler doesn't suddenly make you an expert on tourism management.

Why the hell did they delete my post in the Travel PDF section about volunteering in Africa?
What rules did I even break with that post? I’m asking someone in charge to please take a look whenever you get a chance.

Just a quick thought here. One big difference between the fascists back then and the ones we see today is that the old-school types didn't feel the need to hide what they were. They owned it. But nowadays? These people are so embarrassed by their own baggage that they just scream at the top of their lungs about how they aren't fascists. I mean, look, all these "-isms"—including fascism—tend to mutate as time goes on. So, maybe when someone calls a person a fascist today, it doesn't always fit that strict historical textbook definition. But honestly, the label definitely fits those who support various forms of pure hatred (you have to consider the context of the era they're operating in, I guess).

Sandra Brown18 said:velvetgull9, you’re totally twisting things here—you're skipping over key posts and everything.
It's just not fair.
I've been moderating Tourism for 8.5 years, and I did Air Canada for almost a year less than that. Right now, there are only two black marks on my record—both from appeals being denied by the supermod—and Charles Thompson18 opened an appeal thread here today.
If you aren't a moderator for Tourism, a supermod for Tourism, or an admin for Tourism (and we can all see you aren't), I have no idea how you think you know exactly who deleted which specific posts in the Tourism threads. You can't see that stuff unless you're one of us, just like I can't see interventions in the PDFs if I'm not a mod.

If anyone here is twisting words, it's definitely you.
I actually got a permanent ban from you once because of this exact thing—you distorting everything, remember? 🙂

I honestly don't have the energy to play these games with you anymore. Let the supermoderators handle this based on the actual facts and whatever.

Mass deleting posts IS politics. You can't talk about Tourism without touching on its downsides, and you definitely can't ignore how intertwined Tourism and Politics are—maybe more than any other sector.

The whole Left vs. Right thing doesn't even matter here. It's like people act like those divisions don't exist anymore? And no, it’s not just about that. Politics is also what happens when someone demands there be "no politics." I don't have some weird obsession with it—it's just irrelevant to the topic at hand.

What's clearly eating at me, and honestly driving me crazy, is this suppression of any kind of progressive critique. It just so happens to be about Tourism right now, but it could've been anything, while these regressive, backwards views are basically treated with respect. The method they're using to enforce this political agenda is deleting certain people's posts while letting others slide by. They're clearly treating us like idiots—if I'm being polite about it.
Besides, it's obvious that Tourism is moderated under the rule that we should all just be consumers of travel products—like a flock of sheep meant to visit Museums or wherever else without questioning anything except how to get there, what to see, and how to get home. Because if we actually ask questions, we're labeled "Offtopic," our views get nuked, or if we're "lucky," we get shoved into the Offtopic section, which is basically a dumping ground for people they think are crazy. Sure, I'm oversimplifying, but that's pretty much how it works. It's wrong, annoying, and totally unfair in every sense. Tourism isn't just made up of consumers; it's a much bigger, more complex story. That's why it's crucial that everyone who wants to join the conversation gets heard, provided they follow the rules, which is usually the case with Tourism anyway.

I'll stop here since we're officially offtopic.
I just really hope we don't have to keep going through this cycle where we all end up complaining about the exact same things over and over. It's in everyone's best interest to just fix this situation once and for all.

The sheer number of people who are fed up with how Mark Harris66 handles moderation is honestly a huge red flag.

I just really hope that once this whole thing blows over, her constant habit of deleting posts finally gets fixed with a permanent solution that actually keeps the majority of us on this forum happy.

We’re just sitting here waiting for one of those super-mods to actually say something.
Your constant deleting of posts has officially crossed the line of any reasonable or unbiased moderation.

Hey there,

I’m looking for some actual clarification from the higher-ups regarding why my posts keep getting nuked from the Tourism PDF by Mark Harris66. Seriously, what gives?

