My Online Self

I use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on a daily basis. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is check all three news feeds to keep up to date with what is happening. And I do all this before I have even got out of bed.

I have set up each of the social networking sites that I use to the highest privacy setting, as I would like to think that my details are private, but they are not. No matter how secure I think that the information that I upload is. It is not. The cookies on websites and the social networking site itself, has the right to keep that image or data that I chose to share with them. So no matter how private I make my settings, nothing is private on the internet.

Before writing this blog post, I was curious and thought it would be interesting to Google myself. I was shocked to see that images of my family and friends as well as my address were being shared on the internet for the whole world to see. This made me realise that no matter how much you think you’re being safe on the internet and how many precautions you’re taking, nothing is safe.

 

 

Communities Online.

It’s been rather a long time since I last played X Box or consoles alike in an online community, in fact the last time probably was way back in year 9, a 14 year old me sat in front of a TV hid away in my bedroom all night. X Box and Playstation have an online feature, meaning you can chat to other gamers around the world not just your friends, it also allows you to compete against each other, in particularly with EA’s Fifa.

I remember talking to all sorts of people online, especially when as part of a clan competing against others, mainly quick scope sniper matches on Call of Duty. However more recently the online community has changed, with gamers making YouTube videos on game walkthroughs or just simply playing the game but at a high level. These people have gained a fanbase and even made money from such videos, so this has therefore thrown them into a new online community, sharing videos and gaining a fanbase online.

Many of these people who have become friends actually meet up in real life, at events like conventions or game releases.

Who would of thought you can become friends with a stranger playing the same game as you?

Flickr

Flickr is a photo management and sharing application, Flickr was first launched in 2004 mainly for photographers and also for people who want to organise and share their photos.

The number of users on Flickr had initially grown so fast which allowed the company to expand and sell the app a year after it’s development to Yahoo in 2005, so what’s significant about the participation of these users besides allowing Yahoo to commercialise it?

The users of Flickr also have communities within the community of Flickr as a whole, users can create their own groups, public or private for them and their friends, or to find people who share people with similar interests, and example of a group would be University of Westminster Students. (Saudi students abroad is a group i’m a member of for example)

Users benefit through Flickr by making a name for themselves as photographers and by showing other photographers their skill and potential which could allow collaborations with other people, some challenges of Flickr though is the limitation of data that users can upload, each user with a free account can add up to a Terabyte of pictures and videos (which is still a big size of storage), users can then update their content by deleting old stuff and adding their new work.

Student Room

Is an app and website that is paired with Facebook and you connect with other class mates in your GCSE, A-level or university classes. The class is listed under the university then teacher and then your scheduled class time. When you sign up under this class you can communicate with your classmates and ask questions, share notes or study materials. You can also connect to classmates around the world by facetiming which allows you to personally engage with your classmates. The thing that might be challenging is getting all of your classmates to participate in the website. Some classes might not have a profile so when you need help you might not get it. But on the other side it provides advice when applying to university or any general advice about university. You can get assistance with your CV, choice in career, temp-jobs or any career path you want to take. It also provides tabs that advises students on relationships and health; news and entertainment and your student finances. All these are provided in order to help a student choose the best lifestyle and career they want.

Yelp: Everyone’s a Critic

 

Launched in 2004 Yelp is an online review site where users can post on restaurants and other local businesses and is mostly used in metropolitan areas. The main selling point of Yelp is that anybody can create an account and start reviewing at their own pace, they can also read other users reviews and recommendations.

First launched as an internet site Yelp is also accessible through an app on mobile devices and in 2012 it was estimated that 42% of Yelps searches are made from a mobile device.

In recent years users have been able to check hygiene inspection scores and other relevant information on their local businesses. It’s now also possible to make restaurant reservations through the app as well as order food to be delivered.

Because reviews on the service are provided by real people with their own opinions, some users have gotten into trouble over writing negative reviews.Some businesses have tried to sue Yelp and its users for libel but these cases have been rejected on the grounds of freedom of expression. On the flip side there have been cases of ‘fake’ reviews or ‘bought’ reviews where businesses have supplied their own reviews for the service to boost their reputation.

