How to Kill a Roll Call

[Bonspieler]

I agree with the idea to leave off all the "signatures" of cruises done or reserved. Who reads them anyways?

On a couple of roll calls we have had some computer savy people offer to do spreadsheets for private tours and it has worked really well.

[ORV]

I agree with the idea to leave off all the "signatures" of cruises done or reserved. Who reads them anyways?

On a couple of roll calls we have had some computer savy people offer to do spreadsheets for private tours and it has worked really well.

 

You do understand you have the option to not view them in your settings? Problem solved for you if you don't like to see them. I can't see the issue. Many of us do read them.

[MicCanberra]

Oh, and I should post a warning about organising every detail of your tours on a public forum. In Turkey a few years ago we left the ship and there was a guide holding a sign with our group's name on it, so we followed him and boarded his bus. Our whole group was onboard when our "real" guide boarded the bus to get us. The "fake" guide had got every detail of our tour from our roll call, including our names, the itinerary and the $$pp.

 

They fully intended to take us on the tour we had arranged (I think :eek:) but were essentially stealing us from our real guide who had spent time and effort helping us organise our tour.

 

So... don't post every detail for anyone to see!

Wow, we had some people posting there email addresses in the rollcall being contacted by what were phishing schemes trying to dupe people out of their hard earned. They would clainm to be the tour group organiser asking for deposits to a paypal site.:eek:

[Cruising89143]

I agree that when one asks questions and gets answers, a thank you is in order. At least one thank you after a reasonable amount of time is called.

 

This a pet peeve of mine. I always try to say "thank you" if someone replies to a question that I have posted and that's just not on the roll call boards. We had one poster on our last roll call who asked many questions but never ever said "thank you" one time.

[C 2 C]

There is another option provided by cruise critic. I have found that over the years my point of view on various topics has often conflicted with that of others. It is often easier to ignore some posters than to give up on a roll call or thread.

Under the heading "User CP" there is an ignore option.

I'm sure I've been added to a few lists.. :cool:

 

Now that I have very high speed internet at home, long signatures and off topic comments no longer take long to load. Onboard ships however, load times are horrible and up/down loading is much quicker without signature images.

Over the years I've become a signature minimalist... why have a long signature and many count down clocks to obscure a message? And why not uncheck the "show your signature box" when replying several times on the same page? (This comment ticked off a lot of people when I previously suggested that people clean up their sigs). I'm happy to note that a few other posters share my opinion even though the majority seem to like listing their past cruises line by line rather than in a compact paragraph, misaligned pictures, and clocks.

 

We all have our preferences, likes and dislikes. Sometimes the only thing we have in common is our desire to express ourselves on Cruise Critic.

[MicCanberra]

You do understand you have the option to not view them in your settings? Problem solved for you if you don't like to see them. I can't see the issue. Many of us do read them.

I agree. You would like some information on a particular cruise or port nad you see that someone has been there and done that from their signature, so you ask them. Alternatively, you can start a thread in the main forum.:D

[Suzy Smith]

A lot depends on what you want to get out of the roll call. Depending on the tone of the roll call I join, and sometimes I avoid it. Unfortunately for my upcoming cruise I am avoiding it which is too bad because I've met some very nice people over the years.

 

Why am I avoiding it you ask?

- 3-4 people are dominating the discussion

- These people are rabid about knowing your name, cabin number, etc

- These people are planning multiple events

 

Not my cup of tea but I'm sure many of those on the roll call like this sort of thing.

 

It wouldn't be our cup of tea either, but for others it would be perfect.

 

I never disclose more than I am comfortable with on any internet forum and the rabid interest in your name, cabin number, etc. that you describe would definitely scare me off:eek: although for others it would probably be no big deal. We are all free to disclose as much or as little as we wish, but what I don't like to see is an "organiser" who is asking for cabin numbers, dining times, photos etc. listing the people who have not yet supplied this information, as it seems to me unkind and unnecessary, making them feel like an outsider, because they are not conforming to another person's idea of how you should participate in a roll call. I decided not to join a roll call a couple of years ago for that reason - and we still had a great time!:)

 

I am sure you will have a wonderful cruise and hope the roll call for your next one has more appeal for you.

[chamima]

t

 

we all have our preferences, likes and dislikes. Sometimes the only thing we have in common is our desire to express ourselves on cruise critic.

 

 

Cute.

