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SlowTalk closes end of February

Pauline

Forums Admin
The moderators of the SlowTalk forums informed me that the current owner, Internet Brands, is closing the forums at the end of February. SlowTalk is part of the SlowTrav site that I created in 2000 and sold to Internet Brands in 2007. They don't know if the content of the forums will still be visible online or what will happen to the SlowTrav website.

This is a sad day for all of us who loved those forums.

Please encourage all your SlowTalk friends to join us here on the Slow Europe forums. Maybe we can create something great again, or at least have fun trying!

Thanks to all the SlowTalk moderators for the great jobs they have done over the years - @TourMama , @Amy , @Chris , @jonathan , @Andrew , @Roz , @Marta and the others who we are waiting to see here on Slow Europe!
 
I would like to add that I can't believe what they did with the website and forums after I turned them over to them. They assured me that they could do a better job than I did, they had more resources, they would make it all fabulous. But they hardly changed anything! SlowTrav looks just like it did 10 years ago! The forums kept going well, because of the moderators, but they did not get the technical support that they needed.

I have no regrets selling the sites because it gave me my retirement $ and I was completely exhausted. In the past 10 years we have had an amazing time, doing things we would not have done if I had still been running the sites. While I LOVED running those sites, it took every bit of my energy.

I started the Slow Europe forums a few years ago because I thought this would happen with SlowTalk and I wanted to create a place for some of us to meet. Plus I really like running forums and this will never be the size that SlowTalk was in its prime.
 
Hi Pauline, I'm also very saddened to see what has happened to the Slow Talk community forum. I also want to thank all the moderators for all of their hard work, the travelers for their participation and mutual sharing and to you for creating such a wonderful community in SlowTalk and now Slow Europe. I'm very happy for you that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, you deserve it). I think it's awesome because life is too short not to enjoy and be happy. I really understand that concept more and more now that I am retired. ;)

I'm so thankful to you for creating SlowTalk and now Slow Europe. I think Community Forums are a valuable resource for Travelers and I enjoy the community aspect. I'm hoping more Slowtalk members find their way here so they can benefit from the Slow Europe Community. I went to their site to post your link here, but I noticed that others have already posted your link, which is great so travelers needing help can find their way here.
 
You brought a lot of people together, Pauline. A truly amazing network of friends has been created ONLY because of you and Slowtalk/Slowtrav. It was because you cared. Internet Brands, clearly, could not have cared less.

A lot of people post travel questions on facebook now, it is not so effective, because stuff gets buried. At least here, questions, and answers, do not get buried. I will try to suggest to people to post here if I see some question on facebook. Everyone should do this!

It must feel just a little bit weird Pauline.. just know that you have changed a lot of people's lives and we all thank you!
 
I expect you will be inundated now, Pauline, with all those slowtravel people who joined with you and somehow have never found this forum! :) Perhaps retirement is not going to feel quite so restful! I agree with Shannon that Facebook really doesn't hack it when it comes to proper discussion.
 
I would like to add that I can't believe what they did with the website and forums after I turned them over to them. They assured me that they could do a better job than I did, they had more resources, they would make it all fabulous. But they hardly changed anything!

Well they did add those annoying embedded adverts that looked like we were endorsing the advert they plonked in there...
Agreed though, they did nothing positive, and showed no real desire to do anything but a clumsy monetisation of the site.

On the upside, the demise of Slowtrav alerted me to this site (on lovely modern forum software:D), so thank you for running it and I hope to be a well-behaved and supportive guest in your smart internet home :)

As for Facebook / Tripadviser etc. they do have their use, but I find I have to have too much of a mental filter in place.

regards
Ian
 
I will also encourage my FB people to come to you, here, Pauline. You really did create something grand and I wouldn't have had the last 16 years of travel fun, personally, without what you started. Travel does change lives and you proved it!
Gratefully,
Cheryl
www.italianexcursion.com
 
We can also publish things that your wrote for ST. I am still writing my own Day Trips, and I am happy to post them for other travelers. I also have a place for travel articles. Put your old trip reports on the Trip Reports forum here and there are forums for reviews. I will start a new post about this.
 
We've had 29 new registrations in the last week, probably all from the post on Slow Talk. I am rigorous in my reviewing of registrations now, so none of these are spammers. (Sorry to the person I recently refused because his answer to "tell me about yourself" was too short. Thank you for trying again with a longer answer.)

How nice to see new members! Welcome - and tell your travel friends :)
 
I stopped posting or writing reviews because the site was so outdated. I"ll try and go through my notes and see if I can get some villa and hotel reviews together. I really hope some of the regulars from ST move on over here!
 
Ha! Ib only bought slowtrav to get it out of the way of fodors (where they were really concentrating their efforts)... That's why they didn't update, upgrade or otherwise improve the site as they promised they would.... I left after just 2 emails with the new owners and still, years later I am waiting for them to edit links from my articles that I gladly added to slow trav at the time of Steve and Pauline.....

Hopefully, we are coming full circle and small, friendly websites like this will come back and we can say good bye to a company that owns over 12,000 domains just to promote their google ads......... Very little interest in helping travelers in the same way that Trip advisor has gone......

Well done Pauline :) I wish you the best especially as you are now going to have to come out of early retirement to give us back what you previously sold! tee hee, less walking now in my England and more moderating!

The very best of regards from Grazalema in Andalucia, Spain!
 

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