IBobi

Wow, thank you all so much for taking the time to reply here, and give feedback on the new review format!

Let me address some specific concerns, and also restate that this is still a beta product, which means we're in the fortunate position of being able to take real action on feedback and make changes to the format, so that it's as attractive looking and efficient to use for as many FlyerTalkers as it can possibly be.

We will continue to submit all comments to the tech and product development team, and pass along their replies and fixes as they happen.

We will change the default so it does not list a number of stay days, if you do not specify.

The format is set to ignore nonstandard alphanumeric characters (A-Z and 0-9). I'm not sure what to do about this one, other than edit more closely -- which hopefully will also fix the issue with the upgrade reporting as well (that is not a problem with the new format, of course, just a minor oversight in the migration).

I'm sorry to hear you had an error while uploading photos. We have uploaded hundreds of photos into the migrated reviews with no issues; could you let us know what browser and version you were using, and if mobile, what device and OS?

It's possible you were uploading during a time when the site in general was having issues (the recent DDOS attack perhaps?). We would like to review this further with you.

We do indeed have this feature!

Could you be specific as to what browser/version/device you were using, and perhaps link to the review you posted when you were having issues, so we can determine date/time?

One area where we're going to focus is the way the reviews load and display. We can see that it is taking too long to see a review once you submit it, and viewing the photos is also taking too much time. We will work hard to optimize this.

We will also call out more clearly which fields are "required" (such as hotel name) and which are not (such as date of stay).

Also the photo captions seemed to not be working properly, so we will fix that, thank you.

We will take a look at what we can do about making the post-review edit steps easier.

As far as the stars/ratings, and the rest of the new fields, we've started noodling on how we can allow users to set preferences so that the new format displays more similarly to the old format, but maintains the advantages of the new, such as photo uploading. If you have ideas as to which parts of the new format you do *not* want to see, let us know.

Thank you again -- and please keep the new reviews and feedback coming!

-The FT Team

5khours

You might want to address the more substantive comments that the feature itself is commercial and TA-like in form and function.

Make changes.... what about getting rid of it?

Including the fact that people don't like this and would like to see it eliminated?

IBobi

We've had enough feedback from review readers that they love the format; thus, our efforts to adjust it and create preferences to allow FlyerTalkers to customize aspects of the format. Thanks for your feedback, 5khours-- your feedback has been noted.

5khours

"Love the format?"

I guess the feedback must have posted somewhere else because there is certainly nothing in this thread that could in anyway be interpreted as "loving" the format.

pricesquire

Have a question:

I want to post a hotel review.

But I don't want to post it in the new format.

Is this allowed?

Musken

I have not found any such "love" comments in the beta forum either, so I am also wondering where the wish for these changes and the positive feedback is coming from. IBobi writes that these positive comments are from the review readers. In this thread many review posters and luxury forum regulars write the opposite, i.e. that they dislike the new format. I think there is a risk not listening to them/us if you still want us to post reviews. I personally wrote comments against the new format and had questions about the need for change from the very first time I was invited to the beta forum. Still the process goes on, so I am wondering who is driving this and what the bigger targets of these changes are since I do not feel that it is a forum regulars/review writer-driven process.

Kagehitokiri

its my impression the only reason they used luxury hotels forum is because there are individual (hotel) trip reports, rather than a megathread with a zillion "reports" (that are also not what posters in luxury hotels forum would think of as reports)

ideally there could be a "format" and directory for luxury hotels forum only, and a separate one for the rest of flyertalk, but that seems unlikely to me, and again the target is not really luxury hotels forum, its my impression it was perfect for beta (the thread issue)

so completely optional

my problem would be if it was not optional, and or if original threads were locked (preventing crucial discussion and editing)

although for those in luxury hotels forum who allowed conversion, was it totally blind? if you were given no idea what it might look like, i hope they allow an "undo"

IBobi

Absolutely.

We are receiving feedback from multiple sources, and it ranges from vital constructive criticism such as we've seen here to praise for the look and feel of the new format. We'll continue to solicit such feedback and will report here as we adjust the product to fit the needs of the FT community.

5khours

I'm not sure what FT community you are talking about. It seems to me the people who actually post on the forum are the "community" and the views here have been pretty consistent.

Also, what is the point of the PMs that are being sent to individual FT members. If you have questions or comments, why not post them on this thread. Isn't that why the thread was created? To have a discussion about the new hotel reviews? Why not let everyone in the "community" benefit from the discussion. Or are you just taking it underground because you don't like what you're hearing?

If you're intent on doing this and are not going to listen to the people writing the trip reports, fine. Lock the thread and ask us to shut up. I don't have heartburn with that, but don't expect us to participate. I love FT and especially this forum with the opportunity to exchange information with a community of friends, which is why I spend time writing and sharing trip reports. I have no interest however in spending time writing reports so that FT can monetize my time and effort by hawking the reports a la TA.

IBobi

5k, as I said before, your views are clear and have been duly noted.

In some cases, PMs are being sent directly from our product manager to the participants in the Beta project to gain further insight into suggestions that were made here and elsewhere.

I refer you to Post #31 above, where I clearly stated, point by point, that the feedback we're getting in this thread is not only being taken, but being acted upon even as we speak. Furthermore, the new format is by no means the only way to file reviews on FlyerTalk, as was asked and answered above. If you do not like it, do not use it. But I hope you'll continue to be more openminded when you see the changes we make based on the feedback of the reviewers in this thread.

Thanks!

bconver

Absolutely. We are excited anytime anyone wants to contribute to the community.

The goal of the new post type is to make it easier to contribute reviews and (hopefully) easier for others in the community to find them. If you don't find the new post type easier there is no need to do it differently.

bconver

I agree there should be the ability to segment reviews by interest and community. We are building this in a way that will allow the idea of 'directories'.

Reviews posted in the Luxury Hotel forum will be identified as such. So when you search for reviews you have the option of only seeing properties and reviews from the Luxury Hotel forum. You will have a preference in My FlyerTalk to allow this by default. We are still developing the feature but for now only members who post in Luxury Hotels can use the post type.

offerendum

Sorry, but I´m not impressed. Now I even have this button "reply with review". Can`t see any sense. Hope it`s not getting mor commercial like tripadvisor etc.

Also I can`t see much extra value with stars for different categories etc. It´s perhaps easy with some Holiday Inn, but at a luxury hotel it doesn`t help much. Here are so many nuances and something we would call bad service would be called gread service at the Hilton forum.

pricesquire

+1

So much nuance is missed in the new format.

As offerendum pointed out, what applies to a Hilton review on TA most likely doesn't apply to a Ham Yard review on FT.

Silly at best, stupid at worst.

Kagehitokiri

my point was more that the luxury hotels forum is completely different from any other forum on flyertalk

part of what makes luxury hotels forum so great is that it is pretty low profile