www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Gentlemen,

Many of us have been around for a while, and we've seen the ups 'n' downs of CRT. And maybe it's just me, but as of late, it seems like CRT is on a "serious" downward spiral. And I'm not just talking about the member's displeasure with the new, "latest & greatest" upgrade to CRT, and the loss of all photographic historical photos. I'm ALSO talking about the "vibe" of the board, and the accompanying attitudes. We all know what happened about 10 years ago with CRS. And I hope history is NOT going to repeat itself. But ya never know. I just thought I'd put it out there (before it's too late), so the membership can air their opinion(s) on this subject, in hopes that the new Admin may read this thread and act accordingly, based on all the comments that will surely follow this original post.

There has always been a great camaraderie on this board amongst many of the long-time members, and plenty of good hearted ribbing and ball busting. And as new members have joined, they have also been able to jump right in to the deep end of the pool and enjoy some of the more "quirky" threads as well as the tremendous volume of great information on traveling to Costa Rica, whatever your reasons are. But lately? Seems like things have taken a turn for the worse, regardless of the subject content of the thread. Granted, many members have started traveling to other countries, enjoying the women and different cultures. But make no mistake - most of them STILL log on to CRT and are STILL very aware of what's happening in here. But their "lack" of posts and obvious lack of participation speaks volumes! And I'm sure that many "prospective" members have read some of the "volatile" threads and changed their minds about getting a membership. And without new members, that is simply the beginning of the end.

So gentlemen - In YOUR opinion, does this board need better / stricter moderation?
And I'm NOT talking about censorship. I'm simply talking about MODERATION!

The microphone is open and I hope Admin is listening closely.....

Respectfully,
Mucho Gusto

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Yes, it does...

The lack of moderation and drop in participation started long before the "new" admin took over. A month or two ago, it appeared that the new guy had things under control through either executive action or a stroke of luck. Then last week contention seemed to raise its ugly head in a couple of threads... the airport transportation discount thread comes to mind. Admin will need to figure out how he wants to tackle this problem. Perhaps, if he started to dialogue more with the members on the open board, or in private, things may improve. I am a member of another well-known board (ISOC) where the Admin and moderators participate in the group both on and off the board. Sure, it has its bumps and drama, but overall, I think it is a well-run board.

I believe many of the once-prolific posters who contributed to the "stream of consciousness" here have other interests outside CR now. Many of these guys are now in places like Colombia, the DR or SEA. Even though they may post information about these "other" destinations, it is not the same volume as it once was. Still others who had posted a lot are fed-up, and have faded away. Perhaps, if the board was modified to accommodate the "other" destinations, it may induce long-lost members to come back to the fold. Then again, maybe not. At the very least, this board needs to be better moderated.

I spend a lot of time on this site as well as another message board about college sports from my alma matter, Mississippi State. The other sports related site was started because of way too much moderation on a previously very popular site. The old site people were getting banned for calling out players and busting balls of other posters on the site. A new site was started as a non profit and asked for donations only to cover hosting costs. All donations were made public and followed with public accounting of all funds. Today more than 12 years later this spin off site remains the most popular Mississippi State sports message board.

The point I am trying to get to is your question about moderation.... I have seen very good moderation of my favorite MSU site become a very important and outstanding feature of the site. That site is moderated by the admin of the site and two other people. They are also probably the most active readers and posters on the site so there is nothing that gets posted to any section that gets by them. If something is way out of line the thread gets a comment from the mod reading it that if there is no further useful comments lets just let this one die a fast death. Continued comments get the thread locked from new comments as it now falls from the board. If they notice a continual user starting conversations that are out of line they will without notice ban a user from posting for 30 days. They also watch IP addresses and prevent said user from simply creating a new username.

There is a small difference. This is a paid site so I don't believe banning someone is appropriate. But better moderation is absolutely needed. It is way too much for one single admin, share those duties with the most active users and agree upon a code or set of criteria and start locking some of the threads that get out of line. Never delete a thread unless it is spam but lock threads that are getting out of the intent of the site. Potentially start blocking users from posting who are continually in the wrong.

