Could the Cruise Critic Cummunity Have Done Better

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

politics - screws up every thread where we have a chance to make a difference.

just like everyday life.

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

I don't believe that is CC's 'job description'. They are not a certified news agency.

I by no means have any intent to tell CC or Independent Traveler what they should or should not do and whatever they choose is fine by me but I don't expect it to be their obligation to inform or share information with anyone who visits their sites.

JMO ....

There were many discussions on Ebola in the last few days on these boards.

No to your question. How would cruise critic or anyone on these boards be qualified to assist anyone on health issues? The CDC didn't even get it right.

Yes, ebola is a nasty and very frightening issue. But, if you turn off the TV and stop getting absorbed in the news media's blitzkrieg of shock and awe crap, you will see that the world just keeps on turning, folks still get up and go to work, go out to eat or the movies, and, yes, even continue to take cruises! The world that I grew up in, that "Mayberry" world, is forever gone in this country! But, I choose to enjoy this one chance at life and use my noggin to assess and prepare for my day. If you are intimidated by the media, stock your fallout shelter, and dig in for the long haul! :rolleyes:

Interesting comments so far.

Maybe I look at things differently. At the end of every day, I ask myself what could I have done better?

Cruise Critic had the opportunity to be the voice of reason. The place to go for the latest up to date with factual information in the cruise community. Instead, they chose to allow fear and misinformation to spread like wildfire?

Everyone on here has the opportunity to improve, to include Cruise Critic.

If one chooses not to, that's another story for another day.

No. CC had/has no responsibility to serve as a medical information outlet. They are nothing more than a conduit for people to exchange informaton relating to cruise vacations. Would you also fault the telephone or cable company for this? After all, they too provide a means for people to communicate. Maybe they should also provide the community with information on which airlines, vehicle manufacturer has poor safety records the might put members at risk.

It boils down to a matter of personal responsibility. If a person has the ability to use a computer to surf the Internet then, likewise, they have the ability to research a question on their own; by going to the appropriate subject matter expert(s).

Would one expect their CPA, butcher or auto mechanic to provide them with medical advice? I rather think not. They why would one expect a travel/tourism business to do so?

What I hear everyone saying is that Cruise Critic has no responsibility.

Yet, they tout themselves as the leader in providing up to date cruise information and news.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/aboutus/

I was not aware that CC was run by leaders in the healthcare industry. That is who has a responsibility here, not a cruise information web site. Cannot wait for all of the Ebola drama to go away and we can move on to the next disease-of-the-week.

Interesting comments so far.

 

Maybe I look at things differently. At the end of every day, I ask myself what could I have done better?

 

Cruise Critic had the opportunity to be the voice of reason. The place to go for the latest up to date with factual information in the cruise community. Instead, they chose to allow fear and misinformation to spread like wildfire?

 

Everyone on here has the opportunity to improve, to include Cruise Critic.

If one chooses not to, that's another story for another day.

Best thing you could do better is get better information that is not from the US media since they know nothing on how it transmit or why the high number of casualties in West Africa (not all of Africa is affected by it, especially South Africa and Egypt). And really what could Cruise Critic could had done when only 1-10% of cruisers even know about the website, let alone other travel & cruise websites out there. Cruise Critic was not the ones that let fear and misinformation spread out there, that was the CDC and the hospital's fault on all of that for bad judgement calls, especially for the cruise ship that now has to disinfect or throw away everything since body fluids can mix in with the pool water or the bed sheets. What do you what Cruise Critic to do when it truly has nothing to do with Ebola crisis at hand plus it already gives you a forum to discuss it anyway. Cruise Critic is not the CDC, thank god, they're not that incompetent nor did they put the cruise, airline, Cleveland and Dallas worlds in danger by saying how it really spreads.

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

Anyone who comes to a cruise website for information on Ebola is going to have a bad day....

I can only hope I obtain good facts as I rely on my fellow cruise critic members.

Sometimes wrong information, and or sketchy information can be posted.

So

I look at the poster and see how I have relied on them in the past....

Then I make my own judgement as to what to believe or not.

For me:

Clarea

Merion Mom

Norberts Niece

and Steve (your screen name escapes me now)

Are just a few I rely on.

Sea Ya

How exactly do you expect CC to provide up to date and factual information when even the CDC can't? You really expect to find that information on a cruise site or expect that site to provide such information? How odd.:confused:

As for spreading fear, if someone lets some post, written by a person they don't know anything about, on a cruise talk web site cause them to fear, they are fools. There is always going to be a segment of any society that is in fear of just about anything, regardless of whether that fear is factually founded or not. There are Chicken Little's everywhere.

