In response to the question as to whether there was any warning:
I'd been posting a few bids and reviews to betterbidding, and not to bft, for a couple months.
Then I got a message from Sheryl saying she hoped I'd start posting my bids to bft. Just a one liner. I thought about answering it, but just couldn't figure out how to explain I just wasn't up to making sure every little thing was crossed and dotted correctly. I didn't want to get into a big debate, so just ignored it. That was probably a couple months ago. So maybe that was the warning to me?
Recently I did post another bid to betterbidding, so maybe that was the last straw for her?
I'm much more of a spirit of the law, "close-enough", type-B sort of person, and had a terrible time remembering just exactly what the order in which title information was supposed be and other similar bft structural rules.
There is something to be said for a board that has good solid structure, keeps people on topic, and doesn't permit the total trash encountered on some boards. And it indeed is Sheryl's board and she does get to make up the rules. I just don't happen to agree with how far she carries things.
In the process of starting to use betterbidding, I managed to make a few mistakes, but the response was just a cheerful "no prob" when I apologized. My intent was positive, and that response encouraged me to do better. I never felt reprimanded, just guided a little, gently. Respectful, classic adult-to-adult communication. I appreciated it.
Romelle
I did send a note to Yuku, asking if they could help me, and they supplied an address for bft which I used to question the banning. Also waited several days for any action before reporting here that I had "joined the club".
You may delete this .... FT is not the place to post this .. but what do I know?
I was trying to post a link to her pix but when I went to edit I erased it but it wouldn't take it. Truth is there is so much on the internet on Sheryl and her address and phone are posted on several sites. I was trying to post the link to her pix and that was my intent. There is enough info on her if someone were interested. I'm not suggesting you contact her.
I confess to being a scaredy-cat all along. I've been too intimidated by the responses to posters on BFT, that I've limited my postings to Better Bidding.com. There I post without fear of being banned for no particular reason. Despite what we've all discovered, I find it interesting that BFT seems to get more postings than Better Bidding. Why? I have no clue.
I confess to being a scaredy-cat all along. I've been too intimidated by the responses to posters on BFT, that I've limited my postings to Better Bidding.com. There I post without fear of being banned for no particular reason. Despite what we've all discovered, I find it interesting that BFT seems to get more postings than Better Bidding. Why? I have no clue.
Been around longer. It's featured in one of the top 5 travel books in the world - something I took a personal interest in making sure wasn't going to be published again in the next edition due to the crap from the site owner.
It's featured in one of the top 5 travel books in the world - something I took a personal interest in making sure wasn't going to be published again in the next edition due to the crap from the site owner.
By chance, did you suggest Better Bidding as a replacement to BFT in the next edition?
I'm just disappointed that there's not a better forum for posting bids. Given the behavior of its owner, biddingfortravel is unusable. Hence, despite its "first mover" advantage, it gets only a fraction of the reported bids it would get if it was run by a more welcoming webmaster. Which makes it increasingly less valuable.
I thought that betterbidding would ultimately "take over" this space -- and maybe it will -- but the owner of that site seems slow in upgrading the site. You need lots of categories to separate out the different geographical areas, so it's easy to find what you need. Also, it seemed that this site was also getting too preachy for dollars (admittedly, I haven't spent much time reading it lately, so I could be wrong), which also reduces the number of posts.
Fortunately, experienced priceline bidders have plenty of their own tricks for making successful lowball bids, so we don't really "need" these price discovery boards. It would be helpful if there was a really good one, however. They could even function like our very successful mileagerun board, fereting out the exceptional deal and highlighting it for others to use.
I'm just disappointed that there's not a better forum for posting bids..... You need lots of categories to separate out the different geographical areas, so it's easy to find what you need.
Hands down, BFT has more categories. But, you must be using the boards differently than me.
I don't have time to scroll through posts that are not relevant to my upcoming stay. I use BetterBidding's "search titles only" function to find winning bids in the specific zone that I will bid. For example, BFT has a category for New York City airports, but why should I have to scroll past winning bids for Secaucus when I'm planning to stay near LaGuardia?
