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Add me to the TOBB *banned* list!


MTmommy
By MTmommy,
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I was going to mention something about this...had no idea there was a thread this VAST over here.

I posted my recent Hotwire purchase "over there", too, as I really care about people getting the most for their money (I'm a cheapo, so I know others are, too). I guess they didn't like it that a Hotwire bid beat a Priceline one...so they deleted the post.

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Banned a few years ago from the rental car section because I didn't format a post properly.

Banned last year for not following her advice to a tee, and probably for forgetting to use the link when I placed my bid.

The best thing about TOBB is that it gives us the answer to the age-old question, "What if Stalin ran a bidding-for-travel board?"

Glad to find another place to share my winning bids.

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  • 4 months later...

Sheryl is entitled to moderate her site as she sees fit. It would be more professional of her to publicly disclose her moderation criteria, but she's not required to do that either. The free market will pass judgment on the wisdom of her actions.

I can deal with hard-edged moderation. I can just pretend it's a drill sergeant and be meek. I have empathy for people who feel overworked and underappreciated. I haven't been banned from TOBB, nor do I expect to be banned. I play by all the rules, making money for her and providing good information to other users.

Yet I have one complaint. Trying to police postings on someone else's site is unprofessional or worse. I have read many credible reports that she has banned users based on posts on other sites and she has attempted intimidation of the moderator of another site. That moderator would be me.

I would never dream of telling a moderator of another site how to handle a particular post in anything but the mildest terms. It's a matter of basic respect for the hard work of the moderator. I don't have to agree with every action of a moderator to appreciate the effort she puts in. I defer to her judgment, whether I agree with it or not. I expect the same deference when the positions are reversed. As far as I can tell, Sheryl does not defer to anyone's judgment. Only a handful of people (mostly trolls) have ever harshly criticized my moderation. Sheryl is one of these people, even though she is the antithesis of a forum troll, rarely posting outside her own site.

I don't know how she finds the time and energy to police other sites and run her business.

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Since the owner of TOBB no longer "works" her own site, it's nice to see the reports of people being banned have come to a screeching halt. Although I never post there anymore, it's nice to see others posting freely sharing information without the fear of their posts being edited or removed. This freedom is something we've always enjoyed at Better Bidding, hence my participation here.

Since you made the comment you don't know how she finds the time/energy to police other sites, are you under the impression she's still active at TOBB? If so, that is not the case at all as she hasn't been publically active on her own site for about 10 months now.

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Yup, the funny thing is how she apparently is the only person with access to hotel lists and thus TOBB's hasn't been updated in a good year (think of all the rezoning, nw properties and reclassifying that's gone on in big cities like Vegas, et al). If anyone were to place a PL bid with any degree of confidence, he/she would want to come to this website and use the SB link in appreciation.

As far as being banned, I will attest that her absence has definitely made an impact. Twice in the last 6 months or so, I've posted polite but very direct comments about the need to be respectful to those who aren't as travel-savvy or Priceline-savvy when they don't dot an "I" or cross a "T" in providing info. The one moderator launched into a regular who'd posted via cellphone/tex message and thus had abbreviated some words -- while saving a poster with invaluable last-minute strategy that worked. No doubt if She was still active, my account would've been shut down.

TOBB is an OK resource for winning bids et al, but this site has way more meat and potatoes. Way more accurate hotels/zone info. And is way more friendlier, hands-on (especially to the newbies, who you'd think you'd want to come back, right?). TOBB et al is all kinda amusing.

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Travelalot, I was part of that particular conversation also (under a different screen name.) As a matter of fact I openly crticized the moderator who took paperposter to task. I waited for the axe to fall, as it surely would have back in the day, but it didn't. It is very refreshing to be able to speak freely without worrying about being banned or reprimanded.

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  • 1 month later...

Things must change often, a couple of weeks ago I made mention that the Las Vegas boards don't even have the strip split update and criticized that it would cost people money. And why should people continue to be loyal when they don't get anything from the site in return. I finally thought to go back and looked for the post, did a search for the username I was using and nothing. Tryed to log in and bam, banned. Now I have to find that post that said how to clear something so you can view the site.

