FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Question 4: FlyerTalk as a "global" frequent traveller community
Old Nov 2, 2009, 4:55 am
  #8  
gleff
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I cherish Flyertalk's global reach.

I don't think we need to worry some much about the geography of where a Flyertalker calls their home airport, as much as whether or not they have a provincial or global outlook, and perhaps whether they actually travel the world or not.

Looking over forums created while I've served on TalkBoard, I believe we've created more for non-US programs and locations than for US ones. And that's likely a function of Flyertalk becoming more and more global, when it started there were more US-centric folks.

But the criteria for forum creation, in my mind, is whether the forum will generate enough activity to be vibrant rather than moribund. If people come to a dead forum, they don't return. And if they don't return there won't be new posts and the next person finds a dead forum as well. It's useful to draw a circle around posts and put them in a particular forum when that'll help people find information or create a place that's focal where a question will get answers from the best-informed people because that's where those people congregate. But creating a little-visited forum harms both of these goals.

So as Flyertalk grows, the specialization in forums will grow. And much of that specialization has grown in non-US areas.
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