They just nuked more of my posts from that PDF thread about the tourism - Christmas celebration theme. I’ve tried telling them over and over—after getting shut down multiple times—that using "Merry Christmas" in that specific way is just linguistically weird and outdated. It sounds archaic to say "Blessed Christmas" instead of just saying "Merry" or "Blessed." But no, they just deleted my comments without even giving me a decent explanation. It's ridiculous.
I might have understood why my post was deleted if they’d actually bothered to consider my suggestion for a new thread title, but since they didn't, I don't see any reason for it to be gone.

Oh, and they actually deleted my post about the ridiculous way they handle voting for the Christmas festivities here in the city. Seriously? What a joke.

Which exact rules did I even break?
I’ve got this nagging feeling that my posts are getting wiped just because I don't parrot whatever the moderator thinks. It feels like if you don't agree with them, you're out. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I swear they're scrubbing anything that doesn't fit their specific agenda.

Thanks for the reply.

No biggie, I guess you deserve a little credit every now and then. 😉
Though, honestly, you should've done this ages ago, especially considering how you used to defend those old thread titles and posts. At least this way you’re kind of admitting that some of those members' comments were actually problematic, which isn't the worst thing. Hey, you live and you learn, I suppose. 🙂

The thread has been renamed to bad guest experiences. Honestly, this is a huge step in the right direction. It stops people from using this space as an excuse to just vent their intolerance toward anyone who's different.

Props to the mods. 👍

Are we finally going to lock down the tourism thread, or do I need to start making some serious noise about it? 🐔🐔
It’s been, what, forever since people started posting about this? I honestly think it’s high time we shut this topic down or find some way to rein it in.

Thanks.
c.

Mark Harris66 said:Given your track record in the Tourism section—where you tend to generalize everything with such bitterness, and where you constantly sneak in those little political jabs about the US and YU even when we’re just talking about vacation spots... honestly, out of everyone here (and I've been a mod for eight years), you're really the last person who should be calling anyone else out for being biased or overgeneralizing.

Look, you honestly don't have a single coherent thing to say about this whole chauvinism issue. It's obvious you don't even get what it means, which is why you can't even address it properly. Instead, you just throw in random topics that have absolutely nothing to do with this and aren't relevant at all.

In that first post of yours yesterday—the one you edited—and then again in the quote above, you didn't offer a single actual argument as to why this thread isn't chauvinistic. You haven't shown how this topic adds anything other than just hating on ENTIRE nations. You just keep dragging things down to a personal level and even trying to shut me down for having an opinion. 🤦

I'm asking that the Tourism board be locked down immediately.

If saying Canadians or Italians are the absolute worst isn't generalizing, then I honestly have no clue what you think it is.
Look, I’m sticking to my guns: this whole thing is pure chauvinism. It’s all about those lazy generalizations and trashing entire nations just because of how a few individuals act. I’ll say it again—we're talking about individual traits, not entire countries or ethnic groups. That’s the bottom line for me.

I mean, I shouldn't even be surprised you didn't get it. I only spoke up because I thought there might actually be some common sense here. At the end of the day, this kind of talk doesn't improve anything, whether we're talking about a community or a whole country. These topics just fuel intolerance and stir up pointless hate, which is totally useless for this forum. You can give advice without being a bigot.

I was wondering when someone is finally going to lock this thread in the Tourism section—you know, the one asking which countries send the absolute worst tourists?


Look, I don't care what kind of guests you get, you can't just pin their behavior on whatever country they flew in from. Honestly, the way this whole discussion is going is just straight-up xenophobic. It’s totally irrational to generalize entire nations like this, and frankly, it makes zero sense. I guess it would be great if someone could just lock this thread already.

Says: I used a car which means I'm talking about a woman, yet you guys keep insisting I'm a man 🙄

😁

Hey, if anyone’s looking for a bike trailer, hit me up...
shoot me a DM or whatever, yeah?

I haven't even snapped any photos yet, but I can get on that in the next couple days. I'll probably end up listing it somewhere eventually anyway...😉