Honest question about editing this site

[Katys Grandad]

I am genuinley confused about editing of commercial names and websites on this site.

In the last 2 days, a thread had the name of a well known travellers' website that shows feedback on hotels and restaurants edited out. Yesterday an entire thread was made almost meaningless by the editing out of the name of an airline starting a new service from Liverpool. Later on in the same thread, the name of a US carrier that has been mentioned many many times previously was also edited out.

I am honestly not complaining and just want to have a better understanding of what can and what can't be mentioned in our posts. Now that names of perfectly legitimate and well established airlines are being edited, I'm wondering if we can mention the names of airlines at all anymore.

[steph_goodrum]

Katys Grandad

The general ruling is that , as this site was aimed at providing information for guests of homeowners who advertise on the site, any website link that provided any of the services on offer by the owners or site owners eg accommodation, car hire, park tickets, flights etc would not be shown as they would then effectively be giving advertising space (free ) to their competitors.

Although the site has developed over the years to become a well known font of information, the intention is to try to keep it in that vein so advertisers on the site would not feel uncomfortable about referring their guests to the site for information on attractions etc, for fear of them being poached by other advertisers.

It has long been said that it was never intended to be telling guests how to get the cheapest holiday necessarily but how to get the best experience by using the knowledge of people who have been many times and finding places they may otherwise never get to see.

[Robert5988]

I second that; most confusing.

I assume you are referring to the 'New York Flights from Liverpool' thread.

I am wondering if this is done automatically by a computer program rather like the 'swear filter'? For instance in Julie's(Mach2) original extract the name of the firm that was deleted - fly globe span -(but without the spaces) is still included further down the post a couple of times, but it starts with a lower case 'F'.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:On US Independence Day [name edited] John Lennon Airport's latest airline, has today announced that it will commence daily flights direct to New York from May 2007. Hot on the heals of their two recent announcements to operate regular scheduled flights to Tenerife and Prague, flyglobespan's latest news brings JLA its first scheduled transatlantic service and is the most significant JLA announcement from the rapidly expanding airline as they establish a considerable presence at the airport.

[name edited] flights from JLA will commence on 25th May 2007 to the 'Big Apple's' popular Newark Airport, with fares starting at only £149 per sector including taxes. flyglobespan will operate two cabins on their Boeing 757 aircraft with 22 of the 189 seats in business class and the remainder economy. [/quote]

It is understandable that this site will not want rival websites promoted. However when the names of Virgin, BA, AA etc are allowed to be written, why not an airline that only operates in the USA? (***Blue)

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Some airlines advertise villas on their site - I'm told by our mods that the Liverpool airline does. Some airlines don't (or the links are so deep into their site they are hard to find) and these are obviously allowed.

When the site started it was easy as it was a very black or white case with each site but as time has progressed, sites have diversified into other areas and thus started adding pages for villas, car hire etc etc. We've thus seen an increasing number of site links that have not been allowed.

The last thing we want to do is bleep out links that might be useful to people but we also have our advertisers to think of too. Microsoft would never link to Linux, Ford would not link to Vauxhall and similarly we're not going to link to sites that potentially lose us or our owners business.

We're having an internal discussion on how we can relax these rules if it's possible (it may be it's not possible) but in the meantime can people bear with us please as it's a tricky one to find a conclusion which suits everybody.

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
Katys Grandad

The general ruling is that , as this site was aimed at providing information for guests of homeowners who advertise on the site, any website link that provided any of the services on offer by the owners or site owners eg accommodation, car hire, park tickets, flights etc would not be shown as they would then effectively be giving advertising space (free ) to their competitors.

Although the site has developed over the years to become a well known font of information, the intention is to try to keep it in that vein so advertisers on the site would not feel uncomfortable about referring their guests to the site for information on attractions etc, for fear of them being poached by other advertisers.

It has long been said that it was never intended to be telling guests how to get the cheapest holiday necessarily but how to get the best experience by using the knowledge of people who have been many times and finding places they may otherwise never get to see.
[/quote]

Many thanks for taking the time to give me your answer to my question. I do appreciate that it makes no sense to direct potential customers to competitors' sites. However, doesn't it make perfect business sense to encourage people to travel to the US & Florida as often as possible by pointing out the best routes and fares? For some people, a cheap fare can make the difference between going to Florida or staying at home. In my own case, a cheap fare usuallly means that I spend the same money over a period of time but go more often. I can assure you that various owners have done very well out of my approach over the years!!

I fully respect the absolute right of the owners of this site to make any rules they want and it is for the rest of us to respond accordingly. As John notes below, finding an ideal balance is probably impossible but the application of the rules does confuse me at times.

[chrisflowers]

Just a suggestion -
could the rules be relaxed for the advertisers area, so that at least we can help each other as owners and advertisers?
Visitors would not be able to see the links or names, so there would be less bleeping out of names

[Ruth]

Chris, the same rules do not apply in the owners area. We are free to post any links in there:)

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Spot on - thanks Ruth [msnsmile]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Ruth
Chris, the same rules do not apply in the owners area. We are free to post any links in there:)
[/quote]

[chrisflowers]

Thanks for the clarification.

It is difficult sometimes to discern which threads are only visible to advertisers, as there are additional threads below the advertisers area which have also had links ****** out, so I presumed this also affected advertisers chat