[the drama is getting, well, dramatic again]

*Someone pointed out that "cheerleader" posts on Cruise Critic was coined to describe people that think HAL(Holland America Line) can do no wrong.True,there *are* people who think HAL can do no wrong.I know this,I've seen it with my own eyes.

But it's the blowing off of major issues(non-working a/c, non-flushing toilets)that gets me.Basically "You have to be lying".Again:I have seen people with legit complaints called "trolls"-and worse.It's allowed to go on until the red triangle(reporting button for obnoxious posts) gets pushed so many times that they can't ignore it.

It scares people off-they ask a question that longtime posters might think is "dumb" or "obvious". and respond in their own way. Well, the original poster gets that response and..they don't want to come back.And who can blame them?More than a few people have said that they felt unwelcome when they first started posting on the Cruise Critic boards.I was reading an old thread where  an established poster said that they were suspicious of posters with low post counts. And see that is exactly the posrt of thing I've been talking about for a while.

Someone..defended isn't quite the right word but it fits..the cheerleading by saying that "it isn't putting people down, it's showing that it's not the norm". Doesn't matter. It's still rude.Posters take the blame because they're made to feel that it's their problem or that they have an attitude, which is wrong.

The timing of this thread is interesting, I think, because I haven't seen so much of the  ganging up on  cheerleaders.To me, it seems like shit-stirring.

It went a couple of different directions, including the usual complaints about  how some posters on the Cruise Critic boards are stereotype. I have to disagree. I think that there are a few people on the cruise Critic Holland America  boards that revel in living up to the stereotype of wanting to go back to  the "old days" of cruising.It gets into self parody.

On the other hand, some of the most extreme posters have left(unfortunately, some equally obnoxious people have replaced them.)