LOL :D

Edited July 10, 2014 by chamima

[OBX-Cruisers]

I am on a roll call that has a supremely penultimate organizer. Many people like that a lot and they will likely have a lot of fun at the precruise dinner, the first day CC lunch, the slot pull, the cabin crawl and the CC meet and greet. Many of these are the same types of things mentioned in the post by RickT so it seems this happens fairly often or that we are both on the same cruise/roll call.

 

However, except for 3 people who pretty much are the most frequent posters, others seem to be inhibited by those 3 that have cruised together before and like to organize activities for others. There is NOTHING wrong with that and many are enthusiastic by having activities organized for them...............while others just sit in the wings and probably feel intimidated and don't post more than a few times or only once. I don't necessarily have that inhibition problem but find that the constant conversation among so few people becomes quickly boring and I seldom visit the roll call where so little is happening or discussed except for the activities cited above.

So if you would like to kill a roll call you can do it without too much trouble all the while being a very helpful organizer and chatty within your small group of friends

Edited July 11, 2014 by OBX-Cruisers

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

At the risk of annoying the person who hates quotes, I want to thank you for telling me about this option. I did not know about it. Hopefully, those who hate signatures will use the global turnoff others have suggested. I use my signature to count down the days and to actually remember what cruises I've been on and what year, lol. Would like to condense my signature, but when on the edit page, can't see the option to make the print smaller or fit two countdowns on the same line. Some of us don't mean to be annoying but aren't skilled at these things. Will try to figure out how to quote just a part of what someone says now.....

I personally don't mind the medical or sports references...part of getting to know people, IMHO. Fortunately I've never been on a roll call with a clique.

 

OK, I'll try to help you out here, and if we're annoying people who don't like quotes, that's their problem, not ours.

 

If you want to quote just part of somewhat says, push the quote button and the whole thing will show up in the reply window. You can then backspace over whatever you want to delete. Or if there's a lot of text you want to delete, just highlight it (by dragging your cursor over it) and hit the delete key. Just be careful not to delete the

thing in brackets. You can always use the preview post button to see if you've succeeded in doing what you wanted to do.

 

Now, getting the countdown clocks side by side is trickier than the devil. I achieved it once after lots of trial and error, but then I just decided life was too short for all that putzing around. So I think mine are currently stacked. Guess I'll have to show my signature on this post so I can see what it looks like. Gasp. Avert your eyes, all who are offended. And yes, like you, it's a good memory aid for me. I think to make the print smaller in the signature portion, I highlighted the text and selected a smaller font size.

 

Good luck. Don't let the curmudgeons grind you down (to paraphrase another good quote).

[The_Big_M]

Every single forum I've ever been a part of - except this one - has a private messaging function. The software which this forum uses has a private messaging function, which CC has specifically disabled. Why? You better ask them that - I personally think there's no valid answer for that, but that's just me!

 

I seem to recall there were issues in the past with people getting spammed, and travel agents promoting services. As you probably know, there are other restrictions on that.

 

And as others have pointed out, people still go to lengths to dupe/promote themselves via rollcalls, so issues around that are pretty believable.

[LetsGetWet!]

I seem to recall there were issues in the past with people getting spammed, and travel agents promoting services. As you probably know, there are other restrictions on that.

 

And as others have pointed out, people still go to lengths to dupe/promote themselves via rollcalls, so issues around that are pretty believable.

Not surprising - every forum has to deal with spammers/scammers, but again - the HUGE majority of them are able to deal with them effectively without resorting to something as crude AND inconvenient to users as totally & completely eliminating private messaging.

[wpgcycler]

I seem to recall there were issues in the past with people getting spammed, and travel agents promoting services. As you probably know, there are other restrictions on that.

 

And as others have pointed out, people still go to lengths to dupe/promote themselves via rollcalls, so issues around that are pretty believable.

 

I am a member of several forums (travel, sports, food and wine, collector car, etc. etc.) and ALL but this one have a PM function. I have NEVER had issues with spam on any of them. All of them also provide the ability to opt in or out of the PM function individually or to block specific members. It baffles (and sometimes annoys) me that CC does not provide it.

[MicCanberra]

I am a member of several forums (travel, sports, food and wine, collector car, etc. etc.) and ALL but this one have a PM function. I have NEVER had issues with spam on any of them. All of them also provide the ability to opt in or out of the PM function individually or to block specific members. It baffles (and sometimes annoys) me that CC does not provide it.

Agreed.

It is possible that due to the rules of CC usage (i.e. no mentioning a TA) that policing PMs would be too difficult and time consuming for the moderators.:(

[Chelly]

OK, I'll try to help you out here, and if we're annoying people who don't like quotes, that's their problem, not ours.

