I have a suggestion.
This works brilliantly on another site -GameTZ.com and I don't see why it can't work here.
Basically this is how it works- You sign up to the site, and automatically a "mentor" is assigned to you. This user shall be your mentor for life. You can ask any question (no matter how silly) and the mentor is more than happy to help.
Some of my questions would take me a while to search for on google and an instant to answer.
I think something like this would be great on FlyerTalk. A pool of "mentors" is created. People can volunteer to be part of the mentor community. People who like challenges. People who wouldn't mind figuring out the best way to go from EWR to LHR. People who wouldn't mind answering questions like "which airport does UA fly out from in New york?"
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I really don't have an opinion on whether "How do I go from ABC to XYZ" should or should not get a separate forum or a sub-forum. I wouldn't mind either option.
But I will say that not all people can catch on to this as quickly as you.
I think "Ignore what you don't like" is good advice.
I am tired of seeing SO MANY threads where newbies have asked a simple question and the SAME people have given a snarky reply saying- "Read" or "Google is your friend".
It would have taken you the same amount of effort if you'd just have answered it.
When I first got into this, everything seemed so strange and foreign to me on multiple levels. I remember trying to redeem my UA miles on a JFK-LHR-BOM ticket...and not getting any results and getting frustrated. I remember asking for help here, and being surprised when the first suggestion was try EWR instead of JFK.
And suddenly I could see availability.
It's things like that. I would never have thought about using EWR. I always flew into JFK and out of JFK. I was not born here and the thought never occured to me that there could be another airport! This may seem silly to you but that's how it was.
I remember when I was a newbie who knew NOTHING. It was strange and confusing. And I think it's like that for most newbies. I was helped, and that made me learn even more.
If I had been told "Use the search function", I would never have bothered.
Everybody yearns for some help, for someone to say," Don't worry, I'm here for you".
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For the people who say "They learnt about this from blogs who spoonfed them and now we are being forced to clean up their mess", the closest analogy I can give you is what if you were given candy by a teacher, and then got sick and the doctor told you to go ask the teacher to fix you? That's a flawed analogy, I know, but the reasoning stands.
There is No clear page that teaches newbies on
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How to earn 70points/doller with Club Carlson
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A Hhonors analysis for San Francisco
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Breaking BA avios by using stopovers
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Singapore Airlines now releasing two saver suite awards
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A side by side comparison of Airline Elite Status
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The five Cardinal rules of American Airlines awards
This is just an eclectic list of things from random blogs. If a newbie asks for "Could someone tell me what are the rules when booking AA awards?", he's sure to get flamed for not "doing enough research!!!"
So they go to blogs, who put it in a clear cut and simple manner.
Before this devolves into a discussion about how blogs ruin deals etc, let me say that, THAT is not what I'm talking about here. Newbies ARE going to want something in a simple form that they can understand.
Coming back to the original discussion, expecting a newbie to read some things here and some things there, and then to suddenly have an epiphany and know how to book a ticket from New York to Hawaii is like me giving you a book on "How to flair" and then expecting you to do it.
It's not going to happen. One needs practice. And there are many moves that no matter how long you try, you won't get it right until someone shows you that your wrist is supposed to flick the bottle in this way and your fingers are supposed to turn that way.
This can't be learnt just by reading. It takes reading and practice, simultaneously.
This has turned out to be a semi-rant and for that I'm sorry.