FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Question 12: OMNI
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Old Nov 4, 2008, 4:50 pm
  #6  
nsx
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Originally Posted by Randy Petersen
submitted by Cholula
OMNI is FlyerTalk's most popular forum with 70% more posts than our largest airline or hotel forums. Do you visit or contribute to OMNI?

Do you believe that OMNI contributes positively to FlyerTalk? Please explain your position.
What is your opinion of the recent changes, i.e., political/religious threads split off into a separate forum and no minimum post count requirement for posting in OMNI?
As I posted in the Question 11 thread, I don't visit OMNI, but I believe that OMNI adds value to FlyerTalk in at least these two ways:

1. Threads need a place to be moved to when they "go OMNI". The discussion can continue among willing participants without burdening the original forum.

2. FT members build friendships with each other in the miles and points forums. Sometimes they want to discuss other subjects with their FT friends. Providing that capability adds value to FT.


As to splitting off the Politics/Religion content, I tend to agree but I'm open to persuasive arguments. Political and religious discussions get heated and can alienate casual readers who encounter them. Putting these discussions in their own sub-forum reduces the chance that FT will lose a member to such an accidental encounter. I'd like to hear the other side of this issue, however. Especially because I'm not an OMNIite.


On the post count issue, I don't have a strong opinion either way. On the TalkBoard Topics forum I posted this:

Reality-based monikers would have a progression like this:
FT Newbie
FT Lurker
FT Tortoise
FT Searcher
FT Explorer
FT Contributor
FT Loudmouth
FT Slut
FT Addict
FT Obsessive
Perhaps such a progression would reduce the ego benefits of building one's post count.


Edited to add:
I'm open to persuasion, but I don't agree that eliminating the post count and longevity requirement for access to OMNI improves FT. Randy is correct that other sites do it that way, but this is FT. Some people have suggested that users be required to login to read OMNI (in order to defeat automated web indexing programs), and that sounds mighty reasonable to me. I believe that maintaining a hurdle for OMNI access will add value to FT by improving the quality of OMNI posts.

Last edited by nsx; Nov 4, 2008 at 6:06 pm Reason: added omni open access answer
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