 

 

Steam Greenlight

Steam Greenlight is a online community since it brings people together who share the same interests, however its more for creating a audience for a specific game to be made however recently it has introduced movies and books in the pile. Since Steam has started to gain more attention by lots of people it has started to change for example it started off being a digital store now its a place where people can come together to play games, watch movies or if they really wanted to read a book together. Steam Greenlight helps the unknown people who are trying to be game developers or movie makers to have a chance to get their idea out to a audience who can support or fund the idea which allows the creator to make money off their idea and to get some acknowledgement. When the audience help out on the ideas they are raising awareness of the certain item to people as if it hits a certain amount of supporters then it is featured in a pop up which is shown to everyone. Though this community has some great people there will not always be nice people on the internet especially since the internet is used by almost everyone, another bad thing would be that the awareness they can make is only shown to people who use Steam and is not shown anywhere else unless the creator or supporters put it there.

Link – http://steamcommunity. com/greenlight/ [accessed 01/03/16]

Dating websites: yes or no?

Dating websites is a good example of an online community as it allows single people with common interest to meet. Personally I feel like dating websites can having their positives and negatives. An advantage would be that it allows people from different locations to find love, it is a good site for people who have low confidence as it gives them the ability to interact more as they a not standing in front of the other person.

A negative could be that people could result to the formation of fake accounts, this is known as ‘catfishes’, this is someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.  This is a common problem with dating sites in particular. A few are examples of dating websites that have a specific target audience and can therefore be perceived as limitations are as follows:

• Elite singles is a dating website specifically aimed at ‘elite’ individuals, aged 30 and above who come from higher income and education groups. This is in some ways degrading to individuals that don’t meet their criteria
• Soul swipe is another example of a dating websites however this mainly focuses on the race of the individual. It is primarily for black people living in the UK.
• Christian mingle is targeted towards religious Christians therefore promoting the thought that Muslims or individuals of other religions can’t interact with them.

Overall dating websites is a positive example of an online community as it people that take part in it do benefit from their participation in the sites.

Ready, Set, Go!

With the Nike+ Fuelband, the sports manufacturer giant made a step into the world of the so called health apps.

The Fuelband is a wearable gadget – bracelet – which connects to your smartphone and keeps track of your fitness achievements, including step counts, your running routes and much more. The app as well as the desktop version will give you an insight on your daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly achievements, in order to see where you can improve and how to enhance your fitness routines.

Your efforts will be converted in a by Nike designed digital currency – Nike Fuel, which will motivate you to achieve your daily goals. All your achievements can be shared with the online community or on social media, which will give you the extra bit of motivation you need!

Limitations include the obligation to purchase the bracelet as well as owning either an Android or iOS phone. The Fuelband – besides being a motivational tool – can additionally be described as a marketing tool, which encourages you to purchase further Nike products.

Find out more insights on the Nike+ Fuelband and community in this video and let me know what you think of this gadget.

WAYN – YOUR NEW TRAVELLING BUDDY

WAYN: ‘Where Are You Now?‘

WAYN is a social media community helping people to find top holiday places based on their interests. The website’s aim is to make people discover where to go and what to do with similar like minded people.

It’s an online community, as everyone shares their travel opinions, and leave recommendations and advice. It’s a great website for keeping tourism intact in economic growth.

They show destinations and bullet point the three most popular things to do there, such as  Marmaris, Turkey: a place for a summer holiday, going on nice walks and sunbathing. On the page of the destination it will include, factual information such as the weather, time, currency and languages spoken. Hotel bookings and deals are shown, and previous travellers tips who have been to the place leave comments advising future tourists of what they should or not do. There is also a question and answer column, where people can get personal which is very beneficial especially for families with children for their safety.

They have 20 million members from 196 countries, almost 1.5 million travel opinions are shared monthly making it an active community platform. 1 million photos are uploaded and 200 thousand trips are added each month. Their network has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 20 million members in 196 countries until today.The website is the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community in the world.

They work with the world’s biggest travel brands such as Turkish Airlines, Skype and MasterCard.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is an online community that gives users a platform to share audio. It was created by two men in Stockholm who were frustrated that there was no place for them to share their audio files with each other.

SoundCloud allows users to share their audio with users with similar interests by tagging their content with key words. Then, users can listen to and comment on it, which allows the user to engage with other people while getting ideas on what’s good and what to improve on with their content. Furthermore, SoundCloud gives users better exposition by allowing them to share it on other social media sites, like Facebook.

