Life has changed since my initial review of the Bolsover Cruise Club Forum…

Avid followers of this Blog will by now be aware that Solent Richard has parted company with the Bolsover Forum. Having watched the membership grow – now standing at some 7,440 members – while reaching  the remarkable achievement of becoming their top poster in less than three years.

Do Scroll down to read more under the ‘Avid Followers of this blog’ update

AUTUMN UPDATE

With the Bolsover Cruise Club Forum being so relatively dull Solent Richard hasn’t actually bothered bringing readers any updates for nearly two years. However, he would like to thank a friend for passing him a link to the forum two weeks ago…

https://www.bolsovercruiseclub.com/forum/topic/7149-where-is-everyone/

…and in particular Comment # 14 by ‘Oldworldtraveller…

“Many of the old regulars have gone elsewhere, this seems to happen with all forums. Some seem to go when Solent Richard and a couple of others departed whilst others went when the forum changed its layout.

As always, just my opinion.”

That certainly seemed to be the cue for that Forum’s two pathetic and best known  trolls, ‘HLM’ and ‘Sinbad10’ to launch another of their misinformed rants.

No great surprises there then as many members will recall one of Solent Richard classic  Sinbad10 putdowns was to avail the dim nugget as to the delights of the   ‘soft shell crabs’ served on P&O’s Sindhu restaurants.

Most regular readers will no doubt recognise the style of the former as that of the many times banned ‘Diddy’ and ‘Norfolk Boy’ over on the CruiseDot site while retired firefighter Sinbad10 was exposed many years ago as the puerile female baiter Shilly3191 from Stone…

*****

HLM of course would deny it but take a look at this…

http://www.bolsovercruiseclub.com/forum/topic/4927-missing-in-action/

“The main one was another cruise forum, I’d probably be in breach of forum rules if I mentioned it as it is a direct competitor with Bolsover. I no longer post only browse though, as unlike this forum it was very clicky and if you dared disagree with the clique you’d be chastised.HLM.”

Of course they could post just once on CruiseDot to prove Solent Richard wrong however there is more chance of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister before Christmas than that happening.

These two turkeys epitomise the envy and jealousy endemic amongst  small UK cruise forums where they operate with relative ease hiding behind strings os pseudonyms. They never post photographs of their cruising experiences for fear of being found out.

Is it any wonder the Bolsover forum is as dead as a Dodo with part time cruisers like this pair free to express their tripe.

Now compare this forum’s demise with the success of the ‘facebook groups‘ run by the likes of ex forum members ‘Spartan’, John the Dog’ and Solent Richard – all have more daily activity in two days than the Bolsover Forum sees in a fortnight.

QM2 The last Ocean Liner  -2,353 Members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/600993330013788/

Cunard Fanzine – 751

https://www.facebook.com/groups/336212489853606/

Spartan’s Cruise People – 8,143 members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thespartanline/

…and JTD’s…

Cunard Cruise Lovers  –  1445 members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Cunardlovers/

and

Cruise Lovers – 10,372 members

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Cruiseloversgroup/

Kind of puts it all in perspective really but rather than finish this current update on a sour note…

Solent Richard would of course like to place it on the record that he is most grateful to the likes of ‘HLM’, Sinbad and the Diddy’s of this world on two accounts.

In recognition of HLM’s fixation on SR having served as a senior officer in the Royal Navy he would like to thank HLM, as a taxpayer,  for particularly funding his and his good lady’s (Yes, she too was a Lieutenant Commander) index linked pensions which allow them to continue cruising in the manner in which they have become accustomed.

And secondly he would like to thank both HLM and Sinbad for keeping his blog views with regular viewings helping it to continue to be the UK’s most popular cruise blog now with over 575 followers.

Update for 2017

Click link to skip to update

A relatively newcomer to the UK’s Cruise Forum list  but from initial observations one likely to make an impact that will soon make it one of the  market leaders providing the administration can control the trolls.

An online community developed 100% with the user in mind and offering the chance to obtain a wide range of advice.

The new easy to navigate style, layout and innovative technological advances will certainly give it the edge in new membership recruitment. Clear categories aid  easy navigation while  prompt responses from the administration team to new queries show this venture actually means business.

