A few months back I had a problem with members of the public thinking that the Boggo Road Markets were actually being held inside the old prison, when in fact they are just outside it. They're very good markets and all, well worth a visit, but this was a misconception that left me having to personally inform many disappointed people of the truth.
So I just had to roll my eyes when queries came in last week asking about the tours inside the gaol that weekend. 'What tours?', I asked. 'The tours during the markets', I was told. That can't be right, I thought, and so checked their source of information on this. There, on the Brisbane 'Ghost Tours' Facebook page, was a status update announcing that tours would be held "around the Boggo Road Gaol" on Sunday.
The word to note here is around, because in common English usage it implies a certain meaning. When you look around a house, a garden, a town, a museum, etc, you look INSIDE it. When you have spent an afternoon hanging around the house, you haven't been circling the perimeter fence.
However, what readers of the post would not readily understand was that in this case the word was being used in the literal sense - the tours walked around the outside of the gaol. Was it deliberate use of uncertain language? After all, these tours are (unbelievably) not free. Well, how about this comment under the post:
"Thanks heaps to Daniel at Ghost Tours for all the info today about these tours tomorrow, and the updates about future happenings...much appreciated, I'm looking forward to seeing this site in all it's sinister glory!"So somebody claims to have contacted Ghost Tours for further information about these tours, and then posted a comment clearly reinforcing the impression that they were going to see the site 'in all it's glory'. I can tell you that this glory is not best viewed from outside the seven-metre-high perimeter brick wall. Again, its all vague, ambiguous language when it would actually be easier to make the message clear and correct (i.e. "tours will be held around the outside of the gaol wall').
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| "Hello everybody. This tour will require the use of your (finger quotes) "imagination"." |
The thing is, not only is it easy to get these things right, its a responsibility. People don't like feeling they've been duped.
(Speaking of which, I notice that Ghost Tours are STILL refusing to answer people's questions about when the gaol will reopen. Best government estimate: late 2013. You're welcome, ghost tours).
This all relates back to when the markets first opened last year and the advertising described them as being AT the gaol. The word 'at' is another ambiguous term that in this context could easily be interpreted as 'inside', but in that case it was just a simple mistake in promotional material for the markets. The wash-up of that little mistake was that for the first few weeks of the markets we had a regular stream of visitors with huge cameras around their necks rocking up to the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society market stall and asking how they could get inside the gaol. Most times their response to the news that they couldn't get inside the place was disappointment, although a few times it was outright anger. Some people had made special trips across town just to go inside.
That's why we posted a comment on the Facebook page for Boggo Road Gaol explaining exactly where the markets were located. We were at the coalface and saw the disappointment that ambiguous advertising was causing, and that's why I find myself having to do it again in this blog. Except this time I'm a lot less prepared to believe it was a mistake. Either way, it was quite unprofessional.
There's also a comment there from someone asking if Jack will be there. Ghost Tours has replied with "Jack does not generally attend the Boggo Road Markets". I think it's damn well unprofessional that the so-called 'business owner' can't even show up to promote his own wares.
ReplyDeleteHe's quite happy to turn up and sign books written by OTHER people though, LOL. How narcissistic would you need to be to do that?
DeleteThanks for posting this - I was going to mention the tours on my blog but decided against it in the end because I didn't know enough about it. Just as well I didn't!
ReplyDeleteJust as well! Good blog, btw Cara.
DeleteWell, quite unbelievably, they're doing it again this week! Now they're just playing silly buggers. Way to try and repair a damaged reputation, ghost tours.
ReplyDeleteTracey, the BRGHS president, was chatting with a couple of women at our market stall and they were none too happy about the tour they had just taken with ghost tours. They had travelled from near Ipswich expecting to see inside the place, and used some VERY strong language to express their disappointment. This is exactly what I was talking about in the article about. It is just NOT FAIR to mislead people with this 'tours of the gaol' nonsense. Or maybe that's just me having scruples and all.
ReplyDeleteHaving been on Jack's Ghost Tour in the past year, I can safely and honestly say to anyone thinking about taking the tour, "don't" it is not worth the money you pay, now I am not an expert on the logistics of running a tour via a bus, so that part might make the costing legit, but as far as the tour content goes, I learned within a matter of weeks from very reliable sources (many of which can be accessed by any member of the public) that Jack's stories are just that, 'Stories' their basis in reality is tentative at best, dosed up with a large generous amount of speculation from the script writer.
ReplyDeleteJack's Tours are a bit of fun though, and do have some value for 'Shits and Giggles" and nothing else
What's more I was disgusted at the fact that his tour was run with such poor supervision as to actually ignore the fact that two young women were acting like bad mannered 5 year olds, jumping on graves in front of the Tombstones and Jack ignored them preferring to talk to someone about his book.
This is not hearsay, as I was there standing near Jack the at the time and witnessed the two young women doing this, I also spoke out against it, only to be ignored.
as far as I am concerned this 'Company' should not be allowed access to sites since they cannot respect the dead, let alone history.
oh and he is a lecherous PR$%@, I learned first hand that night when he was all over my girlfriend despite my being right there.