Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Community > TalkBoard Topics
Reload this Page >

Closing the External Miles and Points Resources Forum

Closing the External Miles and Points Resources Forum

 
Old Aug 18, 2016, 8:34 pm
  #121  
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
Programs: LH SEN
Posts: 48,001
EM&PR gets an interesting amount of traffic, probably because of the NY Post / TMZ nature of the topics discussed there.

I know for sure that some are not really happy that posts from the EM&PR forum pop up when the general public researches the respective blog. So for example if a blogger appears in the news people often don't enter the exact url but type the name of the blog into a search engine. Along with the blog they also get some other info about the blog. Which could help them put the info on the blog in perspective. Other than TBBs daily ablutions (which mostly don't link to the blog in question, so often of no interest to search engines) and the occasional semi-journalistic blog entry by another blogger nobody really posts anything on the interweb about these miles & points bloggers who pretend to post information for friends and family.
oliver2002 is offline  
Old Aug 19, 2016, 8:49 am
  #122  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: ORF
Programs: Amex Plat, AA, BA Silver, Marriott Plat, Choice Gold, HHonors Gold, IHG Diamond
Posts: 3,745
Originally Posted by oliver2002
EM&PR gets an interesting amount of traffic, probably because of the NY Post / TMZ nature of the topics discussed there.

I know for sure that some are not really happy that posts from the EM&PR forum pop up when the general public researches the respective blog. So for example if a blogger appears in the news people often don't enter the exact url but type the name of the blog into a search engine. Along with the blog they also get some other info about the blog. Which could help them put the info on the blog in perspective. Other than TBBs daily ablutions (which mostly don't link to the blog in question, so often of no interest to search engines) and the occasional semi-journalistic blog entry by another blogger nobody really posts anything on the interweb about these miles & points bloggers who pretend to post information for friends and family.
What blog "pretends" that? Just about every blog brags about the thousands of followers they have. And the small fry really are posting for their friends and family. If even that.

Plenty of good reasons to keep the forum open (as a reference point for outside resources, valid criticism of bloggers, especially the big ones who do claim they're doing it for their "love" of travel--which truly may have originally triggered the blog but which few believe now sustain the bigger fish and the hopes of the smaller, amongst others) but no reason to throw that empty canard on the pile.

Otherwise, you and other prime EM&PR movers and shakers might be accused of just having a bias against bloggers to begin with. And we all know that isn't true.
lwildernorva is offline  
Old Aug 20, 2016, 1:58 pm
  #123  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Originally Posted by kokonutz
You came up with the metric.
And I have managed to keep my discussion points about the forum in question, not randomly bringing up other fora as distractions from the topic being discussed. Hence the red herring statement.

I have no qualms about the same metrics being used elsewhere but this is not the place for those conversations IMO.
sbm12 is offline  
Old Aug 22, 2016, 12:43 am
  #124  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,233
Originally Posted by CMK10
I can imagine some could go to Miles Buzz! But do we need to have a lot of these conversations? Running dialogues about bloggers making spelling mistakes or transgressions they committed years ago? Cui Bono and all.
Thank you for answering. In your interpretation, some EMPR threads/topics belong on FT and some do not (ie. threads that have evolved to reflect poorly on FT membership or have little/no current value to the community).

The most negative/valueless EMPR topics mentioned in this current TB discussion seem to be about Delta Points/Renes Points, VFTW, and OMAAT. If the EMPR forum is closed, would discussion about these specific EMPR sources also be banned from other areas of FT?
CokeandTaco is offline  
Old Aug 22, 2016, 9:03 am
  #125  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Greener Pastures
Posts: 10,515
Originally Posted by CokeandTaco
If the EMPR forum is closed, would discussion about these specific EMPR sources also be banned from other areas of FT?
^^
bhatnasx is offline  
Old Aug 22, 2016, 9:11 am
  #126  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,272
Originally Posted by bhatnasx
^^
I'm hoping this is tongue in cheek, as, to me, it proves the ludicrousness of the proposal: prohibiting discussion of particular travel businesses.
Adam1222 is online now  
Old Aug 22, 2016, 10:44 am
  #127  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 15,322
I'm still wondering when the TB was tasked with recommending the removal of forums it "doesn't like."
RichMSN is offline  
Old Aug 22, 2016, 5:39 pm
  #128  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,185
Originally Posted by RichMSN
I'm still wondering when the TB was tasked with recommending the removal of forums it "doesn't like."
To be fair, the TalkBoard's function, if you will, is to recommend to the Community Director any actions that it determines will maximize the quality of information and discussion on the FlyerTalk forums.

If the TalkBoard determines that a particular forum is detracting from that mission--whether it's segregating information in an under-utilized forum that does not have the volume of traffic needed to sustain productive discussion or contributing to a negative quality of discussion, then I don't see how the TalkBoard recommending the closure of a forum is contrary to its function.

