Proposal: New forum to discuss bloggers
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
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#17
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
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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.
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.
#18
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
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#19
Join Date: Jun 2012
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"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
#20
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
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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.
#21
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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How about making FT a premium service and let only paid users gain access to content?
#22
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
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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.
#23
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
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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.
#24
Original Poster
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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?
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: DEN
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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.
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.
#26
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2000
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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.
#27
Ambassador, New England
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#28
Join Date: Jun 2012
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Posts: 121
It's revealing that the proposal was to discuss bloggers rather than blogs
#29
Ambassador, New England
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Location: Maineiac, USA
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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.
#30
Join Date: May 2004
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Content vs Persons...
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?
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?