wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

wrote:

Railist wrote:

Then I found this:
https://custserv.tfl.gov.uk/icss_csi...ewTabtext=Tube


TfL seems to have taken that page down since you posted the link to
it, although it is still available in Google's cache for now:
[snip massive URL]
or
http://tinyurl.com/Tube-Photo-Rule-Cache

The fact that TfL is secretly trying to hide or remove its more
helpful rules like this is proof that it, like all public transport
organisations, is full of evil, sadistic *******s who like nothing
more than any flimsy excuse to make their unlucky customers suffer as
much as possible.

No Pippa, it's because the 'custserv' system which is used for the FAQ
section on the TfL website uses dynamic URLs or somesuch which can't be
used
to directly hyperlink to particular FAQs

Interesting. Thanks for that.

Of course, the real question is why TfL goes out of its way to use a
system that automatically hides/changes URLs all the time? What is it
trying to hide?

It's quite annoying, I fully agree - for their FAQs (IIRC there were
separate LU and Oyster FAQs), TfL used to use the widely implemented
'custhelp' system (from a company called RightNow) which did produce static
URLs which could be quited elsewhere - I dunno if the newer 'custserv'
system is from the same company, but it seems to be a rather more
comprehensive combined FAQ and contact tool/interface - it handles a whole
range of contact possibilities for TfL as a whole (complaints / suggestions
/ report lost property / street faults etc) as well as the FAQs ("Search
Common Questions") - you can see that this all sits together in the same
interface he
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/contact

(The above is a pseudo-address which actually takes you straight into the
'custserv' pages.)

I've probably used all the wrong terminology above - the 'custserv' and
'custhelp' descriptions I used feature in the respective URLs - for example,
here's a couple of example of the 'custhelp' system in current use...

....by TheTrainline...
http://thetrainline.custhelp.com/

....and BT...
http://bt.custhelp.com/


- less than ideal, I fully grant
you, however the TfL webmaster is not sitting and monitoring discussion
on
usenet or traffic flow to particular webpages and then taking them down
when
they get mentioned or get too popular.

Well, of course, if the system has been set up to hide webpages from
people automatically, then obviously the webmaster doesn't need to do
it himself.

See above - it's an annoying feature of this particular system, and I think
it's a pretty safe bet it's an off-the-shelf system rather than being one
designed specifically by/for TfL.



Sorry, I realise that doesn't follow the script of abject paranoia. Let
me
try again...

Yes Pippa, it's hard to believe it but it seems you've finally found
proof
that operatives sit in the TfL Lair Of Doom buried deep under London
looking
for ways to purposefully frustrate everyone - they monitor all
communications, and are perpetually tinkering with things so as to cause
frustration so as to please their twisted psyches. Even when you do
encounter supposed helpfulness, if you look deep into their eyes you'll
see
the tell tale giveaway signs that they aren't like you or I, but are in
fact
lizards, who exist here on earth to fulfill some devilish masterplan so
obscure and unfathomable that we can merely wonder and shudder at their
fundamental evil.

Sorry to disappoint you. I'm not that kind of a conspiracy theorist,
and there's no masterplan beyond simple human nature.

After all, Public Transport will always be something that no-one wants
to use, unless they reluctantly have to as a last resort. It's only
natural that people working in/for it end up sadistically taking
advantage of this, enjoying schadenfreude over our misery, and finding
ways to increase it. We'd all do the same if we were in their shoes.

I know many many people who want to use public transport (no, not just me) -
you shouldn't project your own thoughts onto the populace at large.

Even if one goes along with the premise of your first sentence, I'm left
wondering at your world view, what with all this 'natural' sadism and
enjoyment of misery that again you seem to think are traits which are or
would be shared by everyone else.



On a lighter note, have you met Boltar? I reckon you two would get on
famously.

No. Although he talks a lot of good sense about transport, on just
about everything else he's a useless piece of evil right-wing ****. I
mean, he actually thinks the recent rioters were bad guys, instead of
the plucky little heroes standing up against the bourgeois control-
freaks running the powers that be. How wrong could he get?

If he turns up then you can both enjoy a nice troll fight together.