The Review I Submitted Was Changed Without My Permission

The Review Notice posted before one gets to the pages where a review is done has at least three rules that could be relevant to this topic discussion.

1- Everything that you enter incorrectly (including partial names of parks) has to be re-entered by hand. This will not only result in the delayed posting of your review, but it may also cause your review to be deferred.

2- Take care to use proper capitalization, punctuation, and grammar when writing your review.

3- In the comments section, write 2-3 sentences which contain information about the facilities, services, and amenities provided at the park.

At the end of what few rules there are for submitting a review is this red highlighted sentence.
I hereby state that I have read and will abide by the instructions listed above when writing my review. It doesn't mean anyone actually bothered to read the rules, but if you didn't and still checked the box, then you probably can't expect much sympathy for breaking them.

None of us want to feel like we are back in school having our papers graded so maybe we should be more careful with our reviews so as not to put ourselves in that situation in the first place. We also should remember that this is a public website that provides us with an excellent resource and it doesn't cost us anything to get it.

 

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 13 2012, 10:37 PM) [snapback]31569[/snapback]

Actually, I find it to be quite relevant to reviews, and try to include in my reviews whether access is easy or not for a large RV from the direction I used to access the park.


It is one thing to say that a park has good access from a particular interstate or to state that it is down a long, dusty road. This information is valuable to other members. It is another thing to say (for example), “We traveled from Oklahoma City across I-40 to Fort Smith, then turned north up through Fayetteville to Springdale where we stopped for lunch at a McDonalds but we had to park across the street because their parking lot was too small. From there we took Hwy 412, which was very hilly with lots of curves, over to Hwy 65. At 65 we headed north again and got to Branson about 30 mi. later where we stayed at AAA RV Park.” This is totally irrelevant information as it pertains to what the park is like.

There is a huge difference between telling about the “access” to a park and the “route” taken to get there. You have no idea what all rkw included in his/her review. I do know, and it included a travel itinerary similar to the one above that I made up. Likewise there was a lot of other personal information which had nothing to do with the park. If this is the type of information you want to provide, then write a blog somewhere.



QUOTE
I think most people reading the reviews are better served by getting an unedited version of the review



I would like nothing better than to post reviews just like they come in. That would be less work for all of us. So since you have made this suggestion, I thought I would let you see some examples of what comes in. Following are some reviews that are unedited. This is exactly how we received them. Trust me; I can’t make this stuff up.

“i dont know what your all talking about your probably mad about something but this was a great campground. family friendly and with great clean restrooms. don't listen to these people because the camping experience was fenominal best trip ever and there is shade in tent sites and there are pullthroughs i saw them when i talked to the owner. who was a very nice man”

“Side by side hook ups way to close together WiFI was tengo but was not working tree seemed to block the signal staff friendly and took you to the sites probably because there was no clear its just field with hookups"

“i red your rewiews about the resort and went anyway. me and my wife had a wonderful time there. the people were very friendly . it was paradise. its what your looking for. camped by the river and it was great! you and nature.”


Then we also get reviews like the following that give no useful information for other travelers.

“A great little surprise on our trip north, stayed 2 nights, will come again when in the area.”

“Very good RV park”

“I enjoyed it very much”

“AVOID"


At the opposite end of the scale are these:

“I am sharing a letter below that we had to write to the campground's Manager. We also sent a copy to the corporate office. We found their address online, however, they never contact us. We were promised by the manger to get 1/2 our money back, but did not receive all of it (it was short $20). We finally gave up trying to contact the manager. Letter to the Manager: We stayed at the [name removed] Campground on the above-referenced dates and endured many problems during our stay. Minutes before we packed up to leave the campground, you advised that a follow up would be made with us regarding these matters. We have not heard from you to date. This letter is to summarize the problems we had so that we can come to a resolution. Attached are copies of the three confirmations we received after making our reservation (electric and water sites). Note: each confirmation has a different price on it. When we contacted your facility to question the prices, we were told that the campground closed in 10 minutes. When I notified the person from your office that my friend would be calling immediately to resolve this issue, he stated he would pick up the phone and said “not to worry he will be by the phone”. But when my friend called back, nobody answered the phone and we had to wait until the next day for a resolution. We arrived at your campground Friday afternoon. The line to get into the park was so disorganized. Some of the vehicles in our group received car tags, park information, garbage bags, etc. and others did not. That night started the long weekend of no electricity. We have never been to a campground that offered 1 electricity pole for 4 camping vehicles. We paid for the site with electricity (which we believed was expensive to begin with) and should have had our own pole. I understand that it was a holiday weekend, but even your workers stated that this issue happens constantly through the camping season and that the campground was overbooked. One of your maintenance workers attempted to resolve this issue by taking an extension cord and running one of the camping vehicles electricity to another pole. This only worked for a few hours and we continued to be without electricity until the last night of camping. The campsite next to us started having the same problems. So the same maintenance person on your staff decided to run their electricity to our pole knowing very well we were already having the same issue. We were just getting back from the pool when we noticed we were without power yet again and our dogs had been in our camper without air conditioning. It was at least 100 degrees in our camper. This disturbed me more than anything along with the fact that we could not use our fridge and spent an incredible amount of money to purchase ice in order to keep our food cold. This was all on top of the disgustingly dirty shower rooms, campers blowing off fireworks, golf carts that drove too fast, extremely loud neighbors till at least 2 a.m. and the fact that when we first talked to you you were a “security guard” then the next time we talked to you you were thee “general manager”. You admitted doing this and stated the reason was to “control” certain calls. It was very apparent that rules listed on our website are not enforced by your campground. We tried to contact you on multiple occasions and even left our cell phone numbers. On one visit to the office, we were told that you were not in the park then heard your voice over the radio speaking to a female campground worker. It is really disappointing that we are having to contact you for resolution to these matters. It is astonishing that you knew of all these problems but choose to ignore them. We will not be camping at your campground again and do not wish to receive a credit to do so. At this time, we would like a refund of at least 50%.”


“my first introduction to the park was coming around the blind corner of south [name removed] and finding a 12'3" railroad underpass. see, i was looking for any port in a storm; i had planned to stay overnight at any walmart i could find since i would be leaving early the next day and i wasn't going to stay overnight in the motorhome anyway--i was meeting my wife in one of the downtown hotels (long story). anyway, screech. had to stop the motorhome--pulling a toad, of course--in the middle of the street while i called the cops to block traffic so i could unhook the cr-v and extricate myself from the position i had put myself in. longer story short, they never showed up and i had to do it without any assistance--unhook the toad, drive it to a side street, back the motorhome around a blind corner hoping no one was going to hit me in the process. it all worked out. so i get to the park well after closing, find an empty site from the list they post for the after-hours arrivals like me, and navigate myself down airstream drive to the site--which was the only pull-through left. the first thing you notice is how tight all the turns are. that's also the second and third thing you notice, too. the site was ok--gravel but level, narrow but wide enough, trees not cut back very much but just enough to barely scrape the top of the coach, and water pressure way too high but manageable with a pressure reducer. i hooked up as quickly as i could and went to meet my wife in town. got back the next morning and began securing for the short ride home--we live only about 35 miles northwest of [name removed]. the site i had chosen looked pretty good on paper--but i wasn't parked on a paper site. the turn out of the site was tight. we have a 34' FRED--i'm not sure a 40' coach would be able to make the turn but would have to back out instead. interesting idea, backing ut of a pull-through site. for a brief moment i suspected i was going to have to unhook the cr-v again to back up. anyhow, just made the turn and headed for the office to pay up. they take passport america so i got half off. nice people in the office. i didn't use any of the facilities during my stay--including my own motorhome. i would probably stay there again if i had a reason to--but i can't for the life of me think what it would be. they key ideas here are that the sites are pretty close together and the streets are narrow with some very sharp curves; don't take [name removed] street unless you have a short rv--or really want one; and make sure you have your own water pressure reducer--because they charge $17 for the one you can buy at walmart for $5.


Are any of these the type of reviews you want to see on this site? I’ll bet you didn’t even try to read all the way through those long ones, and neither will anyone else.

