nsx

I would like to discuss the mission of MilesBuzz and its tendency to attract Newbie/Handholding request threads.

I see the primary missions of MilesBuzz as:

1. Highlighting Hot Deals: high-value limited-time offers of all kinds, even if only by pointing to discussion elsewhere on FT,
2. Discussion of industry trends in FF programs, e.g. pros and cons of revenue-based accrual and/or redemption, comparisons between FF programs, and even major gripes and kudos directed at specific programs
3. News of important adverse changes to any program. This is the flip side of hot deals. MilesBuzz would carry a summary, discuss the issue briefly, then direct further discussion to the correct company-specific forum.

Member-specific help requests are certainly NOT within the mission of MilesBuzz. I will discuss that subject later in this post.

In short, reading MilesBuzz should be sufficient to give any member a degree of assurance that he has not missed anything of critical importance. If there's one thing we FT'ers hate, it's missing out on a deal because we never heard about it!

The trick here is to allow MilesBuzz to carry information whose default home is elsewhere. Wikis can help accomplish this. My initial idea is to have:

One unlocked sticky thread for discussion of *all* Hot Deals. The member-maintained Wiki for that thread would summarize the best current hot deals and contain links to detailed discussion on MilesBuzz or elsewhere.

One unlocked sticky thread for discussion of *all* Devaluations and other bad news about points and miles. Again, a member-maintained Wiki for that thread would summarize the most important recent devaluations and contain links to detailed discussion on MilesBuzz or elsewhere.

Discussion threads about industry trends for loyalty programs, comparisons of Program A vs. Program B, and any other generic discussion of miles and points. Once the discussion turned program-specific, the moderators could lock the thread and provide a pointer to a thread in a company-specific forum.

As to questions from newbies and others who want specific advice for their needs, IMHO that badly needs to be separated from the high-value miles and points news. A Flame-Free Q&A forum should be created for this purpose, and these questions should be moved there immediately from MilesBuzz.

Please comment on any or all of this. Let's either shoot this down in flames or make it the best it can be, so the TalkBoard can get it right the first time.