MilesBuzz! - Why Airline-Specific Posts are often appropriate for Miles Buzz

I would like to offer a personal example of why I think it is good that people post so-called "airline-specific" information in Miles Buzz. In Sept 2001 Sprint was offering 40K NW miles to switch phone service. I have never flown NW and did not read the NW forum.

However, someone kindly posted this offer in Miles Buzz and both my wife and I signed up and are in the process of accumulating 80K NW miles for essentially no cost and no work.

I would never have known about this promo if it had only been posted in the NW forum. There are now so many different forums on the board that I simply don't have time to read them all.

When I first joined the Board a number of years ago, it seemed quite OK to post all really good offers in Miles Buzz. Now it seems, every post that deals with a specific airline gets closed or moved, thus discouraging others from posting similar information here.

It is just my opinion, but I really think this business of closing and moving threads has been greatly overdone recently. I could offer numerous other examples similar to the one I described above for myself, and talking with other FTers, I believe there are many similar stories.

Personally, I would like to urge the moderators to show more restraint in closing and moving threads. I do not think duplicate posts are as terrible as some do - and for a venue whose main function is dissemination of information, duplication should be a very secondary consideration.

Just my personal opinion. Thanks for listening.

I concur. The perfect example is the Jaguar BA miles example, which has not been closed, so it seems that the moderators are amenable to leaving open really good deals that generate good posts.

I think that they do a good job of selectively moving posts that are too airline-specific. This is a judgement call, and hence the reason why they are chosen as moderators -- good judgement.

I too am the beneficiary of the NW Sprint promo seen here. But I also wonder if maybe the way to do this is to try to post the particular promo in the appropriate airline (or whatever) forum, and then simply provide a post with a link to that other post in Miles Buzz.

I certainly concur that many of these are "often appropriate" for MilesBuzz. FT'ers need to recognize that there is plenty of subjectivity in moderating this forum.

While there is a clear consensus that 10,000 miles (Jaguar) is buzzworthy, what about a deal for 2,000 miles? What is the minimum threshhold? And, do we allow potentially juicy deals that are clearly targetted?



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Craig6z
Buzz & United Moderator
moderator2@operamail.com

I, too, took advantage of the Sprint 40k Northwest promo. That was a good deal that might not have gotten noticed nearly as much if left solely on the Northwest board.

As AUSMatt pointed out, the British Airways Jag promo is currently alive and kicking on the MilesBuzz board. It's a nice offer that's open to everyone and is well-explained. Very Buzz-worthy, indeed!

I'm wondering if anyone could point me to the threads in the past month that should have been left open?

(I say the past month since I'm the moderator doing most of the moving/locking on MilesBuzz these days, and I've only been around briefly.)

I think my approach (and, in general that of the other MilesBuzz moderators -- although I wouldn't presume to speak for them) has been that specific questions about an airline get moved to that airline's forum... targeted offers that folks can't take advantage of generally get moved to that forum... but deals that everyone can jump on, which seem broadly applicable, stay put -- e.g. the Priority Club 250 points survey a couple weeks back.

I'm quite certain we'd all still leave open a thread that offered another 40k sprint signup bonus!

If it's lucrative and a large chunk of FlyerTalk members can benefit from it, it seems appropriate for this forum to me.

Even some deals that are less than lucrative (the 250 Priority Club points mentioned above) have stayed open. As Craig observes, there's no clear brightline with these things.

Have I locked or moved a thread that would have been similarly useful? (If I have, please do let me know -- since if I take your point I can always unlock it!)

I think the other point in the original post was about closing duplicative postings. That's been a big issue over on the DL forum, but I didn't think that it was much of an issue with MilesBuzz. Am I missing something?

Thanks alot,

Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz moderator

I concur, I don't have a BA account or didn't until the Jag thread came out; now I do and this weekend (weather permitting) I will be test driving a jag. Why b/c it was in MB not the BA forum. I would never have read this in the BA forum. I don't even know if there is a BA forum.

As far as thresholds, well I don't think that there should be a threshold. If its miles it is miles

JMHO, but I think most of these types of promotions are Buzzworthy. I collect miles on every major US airline, but I don't read all the boards. As long as the promotion is unusual (Sprint 40k qualifies) and can be taken advantage of by the general FT population, I like reading about it.

By "unusual" and "open to general FT population", I guess I am saying that I don't want to read about basic partner promotions that everyone knows about (i.e., Sprint for 1000 miles per month), and I don't want to read about Your Favorite Airline's route bonuses for next month.

