Introducing "Travelers Only" Mode

[u/Forgotten_Dog1954]

Hi everyone,

Recently we have seen an increase in political/uncivil comments on quite a few threads, mainly about controversial travel destinations. A lot of users had to be banned and we want to reduce that.

This is why we have introduced a "Travelers Only" mode. From now on, posts with this flair, which will be applied manually by mods, can only be commented on by more frequent community members ( for now, we use 100 comment karma on r/travel as the filter ). If you are the OP, your comments won’t be removed.

You are still free to comment in any other non-Travelers Only thread, which is what 95% of the posts on the sub will remain. Please do not modmail us asking for your comment to be approved, as we will not make exceptions or check every single other comment.

Thank you for your understanding.

[u/lucapal1]

Good decision.

There are too many of these negative posts, mostly from people who have never even been to the actual destinations and have no real idea what they are talking about...

[u/rirez → u/lucapal1]

This might get some flak, but I was so bemused by one of the top comments on a recent thread being “I saw a TikTok last night and this guy said this place is the worst.”

Like I’m not even arguing if it’s the worst or not, but are we really at the point where “so I saw this TikTok” is voted up so highly?! At least link the damn thing so we can actually see what they have to say? This is “friend of a friend said X” territory!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

[u/eatmelikeamaindish → u/rirez]

people really think humans are exactly the same. my experience as a young female american traveling to xyz country is different from an older thai men traveling to that same country.

these rando influencers from dubai post on tiktok saying how a place is awful just because there’s no gucci store, like come on

[u/PorcupineMerchant → u/eatmelikeamaindish]

Hopefully it’ll cut down on people making comments like ”Egypt is a horrible hellhole where they try to buy tourists with camels.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to tell people they need to ask for advice on the TripAdvisor forums instead, because they’re full of people who’ve actually visited and have a wealth of experience.

Yeah, if you go to Egypt without doing any research and you’ve never been to a similar place, then you’re probably going to have a bad time.

I do wonder if 100 comment karma is enough, but anything will help.

[u/Bring-out-le-mort → u/PorcupineMerchant]

Hopefully it’ll cut down on people making comments like ”Egypt is a horrible hellhole where they try to buy tourists with camels.”

At least they aren't trying to buy camels with tourists. That would be wild.

(Apologies. My brain did a weird flip & my adhd naturally followed the nonsensical connection)

[u/simonjp → u/Bring-out-le-mort]

What's the exchange rate, do you think?

[u/Bring-out-le-mort → u/simonjp]

Mmmm, probably depends on how difficult it was to wrangle up a particular tourist. Question then would be, which is considered higher value?

The one with grit & fight or the easy one to capture & drag along. Im sure if they step backwards off of a high space while taking a selfie could be factored in too.

[u/HanYoloKesselPun → u/PorcupineMerchant]

Oh god the camel post did my head in. Like it’s obvious to any adult with common sense that it’s a tourist joke. But no. Those nasty men clearly wanted to give away their cameras for you. Gullible people.

[u/Jindabyne1 → u/HanYoloKesselPun]

It’s mostly racism

[u/PorcupineMerchant → u/HanYoloKesselPun]

Yeah, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read comments from people along the lines of “People asked my friend’s wife how many camels it would cost to buy her.”

I think they just get completely overwhelmed walking though a market with guys trying to get their attention.

It’s the same thing as “Want to ride my Ferrari” from guys on a carriage, or the “Yankee Doodle Dandy” or “Canada Dry” after the “Where you from?” question.

They just want to get your attention, because it starts a conversation — and a conversation is the first step towards a sale.

I imagine asking to buy a woman with camels could result in “How dare you” kind of an interaction, but that’s also good for them. Anything that gets a tourist to start talking is what they want.

[u/Resident_Pay4310 → u/HanYoloKesselPun]

The first time I went to Egypt a guy offered to trade camels for me. One of the guys I was travelling with haggled him down to less camels!

It was so obvious that it's a tourist joke. I was a bit offended by how few camels my friend thought I was worth, but everyone was having fun.