No problem ScottCand not necessary at all ... just exchanges of opinions which we are all encouraged to air civilly (which I think we did) but thanks again for your response.

I still am at a loss to understand this prevailing (hypothetical) scenario. A British Midland Airlines flyer posts in the Star Alliance Forum that he wants to redeem a Europe->Asia Award in Business Class and asks experienced FT'ers whether he is best advised to choose TG, SQ, OS, SAS or LH, all of whom fly there.

Patron's habitual style on the STAR forum would seem to be to close the thread and move it to British Midland Forum, arguing if you are using BMI miles - then go there and ask your questions.

That seems bizarre policy to me as that airline does not fly to Asia and hence a lot of those on that board may also seldom fly to Asia. But many on the STAR boards know the others carriers backwards, and the plusses and minuses and could give VALUABLE input, not found on BD Board.

I agree with you Scott that on the boards with light traffic, that Moderation possibly is best kept for grossly off-topic threads or bad flaming etc. Topics of little interest or a little off-topic generally die a natural death.

The smaller forums often build a certain cameraderie among regulars. For example, this current one in the Qantas Forum about what red wine to buy as a gift for a friend in the USA has already 30 posts. It has nothing WHATEVER to do with QF, and one feels sure if posted in UA, DL or AA etc would have seen it rapidly moved to Travel Buzz or Dining Buzz - or even OMNI which has heaps of wine threads lately.

Not so - in the QF forum the Moderator offers his own wine suggestion, so things work differently in smaller Forums very often.

I'd just enjoy seeing a little less zealous policing in Star Forum re the type of examples outlined above. I have asked such questions via threads over the years pre-Moderation and received superb input, and hope others might enjoy the same valuable info.

I realise Moderating is subjective, and often thankless, and I do enjoy the Star Forum. I hope Patron takes these on board as the (hopefully) contructive thoughts of just one reader. I recall in February there were six closed threads in the page 1 posts alone, for being "off-topic", so things have definitely settled down more into a groove.