We are strict with our guidelines for a reason--it makes our reviews readable, and therefore, useful. If we posted reviews like the previous examples we would not be providing a very good service to our members.

 

Texasrvers,

I, along with many others, appreciate the considerable time and effort you guys put in to moderating this site. Having read some of the examples you have to either translate or endure has given me a new in-site into the poor review and comments that are made. I hope others will take the opportunity to give more thought before putting pen to paper (so to speak). Incidentally, you we right about the long reviews. I managed about five lines before wondering where they where going with the review. After that I gave up and scrolled to the end.
Thanks again.

 

Texasrvers, Maybe I'm reading your reply wrong, but it reads to me like I offended you somehow, or that your upset about my having voiced my opinion. Let me say (type) again:

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 13 2012, 09:37 PM) [snapback]31569[/snapback]

I think the vast majority of reviews are held to very reasonable standards. I think the admins for the site deserve a lot of appreciation for the good job they do here. I'm sure it's a lot of work for very little reward.


Now, what I said in my post was:

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 13 2012, 09:37 PM) [snapback]31569[/snapback]

Actually, I find it to be quite relevant to reviews, and try to include in my reviews whether access is easy or not for a large RV from the direction I used to access the park.



QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 14 2012, 03:13 PM) [snapback]31577[/snapback]

It is one thing to say that a park has good access from a particular interstate or to state that it is down a long, dusty road. This information is valuable to other members. It is another thing to say (for example), "We traveled from Oklahoma City across I-40 to Fort Smith, then turned north up through Fayetteville to Springdale where we stopped for lunch at a McDonalds but we had to park across the street because their parking lot was too small. From there we took Hwy 412, which was very hilly with lots of curves, over to Hwy 65. At 65 we headed north again and got to Branson about 30 mi. later where we stayed at AAA RV Park." This is totally irrelevant information as it pertains to what the park is like.

There is a huge difference between telling about the "access" to a park and the "route" taken to get there. You have no idea what all rkw included in his/her review. I do know, and it included a travel itinerary similar to the one above that I made up. Likewise there was a lot of other personal information which had nothing to do with the park.



No, I have no idea what rkw included in his original post. I never claimed I did. I'm not sure how I would determine good or bad access to the park if I didn't know the route the reviewer was referring to. I certainly wasn't trying to infer that directions similar to your made-up and extreme example are appropriate.


QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 14 2012, 03:13 PM) [snapback]31577[/snapback]

I would like nothing better than to post reviews just like they come in. That would be less work for all of us. So since you have made this suggestion, I thought I would let you see some examples of what comes in. Following are some reviews that are unedited. This is exactly how we received them. Trust me; I can't make this stuff up.



Although I realize it is the campgroundreviews.com policy to "clean up" submitted reviews and correct same for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, I think that proves my point about leaving submitted reviews unchanged. It would certainly give me some added perspective into which reviews to give more (or less) legitimacy to. But, I understand and accept rvparkrevies.com policy is what it is and my opinion is meaningless. However I think it somewhat disingenuous
to post:

QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 14 2012, 03:13 PM) [snapback]31577[/snapback]

We are strict with our guidelines for a reason--it makes our reviews readable, and therefore, useful. If we posted reviews like the previous examples we would not be providing a very good service to our members.



When, with regard to a recent review I submitted I stated:

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 13 2012, 09:37 PM) [snapback]31569[/snapback]
There were also MANY changes made to that particular review (sentance structure, phrases, etc) which made it read like I was unable to write a grammatically correct couple of sentances and threw off the entire tone of the review. I mean, how much stock would you put in a review that was incomprehensible and grammatically very poor?


It seems to me that for you to stress the importance of meeting the submitted review criteria, the reviewers of the reviews should be doing the same. In making the changes to the review I submitted, the admin / reviewer actually made the review worse and, imho, much less grammatically correct.

QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 14 2012, 03:13 PM) [snapback]31577[/snapback]

I'll bet you didn't even try to read all the way through those long ones, and neither will anyone else.



