Travel Channel

With the recent unexplained disappearance of Samantha’s “Great Vacation Homes” and “Girl Meets Hawaii” Forums here on her site, I feel a need to voice my opinion on her “Great Hotels” Forum, to make a plea for its continued life. Many of us would be sad to see it go, and if you count yourself among those people, please add your thoughts below mine.
Certainly it is in a precarious position, now poised at the bottom of the pile, facing a perhaps inevitable fate as the Great Hotels series itself has now been pulled off the air. As Captain Tuttle eloquently eulogized, “It has checked into that Junior Suite in the Sky.” Surely, with the thousands of posts it has amassed over the years, it is an excellent resource for the “viewer-generated content” that the Travel Channel executives so desire. Many, many people have made the time and effort to share relevant travel, hotel and resort information here, for the Travel Channel producers as well as for each other. In my opinion, to throw it all away would be foolish, and just plain bad public relations. There is much to be learned from these forums, in a format that is both entertaining and easy to access.

As for the two forums that have mysteriously gone missing….
In the pseudo maternal role I have assumed here, I feel the urge to shout to no one in particular, “HEY! Who’s been messing with Samantha’s stuff!! Put those forums right back where you found them or else!” Of course this would be a false threat, as I can’t really do a thing except write this post. For some odd reason, I feel that these forums belong to Samantha, who has put so much of her own personal time into creating a community here, and to the people who have posted on them. In reality, I suppose this is not true at all.

In my twisted mind, whoever made this bold erasure can be likened to a mother who thoughtlessly discards a child’s shoebox full of old baseball cards, never knowing their real value. (Now I never did such a thing, but my mother-in-law did, and always regretted it ) Oddly, I feel a sense of loss.
What happened to the dramatic discussion about the Onion House, which racked up thousands of views? How will Hawaiian vacation planners find the details they need to plan their Samantha-inspired vacations? Are all those topics lost forever in cyberspace?

But who is responsible? Surely not the kindly mod ben, currently overworked on the Most Haunted Forums. Could it be Travel Channel executives clearing out the dead wood, as suggested by intldoc? Perhaps the new upper level management at Cox Communications? Was it all a terrible mistake by the Webmaster? Where will it all end? What is to become of all of these forums during this uncertain time of corporate changes? Are we all to be sent off to that Wiki place?

I have read that the Travel Channel has moved out of the Discovery complex in Silver Spring, Md. and into new offices in Friendship Heights, Md.,(nice name) with a new corporate director of People Services.
I don’t really expect any answers to my many questions, but a new address posted here might be a handy thing to have, if anyone knows what it is.

Just livening things up a bit,
Mother Orange

I agree--those other forums disappeared without a simple goodbye! If Great Hotels disappears, well... I just don't know what we'll do. There are lots of good memories here! Don't take it away... at least not without significant warning.

As Han Solo once said in a galaxy far, far away, "I've got a bad feeling about this..." And it almost feels as if some of the furniture and family photos have already been rolled away and sent to be auctioned off somewhere, never to be seen again as Sam's office here is being cleaned out without an explanation, and all the past memories being dumped into some dumpster out back without a thought.

Surely this forum can be transferred and saved in a new existence somewhere, or else Tuttle and so many others who have passed through here I hope informatively and usefully for five years or so will have nowhere else to go or to exist. That horrible wiki thing, organizational disaster that it is, has no spot for rational discussion or collective memory. This forum, actually sensibly arranged, has been serving Samantha's many series very well. Its jail has been spectacular in its grasp and scope. Samantha's thoughts have been so valuable and worthy of survival. Let us hope this forum manages to survive.
"Capt. Tuttle"

I would think GH will stay on this forum since it is still in re runs. however, the shows that are not in re runs still should be on this forum. It's nice to look back on those shows. Good memories.
I do agree with everyone else here. I think it's terrible that we were not warned about the deleted topics. I think Sam's fans should have some input.
It's the public that makes a travel host and the show successful after all. Without us, there would be nothing.

I imagine that there must some cost to run this forum. If that cost exceeds what they think it's worth, then it will go, I'm afraid. It's sad to think that everything is measured now-a-days in dollars and cents. Let's hope they think it's worth it.

