Skylink USA

FT Miles seems to have a lot of high mileage road warriors. FT Travel seems to have more lighter post and sometimes different posters.

However, sometimes a question or comment for FT Travel's Travel Buzz is actually better suited for FT Miles' audience. Post it there and it get booted off. Post it on FT Travel and semi-ff see it and ignore it.

Suggestion: 1) either have a link to Travel Buzz on FT Miles (and if webpage real estate is too valuable, move Flyer Talk Trip Reports to FT Travel), or 2) create a new forum for FT Miles called Road Warrior Issues.

Comments? Consider the change, pleeeease.

[This message has been edited by Skylink USA (edited 08-02-2002).]

CameraGuy

There already is a link to TravelBuzz. It is on the top of the page.

FWIW, I like the site just the way it is. More and more people are finally figuring out where to correctly post topics.

Punki

I totally agree, Skylink USA, that FT would flow and work better if there were a general "Road Warrior Issues" spot on FT Miles. It actually used to be that. "The Buzz" was the general Road Warrior spot in the glory day of FT.

For some mysterious reason it was changed and moved to FT Travel Buzz. I think maybe to increase traffic on that board, but you are right that it really isn't working that way. The result is that more and more general questions pop up in Community, in airline forums, etc. The net result IMHO is that FT is a lot less interesting than it was when it was more user friendly, but I am just one small and lonely voice in cyberspace.

j379pa

Nah--you're a might warrior who takes on the security goons and wins!

JP

cactuspete

We're past the glory day of FT?

FewMiles

Yah... you and I both missed the boat on joining the old boys' and girls' club.

FewMiles..

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blairvanhorn

Yes, I'd love to hear about the "glory day" of FT.

hfly

Well, I was around as a lurker from late 98, only registered and went live in early January 2000. If M&M is a sign of what the "oldtimers" think is acceptable, good for them....Looks to me like watching paint dry.

CameraGuy

Not only is it like watching paint dry, it has a VERY strange definition of "Fair and Unbiased" moderation.

Punki

I assure you that I meant nothing exclusive by my remark about the Glory Days of Flyer Talk. Certainly there are many glorious things that happen on Flyer Talk today and it would surely be a far less exciting and interesting place without the ever present possibility of making new friends. Many of my very favorite FlyerTalk Friends are relative newbies who were not among the original group and I have always found the so called "Oldtimers" to be among the most welcoming, helpful and encouraging of FlyerTakers.

There are, however, marked differences between the FlyerTalk of Old and the FlyerTalk of today. I will try to explain what I meant by the "glory days" of Flyer Talk.

In the beginning FlyerTalk was all very new and exciting--like in a new love affair, where we only see the good in one another. Back in those days, every personal meeting, even a meeting of just two or three FlyerTalkers, was a big deal to all. We were always excited to come together whether in cyberspace or in the real world.

The spirit of the board then was totally open, welcoming, gentle, appreciative, friendly and encouraging, with only very rare exceptions, which were quickly handled by the participants and then forgotten. Above all, everyone seemed to give everyone else the benefit of the doubt.

Even when people made mistakes, the spirit of FlyerTalk then reminded me of the old Mormon commercial--when the bad men came and robbed the stage coach and the people asked God what to do, God said, "Teach them a lesson. Forgive them."

Over the years a less friendly spirit has crept into FlyerTalk. Now there are those who appear to be driven by jealousy, anger, resentment and an underlying desire to prove that they are somehow "more right" by proving and/or insinuating that others are somehow "more wrong". The sad reality is that in such an atmosphere nobody wins and everybody loses. As a result of this unpleasantness many of the most interesting posters have left in anger and frustration and many more have simply drifted away.

As anybody who has been married for a significant length of time can tell you, it is impossible to change anybody but oneself and the only hope for returning to the wonderful, friendly atmosphere that once reigned on Flyer Talk is for each of us to do everything in our power to make certain that those things we ourselves do and say make Flyer Talk a friendlier, more gentle and more caring place, without trying to point fingers at or blame anyone else.

Does this mean that we will always all agree or always all get along? Of course not, we are all only human and all come with our own set of carefully developed prejudices, faults and blind spots. What we can do, however, is change the way we respond to those things that bother us.

Think of how much better a place FlyerTalk would be if everyone made a sincere and honest effort to resolve their differences through private e-mail, or if we all just held our tempers, alerted Randy of questionable posts and let him handle them. He is actually very good about checking into problem posts and always appears very grateful when posters choose this route rather than exacerbating the problem by adding their own flames to an already unpleasant thread.

One thing that is certain is that anyone who attempts to change someone else by flaming their posts, is definitely a part of the problem and not a part of the solution. The only solution is for all of us to make a sincere commitment to be part of the solution and be as nice as we possibly can to everyone else.

blairvanhorn

Punki, thanks for taking the time to explain that; it's very hard to disagree with your arguments about civility on the FT boards.

But your original post above seemed more about the fact that you feel that FT is "a lot less interesting than it was when it was more user friendly" and that the physical layout of FT has something to do with this (something you have argued many times over the last several months since the structure of the boards was reorganized).

Again, thanks for the clarification.

Punki

I do think that having a Road Warrior Issues Forum on FT Miles would make FT a lot more user friendly. That, however, and civility are two separate issues, and I think that civility is by far the more important of the two.

CameraGuy

Civility is a two-way street. It is amazing the double standard that some people apply to civility.

As far as a "Road Warrior" forum, IMHO, we already have one. It is called TravelBuzz and it is EXACTLY ONE click away.

Randy and Company put a lot of effort into the redesign of FT. IMHO, the redesign was a MAJOR success. FT Travel has grown dramatically and will continue to grow as people become more familiar with the layout.

I hope that the Talk Board makes no recomendation regarding changes and I hope that Randy does not listen to the minority view that FT needs "Fixing".

Just MHO, luckily, here on FT, HO are welcome.

cblaisd

Well said.

Skylink USA

The road warrior equivalent forum may be one click away in FT Travel. However, that click is a big enough burden that many (including me) don't click it. I only visit it once in a while and don't look down to old posts.

When I post there, the very experienced road warriors don't always comment, unlike the excellent response in FT Miles.