Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - BetterBidding and Free Speech

To establish my position, I am not a fan of BFT and it's managment style. I am happy to have an alternative in BetterBidding (BB), as is frequently talked about on this board. I have found their style very friendly and open to all users, new and experienced. So it was with some surprise when I revisited a post I made recently on BB and discovered that my comments mentioning that I had earned 1500 Ebay Anything points had been removed. In looking further, I saw another discussion of ebay points (http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act=ST&f=423&t=4519&) by the administrator and others. I received no direct email or message from BB regarding my post or the editing.

I fully respect "thereuare" (the administrator) need to run a business as he sees fit. I just don't like to see that other potential priceline bidders are deprived of information that may save them $15, just so the board can make a small click-thru commision. It seems that there must be a business model that can support both free speech and allow the boards to stay in business. I don't know what that is, perhaps the proposed FlyerTalk bidding board will be the remedy.

I happened to see your original post at BetterBidding (your first and only post) and I thought your touting of the Ebay points and posting a link to that site were over the top and just baiting the Admin to delete it. You of course fail to point out that the BB Admin graciously thanked you for your post, offered advice and wished you well. The fact that you have new names here and at BetterBidding suggests an agenda.

The Ebay points availability has been discussed at BetterBidding; the thread about it is alive and well. It's other sites that would not allow the discussion of Ebay points.

I think Better Bidding does a good job of balancing letting it members know about opportunities to bid effectively while still trying to be financially viable.

Better Bidding is an open discussion of all travel bidding but I understand their decision not to allow posts that actively encourage users to not support the site.

Perhaps it's time for Better Bidding to have a "community chest". Maybe you'll be the first contributor.

trader, I'm not sure what you are on about, but I have had one and only one identity here at FT, at BB and at BFT - "Governator". It is true I have have not made many posts, but that in itself does not suggest there is an agenda or ulterior motive. I do not think that the mention of Ebay points amounts to baiting the admin, unless they have a strict policy of not supporting free discussion ala BFT. As in any user board, there is a constant stream of new readers who might not know about such things such as Ebay points, but may be alerted to it from other posts and then can research it further. In examining the BB terms of use, I see the following:

BetterBidding may maintain affiliate programs and/or custom programs with companies whose links and/or names appear on this site, which may result in compensation. We will do our best to remain objective in the advice that is given, and you are free to question the logic behind our recommendations

He freely states that he gets compensated for links, I applaud him for that, but he also says questioning the logic is allowed! So I guess we will have to disagree on some points, perhaps others will weigh in on this.

I think creating something for "others to weigh in on" was your motivation from the start.

Several things ring false or are omitted in your OP. You say that BB users are "deprived" of info about the Ebay points when clearly it's discussion that's allowed and ongoing. Should every PL win posted at BB be accompanied by a tout for using Ebay points as well as a link to Ebay like yours was? Is that what you require for "free speech"? Also, the truth behind "revisited a recent post" was the bait was posted last night and then this thread was started early today as soon as the tout was removed. It seems like anything can be discussed at BB as long as you're not obnoxious about it. Maybe your 2nd post there can be a discussion about Ebay points.

It seems like an analogy would be you wanting to go to a full service gas station and rather than buy gas use the "free" air, water, windshield washer and towels all the while encouraging anyone who pulls in the lot to go to the self-serve place down the street for cheaper gas. The owner might have his own thoughts on your "free speech".

I think as some of the moderators pointed out in another thread, an FT bidding board would present a redundancy and a muddling of what FT does best. Folks who need a large quantity of posts can go to BFT, folks who want to be a part of a travel bidding community can go to BB. Most folks will probably do both.

I think the idea of an FT bidding board was largely in response to bad BFT behavior (empty threats against Randy and FlyerTalk).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=335541



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I too had a winning bid post at Betterbidding edited by the administrator to remove the reference to Ebay. However, he was very up front about it and explained exactly why he was doing it and requested me to keep all the bonus link related discussion in the appropriate threads on the appropriate forums. He doesn't encourage folks to post about bidding through his equivalent of the A-B link either, so I don't see an inconsistency in this policy.

Bonus programs come and go. Keeping the discussions in one place makes it easier to have current information. Someone reading an old post may be reading about an expired bonus link.

There is a difference between banning information and requiring that informtion be posted in the correct section. Sorry I don't see a problem with that.

One of the positives of BFT is the high signal -noise ratio. Posts and threads that drift are more time consuming to read.