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Proposal: New forum to discuss bloggers

Proposal: New forum to discuss bloggers

 
Old Mar 11, 2013, 5:07 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
It seems we do whenever the topic of blogs and/or bloggers comes up and after much sniping and griping the threads on MilesBuzz are closed, as happened here and here, so why expect a whole forum to be any different?
New forum for bashing? Bad idea, IMO.
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 6:52 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by philemer
New forum for bashing? Bad idea, IMO.
Isn't the assumption that the only things to say about blogs involve bashing them a bit of a bash of them in and of itself?!

Besides, if you want to see some REAL bashing, go check out the UNITED forum where many formerly loyal UA flyers not only bash UNITED, we actively root for them to incur massive legal expenses. ^

Does all that bashing mean we should not have a UNITED forum? Of course not. When the points and miles service providers do something bash-worthy, they should be bashed. When they do something great they should be praised.
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 7:14 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by hobo13
I propose that FT create a forum dedicated to the discussion of bloggers.
Would you include discussion of those organizations that hold seminars in this forum, such as the Chicago Seminars or Frequent Traveler University? They may not quite fit into the definition of bloggers, but if you're going to create a forum to discuss bloggers we might as well include an area to discuss seminars and what differentiates them. I know many of the bloggers do participate in these seminars.
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 7:22 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
When the points and miles service providers do something bash-worthy, they should be bashed. When they do something great they should be praised.
The same could be said of Flyertalk moderators. They're providing a service to the miles and points community, too. And when they do something praise-worthy we should praise them. Goodness knows it is a thankless task. So a forum where we could praise them! And when they do something bash-worthy, they should be bashed . . .

"Oh but they're volunteers!" you say. Some blogs have gotten big and probably make a good deal of money, others are pretty small and likely don't make much of anything (if anything!0 at all. And moderators don't make much, but if I understand correctly they've received stipends for travel to an annual conference? And some travel companies have even given them better treatment because of their role?

Seems like they meet the same test as a good number of bloggers. If we do this forum, let's also get one to bash moderators! :P
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 8:19 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
What about the bloggers that are here? Would we be allowed to discuss those FTers who do run their own blogs but also particpate in FT?
I can't see why membership in FlyerTalk should have any bearing on discussion about blogs or seminars. If you put yourself in the public arena on websites outside of FlyerTalk, we'd be discussing those sites, not a blogger's membership on FlyerTalk. I can't see any reason they should get special treatment due to FT membership.
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 8:52 pm
  #21  
 
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How about making FT a premium service and let only paid users gain access to content?
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 9:24 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by jammanxc
How about making FT a premium service and let only paid users gain access to content?
Wouldn't that reduce ad revenue to Internet Brands if FT is no longer a public forum for all to view? With FT having over 400,000 members, do you really think the paid membership would balance out the loss of ad revenue? I'd be surprised if Internet Brands wants to change their business/revenue model which relies heavily on advertising to a large member and non-member base (look at some of the forums where non-members outnumber members 3-1 at times). Those non-members wouldn't even be able to get in the front door with a paid premium model.
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Old Mar 11, 2013, 10:01 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by tom911
I can't see why membership in FlyerTalk should have any bearing on discussion about blogs or seminars. If you put yourself in the public arena on websites outside of FlyerTalk, we'd be discussing those sites, not a blogger's membership on FlyerTalk.
Disagree and it happened on the threads I linked previously, especially with bloggers newer to FT than others, and fully expect it to be a topic of contention in the proposed blogger discussion forum.

MHO is FT should stay as the definitive source for information about travel and deals and not a place to come talk about other places.
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 12:25 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by tom911
Would you include discussion of those organizations that hold seminars in this forum
Sure, why not? And just to be clear, I am merely pointing out a deficiency in the market. FT / IB can choose to fill that need, or somebody else will. I don't claim to have all the answers, so my real hope is that maybe a dialog comes from this and along with some good ideas. Because right now, I see more of the same around here.