I am not yet taking a position in this debate and am keeping my mind open, though I have personally found discussion posted in the EM&PR forum useful in a few instances, although I understand the arguments made by both sides.
jackal is offline  
Old Aug 24, 2016, 4:42 am
  #129  
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
Originally Posted by RichMSN
I'm still wondering when the TB was tasked with recommending the removal of forums it "doesn't like."
That's a factual misstatement of the reasons I, the OP and TB Vice President, have given for why I think the forum should be closed. I have said it doesn't reflect well on this website and in my opinion the level of value it adds is outweighed by the level of negative discussion it adds. I'm an adult, I don't make decisions based like this on what I like or dislike.
CMK10 is offline  
Old Aug 24, 2016, 1:03 pm
  #130  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Yiron, Israel
Programs: Bates Motel Plat
Posts: 68,901
Originally Posted by Moderator2

On a personal opinion basis, I am a daily reader of that forum and a number of the blogs that get heavy FT coverage. I find the forum entertaining, probably because it regularly includes TMZ style posts from FT members I respect and write well. Lucky, Gary, Summer, et al are very public people who have decided to give up their privacy in order to make a living. That is fair game.

I am not a daily reader of that forum. I am not even a yearly reader of the forum. In fact, if it weren't for this thread I wouldn't even know that the forum exists.

The beauty of the "My FlyerTalk" function is that each member can decide for himself what forums interest him and never see any of the other forums (unless, of course, he decides to go to the main page to see what else is happening).

Clearly, from what I have read on this thread, there are FTers who are interested in the External Miles forum so why would anyone want to deprive them of it?
Dovster is offline  
Old Aug 24, 2016, 3:40 pm
  #131  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,272
Originally Posted by CMK10
That's a factual misstatement of the reasons I, the OP and TB Vice President, have given for why I think the forum should be closed. I have said it doesn't reflect well on this website and in my opinion the level of value it adds is outweighed by the level of negative discussion it adds. I'm an adult, I don't make decisions based like this on what I like or dislike.
I hope you recognize that the tone of a post like this is what makes many of us feel that the suggestion to shut down EMPR oozes condescension and pedantry. Ironically, posts like this are what inevitably lead to the worst of EMPR.
Of course, many adults make decisions based on what they like or dislike. It would be foolish not to.

Trying to tease the content out of your response, I'm not sure how that forum "reflects" on "the website". Most people are sufficiently sophisticated to recognize that the opinions expressed in a Web forum are the opinions of individual posters, not "the website." Who are you worried about reflecting to? The impression of advertisers? Or the bloggers themselves who seem to be disproportionately active in this thread seeking to shut down a forum that criticizes bloggers. (Imagine if Hilton PR weighed in vociferously on why the Hilton forum should be closed because they didn't like the tone people used critiquing their hotels.)
Imposing your values of what posts "reflect well" on the website is so subjective that it is not a workable standard. Do posts by people asking relatively ignorant questions "reflect well" on the website? Beats me. How about posts about what's in someone's beer fridge? Or about smoking in airports?

There's a conversation about strippers and night clubs in Puerto Vallarta going on in the LGBT forum now. What sayeth you? Does that reflect well?

Plenty of people here have made clear that they see value, even people who don't post.

The problem with your charges is you haven't indicated any actual harm other than that you don't like the posts/forum. What value does it actually take away other than being displeasing to you?

Last edited by Adam1222; Aug 24, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Adam1222 is online now  
Old Aug 24, 2016, 10:42 pm
  #132  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
Originally Posted by CMK10
That's a factual misstatement of the reasons I, the OP and TB Vice President, have given for why I think the forum should be closed. I have said it doesn't reflect well on this website and in my opinion the level of value it adds is outweighed by the level of negative discussion it adds. I'm an adult, I don't make decisions based like this on what I like or dislike.
That is a decision based on what one likes or dislikes.
GUWonder is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2016, 12:17 pm
  #133  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: North America
Posts: 2,265
I think the EM&PR forum adds some value.

With that said, there are a handful of regular posters there who's life mission (or so it seems like) is to nit-pick on every little 'mistake' that some bloggers make. Lucky/OMAAT gets picked on the most, followed by Gary/VFTW and then Brian/TPG. You know who you are. It actually amazes me how much time these select posters spend nit-picking on the littlest of things every single day.

And to the OP who is concerned about how EM&PR may reflect very badly on the board at large, then perhaps we can consider a similar motion about the OMNI/PR forum too. Sure that forum is restricted to a larger audience, but the point is that the concerns you have raised in your OP can be said about some other forums as well.
CodeAdam10 is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2016, 4:50 pm
  #134  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,805
if TB is discussing content, that is up to moderators

getting rid of forum does not get rid of content of forum
Kagehitokiri is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2016, 9:01 pm
  #135  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: YEG
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 56,417
Originally Posted by GUWonder
That is a decision based on what one likes or dislikes.
People who HATE the EMPR forum should run on a platform of closing it and see what happens. Maybe they'll get elected and can carry out their mission.
tcook052 is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.