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Well, I haven't been banned since I never registered for TOBB, but compared to here, everything is just so disjointed and has all the feel of being in a clearance centre. A friend of mine came across the TOBB, and asked me if that was the one I frequented, and I said I he should come here. For laughs, I checked out TOBB, and that one is amateur hour compared to here.

It is just so nice that the winning bids that are posted here are in a format that is easy to read, and that it gives you so much information and saves you so much time when you're playing this game. The level of respect and help that was shown to me here as a rookie compared to TOBB is like night and day, and reading so many other postings have taught me how to play the game that much better to the point I now book travel for other people.

When you post bidding histories here, it is such a great way to pay it forward to others and prevent them from spending more than they have to. I am more than happy to use the dedicated links to begin my bidding on PRICELINE and purchases on HOTWIRE. It is the least we can do to support this wonderful forum that allows us to spend less primarily on lodging to do whatever we want with it (like more travel).

Proud to be Canadian!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Certainly not surprising as many folks from there have come over to this site. Wouldnt be suprised if that's how theyre getting stuff done these days, between all the bickering (3 more experienced members there and/or moderators were in the midst of chastizing the newbies for not fully/completely posting winning bids properly for Vegas -- it was pretty pathetic). TOBB's big "problem" is that this website comes up via Google searches pretty darn easily, lol.

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And she's banning people again - namely me!

I was just trying to post the information in both sites to help both boards and as many people as I could along the way.

I'm sure she banned me for posting here at BB. I sent her an email message asking for an explanation and apologizing. (I was totally transparent - had the same user name for both sites.) She has not responded. After reading most of this thread, I'm not surprised.

At this point, I have removed TOBB from my bookmarks bar.

Thank you for being the kinder, gentler travel bidding board.

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Wow, I do use different names between the two boards and, while I always always link through this board's links because the board/moderator are extremely respectful/polite toward me and other folks (many of whom are newbies), I will occasionally add info about a bid in case it provides useful bidding reference to others. I better be careful or else, huh, LOL?

The problem that "she" doesn't get is that many folks, if they have specific advice or reference from her/her board, would GLADLY consider going through her link -- and her contemptful attitude toward folks who don't dot their Is and cross their Ts exactly the way she insists is why TOBB is losing revenue. For me, it's a slam-dunk to place every bid/purchase through this board's link -- regardless -- as a result.

All I can say is "wow."

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Wow this thread has kept me smiling for the last 5 minutes :)

I am a newbie to this board but a long time lurker here and TOBB. I travel often but have never attempted a Priceline bid until just last week (I did use the link here and was very happy with my results btw). To be honest, I was actually too afraid to post over there for fear of making a mistake. Now I know why!!! :)

Thanks for making this site so accommodating and user friendly!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was never banned from TOBB, probably because I was never successful in registering LOL. I tried, and they apparently send an e-mail confirmation to registers (just as this board does). But they never came through, and despite many e-mails to try and get it cleared up nobody bothered to reply or fix the issue.

Which it their loss...I book at least 6-8 hotel nights per month via Priceline, and until now had used TOBB for the resources but refused to use their links as I was apparently not good enough to be a member of the community:) I found this forum thanks to Flyertalk yesterday, have now registered, and made my first 'click through' booking today.

Not to mention this community is actually up to date :)

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Welcome aboard, IrishRed. Glad you found out about this forum. Hopefully you'll like it here. It's a much more relaxed atmosphere, and I for one appreciate the fact free speech and ideas are not only accepted, but welcomed here. A nice change from the more dry and mechanical nature of TOBB.

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I was never banned from TOBB, probably because I was never successful in registering LOL. I tried, and they apparently send an e-mail confirmation to registers (just as this board does). But they never came through, and despite many e-mails to try and get it cleared up nobody bothered to reply or fix the issue.

Which it their loss...I book at least 6-8 hotel nights per month via Priceline, and until now had used TOBB for the resources but refused to use their links as I was apparently not good enough to be a member of the community:) I found this forum thanks to Flyertalk yesterday, have now registered, and made my first 'click through' booking today.

Not to mention this community is actually up to date :)

What makes sites like this work is people posting information. If people are afraid to post then that means less information.

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