“I was very impressed when a member requested a new category space for dedicated cruise reviews – bingo, around 24 hours and it was done”

A minor fault that really needs attention  is however the size of the ‘Recent Comment‘ section. It really needs to be expanded to at least double the sze in order to keep recent comments current.

Always willing to help fellow cruisers Solent Richard takes this opportunity to provide an answer for member ‘Jemima’ who has asked the question…”has any member been on Viking Star? If so what is your opinion”?

here’s your answer Jemima, just click on the link…

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/12/28/viking-star-a-taste-of-something-different/

This forum already has some well seasoned cruisers making quality contributions: members with considerable cruise experience and ones who are  unafraid to make good use of photographic opportunities to enhance their quality postings.

Membership certainly appears to be increasing rapidly and I predict a bright future for those who would prefer this more technically advanced forum site which currently doesn’t appear littered with pressurised cruise sales advertising or too many off-topic distractions.

The Mission statement:

We are the Cruise Club Forum, a discussion site dedicated to cruise news, discussions, reviews and general chat! 

We want you, the community, to get the most out of the Cruise Club Forum’s discussion boards, and for them to be a fun place full of constructive conversation, where you can ask for help, or share your experiences from the world of cruising.  

Topics can range from favourite cruise lines, ships, itineraries, destinations, best cruises for families, solo cruises, funny experiences, reviews and more.

Good luck Lucy and your team,  Solent Richard was delighted  to play his part in the forum’s growth .

Avid followers of this Blog will by now be aware that Solent Richard has parted company with the Bolsover Forum. Having watched the membership grow – now standing at some 7,440 members – while reaching  the remarkable achievement of becoming their top poster in less than three years…

…and with an even more remarkable 1806 membership approval rating that will certainly stand for a while. (now there’s a challenge), it is time to move on.

Never one to shy away or speak his mind, or confront what he considers unfairness, Solent Richard questioned the forum administration regarding their embargo on his using  links to his popular blog: which of course would have saved considerable effort ‘cutting and pasting’ text and photographs  from it when members expected answers or information.

Regrettably this approach coincided with a Bolsover invitation SR received to register for the  new releases of P&O and Cunard cruises. In response SR made his position quite clear. The rest is history and, needless to say, SR’s business went elsewhere.

As did Solent Richard…LOL…but not before he took the opportunity of correcting the one thing he despises most… the downright lie.

Step forward forum member and part time cruisingmate  Pennbank who, for reasons best known to himself,  decided to publish a completely inaccurate version of what was said on the ITV series ‘The Cruise.’

Of course ‘friendly’ forums don’t like their membership squabbling or correcting one another over such minor trivia as total misquotes….

As I said at the time, Hook, Line and Sinker.

So good luck to the Bolsover Forum for the future. Solent Richard is sure that it will be interesting to watch its progress.

In the meantime Solent Richard would like to thank those members of the Bolsover Forum who have sent kind messages of support: and particularly those four who have started following my blog.

Needlesss to say there were one or two members who were more than pleased to see Solent Richard cease posting on the Bolsover Forum. Leading the way, and with very good reason, was member Pennbank who never forgave Solent Richard for exposing his creepy habit of signing up for ‘Roll Calls’  then never showing up – well, at least to identify himself: preferring to hover outside range in true stalking manner. And as if to rub salt into an already open wound one of the last acts of SR on the Bolsover forum was to show Pennbank  to be a consummate ‘porky’ teller. Why on earth would anyone claim a woman on the television Princess cruise documentary said words that she very clearly didn’t? Of course Pennbank’s real problem with SR is that he knows that SR knows what is behind Pennbank’s attraction to Cunard.

It would appear the Forum is missing Solent Richard’s advice. In answer to a question regarding taxi tours from Aqaba this is what member Tumbling wrote…

So any member reading this would they please pass the following link on to Tug Boat Tommy…

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2013/05/19/one-way-to-do-aqaba-wadi-rum-edition/

or the link to the Tour operator who arranges the taxi…

Tours

And so to Tumbling?

Looks remarkably like yet another sock puppet for the crusingmates’ very own Jolly Jill who, along with the banned playmate 132LK were recently caught taking a close interest in Solent Richard’s Bolsover profile…

You couldn’t make it up, could you?

Not all is bad news and it is good to see another member remaining alert to the trolls…