GUWonder

Travelkid sort of addressed this "criteria for TalkBoard to consider requests for new forum" thing before:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...nes-board.html

And the interest isn't new:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...nes-forum.html

BuildingMyBento

I don't see why an MH forum is needed, particularly as the hot topic can be easily found in other fora these days.

I would like to see an pan-mainland China forum and a Turkey forum, and for the "ante" page of the Middle East forum to disappear, but those are all horses of a different color.

Kagehitokiri

might be difficult to moderate MH forum if it was created this instant

Dec 21, 2012 >

onobond

Supporting the idea of a separate MH forum, there is of course no rush. If feelings are that the missing flight first must be cleared, or even to imply that the missing flight would be the reason to start a MH forum, I do, however, think that's mixing apples with pears.

Many OW travellers use MH, a large flag-carrier, with an extensive network and with eccelent hard- and software products. Just check out the wiki in the BAEC TP-run thread, and find how much interest is focused on MH just from BA FTers.

aBroadAbroad

I don't really have a horse in this race, but I've similarly wondered why EVA doesn't have its own thread, so I ran some very rough, very round numbers that might be worth considering in this discussion ...
MH370 doesn't affect these data as I've only counted threads, not posts.

Each of these two airlines comprises about 15% of the threads in the forum, with a disproportionately large number having been started in the last two years. There is obviously a great deal of interest in these airlines, and it appears to be increasing fairly dramatically.

I'm definitely not a fan of creating lots of new fora, but it seems more justified in both of these cases than it was in some others that had only a fraction as many threads.

tcook052

Neither am I.

While I hear what you're saying I don't believe past TB forum creation decisions should impact a decision on a possible MH forum.

SkiAdcock

Using your #s that equates to about 4 threads a week for MH & 2 threads a week for BR for the last 2 years. Not sure that's enough volume to justify a stand-alone forum, but if you want to make a case for either airline then this part helps TB:

What would help the TB in determining if MH (or BR) should have its own forum is answering the questions below or providing further information, as we ask others to do when they suggest a new forum.

The following are qualitative criteria that the TalkBoard believes are useful to consider when evaluating proposals to create, close, split, or move forums. Whenever a forum change is discussed on the TalkBoard Topics, the TalkBoard encourages posters to fully address these criteria in addition to any other reasons supporting or opposing the change.

1. Will the forum be (or is it now) beneficial to FlyerTalk?

2. Will the new forum benefit a relationship with FlyerTalk? E.g., does the forum provide value for FT members, such as a friendly ear highly placed in the company

3. Is FT the best place to discuss this subject?

4. Is there a passionate following? This is essential in order to provide dedicated expert helpers to get questions answered.

5. Is a critical mass of posts and readers anticipated or existing? We need adequate traffic to keep everyone visiting frequently. One living forum is more valuable than two mostly dead ones.

6. Is this the best place on FlyerTalk for this subject? This is the classification issue. The answer depends primarily on achieving and maintaining critical mass. It also depends on whether or where the discussion might (or does) occur in the absence of the forum.

7. For proposals to split a forum, is the split expected to improve the signal to noise ratio? Why?

Procedural Statements by the TalkBoard

8. The TalkBoard does not anticipate using automatic sunsetting of forums, preferring instead to create forums only when we they are strongly expected to succeed.


Cheers.

MSPeconomist

Personally I'm sympathetic to the idea of MH having its own forum (I've flown Malaysian myself this year), but I don't think the numbers are there. Perhaps oneworld membership will generate more interest, although if anything they seem to be shrinking their network (for instance, by dropping the LAX route) rather than expanding at this time.