[QUOTE=peachfront;18570863]This gap at Flyertalk could have been fixed, or largely fixed, at any time over the past few years by using a simple technique that almost all other forums use. MOST discussion forums have a process for closing threads after a certain period of time. Let's say three months. Flyertalk instead prefers the "hazing" model of endlessly and forever threads that can be brought back from the dead after many, many years or even just allowed to ramble on for hundreds, even thousands of posts...If you do start a new thread, sometimes, some moderator is there to move your post to the end of one of these overlong threads or to the end of some ancient thread full of outdated information.
Apparently, trying to stimulate extra clicks/page views one time is more important than trying to build a relationship with "findable" information that would encourage a newbie to keep reading, to start participating, and to return to the site. So whatever..Flyertalk can't really complain about bloggers coming in with easy to read and easy to find material when FT is unwilling to provide the material. They force newbies to the blogs, in my humble opinion. And, after a few years, you have to figure that it's intentional, since this problem could have been fixed in an hour or a day if they really wanted to fix it.
How many pages EVEN IN THE STICKIES have we ALL opened to find links, discussion, etc. that go back to 2007 or, ugh, just yesterday I stumbled on to links going back to 2004? Say what you like about the blogs that landed yesterday. You don't have to weed through that nonsense going back to dead deals. What is the purpose of old Expedia codes from 2009? Yank 'em. Deal is dead? Close the thread. And once everyone has flown the dead deal and posted their trip experience, close that thread too. You could make the site searchable and easy to use with very little effort...were there any will to do so. There are times when I poke through a sticky full of worthless links and tell myself I'm done here. If it were not for the sense of community, I would be done.
One of the links, from a STICKY, that I visited yesterday, ended up in a thread where people were fighting and the moderator did close the discussion, maybe only a mere 5 years ago. And the link is still in the sticky? There's an organization MESS here at Flyertalk and as long as people are unwilling to do anything about it, then FT has to accept that people in a hurry will look elsewhere. That doesn't mean that they're looking to b e spoonfed. But if they are noobs and have no investment in the community, and then they find that they're being "hazed" with endless posts and stickies full of useless, outdated garbage, can we really blame them for moving elsewhere? That doesn't prove laziness. It proves common sense.
If it takes a few bloggers taking the credit card affiliate income away from FT and putting it in their own pocket to get some changes made to make FT more accessible, then I don't see that it's all bad.
Search is broken, stickies are broken, threads that purport to be full of deals and codes are historical museums full of outdated garbage. Look at what the blogs are doing right, rather than assuming that Flyertalk is always right. Nobody's always right.
Originally Posted by
oliver2002
What bloggers do is address a gap in FT: summarizing a current deal in a concise simple to understand way. Each day/hours thousands of people end up on FT because it ranks #1 for every travel related google search and only a fraction stays back because they find what they were looking for and another smaller fraction stays on to becomes member etc etc. Currently Google ranks content on wikis, forums and blogs etc higher than traditional webpages, the day that algorithm changes others will rank higher.
/QUOTE]
I agree with you on this and I think FT has become bloated. Do moderators get some sort of compensation ? I am asking b/c I don't know. If they did I think they would collectively come up with a better system that would appease most everyone. Again the main problem is not bloggers per se, but people that take without giving back.
As for the bloggers, I think the ones mentioned in this thread are not the offenders and give as much useful information as they take. Actually the ones mentioned probably produce more useful information on a variety of topics for public consumption than almost anyone. They practice sustainable forestry the ones I think most people have problems with are the slash and burn kind. The slash and burners find a really useful jumbo then broadcast it for short term gain. Yes, they will probably die out over time but at what cost and FT be able to recover if everyone decides to manage their own little patches. Couldn't a well managed FT forum prevent this kind of poaching with out the skullduggery that goes on now?