Another positive aspect is that, as well as being able to tag key words so that other users can find your content more easily, users are also able to create groups focused on certain subjects or genres of music and gathering content together. This would create a space for people with similar interests to discuss the audio and get opinions of other like-minded people.

Obviously, like every online community, there are going to be users that enjoy being rude and posting negative comments for the sake of it. But, SoundCloud have made it easy to block and report users like that, so it’s not much of a problem. Overall, this online community is a brilliant platform for users to discover new audio and post your own that can be exposed to millions of users worldwide.

https://soundcloud.com/

Busuu – Learn a new language!

Busuu is an online community in a social network form which allows users to learn new languages and connect with people from all over the world that also want to learn new languages. Some features are free to use, including learning one language, however there are premium features for more advanced levels of language study. The website provides the choice between twelve languages including:  English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese.

The website enables you to select which language you already speak and allows the user to connect with people that speak the language they wish to learn. This is a useful feature as users can ask other users to correct their mistakes; therefore learning from native speakers of that particular language. The website comes with quizzes to test the abilities of users and test how much they have learnt from other users online.  There is a friend request and a messaging system where users can interact with each other, similarly to a social media website. This is a positive example of an online community which users can benefit from, as learning a new language can always be useful. However, this website could improve by adding a wider range of language to select from as only 12 languages are included. I believe the website could expand the number of users by adding more language choices that are not included such as Romanian, Korean, Hungarian and a lot more.

http://www.busuu.com

Bodyspace: Let’s conquer the weakness together

According to the common principle of online community, Bodyspace as one of the biggest fitness community in the world has provided the approachable platform for all the fitness enthusiasts in aid to meet their ambitious goal of bodily building-up achievement. Varied from other online communities, once you open the page, scrolling pictures of bulky men and toned women, and detailed training plan have created such inspirational atmosphere.

The implication of this community consists solely of the engagement of its memberships, posts ranged from nutrition to fitness products have been cataloged as motivation, competition and woman transformation etc. Basically, people can find everything that they want to know about fitness from others’ sharing. Nevertheless, it is not just the place for people to encourage each other but also the milestones established by themselves step by step.

In my opinion, fitness community is reinforcing the social connection between those lonely, boring, tiring activities.It is gathering the common interest from its followers and simultaneously enlarging the promotion and excitation for them resulting from the collaborated contribution. However, it is hard to stay in the certainly appropriate self evaluation, especially when you see some one is doing way better than you, which could be thus argued as the negative influence of the environment. To explain it, you may probably overestimate yourself’s limitation by seeing some one is doing much weight more than you normally do, which consequently leads to irrationally anxiety. In that case, do ever get too attached to virtual world, it helps as well as influences.

Share your knowledge with ResearchGate

I discovered ResearchGate by case, while wandering on internet.

The concept of this online community is brilliant yet extremely simple. The aim is to combine alike minds on the same field, and most of all, on the same platform. Anyone, from all over the world, can share and get knowledge about a certain topic; and debate and confront with professionals with different points of view and cultures.

I find it amazing. It’s such a simple idea, but it allows professionals such as professors and researchers as well as students or just onlookers to connect. The platform works as a sort of online curriculum as well, giving the possibility to share projects and publications and finding contacts within the research ambit.

The limits that an open and unfiltered platform like this could lead to are related to the reliability of the sources received. I myself clicked the wrong category to register in the community and, at my entry on the platform, I suddenly was a respectful researcher in media.

However, the pitfalls of the web are broadly acknowledged by now. A bit of ‘gnegnero‘ (awareness) as my Italian grandma would say in her old dialect, is always necessary online.

 

The Professional Benefits of Linkedin

Linkedin is the platform for a business-oriented, professional social networking, a stage for individuals to be exposed, to make contact, to learn new opportunities. Linkedin launched on 2003; In its first three years alone, Linkedin reached an amazing number of 20 million users. Today, the website has hundreds of millions of users throughout the world.

 

Whilst other social media platforms offer to network in the purpose of communication and entertainment, Linkedin is giving its users the extra value of professional connections. The platform benefits its active users as a hallway full of doors, with great opportunities for those that dare to knock, or, at least, to expose themselves enough. The platform is the opportunity to share your skills and improve your chances for employability, or for reaching opportunities for work experience.

