New Forum - Beyond the Guide

Edited By : scubachar Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:27:51 -0400

I have added a new forum ? ?Beyond the Guide?, where all members may freely discuss any and all establishments in the Cayman Islands; an exception would be in making referrals to any sites or publications that compete with Activity Guide or that offer general visitor information or forums about the Cayman Islands.

While I take great pride in only recommending what I consider to be the very best establishments, I also appreciate the fact that we have many members who have spent a fair amount of time in the Cayman Islands themselves and would benefit from a forum where they can discuss places that are not recommended by Activity Guide. I want to make it abundantly clear that neither I, Activity Guide, Activart Ltd., nor anyone associated with our company or publication, necessarily approve of the places discussed in this new forum; nor do we assume any responsibility, whatsoever, for the quality, service, reliability, dependability or anything else associated with them. I do not mean to imply that there is anything inherently inferior about any of them; merely that in most cases they do not meet the exceptionally high standards set forth by Activity Guide in order to qualify for our promotions and endorsements.

Under no circumstances will it be permissible for members to direct anyone posting a question in any of our other forums to this new forum. For example, if a new member posts something like: ?what?s the best Stingray City operation?? in our General Questions forum, it will not be permissible to reply with a link to the new forum for additional suggestions. The new forum is out in plain sight and accessible to anyone wishing to visit, just like all of our other forums. My principal objective remains the same, which is to introduce as many people as possible to the places that I feel represent the very best of the Cayman Islands; therefore every effort possible will be made to guide members toward the places we recommend prior to introducing them to any alternatives. If I or a moderator determines that it is impossible to fulfill the needs of a member with the places we recommend, we may decide to guide them to a relevant topic in the new forum - this will be a judgment call made exclusively by me or a moderator.

The forum will be for the most part unmoderated, which means that:

1. Topics will not be split, merged and generally organized and maintained, as they are in the other forums. Rather, I will activate auto-pruning, which will automatically remove inactive topics on a regular basis; and

2. The moderators and I will not be contributing contact information, directions, operating hours, prices, or any other specific information; and

3. Except in cases where it might jeopardize the integrity of the Cayman Islands as a destination or any of our approved establishments, wrongful or misleading information will not be corrected.

In essence, it will be a members assisting members forum, absent of moderator support. However, you will be free to post links to outside sources of information, with the exception of any sites that compete with Activity Guide as a source of general information about the Cayman Islands and a message board; this includes links to restaurant directories or any other sites offering a broad range of information about the Cayman Islands.

We will be removing posts that are considered to be spam and that includes ?hit and run? posts, where someone who does not regularly participate in our other forums simply makes blatant solicitations for establishments with little or no actual informative value. An example of something that would be removed would be: ?I love xyz, they?re the best? here?s their link?? posted by an unknown member with few or no previous posts in our other forums. The purpose of the new forum is for our legitimate established members who post regularly in our other forums to discuss other places that may appeal to them beyond the scope of Activity Guide?s recommended establishments.

Posts in the new forum will not appear under our ?Active Topics? or ?View posts since last visit? search/sort features. However they will appear under ?View your posts? and ?Subscribed Topics?. This is to help maintain a dichotomy between the places we recommend and the others, while still facilitating access to everyone?s favorite topics.

I am trying to strike a balance between my primary imperative of introducing visitors to what I consider to be the best of the Cayman Islands and our experienced visitors? desire to express their own individual opinions and experiences. This was not an easy decision for me to make and anyone who appreciates this new forum can thank our moderators for persuading me to create it.

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject:

Joe:

Let me be the first to actually thank the moderators for their suggestion. But let me also thank you for having enough open-mindedness to accept those suggestions AND the faith in the establishments that you recommend to know that this new forum will not interfer or detract from those establishments!

Kudos all around!

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 9:02 pm Post subject:

Nice new feature. Good going!

:palm:

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:20 am Post subject:

This is a good thing.

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:58 am Post subject:

It sounds good......thankyou!

Celine

Native Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 1181 Location: Illinois

Joe

This seems like a good idea to me. I have been coming to Cayman since '69 and some of the places we most enjoy are not on your recommended list. Though I'm sure all of your places are fabulous, many of us probably have other favorites of our own. So thanks for being open-minded and figuring a way to handle this.

Shelly :-)

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