I should have had a couple of my own threads locked of recent time. I also and guilty of getting out of line in a few things I have posted. So I can see it from both sites of this conversation.

Good thread Mucho Gusto. I was also a member of CRS and watched it disintegrate before my eyes. I know that the CRS demise was primarily caused by one or two people, however CRT is not immune to the same fate.

I think if we knew the truth, the current admin of the board probably doesn't allow himself enough time to read all the posts and accordingly properly moderate the board.

I would be open to allowing a senior member to moderate the board on a one month trial basis. I have never personally met Irish Drifter, but I think he would be a good candidate. I know some of you don't like him, but he seems to be a good fact checker.

Perhaps we need a poll to vote yes or no on a guest moderator and also nominate some members who would be good candidates.

Devo

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The most dangerous adversaries are the ones that come with a smile instead of a sword

yes, better moderation is needed, but it's easy to point the finger at the admins and to say it's their fault. There has definitely been a downward spiral in the quality of content on the board, but that's in large to part due to the membership and specifically the senior members of the membership, who either choose not to post or who choose to share in the background with a small group of others. These "shadow boards" do nothing to help promote the site or to help fellow mongers. For a long time now I've been asking for the gentleman posters to come forward, and for those with the knowledge of events outside of the big gringo haunts to come forward and share information. They have not. Several have come forward and said specifically that they don't want to share with others they feel don't deserve the information (newbies) or who might misuse the information they get. Well, you only get back what you put in. If only garbage goes in then we can hardly be surprised by what comes out.

New ownership has done a number of things wrong, and the whole photo thing was just a big fiasco, but let's not be too quick to forgive ourselves for the state of the board. There's lots of blame to go around.

moderation is always helpful but requires a fair and attentive individual(s) wout an agenda or certain guys who get a pass on the rules. don't be a douche is a good rule.
as far as guys sharing info privately esp on the girls that has nothing to do with this site or its moderation.
it has everything with buttholes thinking they can impress the girls by passing on what was written about them on a message board. or just showing them the site.
i've seen it happen and while it can be laughed off, its uncomfortable as hell for a guy to be confronted by a wg thats angry and has figured out who said what.
i could say a lot of things and tell a lot of fun tales but would hear about later that night when some swinging dick ran up and told someone i what i said on the board. its happened.

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im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

LA, that's a separate issue and not what I was referring to at all. My comments with respect to content were about some of the older members using the board as a vehicle to exchange info amongts each other without sharing it with other board members. I am not referring to sharing with chicas at all. I'm referring to the "good ol' boys" networks here.

Moderation.. that's a long word No

An Admin that reads the site Yes

It almost seems to me that someone bought the site as a hobby

MG I hope things work out for CRT, but you are right, unless someone takes the chica by the ears who knows

more interaction by THE ADMIM may go a long way

So I Nominate Mucho Gusto for THE ADMIN 2 position

Do I get a Segundo?

I'm new the board and new to the CR scene. First trip under the belt just this past weekend. I read a lot of posts to research CR prior to my trip to ensure I didn't make newbie mistakes that would have wasted my time during the trip. However, I do believe the forum needs some moderation and more so some basic maintenance.

A lot of information is out there. However, there is a massive amount of worthless random comments in information threads and a fair amount of outdated info. I also believe some people oddly have agendas in their posts. Random comments should be limited to general forums. Things need to stay on topic for forums like the Trip Reports of Girls Review.

The forums also needs a ton of maintenance work. Archive older data that is no longer relevant. There are very old posts that get revived due to some random comment that neither adds value or updates the information.

It would be impossible to clean up years of junk that has built up, but something needs to be done moving forward.