The connection between the users is by the option to post your opinion among people with potentially the same type of interests. Users, individuals or companies, are able to connect each other directly, but the access must be approved. I believe that different to other social media platforms, Linkedin, for the good or the bad, allows its audience a course of privacy.

I believe that a community, or a platform that allows various communities, based on skills and interests- is a positive use of the media by the public. Linkedin, as a community, is the example of the way in which through the media, we may benefit each other.

Foursquare

Foursquare – helping us, 50 million members of the community, discover what is happening around us, and what do other members think about it.

More than 50 million people use Foursquare monthly, and there are reasons for such great numbers.

The concept involves some interesting features: using location services on smartphones, the app helps the user discover what venues, places, tourist attractions are nearby; people can check in to places they visit; reviews and recommendations can be posted by the community members, as a reference for other users planning a visit to a place.

Now, the benefits of Foursquare, I believe, go two ways. Firstly, it is not only helpful, but exciting as well for the members of this online community. The app guides us to places we would not otherwise know the existence of, for example, an artisan coffee pop-up, or a healthy fish and chip shop in your neighbourhood you never noticed before.

Secondly, it works the other way around as well: businesses benefit from additional publicity they get on Foursquare, and the recommendations left by the community can help a small business flourish. Another great opportunity for businesses is Foursquare promotions: for example, some cafés will give you a discount or a free food item for a Foursquare check-in, in this way attracting new customers.

The challenge here, however, is the trust you can put in the community. The mean comments about ‘rude staff’ at your favourite café: to what extent are they true and can be trusted? You’ve experienced service not less than excellent so far – why is another member of the community feeling completely different? What about the positive reviews? Could it be that a member of staff wrote these?

However, these are just minor issues. The most important part is the mutual benefit to the foursquare community and to businesses participating. Community members are happy to visit new places, the business owners are happy about the revenue it brings. Win-win.

 

All the students in one room

This week, I’m gonna talk about an online community that most of you probably didn’t hear of until now. Its name is ‘The Student Room’.

The Student Room is UK’s biggest education community created for students to cooperate and support each other. As we all are aware of, every student needs help, doesn’t matter where he/she is from and the most suitable person to go for assistance is another student who deals with or overcame the same issue.

According to their website, “over 70% of all students” use it every year and you would be surprised at how welcoming and amiable are the members of the website. The Student Room offers you, as a student, the opportunity to ask for a piece of advice from other students from any other university either if you have problems organising your finances, if you are looking for a job or a place to rent, or even when you’re preparing for an exam. It is equally opened to personal discussions about relationships or health, but another valuable fact is that there you can make friends and talk about your common interests.

Did any of you hear about it before? If not, check it out and let me know what you think about it. Also, if yes, tell me if and how it helped you.

Reddit – “I read it on reddit”

Reddit, which rather arrogantly names itself “The front page of the internet”, is an online community that is visited by over 542 million people each month. OK, maybe they’re justified with that claim.

Founded in 2005, the site is an “entertainment, social news networking service and news website where registered community members can submit content”. These users submit text posts or direct links, which essentially makes the website an online bulletin-board.

Within reddit itself, is a whole world of ‘subreddits’ that cover almost any topic imaginable, from entertainment to gaming and even threads purely centred around memes. Now in 2015, there are over 5,400 active subreddits to peruse, with a default set of 50 subreddits as well.

Because the community is so large, users can find help or guidance over almost any topic imaginable. For example, if you’re struggling to find healthy meals to eat, just head over to https://www.reddit.com/r/fitmeals for some ideas. Or if like me, you always find yourself forgetting something really important, like the name of a song you heard 7 hours ago, go to https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue, and the community will help you out by tracking that tune down and sending it to you.

Of course, there are some strange subreddits to avoid, and I won’t list them here, so if you’re feeling brave, check them out yourself. But as a whole, reddit may be one of the most useful communities on the Internet today, as it is so vast in content.

Here’s a link to the self-proclaimed ‘front page of the Internet’: https://www.reddit.com/  

 

 

Communities combating cancer one step at a time.

Macmillan have an online community that is bursting at the seams with positivity. Why? Because people gather together to talk about the one relatable issue that unites them. It’s hard living with cancer or with people who have it in your family.