I also use BetterBidding's Calendar of Wins tool to see if there are any winning bids for my dates of travel.
I use Priceline Maps tool that will show the location of hotels in select cities and recent winning bids for these hotels.
I also use another tool backupbooking.com that lets me enter an address and will show the location of Priceline hotels nearby.
Finally, BetterBidding also lists Hotwire wins, a subject over at BFT that will get you branded faster than Chuck Connors.
Fortunately, you have plenty of your own tricks to make successful lowball bids, buona fortuna! Post these wins over at BetterBidding as this adds more data points.
For the rest of us, these tools are available over at betterbidding.com
I am not a frequent user of Priceline as much of my travel is to places they don't serve: South Pacific, Africa, Middle East and South America. However when I do use them, I basically just look at what other people have been winning hotels at and start a lowball maybe $5 or $10 cheaper. So the data points people are posting are very important. I do post my wins on BB but not BFT because it's a pita to use a proxy to get around an IP ban. The only time this strategy hasn't worked for me is for Germany because there are conventions/trade fairs in town the dates I plan to be there. I have hotels booked on Starpoints but hoping the hotels will release inventory if the conventions don't fill up.
Now this is weird - I apparently just got un-banned from bft. When I hit my bookmark for it, didn't get the "you've been banned" message I'd been getting for the past few weeks.
I'd been trying bft occasionally, just to see what happened, but the ban held until today. Who knows?
I didn't take it on in and actually try to sign on. Didn't want to jiggle it just yet.
Now this is weird - I apparently just got un-banned from bft. When I hit my bookmark for it, didn't get the "you've been banned" message I'd been getting for the past few weeks.
I'd been trying bft occasionally, just to see what happened, but the ban held until today. Who knows?
I didn't take it on in and actually try to sign on. Didn't want to jiggle it just yet.
Romelle
Were you logged in on BFT? or possibly a different IP address is being used for your internet connection.
Same computer, hasn't been unplugged and started up again, nothing different at all. Nobody else on it but me and some grandkids playing games.
I usually power down at night, so it wasn't anything left over from a prior logon.
I still haven't tried to actually use my id on the site, since it is easier for me to use it this way to check some things rather than go through one of the anonymous sites (they get the job done, but do seem to slow things down).
Just all of a sudden I can get on, whereas before I steadily got the banned message. Out of curiosity, probably tried it a 1/2 dozen times over about a couple weeks.
Same computer, hasn't been unplugged and started up again, nothing different at all. Nobody else on it but me and some grandkids playing games.
I usually power down at night, so it wasn't anything left over from a prior logon.
I still haven't tried to actually use my id on the site, since it is easier for me to use it this way to check some things rather than go through one of the anonymous sites (they get the job done, but do seem to slow things down).
Just all of a sudden I can get on, whereas before I steadily got the banned message. Out of curiosity, probably tried it a 1/2 dozen times over about a couple weeks.
Romelle
Yeah, don't log in at your usual computer. Next time you're at someone elses computer try and see if you can log in with your id. Well someone that doesnt priceline
It still is crappy how Sheryl treated you after all the help you provide to BFT.
Good suggestion. I'll try it. My grandkids have those laptops that will do the job, and they are not old enough to do any bidding anyway. I first thought of a library one, but it is not really right to put those machines at risk for getting banned. I am curious to see if I can actually logon.
Guess I never did the volunteering I did for Sheryl specifically, but rather for the concept of sharing information, and to help insure the site would be there for me when I needed it. I got a lot of ideas and education for my own future trips while helping others research theirs. And learned a lot about the bidding process. One of the great things about being retired is being able to spend time any way one choses.
For some reason it was a long time until I stumbled upon betterbidding, but I am more comfortable and philosophically in tune with the more relaxed warmer approach to things there. And the volume of information on it seems to be improving steadily. I'd pretty much already switched over when I got banned on TOBB.
