nsx

The guideline (which I know well because I drafted it!) says:
"Each February, the TalkBoard shall review the least-used forums for possible closure, based on the end-of-year metrics." (italics added)

The metrics are to be done near the end of the year, i.e. now. The review and decision process can then proceed, concluding in February. The last set of metrics didn't show any forums which were under-performing and which had relocatable content.

When we passed this guideline we didn't know what capabilities IB had to generate these metrics. That's why the guidelines don't specify who is to gather the forum activity statistics. It turned out that IB had no easy way to do this. So the way I did it was to manually document thread and post counts for all forums on one day. This takes about an hour and half. Then I did it again a month later to get monthly rates. The next year I was able to show annual rates.

In October 2012 the Group Travel Planning forum was not yet one year old, so it had only the initial snapshot. Therefore usage rates were not computed.

Rather than spend more time discussing this I'm just going to do it, in plenty of time for the February review.

SkiAdcock

I misspoke. Apologies. For some reason I thought the review of forums had been passed back in '08, not '10 & I didn't think it had been done each year since '08 hence my quasi-comment.

As you note, it was passed in '10. In '11 we asked IB for metrics but after a few months they said it wasn't possible. nsx took it upon himself in '11 & in '12 to do the metrics (for which we are grateful) - and there was a thread in the public TB forum re: it in '11 w/ a link to his spreadsheet & he bumped it up in Oct '12 with new spreadsheet.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...tatistics.html

You didn't post in the thread so perhaps you missed it both years.

Quite frankly I can't remember if we thought Oct '12 was close enough to Feb '13 & thus didn't need to review in Feb '13 or if we just forgot to bump it up & ask for another review.

Obviously we won't miss it in '14, especially if nsx is willing to do the update again.

It should be noted, however, that metrics is one criteria for considering closing a forum, but is not the only criteria.

Cheers.

nsx

IIRC I posted the October 2012 metrics and commented that there were no obvious closure candidates. The discussion in November was brief and I figured that took care of the February 2013 evaluation a couple of months early. I forget whether the discussion was in the private TB forum or in TBT or both.

lin821

First things first, I understand certain TBers, current or former, have been taken things upon themselves when IB fails to deliver tech support. I, for one, do appreciate your thankless effort.

(bolding mine)

Sad but not surprised that IB's consistency in the tech front w/r/t underperforming on FT. (one recent example & the monkey joke for those who remember)

No, I didn't miss said thread.

I did read that thread but didn't make a comment due to my understanding the performance review shall be an internal (TB) process. Yet every year after the motion for "the statement" was passed, I didn't find any forum closure proposed by TB due to the findings from the annual review. IMHO, it's just impulsive to propose any closure based on emotion instead of solid data/evidence. When all of a sudden, koko started advocating closing Travel News Forum a while back, I raised the question about what happened to the review done in Feb 2013 & which fora were good candidates for closure from such findings. IIRC, there were a few fora hinted as "ghost town" or something by fellow FTers in 2013.

That's why I supported having Religious Travelers Forum stay. But that doesn't mean forum stats should be overlooked either.