I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come
back to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize
many names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories.
How is everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan,
Ken, Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many
others I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years
ago. I know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)
I think the newsgroups globally are losing traction due to better

I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:22:48 -0500, Stephen Ellenson wrote in post :
news:tpu7m.712$ZN.624@newsfe23.iad> :

I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Mixi pops up every now and then, but seems to be spending most of his time
flying around the world on MS-Simulator.

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is happening on
the diabetes groups I'm on.

However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S <loralgtweightandca...@gmail.com
wrote:



On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spen...@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is happening on
the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.



However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in York on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must depend on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

Martin

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S
loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come
back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize
many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How
is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan,
Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many
others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years
ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is happening on
the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.


However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in York
on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must depend
on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

I may be fading from here myself shortly; my next planned trip is New
Caledonia in August and then South America in early 2010 and it may be
several years before I get back to Europe. I'll be sad to go, but time
presses. And despite the trolls, twits and spam I've enjoyed reading
some very interesting people here over the years and owe the group a
debt for some very helpful advice when I planned my Europe trips in
'03 and '06.

Thanks all.

I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

"Martin" <me@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:o0ra65telq09le3os5fgshum1ln9h3imtl@4ax.com...
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S
loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come
back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize
many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How
is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan,
Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many
others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years
ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is happening on
the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.


However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in York
on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must depend
on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

Its based on the reports posted by reviewers. I have stayed at excellent
hotels that still had about 10% of bad reviews. Part of the problem
in Europe is that there typically only a handful of reviews so there
is a poor statistical sample in some cases. I looked for holiday rentals in
Wexford and got one review :)

For York though I noticed the top rated hotel (Mount Royale Hotel)
had 73 reviews which were as follows

43 Excellent
23 Very Good
5 Average
4 Poor
2 Terrible

The good reviews talked about a hotel with lots of antiques, the
terrible ones said it was full of junk

You cant please all of the people all of the time.

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:46:31 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
keith@nospam.kwillshaw.demon.co.uk> wrote:


"Martin" <me@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:o0ra65telq09le3os5fgshum1ln9h3imtl@4ax.com...
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S
loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net> wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just recently come
back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I recognize
many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind memories. How
is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark, Alan,
Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and many
others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years
ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography, History
etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is happening on
the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.


However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in York
on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must depend
on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

Its based on the reports posted by reviewers. I have stayed at excellent
hotels that still had about 10% of bad reviews. Part of the problem
in Europe is that there typically only a handful of reviews so there
is a poor statistical sample in some cases. I looked for holiday rentals in
Wexford and got one review :)

For York though I noticed the top rated hotel (Mount Royale Hotel)
had 73 reviews which were as follows

43 Excellent
23 Very Good
5 Average
4 Poor
2 Terrible

The good reviews talked about a hotel with lots of antiques, the
terrible ones said it was full of junk

You cant please all of the people all of the time.

The bad hotels have no good comments. I stayed in one of them 4 or 5 years ago
and the comments are still very appropriate.

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:46:31 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
keith@nospam.kwillshaw.demon.co.uk> wrote:


"Martin" <me@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:o0ra65telq09le3os5fgshum1ln9h3imtl@4ax.com...
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S
loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net
wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just
recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I
recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind
memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark,
Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and
many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from
years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say
in a broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography,
History etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant
these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is
happening on the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.


However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in
York on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must
depend on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

Its based on the reports posted by reviewers. I have stayed at
excellent hotels that still had about 10% of bad reviews. Part of
the problem
in Europe is that there typically only a handful of reviews so there
is a poor statistical sample in some cases. I looked for holiday
rentals in Wexford and got one review :)

For York though I noticed the top rated hotel (Mount Royale Hotel)
had 73 reviews which were as follows

43 Excellent
23 Very Good
5 Average
4 Poor
2 Terrible

The good reviews talked about a hotel with lots of antiques, the
terrible ones said it was full of junk

You cant please all of the people all of the time.

The bad hotels have no good comments. I stayed in one of them 4 or 5
years ago and the comments are still very appropriate.


So you stay in bad hotels strictly for the "comedic" value, then...???

:-)

On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:46:31 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
keith@nospam.kwillshaw.demon.co.uk> wrote:


"Martin" <me@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:o0ra65telq09le3os5fgshum1ln9h3imtl@4ax.com...
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:45 +1000, Alan S
loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:25:25 -0700 (PDT), Surreyman
alandavid.spencer@googlemail.com> wrote:

On 16 July, 01:22, "Stephen Ellenson" <s_ellen...@charter.net
wrote:
I was a contributor to this group years ago and have just
recently come back
to see what's going on here. Lots of spam (nothing new). I
recognize many
names and that brought back some funny and some very kind
memories. How is
everyone doing? I see David, Earl, Gregory, Eilar, Dave, Mark,
Alan, Ken,
Jesper, Dave H., Martin, Giovanni, Evelyn, Tim, Ken, Graham, and
many others
I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from
years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say
in a broomcloset in Paris)

Yep, I still look in.
But this group, along with several others I'm in (Geography,
History etc.) just seems to have gone very flat and irrelevant
these days.

Alan
(Surreyman)

I keep in touch, but usenet is slowly fading. The same is
happening on the diabetes groups I'm on.

There are plenty of very active UK groups.


However, I still find that usenet is one of the better sources of
honest information. Over-moderated forums can be very bland. But
tripadvisor,

Trip Advisor provides me with information about atrocious hotels in
York on a
regular basis. I think their criteria for publicising a hotel must
depend on the
number of comments made about the hotel.
--

Its based on the reports posted by reviewers. I have stayed at
excellent hotels that still had about 10% of bad reviews. Part of
the problem
in Europe is that there typically only a handful of reviews so there
is a poor statistical sample in some cases. I looked for holiday
rentals in Wexford and got one review :)

For York though I noticed the top rated hotel (Mount Royale Hotel)
had 73 reviews which were as follows

43 Excellent
23 Very Good
5 Average
4 Poor
2 Terrible

The good reviews talked about a hotel with lots of antiques, the
terrible ones said it was full of junk

You cant please all of the people all of the time.

The bad hotels have no good comments. I stayed in one of them 4 or 5
years ago and the comments are still very appropriate.

"Alan S" <loralgtweightandcarbs@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:t26a651alg8pc6emtg2qne3cavrdhvhjki@4ax.com...

I may be fading from here myself shortly; my next planned trip is New
Caledonia in August and then South America in early 2010 and it may be
several years before I get back to Europe. I'll be sad to go, but time
presses. And despite the trolls, twits and spam I've enjoyed reading
some very interesting people here over the years and owe the group a
debt for some very helpful advice when I planned my Europe trips in
'03 and '06.

Thanks all.


You will be sadly missed in rte, Alan, but "Bon Voyage" on your forthcoming
adventures - you have some great trips lined up!

Have fun!!

Gerry




Thanks Gerry; I'll still hang around for a little while, like a bad

I recognize but what's happened to the other contributors from years ago. I
know Jack is long gone but where's Mixi? (And please don't say in a
broomcloset in Paris)

I think the newsgroups globally are losing traction due to better
managed websites and even Twitter.