chillinthemost

Sorry, didn't mean to upset you, I was J/K.

You want to go where?

Thanks for your response, Canarsie. Let me be clear that I am not in any way complaining about the general organization of the Hilton Honors Forum, which I have come to find quite admirable (and am conscious of the amount of work it takes to maintain and for which I thank you and your fellow moderators). Rather, I was introducing (by pointing to a specific thread) a problem with threads that have been in existence a long time (merged or not), even while recognizing the value that those threads have in corraling information into a reasonably manageable format.

I don't think the solution is to abandon the structure that you have established in that forum, but was hoping that some bright bulb would come up with a solution that worked within your overall format.

I like the suggestion made by travelkid of inserting 'signpost' bolded entries. Is that something that is workable (that is, both within the technical abilities of moderators, and a reasonable thing to ask moderators to do), assuming that forum users inform you of the need for such a thing via PM or alert button?

Jenbel

Although not meant to discuss specific mod actions, I'll answer that on a technical note - it's actually really rather difficult to insert posts into a thread. We cannot just insert a new post, as it carries the current date stamp, so simply goes to the end. We cannot edit the date stamp. It can be done by finding a post you've made at the appropriate day/time - but that can involve a lot of searching, and you may need to co-ordinate with another moderator if it wasn't on the forum you moderate.

So it is possible - but it's actually very difficult and time consuming. The other way to do it is to copy a post within the thread that someone else has written, but then you have to be very obvious that you have taken over that post despite the apparent authorship by someone else, and even then, no matter how obvious you are, some people won't notice so it's not particularly good practice since it can lead to confusion.

Canarsie

To be clear as well, I never took it that way.

You simply helped me reiterate working together with other FlyerTalk members to help further improve the forums in which I moderate.That is certainly workable and I would be willing to do that, but I would prefer to see a more technological solution, such as having the background a different color, or an index of some sort from which to start in a long discussion.

The index idea would be a viable one to — for example — separate the discussion into two or more parts within a single thread, and those parts could have their own names, such as Hilton Hawaiian Village 2000-2009. One can then jump to an index of the thread to where one wishes to start reading or finding information.

As vBulletin — the software that powers FlyerTalk — is owned by Internet Brands — the same company which owns FlyerTalk — a wish list of technological solutions is certainly not out of the realm of possibilities of what can potentially be accomplished here...

Ancien Maestro

A time relevance to the thread would be useful.. Even more specific time periods.. I'm not sure that the general public really wants to be accessing 10 year old information on the same thread.. It would be a awfully long read to understand changes over the years..

Markie

Could you provide a couple of examples as I don't remember seeing any?

travelkid

Not sure if I answer your question, but the loong thread on the running Radisson 50K promo, there is an important update by CC lurker midthread.

SanDiego1K

I've asked all moderators to follow the discussion in this thread and to be mindful about their thread mergers. They work hard to organize information throughout FlyerTalk. Their goal is to make information easier to find, and they use a broad range of techniques to do that. Many forums would be a mess without their hard work to do this. But it is clear from feedback that thread mergers are overused. I've seen a lot of locking of 2011 threads and starts of 2012 threads today. Less visible will be the undone mergers, where queries will be left to stand on their own. The respectful tone in this thread with sincere input from people about forum structure has been very helpful.

SanDiego1K

In this specific case, I would argue that the moderator has made a strong effort to keep the first post updated (as stated in the title). Few moderators read every single post in their forum. In the future, use the red triangle to signal the moderator that the Company Rep has posted new information that should be used to update the FAQ in the first post.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/club-...irst-post.html

Ancien Maestro

Updates on the first post of a megathread is very helpful..

On a few I've visited, some of the updates have not been done for years.. i.e. I think Hyatt or Hilton was like that for awhile..

travelkid

I agree, but there was one piece of info in post 1 that was straight out wrong. Post 1 stated that 30 Dec check-ins were eligible. They are not, and this created a fair share of problems down thread. One poster claimed to have alerted mods repeatedly to no avail. It was eventually updated.

Maybe we can work out some alert system, where posts from official lurkers also go as PMs/RBPed to mods? In this thread several clarifications where made, and the sooner we could have them in post one the better.

kokonutz

We were talking about wikis in the private TB forum, and I really do think that wikis would be an awesome way to solve the MEGAthread problem once and for all.

For example, in the disjointed, hard to read all the way through thread United Global Services Status (Qualification, Benefits, etc.) [Merged], the members could keep the (wikipedia-type) wiki post as a summary of posters experiences in terms of what it takes to achieve UGS status and what their benefits are, even as posters continue to post and talk about individual experiences on page 54 of that thread, with links, if desired, to specific posts/data points backing up or expanding on that summary.

Or, in a Priority Club thread about a specific property the wiki thread could contain a specific format that is used for all properties in that forum that covers things like amenities at the hotel as well as upgrade/club/lounge access experiences for Plats, Ambassadors, etc and mini-bar experiences for us Royal Ambassadors.

The format could be similar in Starwood, but tweaked to reflect the specific benefits of that program at various hotels.

This sort of information contained in a wiki that is collectively edited would make FT far, far superior to even Trip Adviser in terms of be the go-to place for airline/hotel/program analysis by those of us with status, would keep the community feel intact on page 54 of the thread, and would engage posters to feel 'ownership' of the forum by participating in the wiki process.

I think that's the ultimate solution.

But appreciate that the moderators keep working to keep the MEGAthreading to a logical minimum in the meantime.

travelkid

On threads with format requests (like post your RA experiences here).

Possible to click a link to get the format or something?

jackal

This post in the New Features forum touches on the topic of megathreads: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17772203-post221.html

Markie

A couple of questions:

• Will this be in the form of a motion to prevent thread merging and establishing Wiki's?
  
• Who is responsible for the accuracy of the Wiki information?

Thanks