Are bloggers ruining Flyertalk????
May 8, 2012, 7:53 pm
#91
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SEA
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 2,400
I found flyer talk via a blog.... Many many years ago. I have found a lot of helpful hints and tips from new people, many of whom I assume found it via a blog also. Sure, blogs can shorten the life of a great deal, most of which are illegitimate. They can and do also bring in some great minds.
May 8, 2012, 7:53 pm
#92
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
I also read One Mile at a Time because I enjoy his trip reports and travel humour, but I ignore the credit card related posts.
I do not actively read any other blogs, other than to see how far the blogosphere has slipped.
May 8, 2012, 7:55 pm
#94
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
Helping to increase the knowledge of the traveling public shouldn't be seen as a shameful or abhorrent act IMO. None of us knew everything when we joined this community. We all learned from different resources. Yes, spreading the information more broadly means more people know about it. That's sortof the point.
But to say that anyone here should be able to decide that XYZ deal is only for "us" and other deals are OK for "them" is a tremendously selfish and not particularly realistic approach to the world IMO. Either you're in it for yourself or to help others. Neither is necessarily wrong. But that also means none of us should get to decide that the others are wrong for doing what they do.
So the disappointment is that others got it before "you" in this case, right? Meaning someone who thinks they discovered that Wyndham points could be converted to miles should be first in line to get those points, after someone who learned that from someone else? Again, which other communities do you propose be shut down to "keep the secrets?" Certainly we have to kill AFWD, MilePoint and DansDeals, right? Probably FatWallet and a few others, too.
If anyone knows about a deal then it is reasonable to assume that others will, too. The key is to be smart and quick. Get what you want while you can. No deal is going to last forever even if no one knows about it.
But to say that anyone here should be able to decide that XYZ deal is only for "us" and other deals are OK for "them" is a tremendously selfish and not particularly realistic approach to the world IMO. Either you're in it for yourself or to help others. Neither is necessarily wrong. But that also means none of us should get to decide that the others are wrong for doing what they do.
So the disappointment is that others got it before "you" in this case, right? Meaning someone who thinks they discovered that Wyndham points could be converted to miles should be first in line to get those points, after someone who learned that from someone else? Again, which other communities do you propose be shut down to "keep the secrets?" Certainly we have to kill AFWD, MilePoint and DansDeals, right? Probably FatWallet and a few others, too.
If anyone knows about a deal then it is reasonable to assume that others will, too. The key is to be smart and quick. Get what you want while you can. No deal is going to last forever even if no one knows about it.
FT has obviously grown, and I've only been active for a few years. I don't see blaming bloggers as accurate. Someone upthread mentioned that if you can google it, it can be found. That's how I first found FT, quite by accident, researching for a trip. If a few bloggers have loose lips, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the overall accessibility of travel and miles/points info on FT, MP, FW, etc.
May 8, 2012, 7:57 pm
#95
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
No, sorry, had a look at that site, and it is the biggest pile of drivel ever. Full of content-free "fluff" posts and with actual flying/travel information few and far between.
FlyerTalk is more organised and content-based, where MP just seems like a Facebook chat room with a slight travel theme.
/offtopic
FlyerTalk is more organised and content-based, where MP just seems like a Facebook chat room with a slight travel theme.
/offtopic
May 8, 2012, 7:58 pm
#96
Join Date: Jan 2006
Programs: Skyteam
Posts: 5,759
Thread of the century ^ The funny thing is, most of these bloggers have absolutely no real knowledge to contribute and are absolute amateurs when it comes to the number of airlines they have flown and the places they have been to @:-) All the valuable information are just stolen from FT and pasted onto their blogs. 
OP, why don't you start a user restricted site that requires extensive interviews before becoming a member. I'm game
OP, why don't you start a user restricted site that requires extensive interviews before becoming a member. I'm game
May 8, 2012, 8:01 pm
#98
Ambassador: Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 7,390
Can you name a few blogs where the blogger consider his/her blog as their primary full-time job?
May 8, 2012, 8:02 pm
#99
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
I'm pretty sure some Guys have blogging as their full time job, with quality suffering as a result.
May 8, 2012, 8:06 pm
#100
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: LAS
Posts: 1,323
Oh man, where is the "Like" button.
Worst of all, the full time bloggers try to blog more and more because it's their only source of income, diminishing quality of content and increasingly grasping at straws in order just to sound like the ultimate authority on everything miles and points, and of course drive affiliate revenue.
If there's one thing I hate more than self-serving bloggers, it's those to seek to tell the mainstream media. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, and some are willing to go as low as killing great deals just to help themselves.
+1 (again). Anyone who thinks the blogs are there to help us are disillusioned and likely beyond help. Again, some exceptions exist.
Worst of all, the full time bloggers try to blog more and more because it's their only source of income, diminishing quality of content and increasingly grasping at straws in order just to sound like the ultimate authority on everything miles and points, and of course drive affiliate revenue.
If there's one thing I hate more than self-serving bloggers, it's those to seek to tell the mainstream media. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, and some are willing to go as low as killing great deals just to help themselves.
+1 (again). Anyone who thinks the blogs are there to help us are disillusioned and likely beyond help. Again, some exceptions exist.
Just go to the Chicago Seminars. You will meet the newly minted bloggers, who previously had no posts, woke up one morning and decided that they were now an expert because they don't have a real job.
They have no original content, can't write, have nothing to say.
I have looked at most of their blogs exactly ONCE and rue the day . . . hoping they did not catch a buck just because I clicked on their link.
I don't pretend to be a great contributor to FT, but nor did I wake up today, start a blog and then hand out luggage tags or introduce myself as a kiddie expert at the seminars.
May 8, 2012, 8:08 pm
#101
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: AmexPlat,SPG,CitiAA,One pass,
Posts: 397
I hate it when one site has five bloggers write about the same subject matter, all within 12 hours of each other. A normal everyday reader should be able to get the point on the first one.
May 8, 2012, 8:09 pm
#102
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SEA
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 2,400
^^^^^
Just go to the Chicago Seminars. You will meet the newly minted bloggers, who previously had no posts, woke up one morning and decided that they were now an expert because they don't have a real job.
They have no original content, can't write, have nothing to say.
I have looked at most of their blogs exactly ONCE and rue the day . . . hoping they did not catch a buck just because I clicked on their link.
I don't pretend to be a great contributor to FT, but nor did I wake up today, start a blog and then hand out luggage tags or introduce myself as a kiddie expert at the seminars.
Just go to the Chicago Seminars. You will meet the newly minted bloggers, who previously had no posts, woke up one morning and decided that they were now an expert because they don't have a real job.
They have no original content, can't write, have nothing to say.
I have looked at most of their blogs exactly ONCE and rue the day . . . hoping they did not catch a buck just because I clicked on their link.
I don't pretend to be a great contributor to FT, but nor did I wake up today, start a blog and then hand out luggage tags or introduce myself as a kiddie expert at the seminars.
May 8, 2012, 8:10 pm
#103
Ambassador: Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 7,390
May 8, 2012, 8:10 pm
#104
Moderator: Alaska Mileage Plan
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12,318
Credit card referrals have become a cancer on travel blogs. I'm afraid that it has metastasized and there is no hope of a cure.
I realize it is unlikely, but I'd like to see Randy ban credit card referral links on any blog that appears on BoardingArea.
I realize it is unlikely, but I'd like to see Randy ban credit card referral links on any blog that appears on BoardingArea.
May 8, 2012, 8:11 pm
#105
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: where-ever they pay me to go
Programs: DL KM (charter)
Posts: 300