Hello Ladies,

We also miss the old forum...  It did take us a long time to know how to work this one - but I think that we got it - So lets work with it...  Lets just look ahead - no looking back...Okay, we are MJean and Michelle are getting ready to take our 7th Oivia trip.  We are going to Turks - week II...  any one else?  Believe me we have got very nervous about the situation with Olivia - dropping trips - dropping entertainers on trips - BUT we still know that this is the only way that we want to travel.  We live very close to Provincetown, MA and being in Massachusetts our lives are very out and very comfortable but with all that said we love traveling with Olivia and meeting other women from across the USA and outside our country- I went to a Cape Verdean festival in Onset, MA  this past weekend (I know most probably do not know what I am talking about) and I had on an Olivia shirt, a woman approched me and said that she liked me shirt.  I in turn asked if she knew who they were and she said yes, believe me I was very proud about that..  We then had a conversation about Olivia.  She and her girlfriend have never taken a trip with Olivia but want to - so I told her about our Olivia experience.  She was very grateful that I stopped and talked to her...I have always said that the one thing that we take from our Olivia experience is that we have learned how good we have it here in Massachusetts.  That we still have much work to do for our sisters, our family.  We cannot believe that in 2008 there are still women living in the closet!  That friends, family, coworkers do not know who they are and who their family are.  So Olivia "THANK YOU" for giving our sisters a out, a place to be themselves.  And those of us that can be out - work for our sisters that cannot,

Hi stephensmom,

Good to see you again.. What another great sentiment about the old forum.

I used to enjoy getting onto the forum after a days work and on the weekend for longer periods of time.

When Cindy & I first found each other, the forum WAS our community as they were our womyn friends.  Again, what a loss feel not to have that anymore.

 Are you scheduled for any Olivia trips coming up?  We are going on the Laugh Out Loud I and are very excited about it.

Jo

I second the emotions expressed here, I too miss the old forum.  I eagerly looked forward to checking it each day, meeting old friends and new ones and helping newbies out.

To any of my forum buddies who read this - I miss you all!!

 Suzanne
 

brew...

Have those ashes affected your reading eyesight or just your attention span as to what has been said already?     hee hee

Yet another thing that has been affected by the loss of the old forum !

Kraig....help us soon....please....you know we are not getting any younger here. 

I believe I said it just a few posts ago Brewmax, in the same form that you just repeated.....that Olivia has, unfortunately lost a great marketing tool.

I know they are working on making this site easier to use though, so hang in there everyone.

The other piece of this is that many of us who were active on the old forum helped encourage others, who "peeked in to check out Olivia" on the forum, to take their 1st Olivia trip.  Many were a bit anxious/nervous about it.  On the old forum, most were quickly put at ease, welcomed and soon engaged in a new "relationship" with soon-to-be fellow travelers.  Many took their first trip, met the folks with whom they'd been corresponding and subsequently "got hooked" on Olivia travel AND the forum.

 The old forum was not only good for us, it was (as Evergreen said in some form previously I believe) GOOD for Olivia.  The old forum was a wonderful marketing tool and also a wonderful retention tool, especially among Olivia's most prized base and demographic - frequent travelers!

 . . . . okay, so I haven't yet gone back to the ashes. . . <grin!>

Kraig,

As you can see from just a few of us in a very quick time, the old forum is terribly missed.

 As we have been writing about it this past week, it has dawned on me of exactly how I feel about not having it anymore. 

It feels like I have had a death in the family.  I am not meaning this to be dramatic but rather to describe the loss of not being able to have that same community, that same contact with my larger "Olivia" family. 

 Cindy & I also live in an area where there are only a few of us around. However from the old forum I have the joy of having made many lifelong friends.  I can only wish that we still had that opportunity now.

Please try to find a way to attain that again,

Jo

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

Like a phoenix from the ashes, I have arisen to make an appearance here to say that (as one who often held one of the "highest number of postings" honors on the OLD Olivia forum) this new site is just not the same or conducive to CREATING the bonds and the community that we so easily formed through the old site. 

I gave it my best effort here for several months/over a year, but finally dropped off due to a real inability to regain the sense of community we had here before.  the "instantaneous" communication we had before on the old forum, which offered so many opportunities for quick and spontaneous communication on any number of topics in just a few minutes (even on DIAL UP, at that!), allowed even those pressed for time to jump in, have fun, develop lifelong friendships, etc.

The old forum is what made me want to take more and more trips with Olivia because I wanted to see the people with whom I communicated there.  While the trips are great, and Olivia is fantastic in terms of the service and vacations it provides, it is the PEOPLE who make the trips special and meaningful and it is the COMMUNITY that was created that drew our world together and encouraged us to get together.

Climbing off soapbox to go back into the ashes. . . I say, rather wistfully, "I miss the gay repartee we once so enjoyed here, Evergreen, K&J, JoCindy", et al.

 Cheers and best wishes to each of you!

Barbara

I agree with JaniceKathy & JoCindy.

I'd like to add that we booked 2 cruises as a result of the exchanges that I had with people on the old Forum. Tells me that the community built there was a good marketing tool too...................unfortunately that has been lost.

Keep those changes coming on here, we truly appreciate it & you.

Julie

Kraig,

Let me also add a thank you for your response and I do agree with JaniceKathy that we are noticing the changes that have been made.

I also whole-heartedly agree with her opinon about why the lounge and living room are low in activity.  No matter what several of us try to do to make this format easier for navigating, it remains difficult in format. 

We have talked about it amoungst ourselves, with other Olviia staff etc. etc.  If one of us finds a trick that works, we pass it along to others.  We had such an active group on the old forum and we have lost that and how sad that is. 

Just this weekend, a couple came to stay with us, that we met through the forum and then we have spent time with on 3 cruises.  All four of us said what a shame it is that  we do not have the old style forum and therefore all of those fun times any longer. 

We do appreciate all of everyones work at Olivia on our behalf.   

JoCIndy 

Thank you Kraig for your response.  We appreciate the work you are doing and it is showing.  It would still be of great help if there were a list of the active threads.

I believe that the lounge and living room are experiencing less activity because a lot of the gals have left due to the difficulty in using the current format.

But we do appreciate all the work you are doing.

Any progress on being able to edit our own previous posts?

Hi - we've heard from you that some of you have found it difficult to find the most active groups.  We changed the main groups page (http://www.olivia.com/Connect/groups/default.aspx ) about two months ago to show the most active groups.  Any group listed under "most active" has definitely had activity in the past week.  We also added the "My Groups" link to the upper right corner, which will show you a list of all of your groups along with which ones have new activity. 

One thing that I've noticed is that a lot of the activity that took place on the "Living Room" and "Lounge" community forums is now taking place in the trip-specific groups.  The trip-specific groups have the highest participation they've ever had, so that has been hugely successful. 

The suggestion to have an index of current postings is a good one and we'll keep considering changes to the Connect portion of the website.  Most of our focus for the rest of 2008 is going to be on the home page and main travel page of the website, which we want to make much easier to use and less cluttered.

Hi JK,

What a great idea that index of current postings is ! 

Perhaps it could go back 2 weeks or more in time and include a link to the newest postings, list the group etc.  That would make it so much easier to try to determine if that posting could interest you.

As it is now...I do not possibly have the time to look into wach group that I could be interested in.. Also, I firmly believe that there are groups that I do not even know exist ! I probably am missing out on many terrific postings that the old forum format gave us immediate access to.

As I write this, I can just see how it would improve this format.

Bravo !

Kraig - what do you think?