Closing the External Miles and Points Resources Forum
#121
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
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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.
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.
#122
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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.
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.
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.
#123
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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.
I have no qualms about the same metrics being used elsewhere but this is not the place for those conversations IMO.
#124
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,233
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?
#126
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#127
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I'm still wondering when the TB was tasked with recommending the removal of forums it "doesn't like."
#128
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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.
#129
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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.
#130
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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.
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?
#131
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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.
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
#132
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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.
#133
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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.
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.
#134
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if TB is discussing content, that is up to moderators
getting rid of forum does not get rid of content of forum
getting rid of forum does not get rid of content of forum