koko, you can run for TB President to make a statement or you can run to win the approval of your fellow TB members. I don't believe you can do both. It appears you have chosen the former.
You can prove me wrong by persuading me how each of your proposed changes, or even just a majority of them, will make FT a better place. Better for the 99%, you know, the ones who have no idea what TalkBoard is. People who just read and sometimes post. Will your changes attract and retain more members? Or do they risk damaging FT?
I have an open mind, since these are changes I have not seriously considered before. Persuade me. Please.
Yes, that's a problem koko has, but without the attitude he wouldn't be the koko we love.
It's really quite simple: Randy set up Flyertalk as a command and control managed entity. There was the beloved benevolent dictator. And Flyertalk is to this day managed by a group of self-selected moderators who operate by self-set standards and are accountable only to each other and then ultimately to Carol.
Would you set up a management structure that way? To me it makes no sense. There ought to be ultimate accountability to the
posters. Not to each other. And the FT TB is the focus group of the posters, elected by and so presumably reflective of the posters at large. Not a perfect representational system but the only one we've got right now.
Should the posters not be given access to the semi-secret Moderator Best Practices so we can know where the actual lines are?
Should the posters not have an opportunity to air grievances to a representative body that actually has the authority to affect the day-to-day FT experience?
The reality is that Randy put these rules in place and they worked for him. But look at what he has done at MilePoint: taken a completely different approach. Still ridiculously secretive and opaque, imho, but the point is that 'because that's the way it has always been done' is pretty much the worst reason ever to do something a certain way.
Greater transparency, better and more direct poster input to the day-to-day operation of FT are things worth exploring. Worth trying. At they very least worth talking about in detail.
I don't have all the answers. I have some ideas. So do many others. Maybe my ideas suck and there are other, better ways forward. But since the dawn of FT moderation we have been kept silent on certain issues.
That's dumb.
The world has changed. IBBs have changed. Randy cashed out and took some of his buddies with him. So I am saying it's time for some critical self-evaluation and analysis. Time to get the hell out of the box in our thinking.
I'm not here to tell anyone what to do. I'm here to stir the pot, get folks thinking and see if there isn't a better way forward.
As for wanting to be emperor, puh-lease. That's not my gig. Like my last stint on the TB when I led the effort to create greater transparency and structure to the TalkBoard itself, my goal this time is to improve and bring transparency to the day-to-day operation and processes of the rest of FlyerTalk, then once the that's done fade quietly back into retirement.
Or fail trying.
And, yeah, this is how I am going to try to do it: bluntly and forthrightly. In the light of day with all my cards on the table. Because it's not a game to me, it's a sincere effort.
Finally, I want to emphasize (because I know this argument is coming), yes, Carol is a worthy successor to Randy. Dare I say it? Yes I do: an improvement. She is consistent, open minded and I consider her a personal friend. The fact that this thread as not been nuked and I have not been suspended (yet
) is a testament to those facts.
And yes, the mods are ultimately responsible to her.
But I don't care if it's Carol or Randy or even me in that position, the
structure is, to me, something that ought to be analyzed and improved.