Original Message:
Re: Be careful about taking advice from the Timeshare Users Group (TUG) (by Susan B.):
"The title of this thread is "Be careful about taking advice from the Timeshare Users Group (TUG)". Is your complaint that the people who offer advice there are giving out bad advice? If so, that has to be expected from practically any public forum. When you want free advice, remember, you get what you pay for. Public forums (such as RedWeek, TUG, TS4MS, etc.) will have posters from all walks of life with varying interests, agendas, and experiences, etc. ... Or do you feel that TUG's terms of acceptance are rather biased and restrictive?"
Free advice does have its limitations and any reader should know that. My problem is with TUGS censorship of the free advice. They seem obsessed with keeping any discussions of legal recourse out of the forums. When I first posted there a moderator immediately accused me of being there to solicit for an attorney. I did everything I could to politely assure them I had no such agenda. They basically called me a liar and were extremely defensive given the circumstances. Such a high level of paranoia, combined with the glaring absence of any advice about how to find a good attorney, etc. leads me to wonder what the fear is all about.
"Is your complaint that the people who offer advice there are giving out bad advice? If so, that has to be expected from practically any public forum."
An uncensored public forum makes it possible for everyone to offer advice. The public benefits from hearing a wide variety of input instead of the repetition of a single narrow view. The free exchange of discussion and advice allows the advisers to learn from each other and ensures that the advice given does not become the blind repetition of long held ideas.
If the censorship of the forums goes beyond the prohibition of advertising, that fact should be revealed to the readers. Otherwise they are falsely led to believe they are seeing an open exchange. That is especially offensive on a site that claims to be interested in consumer protection.