Originally Posted by
thehawk75
It's difficult for me to see this as a serious thread.
The guy joined today, has 2 posts and is asking loaded questions; basically setting this up for a perfect infomercial if we choose to go along with it.
I don't think OP will follow up (note OP has 2 posts on 10/19/2011, if this thread is bumped a year or six from now, I expect OP to still have single digit posts).
Overall though, I must commend the other Flyertalkers here for giving serious and well thought out answers. Even if I'm not being overly cynical, you guys are really swell for taking the time to answer the OPs questions (of which 90% of the answers could be found in about 10 minutes of searching this site).
I've given up on people using search. Some people get intimidated by search or have not become thoroughly familiar with the site to know how search works or that a number of stickies on the various forums here might have the answers to their questions. The MilesBuzz forum alone now has over 15,000 threads and nearly 300,000 posts. Others are too lazy and want the information spoon fed to them. For those who know how to search, you can certainly find information (not just here, but on the web generally), but just like any other skill, some people are better at searching than others. Just like some people are better at cynicism.
A newbie comes here and asks some questions. If he's fraudulent, he'll be discovered sooner or later. I no longer think I'm smart enough to sniff that out and leave that task to the mods.
While it's true that the OP's questions might just as easily be spread over four or five threads, I figure there are plenty of folks who come here looking for answers to just these types of questions. I think even if we thought the OP was fraudulent, it's good to provide simple, clear answers so that others who stumble across this site today or next week, want some newbie-type questions answered, and who, seeing the title of this thread, might click here looking for those answers will get useful information. And might also understand that FT is an open community that's always willing to welcome new participants.
If you'd gotten a similar reception when you first found FT, do you think you would have stuck around to put up an additional 1100 posts? I know I wouldn't have.
BTW, MM, welcome to FlyerTalk!