I completely agree and put my full support behind everything Mother O and Captain Tuttle earnestly expressed.

For instance, when I first entered this forum I knew nothing about Great Vacation Homes or Girl Meets Hawaii because I haven't seen these series on TV yet. But seeing the forums for those series here first inspired me to search for their appearance on TV so I could see what they were all about.

But now with them taken away, when someone new enters this community, they won't be curiously aroused as I was that inspired me to see what these wonderful shows were all about, and would most likely completely miss out knowing that they ever existed. This would be a dreadful shame because the discovery of these shows brought me an unbelievable amount of great joy. But no one could follow what I have experienced with these forums, rudely unannounced, taken away.

As with Great Hotels, they all deserve to be preserved here permanently for their historic content.

"Great Hotels" is the show I first saw Samantha in and I made some of my first post to this forum. It would sadden me tremendously to see it go. Save this forum and bring back GMH and GVH. In a way these forums are like a scrapbook of Samanthas' career and nothing should be removed.

I love samantha's shows better than all the other one and the forums if they go the travel channel will see me go.

I agree. So well said! Samantha has the most interesting fans. It says so much about her, and the quality of all her shows. Love Mary.

And when we say "Save this forum!" we mean don't just archive it and lock it... I know many people (not including myself) use this still to discuss hotels they have stayed in/would like to stay in/will stay in. Leave it open for new discussions, please!

And now the connections to Samantha's Journals have disappeared from the blue sidebar on the forum page. Are we going to lose all of our and Samantha's cultural history here? I'm getting an even worse feeling about all this.

Geez Capt T, if you're worried I guess there is cause.

Most curious.

Capt. -
Click at the top of the left blue sidebar on Samantha Brown and it will take you to a new menu where you can click on Journals. Hope this helps.

I have been thinking about this forum some more lately. Sometimes I don't care anymore what will happen to this forum. It does have some problems, and I hope if another company takes over, they will give this forum a good enema.
It's not fair to take away our right to edit our posts. I know I've been talking about this on another thread, but it does bother me that some of us have to ask permission to edit our very own posts. This is not right.
Also, we should have to right to be notified if a subject will be deleted. We do like to read back the old memories of the old shows we loved so much.
My two cents...
LPT

I agree this is a fan forum right? Well let the fans deside if it stays or goes.

And those forums areas the were taken down were great to and should be brought back so users can discuss those shows in the appropriate area.

It has been interesting to read your opinions here, everyone.
In reality, the Travel Channel will determine the fate of these forums, and all the signs point to the fact that we are in a period of change and uncertainty. We can only scratch our heads and wonder what the heck is going on here.
Though intldoc may not approve of all the grousing, I notice that shortly after this thread began, one of those Insight Express Pop-up surveys started appearing every time I visited the Samantha Brown Forums. It is quite a long questionnaire which provides opportunities to write comments, which I have done. It's odd, isn't it, that the Travel Channel apparently feels the need to collect hard facts and statistical information about us, yet they are unwilling to provide any information to us. I hope that others will seize the opportunity to be counted. I think this could be a positive thing, and a legitimate way for members here to provide feedback to those who make the big decisions. It could be a negative thing too, for if few respond then one could conclude that keeping these forums going is not worth the trouble.

weird never gotten any pop up servey even with a pop up blocker running usually it tells me when somethings blocked and I got nothing. Maybe it's a random hit pop up or something???

I'd sure like to give my opinion on a number of issues in these forums as each thread (Not show but even the individual threads in Sams forum as well as other show forums) all seem to be set up differently. Some have post counts some don't. Some have text controls on some don't. Just makes it reall confusing foir newbies to forums when each thread is set up differently.

Because so many people have the pop up blocker, I wonder why the TC is doing the survey that way. I guess they don't really care how many people respond to the survey. I never got the survey either, but I do have the blocker.

To the powers that be, please run "Great Hotels" again. Even one show per weekend would be appreciated. It would be fantastic if this series was available on DVD.

I'll be staying at one of the "Great Hotels" next week for one night. I wish I could just pop in a DVD with that hotel on it as a way of getting ready for the trip.

So if anyone out there sees this, can you put the episode with Nine Zero (Boston, MA) on the schedule or at least in the video section of this site.

Thanks.