I quit a few sentances short of the end of the 1st example, but read the entire 2nd one and actually found it interesting. I wouldn't complain about reviews like the 2nd one being posted, but again I recognize my opinion means exactly zero in this instance.

QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 14 2012, 03:13 PM) [snapback]31577[/snapback]

If this is the type of information you want to provide, then write a blog somewhere.



If this was directed specifically to me, am I to interpret that as an invitation to leave?

 

"sentance"?

 

QUOTE(HappiestCamper @ Oct 16 2012, 07:30 AM) [snapback]31592[/snapback]

"sentance"?



There you go! You can use my spelling skills to judge my credibility, and I can use content and level of contribution to the discussion to judge yours!

 

Sterner, you asked a question and he gave you a good, clear answer. He was explaining to you and the rest of us how and why they make changes. They work hard to make the reviews and the forum easy for everyone and they spend many hours of their own time working for this site. Getting angry at him for explaining why your review was changed and then attacking his explanation was unnecessary in my opinion. You must get offended very easily.

 

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 15 2012, 01:59 PM) [snapback]31585[/snapback]

Maybe I'm reading your reply wrong, but it reads to me like I offended you somehow, or that your upset about my having voiced my opinion.


Sterner,
I was not offended by your remarks. Ultimately, I just wanted to try to explain to you why it is necessary edit many of the reviews we get.


QUOTE


“If this is the type of information you want to provide, then write a blog somewhere.”

"If this was directed specifically to me, am I to interpret that as an invitation to leave?"



No, this was not directed specifically to you, and it is not an invitation to leave. I meant this to be the plural “you,” and in fact, to make that clearer, I should have said, “If this is the type of information someone wants to provide, then he/she should write a blog somewhere.”

 

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 16 2012, 08:25 PM) [snapback]31601[/snapback]

There you go! You can use my spelling skills to judge my credibility, and I can use content and level of contribution to the discussion to judge yours!



Just pointing out what YOU said earlier:

QUOTE(Sterner @ Oct 13 2012, 11:37 PM) [snapback]31569[/snapback]
There were also MANY changes made to that particular review (sentance structure, phrases, etc) which made it read like I was unable to write a grammatically correct couple of sentances and threw off the entire tone of the review.



YOU claim when they re-write your reviews, it makes it look like YOU can't write. Maybe you can, maybe you can't - our only example is what you write here.

 

QUOTE(Texasrvers @ Oct 16 2012, 10:11 PM) [snapback]31606[/snapback]

No, this was not directed specifically to you, and it is not an invitation to leave. I meant this to be the plural “you,” and in fact, to make that clearer, I should have said, “If this is the type of information someone wants to provide, then he/she should write a blog somewhere.”



OK, then clearly I misinterpreted the tone of your post, and if I came across harsh in my reply (as dalsgal indicated) then I would hope that you would accept my apology.

 

No need for an apology. As you said, you were just expressing your opinion.

 

I submitted a review last week that hasn't appeared yet. Is there a procedure? I checked and I don't have any messages.

 

QUOTE(tsparky @ Oct 29 2012, 08:47 PM) [snapback]31725[/snapback]

I submitted a review last week that hasn't appeared yet. Is there a procedure? I checked and I don't have any messages.




I cannot find a review submitted under your username. Is it possible you used a different name? Do you remember getting a "Thank You" screen when you completed your review. If not, then your review was not submitted successfully.

 

In the past week or two I have had several reviews take 5-6 days to post versus 1-2 days for other reviews written at about the same time. I'm guessing that at least one review checker is a bit more backlogged than some of the others.

 

TX,

Actually, I am begining to wonder about a review I did about a week ago (I'm almost positive I got the "Thank You" message on this review) for the Belton RV Park in Belton, TX. I was there 10/26 & 27 and I think I submitted the review 10/28 or 29. I've written at least 4 reviews on other parks since then that have already posted. I'd appreciate it if you could check on this review.

Thanks.

