Originally Posted by
beltway
Two thoughts:
First, as others have already noted, sometimes there isn't an obvious forum, e.g., if the question is "what's the best carrier/alliance to get me from A to B on an award ticket?"
Why can't that happen now within the exisiting airline alliance forums? The obviousness of the forum is IMHO part of the problem.
Second: yes, there is also just plain ignorant behavior involving posts going into wrong (or non-optimal) fora. IMO, this isn't simply a matter of "the blogs are producing all these point-rich noobs"; rather, there's the problem that FT's structure and help system really aren't sufficiently intuitive or user-friendly, especially to noobs.
So would creating another layer of topic duplication with one more forum help that reality? No, not IMHO.
I think the behavior in question is like the weather: it's going to happen whether we like it or not. So the real issue is to how to channel that behavior in ways that a) better help noobs to become informed, productive FTers while b) keeping other fora free of clutter & more focused on their core purpose.
Sorry but while I hear what you're saying I don't feel in the long run it'll help those other fora to continually build bypasses around them. Today's new member is tomorrow's expert and if we continually enable those members to avoid the individual fora it only help makes us poorer as a community down the road. I'd much rather see them encouraged to intereact in those forums rather than build ways to avoid them though that's only MHO.