The benefits of the members participation is the fact that being able to talk about such a strong, vivid topic with someone enables you to free your mind of troublesome thoughts. The members get a sense that they are not alone in the world.

The challenges faced with this community may be that- being how sensitive the subject is, those who are more strong minded may offend the more sensitive types by mentioning something offensive or touchy. There are also very cruel people in the world and trolling is not something foreign to any website.

I like the fact that you can ask as many questions as you like on the site. There is an opportunity for members to create groups (A little like Facebook) and discuss their own personal details with each other.

You can post reviews and blog pieces to help out people who for example are going into chemotherapy.

This is such a good community. There are videos and contact details to make sure you know that you can always talk to a professional if posting online isn’t helpful or hard to do.

In all, I feel like when I open the page I am welcomed into a positive, friendly environment. I am tempted to join myself if anything, to get the feel of what they are going through. I am so interested in seeing how a community helps lift the weight off of your shoulders.

 

The Student Room

Website- http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

The Student Room is a online community for school and University students. Established in 2001, the UK based site helps students make informed education choices, get help with their studies, and seek support and advice on student life in contemporary society. With over 1.8 million members it is the largest student community in the world.

TSR is a positive online community as it allows students to express concerns, questions and queries about their education and lifestyle to other students. Forums on the site not only cover GCSE’s, A-Levels and University but also careers, heath, relationships, news and entertainment. It  also provides revision tools and information on student finance and UCAS applications, which can be a confusing and complicated system for students to navigate.

All of these aspects are enhanced by the forums community spirit of helping one another, which benefits members as they can make informed decisions from other peoples experiences. Students asking their peers for advice is effective as it carries a weight of honestly as it feels more personal and trusting than a cold government site, for example. Anonymity is also an option on the site, so someone who is troubled with a difficult or personal issue can seek help freely.

With any forum many challenges and limitations arise, such as anonymity which can give way to trolling  and people’s experiences may be anomalies, exaggerated or complete lies. 

LinkedIn – a professional network

I can’t really make an accurate estimate of how many people in this group have a LinkedIn profile, but I do, and while it’s currently hardly active I know that it will be helpful and interesting in the future – and here’s why:

Boasting more than 400 million members from more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is as diverse demographically as it is in its variety of industries. It is the largest professional network where people in any business can digitally list their skills, education history and work experience, building what is essentially a virtual CV. With colleagues and friends building your personal network, they can endorse your skills, raising your employability – indeed, LinkedIn is widely used by headhunters to roam networks and recruit the best possible candidate for a job without going through the hassle of hundreds of applications.

Furthermore, you can follow businesses and brands you’re affiliated with, to create contacts in their network or simply keep up with them, and join groups relevant to your field. In our case, for example, Media & Entertainment Professionals, which regularly informs 170,000 members about industry news. There are also so-called influencers on the site, featuring high-profile people such as David Cameron or Bill Gates, who blog posts to spread their cause and mean to inspire followers to find success by listing their own CVs.

The fact that LinkedIn’s community is consistently growing and being used to widen one’s professional network from both the top and bottom of the career ladder tells us that it might come in handy in the future. And since we know that for example online dating is a very successful concept nowadays, why not give being matched up with a job or useful contacts a go? We might get lucky.

 

 

 

Tumblr & Online Communities

Tumblr.com is a very popular blogging platform for both teens and young adults. Tumblr is a positive example of an online community because it exists to be an online community and networking site built for users to interact with each other. Users can make personal connections and relationships based on similar interests, such as fandoms, books, politics, etc. It’s positive because users can initiate and maintain these relationships, or on the other hand, leave the website whenever they desire. Members can seek out specific content that they desire which personalizes the experience they have online.  I’ve used Tumblr for probably five or six years now and I’ve made some very close and important friends that I talk to nearly every day.

Members benefit from this online community because of its personalized structure and communication platforms. Users can choose to communicate publicly or privately, depending on their preference, or not communicate at all. It’s a great platform to build portfolios as well, so those who don’t want to form friendships with other users but want an easy platform to share their work can do that as well. It also helps inform people about current events and functions like other social media with sharing news and other information.