 

Sorry Jerry, but I can't find your review. When you made your previous comment on Oct. 31 about it taking a little longer before your reviews were posted, I checked to see if we had a backlog, but we didn't. At that time there were less than a dozen reviews waiting to be approved, and they had just recently come in. I did notice that you had two reviews in that list, and I am fairly certain that neither of them was for Belton. I am pretty sure they were for RV parks at a casino. So at this point I have no idea what happened to the Belton review. All I can suggest is that you send it in again. If it shows up some weird place in the meantime, I'll let you know. Thanks for checking.

TX

 

TX,

Thanks for checking. As I said, I'm fairly certain that I saw the "Thank You" page. I'll just redo it tonight or tomorrow.

Jerry

 

I almost hate to bring this thread back to life, but I guess it is my turn to whine a little. I recently submitted my first review of the year. It was for Camp Lakewood in Effingham, IL. I felt the review was butchered by whomever checked it. They removed almost half the review. For starters, I explained why I was re-reviewing that park so soon after my previous review - there had been a significant change in the park situation. Since this a fairly popular park with lots of regular returning customers, I thought most of them would appreciate learning that the folks who owned the park for years had sold the park. I do understand eliminating the names of the old and new owners. If that was all the admin did, I wouldn't be upset. Why take out comments about the importance how well the owners take care of the park? Also, is it wrong to reference a previous review of your own that may shed light on the park amenities and facilities? I think I did that in this review (or the one I also submitted yesterday on Lady Luck RV Park in Caruthersville, MO) and it was taken out.

I'm certainly not threatening to stop submitting reviews like the complaintants earlier in this thread, but I would like to think somebody with my track record shouldn't have their reviews cut so severely.

Thanks for letting me rant a bit.

 

QUOTE(Jerry S. @ May 10 2013, 12:21 AM) [snapback]33361[/snapback]

Thanks for letting me rant a bit.


First, let me say that I don't think your post is a rant. It is a tactful explanation of your concern and that is appreciated.

The Admins do have the authority to make corrections to a review so that it complies with the rules, guidelines, and standards that are established for this website. Most of those guidelines are covered in the Rules for Submitting a review. Everyone must acknowledge those prior to submitting one. Unfortunately, we still get lots of non-compliance from those who do not read them or choose not to comply. Some of the standards are not published but are common sense. Like not putting personal names in a review, mentioning a competing campground in the review of another, or adding comment information that has serves no useful purpose for fellow Rvers in their decision to use the campground.

All of the Admins are hand picked and trained to do the job to a certain standard. They are experienced RVer. They check hundreds of reviews that come in for accurate campground information and to insure that the comments are easily read and understood. A review does not serve it's purpose when what is written cannot be easily read and understood. With all due respect to everyone, the bottom line is that if the Admin, an experienced RVer, doesn't understand what you are trying to communicate then neither will other readers.

If the Admin does take the time necessary to make a correction, we try to do so in a manner that respects the reviewer's submission and in a way that doesn't change the intent of what is being said by that person. However, if we did that for all of the reviews then we would be working at a snail's pace. That would be doing a disservice to those who expect to have their review approved in a timely manner. The easiest, and quickest, solution is to send the review back to the individual and let them make the corrections.

I read this particular review and some of your previous ones. They are well done and would serve the purpose of my making the decision to use one of the campgrounds mentioned. You have submitted a lot of good reviews. Perhaps, because of your “track record” and service to fellow Rvers, the Admin was thinking it would be a courtesy in not sending it back for the corrections that they took the time to do - even if those were more than necessary. Both chooses are judgment calls. We would like to get them right 100% of the time, but that is impossible.

None of Admins would reject suggestions that help us to do a better job of serving the website visitors. Thank you for yours.

 

I just submitted a review for an RV Park in Sacramento, Ca. (Mark J RV Park). As I was going down through the check boxes I noticed that it changed to Cal Expo RV Park. I manually changed it back to Mark J and again went through all the check boxes and posted my text. Then, after I clicked "next" a window opened that said "Thank you for your review of Cal Expo RV Park". Not the park I was reviewing.

So I wonder if this is happening to others and that may be why their review isn't showing up where it should be?

JC