If you are truly that upset with how this was handled on CC there is nothing requiring you to continue using the site. All members are free to leave if they wish but with over 6K of posts I doubt you will be leaving and I'm not saying you should, but maybe you should have more realistic expectations of what information this site can provide.

Just asking the question.

 

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

 

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

 

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

This is not the place I would look for medical information .

Lets stick to opinions on cruising and leave the hysteria to the news media to bombard us with .

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

Perhaps CC could have shut down many or all of the threads about Ebola earlier than they did but what realistically could they do? The only thing I can think of would be replace every thread with "Please go to the CDC or the WHO websites for Ebola information". Mentioning any other informational websites would require expert knowledge by CC which they do not possess.

Quite frankly expecting CC to advise their cruising community about a serious public health issue would be like expecting your mechanic to advise you about the joint pain in your hip - not your universal. ;)

Honestly, I think many of us have realized that no one - not the CDC, certainly not the government - has sufficient information on Ebola and how it is transmitted. Why would Cruse Critic (which uses volunteer hosts) be the 'voice of reason'? The moderators have a tough enough job without posters expecting them to become medical experts or communications specialists.

I don't understand what cc even has to do with Ebola?

This is the 1st Ebola thread I've even read past the first sentence, and only because you creatively disguised it as a thread that was not about Ebola. Sneaky...sneaky...:rolleyes:

Cruise critic is a forum for discussion and with the diversity of people who have access to it - you can expect quite a lively discussion and very different viewpoints on some issues.

The CDC and WHO should be the ones issuing the facts, which could then be distributed by the media. Something is clearly going wrong with this though because the media seems to be making half of it up as they go along... but even so, if someone is reading cc, they have internet access, which means they can go to the CDC or WHO websites if they truly want facts.

There are physicians on these boards who were/are hesitant to comment on the subject. I think that says a lot.

To answer your question: no. It is not this website's job to do what you are suggesting.

In the News section on cc dated October 17th there is a story about a passenger being quarrentined on a ship. It mentions the ship, what happened during the voyage and what compensation will be given to the passengers on the ship. It mentions what cleaning the ship will have done before the next cruise and it mentions what policy the cruiseline will put in place to try to avoid Ebola on their ships.

That is exactly what I expect from cc.

Just asking the question.

Could Cruise Critic/Independant Traveler have done better?

 

When it comes to the recent issue regarding Ebola, could this community have done a better job of informing and sharing information with us travelers?.

 

There is/was a lot of misinformation, fear, concerns, worry surrounding this virus. All I'm asking is did this community miss the boat by not getting ahead of the game by not providing clear, consise, and truthful information regarding this virus. Or at least providing links to important informational website.

You pose an interesting question and I believe there is no answer. This country has always done stellar work at telling us what happened after the fact but is very weak at seeing what is coming. And first `n foremost, we live in a post-9/11 climate of fear. Our trust in what the Government tells us is weak. And disinformation is often spread by the “official” news sources in pursuit of the “scoop”. The media feels compelled to be the first to broadcast something, anything, just so long as they are first to do so.

Everything this nation does is in reaction to an external event. Mr. Duncan was patient “0” in this country. Everything that has transpired since then has been done “by the seat of their pants”. “They” never dreamed that and Ebola patient would just show up in a US city, much less in an interior city like Dallas. They were not prepared; they weren’t stocked with effective protective gear.

So . . . other than automatically deleting every thread that has the word “Ebola” in it to constrain the spread of miss-information, what could CC/Independent Traveler have done better? And more to the point, will the authorities publically report what went wrong in Dallas that resulted in two nurses being infected with Ebola.

And more to the point, will the authorities publically report what went wrong in Dallas that resulted in two nurses being infected with Ebola.

Just a wild guess ... November 5th?

Sorry - I've become a cynic.

I don't believe that is CC's 'job description'. They are not a certified news agency.

 

I by no means have any intent to tell CC or Independent Traveler what they should or should not do and whatever they choose is fine by me but I don't expect it to be their obligation to inform or share information with anyone who visits their sites.

 

JMO ....

 

Exactly. If someone wants to know what new builds the cruise lines have announced...that's something that Cruise Critic would put on their news section. It can even say that there's an outbreak of norovirus, and hopefully do a better job than news outlets, who usually leave the impression that mysteriously people board a ship and come down with it, when many people understand that often passengers get exposed on their way to the ship (on their plane flights or maybe back home) and bring the virus on board.

There's many misconceptions and misinformation going around about Ebola and the news editors, you and I really don't know much.

I would not get my info about a disease from a cruising site.

Just a wild guess ... November 5th?

 

Sorry - I've become a cynic.

Lets see, 35 yrs military, 29 yrs Fed civil Service, my wife works for the VA and my daughter is a nurse manager at a major medical facility . . . I've been a cynic for a while.