But I think people usually use good judgment: I've picked up a lot of little bonuses from things I've read about in the Buzz that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. I don't think it has to be a 10k or 20k bonus to qualify.

i agree.. i think most such promos should be posted here. providing only a link to the original discussion in the specific airline board would be best! (as another poster mentioned)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
JMHO, but I think most of these types of promotions are Buzzworthy. I collect miles on every major US airline, but I don't read all the boards. As long as the promotion is unusual (Sprint 40k qualifies) and can be taken advantage of by the general FT population, I like reading about it.

By "unusual" and "open to general FT population", I guess I am saying that I don't want to read about basic partner promotions that everyone knows about (i.e., Sprint for 1000 miles per month), and I don't want to read about Your Favorite Airline's route bonuses for next month.

But I think people usually use good judgment: I've picked up a lot of little bonuses from things I've read about in the Buzz that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. I don't think it has to be a 10k or 20k bonus to qualify.</font>

I too agree. Another example is the AT&T 10,000 AA miles for signing up for DSL for 2 months.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by AUSMatt:
I concur. The perfect example is the Jaguar BA miles example, which has not been closed, so it seems that the moderators are amenable to leaving open really good deals that generate good posts.

I think that they do a good job of selectively moving posts that are too airline-specific. This is a judgement call, and hence the reason why they are chosen as moderators -- good judgement.</font>

While the one started by Pudding Guy has been left open, the one which was started even earlier by papa3 was closed.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/008305.html

I was really amazed by the inconsistency. Aren't we all equal?

Hey Gary, only a few months ago you were defending silly postings announcing that only 89 days or so remained until we could again get points for updating our HHonors profile. Maybe a little less vigilance in your new duties would be appreciated.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
I'm wondering if anyone could point me to the threads in the past month that should have been left open?
</font>

I agree it is very subjective, but here are some examples over the last couple of days that I would have preferred left open.

15K or $225? NWA
While specifically about NW, it is an interesting question that could theoretically apply to any airline. I was enjoying reading the answers that had been posted before it was closed.

Ryanair's FFP....
I just don't read the credit card Forums on a regular basis. I know this was just for European residents, but if a similar post came up for US residents, I would at least like to know about it without having to go to VISA, MC, and AMEX constantly.

1000 DL miles for AMEX Survey
This one is certainly more questionable but it is where I would hope people would err on the side of less is better than more. I realize it could be targeted and only for people who already have a Skymiles card, but maybe not. Again, I would agree this one could go either way.

Thanks for asking.

Is this thread Buzzworty? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Couldn't resist!

Jerry,

It sounds to me like you're articulating things that could have made the posts relevant to this forum, had the questions/subjects/content been different.

And in many of the hypotheticals you pose, I'd agree with you.

I'm going to explain my differences on each of the threads you raise. I hope you take it in the constructive spirit that it's offered. I could be wrong in each of these cases, but I think I have at least some degree of reasonableness in each.

15K or $225? NWA: A topic about whether vouchers are worth more or less than miles could be Buzz-worthy. This question in this case was quite specific to a certain number of Northwest miles and a certain amount of Northwest money and really seemed like it

(a) would get a better answer in the NW forum
(b) would be of more interest to folks reading in that forum and
(c) was quite explicitly outside the bounds of this forum.

But you're right, I'd be happy with a discussion of the value of miles versus dollar vouchers. I just didn't think that post did that.

Ryanair's FFP....: The poster noted that there was a Ryanair Visa and that free trips could be had from its use.

Honestly, I just don't think that it's of that wide an interest.

As Craig said, there isn't a bright line. But certainly you would agree that a post about a specific program could at some point be sufficiently narrow that it wouldn't belong here?

And if so, how many things are more narrow?

As you say, <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">if a similar post came up for US residents, I would at least like to know about it without having to go to VISA, MC, and AMEX constantly</font>

You may not want to check the Visa/etc boards.. but there's alot of gold in them there hills!

And if every offer was posted on Buzz! it would get so cluttered that folks wouldn't get value out of it at all.

1000 DL miles for AMEX Survey. This was a targeted survey for some holders of one airline's affinity credit card. As you say <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">This one is certainly more questionable</font>

So I'll just leave it at -- you've identified two (the first two) threads you clearly disagree with my having moved.