As for the 'Ole Boys Network' comments, they were newbies at one point and they don't have to share if they don't want to. If you think that sucks then start sharing your information and maybe form a new network of people who want to share their info. The ole boys have every right to keep their info to themselves. It doesn't help the board, but do those guys really need this board?

Another thing that I think would help out the board is if some active members that have good experience can be flagged somehow. Number of posts, or date of join isn't a good indicator of trustworthy source. I'm not sure if they exist, but if there are some members that can help out and don't have agendas then giving them a special tag so people know these are guys to listen to would be great. While $40/yr isn't the biggest deal, the board could give them free membership as long as they are contributing to the overall health of the board.

good ol boys? idts. its everyman for himself no matter what anyone says. guys help each other sure but there are a lot of guys reading this board and relaying information to favoritas etc. in an effort to gain favor. sad but true.
i think that is the main reason guys don't share that "intel" you are referring to.
sure some don't share because of the aggressive nature of some posters. my take on that is that a lot of guys here have never posted on another internet board and have thin skin.
add to the fact that a lot of guys end up meeting each other in person and its an unusual dynamic to say the least.

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im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

Gentlemen,

Excellent post/topic.

Quick comment; As a CRT VIP cardholder discounter I am seeing a huge increase in CRT VIP cardholders coming through SL. Don`t really know why, but new guys. I have noticed "very few reviews posted on CRT about the Hotel, girls or San Jose in general after they leave CR from these newbies" Many have already come back to San Jose.

Is it the social media effect, many prior bad experiences with forums in general, no interest in sharing or just no time??? It is very different from just a couple years ago. IMHO....Very interesting topic, let`s try to keep this on topic and get something informative from this if that is possible.

Bill

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This post is provided purely for entertainment purposes and free of charge on the part of the author. No "Sex tourism or travel" promotion is expressed or implied. The author of this post was not provided any compensation for this hopefully entertaining contribution. Any posts regarding any event or hotel item are just my humble opinions only.

An interesting concept: But who decides on the "anointed"? Admin, a committee, or a call for volunteers? What is the criteria? One guy "in the know" may be another's "dummy."

My suggestion is to structure the CRT forum like some other boards with an Administrator and a corps of moderators selected from a pool of volunteers. The old Admin could help the new Admin select candidates from the pool of volunteers. If I can use another board, ISOC, as an example: ISOC not only has a moderator group, but a membership hierarchy as well. The members of the senior levels are selected by a vote amongst the senior membership. The guys in the senior levels provide the "leadership" for the board... and give the board direction and purpose. The moderators do a super job of maintaining the board on topic and handle trolls and other bad actors in a swift and effective manner.

Is THE ADMIN (new) still around?

another comment about the site...... probably not many will even understand this but i have seen both ways.

To make this site more easily understood and easier to follow discussions I have a suggestion.

Threaded View versus Topic View

One thing that is really hard is to follow a conversation on this site. I think because it is set up as Topic View.

Topic View the replies a listed in the order they are posted, regardless of what the reply is about. Topic View does not allow people to reply to a specific part of a post.

Threaded View: you are able to reply to a specific post within the thread and offer your input on that specific part of the post. your reply can be to a specific post or to the thread.

The biggest part is Threaded View eliminates the endless threads of people quoting previous sections.

One action you as the admin can take is address some of the site's issues with functionality that used to work and doesn't any more. Like the picture gallery issue (I know, it's been beaten to death but you mentioned it ).

Another recent problem: the "View first unread post" link hasn't worked for a few weeks now since the board upgrade / migration. See here for a post describing the issue: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2164763

Also, the "bandwidth exceeded" issue needs to stop. Hopefully this has been addressed, although we had a recurrence of this over the Memorial Day weekend.

Lastly, the reasons many veteran members have stopped posting are pretty straightforward. You just have to ask them and they won't be shy about telling you why:

• too many trolls
• too many assmegs disparaging or disrespecting what they have to say
• too many dimwits tattling to the chicas about what others post
• too many chest-beaters

mh

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mh