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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 22, 2012 18:58:53 GMT
Just a moment ago, when I went to read what's new on the Mexico Branch of TT, I got first a "page unknown" then a message that TT was closed due to a number of user posts that did not conform to LP TT standards. It thanked us for our understanding and patience. O.k. Kerouac2, where were you at that time?
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Post by bjd on Dec 22, 2012 19:00:07 GMT
I just saw that too.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 22, 2012 19:01:18 GMT
Wow, bjd; what a fast response.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2012 19:08:41 GMT
I remember when the Thorn Tree used to close for two weeks at Christmas, just because all of the moderators were on holiday. It was during those two weeks that one was quick to realise whether one was addicted or not -- it was an endless wait.
Maybe they are doing it again without admitting it.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 22, 2012 19:10:48 GMT
Yeah, I used to go nuts during the TT Christmas break.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 22, 2012 19:13:13 GMT
There's a weird, techie page posted at www.lonelyplanet.com/, along the lines of If you're seeing this page via a web browser, it means you've setup Tomcat successfully. Congratulations! As you may have guessed by now, this is the default Tomcat home page. It can be found on the local filesystem at: $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/ROOT/index.html EDIT: Don't be fooled. You don't have permission to administer the site.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 22, 2012 22:23:02 GMT
Still down. The message reads: Dear Thorn Tree user, We're sorry to let you know we've found it necessary to temporarily close the Thorn Tree section of Lonelyplanet.com as it has come to our attention that a number of posts do not conform to the standards of the Lonely Planet website. As soon as we have completed the necessary editorial and technical updates we will let you know but in the meantime we are very grateful for your understanding and patience. Thank you, The Lonely Planet Team Personally, I think that the site has been hacked. www.lonelyplanet.com/ still goes to an Apache Tomcat page.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2012 23:17:15 GMT
I didn't even manage to get to that message. I only get "Sorry, we can't find the page you're looking for."
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 23, 2012 0:03:05 GMT
Still down, including the LP parent site. Meanwhile, I dropped my wireless mouse onto a tile floor. The right button doesn't work now. I managed to reassign the scroll push-in as a right click. What these wireless mice need is a tether to keep them from falling. Other than that, it's been a very nice day.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 23, 2012 2:06:26 GMT
The domain root is now working again but the fact that it was down tells you the outage had nothing to do with the forums. I'm sure the error page about 'posts not conforming to standards' is just meaningless boilerplate that was laying around handy to throw up.
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Post by bjd on Dec 23, 2012 10:29:52 GMT
At 11:30 am on the 23rd, I am still getting the "sorry, we are temporarily closed" page.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2012 11:43:22 GMT
Yes, I saw that message earlier this morning.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 23, 2012 13:41:56 GMT
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Post by auntieannie on Dec 23, 2012 16:41:59 GMT
It does create waves, doesn't it?
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Post by Don Cuevas on Dec 23, 2012 17:32:32 GMT
LP TT has certainly influenced my life.
I suspect that they decide at the last minute to take a holiday break, on their own, and someone pulled the plug and sent up that message.
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Post by htmb on Dec 24, 2012 12:31:24 GMT
The LP TT is something I've never experienced.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2012 13:57:34 GMT
Well, it's too late to experience now -- the golden years were 5 years ago. Think some of these other travel sites (TA, Fodor's) but unhampered by constant censorship and enhanced by funny mods who would actually participate. And then the BBC arrived with their lead boots on....
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2012 14:18:53 GMT
The LP TT is something I've never experienced. You didn't miss anything, htmb. It became just a place for frustrated people to vent, even on the so called 'travel' branches. There was little left of 'travel' to discuss and what was discussed was terribly biased and inaccurate. There are much more decent and informative sites to go to (as Kerouac mentioned) which can help the traveler with very good information.
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Post by gabriele on Dec 24, 2012 15:00:21 GMT
I received a spam email...but the address was @lonelyplanet.com....I deleted it without reading much (enough to know it was spam) but I wondered how LP would handle the problem Next time I tried to access TT I found out. I know on the Western Europe forum various members had been getting PMs from attractive women wanting to get to know them (I even got one myself!) but getting a direct email is something else again...told me they had gotten hacked big time...and I would think it's going to take some time to not just get rid of the hackers but to put better firewalls in place.
Of course perhaps everyone at LP/TT decided to hare off to Bugarach to meet the aliens and since that didn't happen they're ashamed to come back and admit they were taken in by the hoax.
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Post by htmb on Dec 24, 2012 15:47:02 GMT
TA was really the only place I'd gone for travel advice in the past. I still drop in there fairly often to gather ideas for my next trip, but get tired of some of the Paris regulars and their snipping, insisting their way is the only way, and the one-upping. Though I think kerouac's "naming" has calmed a few of the ladies down temporarily. Still, I have gotten a lot of good advice there, and kerouac's links are what led me to AnyPort.
It does sound like LP TT was hacked, Gabriele.
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Post by VenessaP on Dec 24, 2012 16:41:46 GMT
Hello old friends :-)
Just wanted to let you know it wasn't hacked. It is a management decision, as the message implies.
I remember the golden years fondly myself, as (hopefully) one of those occasionally funny mods.
Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas in your respective ports.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2012 17:35:54 GMT
Frankly, if I worked for LP-TT I think I would have cleaned house long ago -- most of the travel branches have been abandoned and the only really active places are the chat areas where each person tries to be more inane than the next.
Thanks, htmb.
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Post by htmb on Dec 24, 2012 17:56:55 GMT
Thank YOU, Kerouac!
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Post by gabriele on Dec 26, 2012 8:38:21 GMT
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Post by lugg on Dec 26, 2012 10:26:06 GMT
I did not know LP was owned by the BBC
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2012 11:39:04 GMT
It's funny that it took a scandal at the BBC for it to spill over to Australia. Everyone on the Thorn Tree has been well aware of the various paedophiles there for years -- in fact some of these same people registered at this site the moment it opened and were banned immediately.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2012 12:02:15 GMT
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Post by bjd on Dec 26, 2012 12:08:55 GMT
Well, I didn't know about anything like that. Maybe because I only posted/read a couple of branches, not the ones with the most opinionated arguments.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2012 12:52:44 GMT
"YC" and "WT" have been absolute poison there for a decade.
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Post by guest on Dec 26, 2012 13:43:05 GMT
I can only speculate about the real reasons behind the BBC's decision. Their posted announcement is cryptic at best, and in some respects not entirely correct.
For example, on the BBC televison site just about every posted article/blog has a "have your say" section for readers to get involoved. The posts are screened by a moderator even before they are placed on the website. The screening mechanism is in place at the BBC. Whether they've done this with the LP TT is another matter, but SPAM is usually removed within a day (or less). So, the 'recently come to our attention' claim doesn't make a lot of sense on its own.
The BBC sports pages tolerate quite a bit from posters, where real people (Sportspersons, BLOG writers) are named and commented on. Abuse and profanity isn't tolerated, but strong opinion is (fans are fans, after all).
I don't visit the YC or WT branches so can't report on what happens there on a day to day basis. But they've always been marginal to the TT as a travel site, mainly an in-group 'community' who have ridden on the LP forums. YC was created a few years back precisely as a holding tank for certain types who otherwise didn't contribute to the main goals of the forum. It might be that corporate BBC has decided that the free-loaders don't belong, period, and won't be tolerated. At least some of them already use other web forums to have their fun, including one via proboards.com.
It wouldn't surprise me if, whatever else happens, the YC and WT branches are removed when TT comes back online.
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