Well, honestly, that's a pretty good degree of agreement! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

As Craig said earlier much of this is subjective, so it's perfectly reasonable that folks would disagree.

Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz and Delta moderator

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
I'm wondering if anyone could point me to the threads in the past month that should have been left open?

(</font>

Well since you ask, take a look at my response to your moving my Ryanair post to the inappropriate Visa/MasterCard forum.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Roger:
Well since you ask, take a look at my response to your moving my Ryanair post to the inappropriate Visa/MasterCard forum.</font>

I did. And you made clear that you feel it belongs in a forum for Ryanair, not in a forum for Visa/Mastercard.

As I said in my original post, <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Arguably it could belong in the "Other European Frequent Flyer Programs" forum. If you'd prefer to see it there, you're welcome to repost it.</font>And that's a perfectly reasonable place for it to go.

As you say in your reply over in the Visa/MC forum, you were torn yourself as to where to post.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
[b]Ryanair's FFP....: The poster noted that there was a Ryanair Visa and that free trips could be had from its use.

Honestly, I just don't think that it's of that wide an interest.
/B]</font>

Hmmm. I didn't really want to play FlyerTalk ping pong BUT:

1. The ryanair.com card is NOT a miles earning card (the criterion for the Visa/Mastercard forum). The post does not belong there. Most Ryanair customers use debit cards, not credit cards, to avoid the booking fee.

2. The post was more to do with Ryanair than the card. Ryanair happens to be the biggest low frills carrier in Europe. To offer something approaching an FFP is interesting to me and others who follow these carriers - quite a few if the number of other posts mentioning Ryanair and other no frills carriers is to be believed.

3. Is the qualification for posting on FlyerTalk whether you find the information of interest? Dangerous. Less polite folks may think there is censorship here.

The zillion divisions of topics and their overlap is why I don't post here very much, and why I find the other forum much more useful. Posting a new topic almost always gets the attetion of the thread police, and it would take me hours to daily read all of the threads that might have something useful to me, so I don't. One of the problems is that whenever someone posts so much as a thank you, the entire thread moves to the top of the list without benifit of new title to the post. A system that allows new titles for every post would be really helpful.

I prefer a very liberal interpretation of what gets posted on Buzz and Spam, the only two threads I read. I don't mind the treads being moved, so long as the original post continues to be listed here. In fact, appropriate moving cures the problems of the "thank you's".

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles (http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/MilesFrame.html)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Moderator2:
While there is a clear consensus that 10,000 miles (Jaguar) is buzzworthy, what about a deal for 2,000 miles? What is the minimum threshhold? And, do we allow potentially juicy deals that are clearly targetted?</font>I think it is important to err on the side of permissiveness rather than restrictiveness. That is the beauty (and potential ugly chaos) of the internet.

What's really too bad is, unlike USENET, I can't just *PLONK* (http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=plonk) somebody. I know who the biggest bozos are (IMO, and clearly not "H"umble http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif), and filtering them out would save me a lot of time.

Just my .02.

Jerry, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. Back when NW and AA were doing the major promos for shopping partners - 5 partners and 20 partners - I was never reading those forums, but Miles Buzz put me on to them. I would have missed 'em otherwise.

When I began hanging out on FT, MilesBuzz to me indicated (in my connotation) the "hottest info." (Much like the official definition of MilesBuzz - "discussion of the latest frequent flyer program buzz...").

Its placement at the top reinforced that.

Now...I still look at MilesBuzz first about half the time, but rarely find anything of interest. The way we are doing things now, I would suggest moving it to the bottom, changing the name to "Unclassifiable" and defining it as "discussion of odds and ends related to miles or points that really can't be placed in any particular forum."

(I can handle, on the other hand, the removal of non-miles and non-points posts and moving them to Travel Buzz or Omni, though I tend to think that TravelBuzz and Omni should be double listed on both FTMiles and FTTravel for convenience...and then people would find it easier to post in these major categories.)

By the way...no insult intended to the moderators, who appear to be making a bunch of posters (at least those who love posting "Buzz?") happy by the way things are done now, and I still love FT however it shakes out. Just seems like MilesBuzz has turned into leftovers.

I do like being able to start in Milesbuzz and be directed to the right forum. As long as the initial posts of redirected topics remain on Milebuzz, all you need is to go to the appropriate forum. I think of Milebuzz as a triage point.
Bigger topics involving multiple airlines/hotels can always start here and remain here if they are broad enough.