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Old Dec 11, 2014, 8:07 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
That is incorrect. As a TB member I voted 49 times on motions. Some votes went relatively quickly, some went the middle, some went the full two weeks.

Motions are not done in a vacuum. There is discussion in the public forum prior to a motion. We do seek input, which is why there is a sitewide announcement on motions (premium fare aside re: announcement). Sometimes we get input when the sitewide announcement is made. Sometimes we don't get input or very little, even with a sitewide announcement.

Cheers.
We all know the vast majority of FT members don't read the TB forum. So, a thread posted in the TB forum isn't likely to garner that much interest, which is where the sitewide announcement is useful. However, when a vote concludes before the sitewide announcement is posted, that really minimizes the amount of input solicited.

Why shouldn't there be a delay between the posting of the sitewide announcement and voting? Wouldn't that allow for even more input?
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Old Dec 11, 2014, 8:46 am
  #47  
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At the end of the day, we have to trust that our elected members are representing the interests of their constituents.

I see no reason to change the current process; people who want to provide input have a tendency to do it early on. Why delay a vote? Takes long enough to get some things through the process... why add to the timing?

I support the status quo.

Last edited by wharvey; Dec 12, 2014 at 8:34 am
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Old Dec 11, 2014, 8:48 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by kipper
So, you are saying that the "vast majority of people" tended to vote without consideration of what forum members think?
No, most TalkBoard members stay active in the private and public forums and are able to vote based on what they consider to be in the best interests of Flyertalk
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Old Dec 11, 2014, 12:48 pm
  #49  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
Respectfully goalie, I think you've misinterpreted the above. First, the quickly & feasible verbiage you're taking umbrage with has been in the guidelines for several years - including the entire time you served on TB

It's referring to when a motion has been made & seconded the VP will create a new thread in the public forum (as has always been done) as quickly & feasibly as possible. The quickly & feasibly refers to the fact that the VP might not be on FT the moment the seconding of the motion happens (could be asleep, could be at work, could be on a plane).

Once that is done, the VP notifies the CD of the fact & asks the CD to make a site-wide announcement, providing a link to the thread in the public forum.

What koko is suggesting is that the guidelines be amended so that voting/poll in the private forum not be implemented until after the sitewide announcement has gone up, which is different than the current procedure.

goalie, you served on TB for 3-1/2 years. You know it's not the norm for votes to conclude within 24 hours of the start. You also know that motions aren't done in a vacuum, that discussions both on the public & private forums have preceded them.

This is attempting to address what happened with the premium fares forum situation without going overboard in response.

Cheers.
Thanks telling me something I didn't know (NOT) and yes, I do know that folks are not on F/T all the time (double ) so respectfully, please lay off the belittling. What I do have a problem with is the vagueness as with vagueness, you end up having problems with the interpretation of such. Does "as quickly as feasible" (using your above examples of sleeping, on a plane, work, etc) mean 1 day, two days, a week, 2 weeks and etc and if there is going to be a delay, then something needs to be in place so that the system functions smoothly. For example, if the CD is unavailable for <insert time period here>, then someone else needs to have the authority to perform the task and then the voting poll can be posted.
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Old Dec 11, 2014, 1:01 pm
  #50  
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Originally Posted by wharvey
Takes long enough to get something through the process... why add to the timing?
Something? I think you must mean some things as the creation of the Premium Fares forum was definitely not a long enough process which is why TB is looking at slowing the voting process down a little. Building in a few day balloting ban within the existing two week time frame for TB voting to take place is also not adding to the timing to my view though YMMV.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 8:42 am
  #51  
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Originally Posted by goalie
Thanks telling me something I didn't know (NOT) and yes, I do know that folks are not on F/T all the time (double ) so respectfully, please lay off the belittling. What I do have a problem with is the vagueness as with vagueness, you end up having problems with the interpretation of such. Does "as quickly as feasible" (using your above examples of sleeping, on a plane, work, etc) mean 1 day, two days, a week, 2 weeks and etc and if there is going to be a delay, then something needs to be in place so that the system functions smoothly. For example, if the CD is unavailable for <insert time period here>, then someone else needs to have the authority to perform the task and then the voting poll can be posted.
Wow - a bit of overreaction IMO. As you do know from your 3+ years on TB, the announcement in the public forum re: the motion & voting underway normally went up within hours or a day. Also, if the VP is not available to do the announcement in the public forum the Prez has the authority to do so per the current guidelines (and which has been done on occasion).

And while the CD is not available 24/7, she normally gets the announcement up pretty quickly. However, this allows some leeway for her schedule. However, the information re: the motion will have already been posted in the public forum so even before she gets the announcement up FTers can provide input. The sitewide announcement augments that.

The change suggested by koko/TB is that voting will not commence until after the CD makes the sitewide announcement (which was some FTers issue w/ the premium fares subforum); the change attempts to address that without going overboard in a response to something that's not the norm.

