I posted this at the USA TODAY Cruise Log. There have been a lot of tweets and articles about this topic.
The rules of online engagement are constantly evolving. Today, I am glad that I am not in the position to defend the actions of Cruise Critic or Royal Caribbean. As a travel agent, it is hard to help consumers sift through information. If the information is unscrupulously manipulated then that makes my job even harder. I have been using the Internet since the dark ages. The code of ethics that built the tools of the bulletin boards, and news groups was on the honor system. There are many more of us travel bloggers and professional travel agents that will opt to do the right thing and that is help the client.