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The DRI members Forum is now pretty useless

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  • The DRI members Forum is now pretty useless

    In the past I've been quite impressed with the DRI members forum. I was surprised at the willingness of the moderators to allow posts to be made that were pretty critical of DRI. I made some posts that were far from complimentary, and they were allowed to post and were replied to respectfully and generally appropriately.

    Also submitted posts were processed quite quickly. Most of my posts were approved within one day or two; the sole exception was a post critical of the website that sat in the queue for about two weeks; obviously DRI was preparing a response because a reply from a corporate VP was posted immediately after my post was approved.

    I considered the DRI Forum that DRI actually might be a different breed of timeshare operation. The other boards with which I had some familiarity pretty much worked in lockstep with whatever crap was being spewed as official company policy; with anything that might be uncomfortable or unflattering never seeing the light of day.

    +++++++

    Over the last year, though, there has been a noticeable change in moderation standards, which has made turned the forum into the usual sort. The first thing I noticed was that posts similar in content to items I had posted previously were now queuing for a month of longer before being acted on. Some of my posts simply disappeared, without even being acknowledged.

    Then, yesterday I received an e-mail message saying that one of my posts had been disapproved as being contrary to board guidelines. The situation involved someone who had an ownership they wanted to sell. DRI had responded that they don't buyback, and, in essence, he was on his own to find someone to take it.

    So he was looking for some information on how to even go about setting a value.

    I submitted a reply saying that valuation was hard, and suggesting that he visit here or TUG to get some input from people here about what it was worth. I was very careful to only mention the sites, without providing clickable links, as I know that is a no-no.

    Now this is all information that I have posted previously and that was approved by the mods in one or two days. This time it sets for almost three weeks, then I get the notice that the post violates guidelines.

    It certainly appears that the moderators were told to do more filtering and to get direction from corporate before allowing many submittals to post. And management is making many decisions to kill content that previously was allowed.

    *********

    So it seems clear that DRI has changed it's moderation approach. Now the site really isn't much more than a DRI mouthpiece; the only value is that if you have a technical issue with the site or about the DRI system, you can post a question and you might have a 25% chance of getting a useful answer. And based on what I've seen lately, that probability estimate is being generous to DRI; most of their replies have simply descended to cut-and-paste of boilerplate statements.

    Too bad. It had actually been a useful site to get some straight information. Now it's pretty useless.

    I'm sure that makes it simplified. For DRI management, that is.
    “Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.”

    “This is a blouse and skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.”

    “You shouldn't wear that body.”

  • #2
    I haven't visited DRI's forum in probably over a year. Instead I've been following the DRI forum that is mostly concerned with the U.S. properties. The forum for European properties had a certain degree of American bashing on it and I had recieved more than a couple of not so complimentary E-mails about how bad Americans were and that we thought we knew it all but the world hated us. I didn't think that was as information the pertained to DRI so I switched to the less active board but, that board is more concerned with U.S. properties and in the end is the better forum for information about the company and it's U.S. holdings.

    Both forums have an active DRI employee on them who reads and responds to posts. The discussion if friendly, informative and not that restrictive. More like here or TUG but via your E-mail account rather than threads (I have one E-mail account dedicated to Yahoo groups). I have been able to get quick answers to questions or concerns, even when those concerns are critical of DRI. The discussion has always been friendly and helpful.
    Our timeshare and other photo's at http://dougp26364.smugmug.com/

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by dougp26364 View Post
      I haven't visited DRI's forum in probably over a year. Instead I've been following the DRI forum that is mostly concerned with the U.S. properties. The forum for European properties had a certain degree of American bashing on it and I had recieved more than a couple of not so complimentary E-mails about how bad Americans were and that we thought we knew it all but the world hated us. I didn't think that was as information the pertained to DRI so I switched to the less active board but, that board is more concerned with U.S. properties and in the end is the better forum for information about the company and it's U.S. holdings.

      Both forums have an active DRI employee on them who reads and responds to posts. The discussion if friendly, informative and not that restrictive. More like here or TUG but via your E-mail account rather than threads (I have one E-mail account dedicated to Yahoo groups). I have been able to get quick answers to questions or concerns, even when those concerns are critical of DRI. The discussion has always been friendly and helpful.
      Is that the forum/group that Patrick is on, where you post info from here and act like it was your own?

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by DRIvaDiva View Post
        Is that the forum/group that Patrick is on, where you post info from here and act like it was your own?
        Yes and no.

        If we're not getting an answer here I will pose the question on the other site. It is possible to get more informative information there on some subjects. Such as the fact that there was never a written agreement on the 50% points 59 day rule and that they do practice 50% for DRI managed resorts. If I ever have an issue wtih that, I know who to contact about it in the future.