 

If you want to quote just part of somewhat says, push the quote button and the whole thing will show up in the reply window. You can then backspace over whatever you want to delete. Or if there's a lot of text you want to delete, just highlight it (by dragging your cursor over it) and hit the delete key. Just be careful not to delete the

thing in brackets. You can always use the preview post button to see if you've succeeded in doing what you wanted to do.

 

Now, getting the countdown clocks side by side is trickier than the devil. I achieved it once after lots of trial and error, but then I just decided life was too short for all that putzing around. So I think mine are currently stacked. Guess I'll have to show my signature on this post so I can see what it looks like. Gasp. Avert your eyes, all who are offended. And yes, like you, it's a good memory aid for me. I think to make the print smaller in the signature portion, I highlighted the text and selected a smaller font size.

 

Good luck. Don't let the curmudgeons grind you down (to paraphrase another good quote).

^^^^^^^^ LIKE:D

[wpgcycler]

Agreed.

It is possible that due to the rules of CC usage (i.e. no mentioning a TA) that policing PMs would be too difficult and time consuming for the moderators.:(

 

Not clear to me why this would be necessary - TripAdvisor (with which CC is affiliated) has no such issue.

[Evangaline]

I'd never bail on a cruise because of a roll call. There are thousands of people on the ship and maybe less that 50 in the roll call. Ours has at most 8! But it will be a fabulous trip. Believe it or not not everyone has heard of cruise critic.

 

I said this half- jokingly, although I did actually cancel the cruise and wow I am so glad I did. I later spoke to friends who decided to go ahead with it and they said it was actually as deadly as the roll call. Really funny- for me, I guess. Anyway, we ended up having a great time on the Epic.

[MicCanberra]

I said this half- jokingly, although I did actually cancel the cruise and wow I am so glad I did. I later spoke to friends who decided to go ahead with it and they said it was actually as deadly as the roll call. Really funny- for me, I guess. Anyway, we ended up having a great time on the Epic.

Great to hear you had a lovely cruise.

I have been on a cruise where I have avoided meeting several people that were on the rollcall, they had overstepped the line and abused some other members. If I saw them, I would keep walking. :)

[MicCanberra]

Not clear to me why this would be necessary - TripAdvisor (with which CC is affiliated) has no such issue.

True, but Trip advisor doesn't have the Travel agent issue.:D

[The_Big_M]

I am a member of several forums (travel, sports, food and wine, collector car, etc. etc.) and ALL but this one have a PM function. I have NEVER had issues with spam on any of them. All of them also provide the ability to opt in or out of the PM function individually or to block specific members. It baffles (and sometimes annoys) me that CC does not provide it.

 

Do all of them deal with people discussing multi-thousand dollar purchases?

 

The cruising market is generally a very well heeled sector of the market. Advertising rates are different depending on the target demographics, and it's clear that that makes this one of the most appealing target markets.

[The_Big_M]

Not surprising - every forum has to deal with spammers/scammers, but again - the HUGE majority of them are able to deal with them effectively without resorting to something as crude AND inconvenient to users as totally & completely eliminating private messaging.

 

I agree it's inconvenient... but they used to have PMs here as well. They didn't just start without. The problem got so bad that the most reasonable option for them was to discontinue them.

[wpgcycler]

True, but Trip advisor doesn't have the Travel agent issue.:D

 

Precisely my point - there is obviously an effective way to handle it other than shutting down the feature.

[wpgcycler]

Do all of them deal with people discussing multi-thousand dollar purchases?

 

The cruising market is generally a very well heeled sector of the market. Advertising rates are different depending on the target demographics, and it's clear that that makes this one of the most appealing target markets.

 

Are you serious? You're somehow suggesting that TA's are not interested in business outside of cruising because that's where the money is? The cruise I took this year in an aqua class cabin (no, not a suite but not an inside either) was one of the lowest cost per day vacations I have taken.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

True, but Trip advisor doesn't have the Travel agent issue.:D

 

The most spam emails I get now are from CC , sending out cruise packages from travel agents :rolleyes:

[HokiePoq]

OK, I'll try to help you out here, and if we're annoying people who don't like quotes, that's their problem, not ours.

 

Good luck. Don't let the curmudgeons grind you down (to paraphrase another good quote).

 

Thanks, Linda!! I should have figured that out for myself. And I will let my signature show on this post and run for cover, lol. I like reading others' cruising experience. I would use a smaller font or put more on a line but like you said, that is a hard thing to do on the edit page.