Cheers.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 9:44 am
  #52  
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While the most feedback on snap TB voting resulted from the Premium Fares forum creation motion I'll remind members that it wasn't the only case but one of three occasions out of a grand total of 4 motions this calendar year where less than 24 hours elapsed between motion announcement and it securing enough votes to be adopted, the others being the creation of a USA destination fourm and the creation of a Citibank/Thank You Rewards forum. Snap voting has become the new TB norm and I see nothing wrong with building in a small 48-72 hour cooling off period within the existing two week TB timeframe for balloting.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 10:23 am
  #53  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
While the most feedback on snap TB voting resulted from the Premium Fares forum creation motion I'll remind members that it wasn't the only case but one of three occasions out of a grand total of 4 motions this calendar year where less than 24 hours elapsed between motion announcement and it securing enough votes to be adopted, the others being the creation of a USA destination fourm and the creation of a Citibank/Thank You Rewards forum. Snap voting has become the new TB norm and I see nothing wrong with building in a small 48-72 hour cooling off period within the existing two week TB timeframe for balloting.
I absolutely agree with you. The inability to vote until some time has elapsed to allow for public comment after the site wide announcement must be MANDATORY or IMO we will soon experience the same problems again.

In the case ot the new Citi forum, I questioned what the proper name of the new forum should be [Citi or Citibank or CitiBank? Thank You Points or Thank You Rewards?] and the motion [did we hhave a friendly amendment or not?] on this wasn't clarified until after most (other) people had voted.

I've been very concerned by the pressure to rush to vote as quickly as possible on TB but I don't think I can go beyond stating my own opinion on this.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 12:35 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I've been very concerned by the pressure to rush to vote as quickly as possible on TB but I don't think I can go beyond stating my own opinion on this.
There is no pressure to rush to vote as quickly as possible on TalkBoard. I don't know where this myth came from but it does not exist.

The only pressure that I've seen exerted is when a vote is at 8-0 and a lone holdout waits to vote which at that point is delaying the inevitable. In fact, it's TalkBoard practice to not send a PM to someone who hasn't voted.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 12:41 pm
  #55  
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To repeat, my experience and my opinion is that there *is* pressure to vote very quickly and it's inappropriate. I did not say that the pressure was necessarily in the form of PMs and I did not claim that it's TB practice to send a PM to someone who hasn't voted.
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 12:50 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
To repeat, my experience and my opinion is that there *is* pressure to vote very quickly and it's inappropriate. I did not say that the pressure was necessarily in the form of PMs and I did not claim that it's TB practice to send a PM to someone who hasn't voted.
You know what would solve that feeling? Voting quickly!
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Old Dec 12, 2014, 2:56 pm
  #57  
 
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Why have a consultation if people aren't obliged to pay any attention to it before voting? It runs the risk of becoming a window dressing waste of everyone's time - and it's certainly liable to be seen that way.
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Old Dec 13, 2014, 11:37 am
  #58  
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Originally Posted by exilencfc
Why have a consultation if people aren't obliged to pay any attention to it before voting? It runs the risk of becoming a window dressing waste of everyone's time - and it's certainly liable to be seen that way.
There is consultation before a motion ever even gets to a motion stage. There is also consultation after a motion goes for voting. In the case of the premium fares subforum there wasn't (more because it had been discussed previously than any windowdressing reason). It's the latter which has caused TB to consider amending the guidelines to add a timeframe for sitewide announcement and voting commencing.

In my 49 votes on TB, voting concluded sometimes quickly, sometimes after a week, and sometimes the full two weeks. This year we didn't have as many votes and a few went more quickly. That, by the way, does not mean the decisions were wrong. It also does not mean that every vote in the future will happen quickly. Really depends on what is being considered & how much discussion was done beforehand or how much input is provided after the sitewide announcement.

BTW - sitewide announcements have gone up in the past & very little input has been provided on some of the motions. So having a sitewide announcement & a delay does not mean record #s of FTers are suddenly going to flock to TB to provide input. But amending the guidelines a tad helps to ensure they have additional opportunity, even if they choose not to do so.

Cheers.
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Old Dec 15, 2014, 8:31 am
  #59  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
This year we didn't have as many votes and a few went more quickly.
Three of four is a few? Seems more accurate to say there were few votes the majority of which went quickly.
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Old Dec 15, 2014, 9:41 am
  #60  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
Three of four is a few? Seems more accurate to say there were few votes the majority of which went quickly.
I just want to point out (again) that it is entirely possible that in the past there was a lot of 'snap' voting too. But that fact was not ascertainable to the average poster because until relatively recently there was only announcement when a vote CLOSED as opposed to when the votes to pass or fail were achieved.

The decision was made to announce when the votes to pass or fail were achieved was made specifically because often the result of a vote was made quickly, but the last TBer had not voted yet, leaving posters to debate and provide input on a decision that was, for all intents and purposes, already made.

Not that this makes anyone feel better.
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