Randy Petersen

Not sure that the exchange here requires such constant negativity but you might be looking at this from an incomplete view. A few things. While you seem to refer to the "guys behind ..." for several things, actually the guys behind are only involved in Milepoint. FlyerTalk, BoardingArea, etc. I founded on my own with no partners (the others are not shareholders, investors or founders in any manner in BoardingArea). As for Milepoint, the complete view is that it was never founded on the principle of replicating FT ... FlyerTalk is an original and with the help of many fine members on FT, we're very proud of the usefulness of that effort. Milepoint on the other hand is much different. Milepoint is but a single node on a global footprint (certainly not what FT is). For instance, these are all part of Milepoint:
http://bonusfeber.no/
http://bonusfeber.dk/
http://bonusfeber.se/
http://ikvliegveel.com/

and coming soon:
http://voyageurpremium.fr/
http://bonuskuume.fi/

And with several more to be announced shortly we are aiming to have a network of 10 nodes by years end all connected by SSO and other new technologies coming soon. You might consider that Milepoint actually is quite different and that many of the conversations will be taking place in local languages all around the globe, but still very much a part of what Milepoint is. That is not at all a replication of FT. I've never repeated a project twice nor do i have plans for such.

As I have tried to pass along in other threads that seem to have no purpose, FlyerTalk was founded upon the principle of playing nice with others and to focus on the topics of miles, points and travel. Why not leave off this thread and support the mission of FlyerTalk in any of the wonderful threads devoted toward the topics we were founded for.

Thank you.

ma91pmh

Randy

Thanks for dropping by your old home.

So you have seen a niche for multi-lingual FT. That is (genuinely) great ^

In my eyes, MP remains a replica of FT. You can argue it otherwise until your blue in the face but to me it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck.

If you really feel this and other threads have no purpose, you really have no obligation to come along on contribute.

kokonutz

Ooooh. I'm kinda sorry to hear this news.

I like it that most points and miles talk (and yes, there already are a couple efforts in other languages) has been kept in a single language.

I don't think balkanization of the information by language is going to be good for the average frequent flyer/points and miles enthusiast.

eponymous_coward

Oh well, things evolve. I'd say this forum is more often "be snarky about others", as opposed to "play nice with others", for instance.

tcook052

Oh, I dunno as this thread has as much purpose as the ones I've come across on MP that discuss FT.

LearningToFly

What is the interest to discuss personal things here?

eponymous_coward

A forum that's designed to critique other miles/points site is going to be, well, critical. C'est la guerre.

ma91pmh

No no no you just don't understand... MP is different... and friendly... honestly....

84fiero

^

There is negativity on MP as well, towards FT and otherwise. And members that can be snarky and rude.

And it seems hypocrtical to critique "threads that have no purpose" (though I disagree that this has no purpose) on FT from the founder and former leader of the site, as FT has always had tons of threads with arguably no purpose from some points of view. Heck, how about an entire forum - OMNI - started some time ago - with no purpose whatsoever to miles, points, and travel?

If FT was founded on playing nice with others, I wonder why its issues, in some areas, with snarkiness and unfriendliness to newbies festered for so long? It's not without reason that FT has had the reputation that it does (and currently there are efforts to address that, which is good!)

I understand the owner of a competing business venture wishing to quiet critiques of that business by its competitor, but disagree that this thread has no purpose and we should all just be Pollyanna. Imagine Smisek weighing in on a UA critique thread .

holtju2

Reopening the OMNI and the post padding games by [redacted] came to the rescue when FT needed to hit some metrics to trigger payment to Randy after the sale of FT to IB.

ma91pmh

ROFL

gotta love biz

84fiero

I don't think that it's a negative that there are other-language M&P forums. As you noted, there are already similar sites in other countries/languages as well (don't know offhand if there are any in the ones above yet). I suppose some international FT members could bleed off of FT if they feel more comfortable with a site in their native language. Though if the content is as thin as MP, they may want to stick to FT anyway.

"a single node on a global footprint" seems like just a fancy way of saying "sites in several languages that happen to have the same owner". They're all still the same premise/concept just in a different tongue.

kokonutz

Hey, I was kinda impressed that Randy lapsed into consultant-speak!

oliver2002

July data is out:


View Screen Capture

View Screen Capture

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/mil...c=uv&months=12

mcc235

Compete.com simply estimates traffic for many sites (including boardingarea) based on click traffic. Many of the sources they sample are probably people that don't visit P&M blogs. The graph you included for BA is easily off by a factor of 8 to 20 depending on which month you are looking at.