Originally Posted by jammanxc
How about making FT a premium service and let only paid users gain access to content?
How about a freemium service? I would pay something to have a few forums that have some sort of membership requirements. And keep the MR Deals public if you want. Just make some place that is a little more private.

Originally Posted by tcook052

MHO is FT should stay as the definitive source for information about travel
I'm sure Yahoo said the same thing about being a portal 15 years ago. Companies either adapt, or they fade it into oblivion. Perhaps we should discuss what FT looks like in 2 / 5 / 10 years. I guess they bought one blog.... maybe that's the plan?
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 12:46 am
  #25  
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Originally Posted by tom911
I can't see why membership in FlyerTalk should have any bearing on discussion about blogs or seminars. If you put yourself in the public arena on websites outside of FlyerTalk, we'd be discussing those sites, not a blogger's membership on FlyerTalk. I can't see any reason they should get special treatment due to FT membership.
Actually, I imagine all Travel Bloggers claim to be contributors to FT. Now whether their 102 posts have really made a difference to the community is for someone else to decide......

The whole argument about separating individuals from faceless corporations is interesting. We have whole threads devoted to discussing services like KVS, ExpertFlyer, AwardNexus, etc. My guess is that some of the blogs actually have more employees than these startups! Is it that many of these bloggers are friends of ours? (I claims some bloggers as personal friends myself!) We really have to separate out the discussion -- the proposal isn't to discuss individuals, it's to discuss blogs and blog content.
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 12:55 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by hobo13
We really have to separate out the discussion -- the proposal isn't to discuss individuals, it's to discuss blogs and blog content.
I'd like to see more interest from other FTers, but the Talk Board forum seems to be an obscure place that many here can't easily navigate to. Right now there doesn't seem to be much interest in the topic to really go forward with it. Maybe that will change in the days ahead.

I can only recall meeting one blogger and that was long before he started his blog and pretty much stopped posting on FT. Haven't ran into him in years.
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 3:49 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
MHO is FT should stay as the definitive source for information about travel and deals and not a place to come talk about other places.
+1
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 3:51 am
  #28  
 
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It's revealing that the proposal was to discuss bloggers rather than blogs
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 4:01 am
  #29  
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Okay, I'm officially confused - Some things posted in this thread seem to indicate that people are leaving FT en masse to go talk about deals on the blogs, then others are saying that the blogs are heavily moderated/censored and that free discussion is not exactly happening like it could here on FT. These seem like two completely contradictory ideas.
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Old Mar 12, 2013, 6:00 am
  #30  
 
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Content vs Persons...

Originally Posted by kokonutz
we are seeing a major paradigm shift as it seems like every other FTer is now a blogger.
I don't follow bloggers so have no idea how many bloggers fish their material from FT. Maybe quite a few or a lot. I agree it's trendy to be a (travel/mile/point) bloggers nowadays. Whether every blogger that branches out of FT is a good blogger/FTers, that is another question.

Originally Posted by FlyFasterFlyFarther
It's revealing that the proposal was to discuss bloggers rather than blogs


Not to mention our TOS prohibits to discuss (or "attack") individual FTers, IIRC (someone who has more free time at hand may be able to look up the link to this TOS). How would FT admin and/or MODs maintain the balance to uphold our own TOS if such forum got created? That is what I really want to know. When every other threads got shut down due to getting "too personal", or when you got to see an inserted MOD's "friendly note" every 5 posts in a thread, what good would this bloggers/blogs forum do for FT?

Originally Posted by kokonutz
Can anyone tell me: what are the good blogs? What are the bad blogs? What blog consistently has great ideas? What blog consistently pumps affiliates? Where do we talk about these types of points and miles service providers?
The bottom line is how many FTers can really just discuss the content of blogs or faceless corporations, and not getting personal with bloggers. In this post, tcook052 had provided excellent real-life examples that FTers don't have a good track record of separating blogs from bloggers. I've also lost count of how many threads got closed over the years when it came to discuss bloggers and/or blogs.

This proposal might sound good at first look, to have a dedicated forum to discuss blogs/bloggers. But further down the road, only troubles await. Should we burden our thankless MODs with such an impossible task?
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