Originally Posted by
travelkid
I havent seen what cactuspete is trying to say, and which has affected lots of great members, been taken seriously during my years at FT. But its probably hard when you are not allowed to discuss. "Ruling class" is the most accurate term I have seen. Sorry if this offends anyone, but I hope Im entitled to my opinion as well (coincidentally shared by large number of the people I have met at DOs FWIW).
And campaigning and other rules are not the problem. Wouldnt change a thing if TB closed down. Its just a pro-forma members representation/board. The main issue is TBs purview. There is the big black helicopter downside of making things properly democratic.
It's all about perspective, imho.
Moderators simply view FlyerTalk
differently than non-moderators do. They view it as a resource and hang out, sure, but also as a
labor of love. They spend time cleaning up spam, moving threads and occasionally doing discipline. And their only compensation is a trip to the Mod DO, a pat on the back from the CD and their own self-satisfaction.
These folks don't mind being told what to do by the CD, but they sure as hell are not going to take direction from the likes of the TB or the posters. After all, there are infinity approaches to moderation and they are going to use their own as guided by the mod best practices. So they'd prefer a 'thanks for the hard, free labor' to criticism, constructive or otherwise.
There are a number of former-mods who have acknowledged this key distinction in perspectives of FT based on their own personal perspective changing once they took their moderator hat off.
I do wish that the CD would expand the remit of the TB to be a focus group not just for what goes where, but also for how moderation policy affects the what-goes-where aspect of FT.
But I have tilted at that windmill for years and years and it's just not going to happen.
So circling this around to the OP, I don't think there will be significant movement on opening up issue advocacy beyond getting your say in this little-read TB Topics forum. Because things like that just don't change around here, for better or for worse.