        Do you see a problem with using multiple sites to gain information? If I wanted to hide things, I'd probably use different names on different sites. Instead I try to post under the same name as much as possible. Sort of makes it hard to pretend to have an original thought when so many can easily see what I've posted everywhere else wouldn't you say?
        Our timeshare and other photo's at http://dougp26364.smugmug.com/

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by dougp26364 View Post
          I haven't visited DRI's forum in probably over a year. Instead I've been following the DRI forum that is mostly concerned with the U.S. properties.
          I didn't know there was more than one forum. I've been visiting one that has both European and US forums, the one that is linked at the bottom of the DRI home page: Diamond Resorts International®
          “Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.”

          “This is a blouse and skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.”

          “You shouldn't wear that body.”

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by T. R. Oglodyte
            I didn't know there was more than one forum. I've been visiting one that has both European and US forums, the one that is linked at the bottom of the DRI home page: Diamond Resorts International®
            Sorry, I meant to say the DRI Yahoo group forum. There are at least two Yahoo groups for DRI. One seemed to be mostly Europeans and was a much busier forum, the other appears to have mostly US based owners and is considerably slower. There was a lot of idle chit chat on the Yahoo group with more European owners and it tended to overwhelm my mailbox. Plus, there was a couple that weren't very keen on Americans and let me know they didn't care for "my kind" in private E-mails. In the end I wasn't getting information that pertained to my ownership so it wasn't worth the hassle. The slower forum with a few more American owners tends to be a little more informative towards my needs. Both Yahoo groups have a DRI representative that follows and provides information as is appropriate. I've found them to be very helpful to members for getting information and helping to straighten things out when needed.

            The Yahoo group that I participate on is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DiamondResorts-owners/
            Our timeshare and other photo's at http://dougp26364.smugmug.com/

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanks for that link. I had no idea there was another forum. I too had given up on DRI's forum. I noticed quite awhile ago that many of my posts weren't accepted (even those that were positive) and when I would post a question, I would either not get a response or the "stock" response for all questions.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by dougp26364
                ...There was a lot of idle chit chat on the Yahoo group with more European owners and it tended to overwhelm my mailbox. ....
                Yes, Doug is absolutely correct. If you have nothing better to do all day but to hear and maybe participate in chit chat, the 'European' one is A MUST.

                I cancelled myself out of that group (or junk mailed that listing, I forget which) a few months into it as I was getting overwhelmed with hearing about other people's lives and NOT too much DRI-specific info, at least what is important to me which is US-based DRI resorts and system.

                Now, I never did receive a nastygram from any of our European friends, but again I maybe it was because I did not post there as much as Doug
                EMAIL me if you wish, do NOT PM

                Comment


                • #9
                  There are two membership forums that I know of that are run in the UK Yahoo DRI members and a subscription DRI members site - Both these sites are moderated by the same gentleman as far as I am aware (former DRI Member director Tony Pearce) and in the last 12 months both sites have been completely altered and no critisism of DRI is allowed on either site and indeed I understand that certain members who have had anything negative to say about DRI have been banned from the sites - I personally prefer to place my queries either directly with Sarah Hulme at DRI or with the newly elected UK Member Director (Mark Harris) and generally speaking I get very good clarity on any questions and queries that I pose. Generally speaking I find that DRI are very open to constructive critisism and suggestions and even Stephen C will find time to ring members directly if he feels the need to do so, all in all I feel that DRI are a very listening company who do want members feedback and that they do want members to assist them in suggesting ways that the club could be improved - This is a significant improvement on how Sunterra was run and managed in my opinion.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I did get a call back from a very pleasant DRI rep out of their Las Vegas following up on the e-mail that I sent them.

                    She, of course, had no power to actually do anything. But it was nice to know that DRI did care enough to do some research and followup. I was pretty much expecting my response to go directly to trash can.

                    *****

                    Her reply, in essence, is that the lawyers have gotten hold of the message board. They have decided that essentially any reference to any website that is on the boards by any non-DRI poster creates an unacceptable risk. Someone might go to that site, have a bad experience, and blame DRI because the site was mentioned on a DRI forum.

                    And I had the audacity to suggest that someone who was wondering what their timeshare might be worth on the resale might make inquiries of people at here and at TUG.

                    So my post was banned because I mentioned TUG and Forums. I didn't create a link; I knew that was a no-no. I simply mentioned that the sites existed.

                    ******

                    As I said to the lady (and as I mentioned upthread) this is a change in moderation standards. In the past I have created threads that mentioned Forums and TUG and recommended that people come to get information.

                    I guess that's now verboten.
                    “Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.”

                    “This is a blouse and skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.”

                    “You shouldn't wear that body.”

                    Comment

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