Tumblr can be challenging as well. With any online community, there is always the risk of cyberbullying and a negative community experience. However, users have the option to block others AND report to the staff at Tumblr to help create a safer space. Any social media platform has the risk of cyberbullying and sometimes Tumblr can be more prone to it, but the options and services to reduce this kind of communication are easy to use as well. I also think that Tumblr strongly is associated with millennial culture, so many non-users don’t see the value of the communication/important discussions that take place on this platform. Of course some parts of Tumblr are trivial and dumb, but there are also a whole lot more important and valuable aspects, such as mental health support, sexual abuse support, and gender identity/sexuality support.

In  my own personal opinion, I think Tumblr is a great way to connect with others and form friendships with people you may never meet. I mentioned that I have used Tumblr for quite a few years and have friendships as well – I’ve even been able to meet a few of them in person. Sometimes people don’t value online friendships or relationships because they think they’re not as substantial and built on false identities.

Indeed

Indeed is an online community that allows people all over the world to find their desired job.

Indeed is one of the most successful job websites in the world. The online community has over 180 million people visit their website each month from over 50 different countries. It allows people to create an online persona – making themselves more valuable to a company than what they actually are.

As well as helping people find jobs, Indeed are determined to find the right employee for the job. It allows people to search for jobs all over the internet and it is becoming more common of employers posting their available positions straight onto Indeed.

Indeed is an easy and helpful community for people all around the world to find employment. They can chose what sort of job they are looking for, what type of salary they would like to earn and how often they would like to work.

As well as having such a useful online website, Indeed have designed an app and send emails to their users updating them on jobs that are most suited for them. It is a serviceable online community that helps the employees as well as the employers.

The Student Room: An online survival guide

The Student Room. An online forum where students can discuss and share academic knowledge relationships tips , health and lifestyle as well as creating a sense of belonging. Whilst some people view this message board as being filled with students whose goal is to break the record for the amount of A* grades achieved at GCSE, the majority view the website as a “friendly place” where opinions are respected and learn new things from each other.

Members of this community benefit from a site like this as they can share personal experiences and use this as a way of helping others who are going through something similar. It also allows students to advertise their own material e.g. blogs, tutorials and reviews by putting it in the ‘Creative Corner’

The website provides thread topics where you can discuss anything from ‘how to deal with bullying’ and ‘best revision strategies’. However with a large community such as this guidelines must not be crossed. ‘The Student Room’ was under minor investigation during the 2011 London riots, inspecting threats, discriminatory views and joining terrorist groups. Challenges with sites like this is making sure members know the difference sharing opinions and being disrespectful, which is why the forum has community guidelines allow everyone to make their contribution.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

 

 

 

TripAdvisor

I’m going to talk about something we have all heard of and most probably all used at some point or other. The online community I have chosen is TripAdvisor, an American website which focuses content on travel. The website enables users to provide reviews about anything travel-related as well as having online forums. Many hotels or restaurants read their own reviews to ensure they improve their facilities.

The website, which was founded in 2000, has over 60 million users and 170 million reviews. TripAdvisor is used primarily by people to access reviews on places to visit around the world. The forums on the website, however, also enable users to ask questions in general about the country. For example, one thread states ‘I will be in Germany next month for a couple of weeks and would like to know the best and least expensive way to be able to call back to the US. How can I do this?’. Other users then suggested where to buy SIM cards and which carriers to use. The benefits of using TripAdvisor during the planning stages of taking a trip are endless. Many travellers use the website and the forum to select where to visit, which sites to see and where to stay or eat.

TripAdvisor ensures that all comments go through a verification process to detect fraudulent or suspicious activity. However this does not always prevent these kinds of comments from going through. It has emerged that some hotels and restaurants gave themselves good reviews in order to gain business. Other hotels have been condemned for bribing visitors to write positive reviews. The ASA (UK Advertising Standards Authority) ordered TripAdvisor to remove their slogan from their British site which previously read “reviews you can trust” due to these allegations. TripAdvisor, in the UK, then changed their slogan to “reviews from our community”.

Therefore despite TripAdvisor being extremely beneficial for travellers, caution should always be taken when reading reviews or forum threads as accuracy and honesty cannot always be guaranteed.

Have you used TripAdvisor before? When you use the website, do you personally take caution against the reviews? This is not something which always comes to mind when planning a trip.