Someone needs to step up and be a liasion between IB and FT members. While in theory this would be Randy, I've seen too many instances lately where Randy isn't aware of issues or changes and I'm convinced it's because Randy already has a lot on his plate. I do not know if this would be someone from TalkBoard, although I think this would be a great role for one of the elected representatives.

If that person was me, I would sit down with a list of concerns brought to me by members and would ask, mainly, for one thing -- a lurker who could have his/her own forum to address questions like this directly. I would suggest as the model the very excellent William Sanders, the Starwood Lurker, who does not always have pleasant or popular news for people and is not afraid to tell people when they are being a bit unreasonable, but is pretty much universally respected.

Whether IB would be willing to do that is another question only they can answer, but it's time someone steps up and tries to get them to the table to talk directly to the customers.

I'm not much of a tech guy, so I'd probably be the wrong person to sit down with them. Heck, the only cookies I know of are the ones in my kitchen.

Anyway, there definitely are issues, even for a technologically unsavvy guy like me, relating to the reliability and at times functionality of FlyerTalk. But I'm sure they know of those problems as well as I do, yet they seem not to care.

I like Rich's idea. While I doubt they'd be receptive to it, the best way to hold them accountable would be for them to have a dedicated forum for members to post their thoughts/comments/complaints in, and hopefully have an official lurker that would respond. It sounds nice, at least in theory...

I feel that FT has been terribly let down by IB. I am not sure they understood our community when they first acquired the board. However, they do seem to 'get it' in person when they have sent reps to Moderator Meetings.

I think they need to find a way to pay back their investment, but some of that has been heavy handed.

I'd love to sit down with IT and discuss what makes FT special and possibly unique in the board they own. I'd like to be honest and accept that they have to make money from the board, and to work out ways that they can do this without having a negative impact. I'd like to encourage them to discuss things with TalkBoard in advance of making changes, so at least people can be told what's going to happen. Engagement usually generates light even if we don't agree!