I believe the smearing going on here -- based entirely on speculation and not fact -- is beneath the dignity of members. (In addition to being rather off-topic
)
I don't want to get into any pitched battles. There are some inaccurate insinuations that go directly to my integrity. Hopefully I can clear some things up. And hopefully folks can return to more productive issues of miles and points.
Timeline of my Flyertalk involvement
I joined Flyertalk in April 2001, having lurked a bit before that. I believe I first stumbled upon Flyertalk through a reference on Holly Hegeman's PlaneBusiness site. I've mentioned this to Holly but am not 100% certain.
I attended my first Flyertalk event in October 2001. Randy Petersen was on his 'come fly with me' tour, non-stop flying to all of the states flown to by US Airways as part of promoting time to get back in the air after 9/11. He came through DCA and a bunch of folks turned up at Legal Seafood there. I remember introducing myself as someone who read a lot but rarely posted.
I first became a Flyertalk moderator in January 2003 and served in that capacity for 8 years.
I was first elected to Talkboard in September 2003 and served in that capacity for over 7 years. [
kokonutz would suggest that was too long
and he may well be right.]
In the summer of 2004
cblaisd and I worked to flesh out and test the 'SuperModerator' program which became the Senior Moderators the following year, with
SanDiego1K and
Canarsie added that fall. I suggested the name 'Moderator at Large' instead, or 'M@L'. No one ever said I was any good at names.
My memory is fuzzy on all of this, but I think I was elected TalkBoard President in the fall of 2005..
What this will point to, of course, is that I was on an odd-year election cycle. I was re-elected to TalkBoard in 2009. I was not up for election by the membership in 2010.
Furthermore, I ran for re-election as TalkBoard President in November 2010 and was actually re-elected a few days into December. At that point I had no plans to start another frequent flyer community.
My engagement in Fall 2010
When Randy announced his departure from Flyertalk in November 2010, the actual idea that some of us had (Randy had no part of) was first to buy back Flyertalk and bring back Randy. This was all an emotional decision rather than a business one.
When I was re-elected as TalkBoard President I had this crazy idea of putting some investors together. But Internet Brands wasn't interested.
I cared deeply about Flyertalk, Internet Brands had already approached me a few months earlier about the path forward and my interest in a formal role and I advocated with
JohnMcG that the best win for them would be to sell
SanDiego1K on becoming Community Director and I'm thrilled to see how well she has done managing such a challenging role for the benefit of all members here.
Point is that contra the smearing above, during the time that I was running for re-election to TalkBoard I was completely engaged with Flyertalk's future and advocating for what I thought would be its best course (although of course reasonable people can disagree with that course).
Spinning Up a New Venture in January 2011 and Launching in February
It was January 2011 when Ed, Tommy, Randy and I sat down for a full day to talk about another community. We spent the day in my office in Arlington, Virginia and went on through dinner across the street.
There was a month's work at that point, and we never intended to be ready at the beginning of February... the idea was a very soft launch in the evening on February 4 so that a small group of interested frequent flyers could begin to introduce content onto the site. (When
ingy posted about how to sign up for Milepoint on his blog I actually asked him to take it down!)
And incidentally at the time there was no agreement even that I would have a small minority interest in the new site. It was just about doing something cool and with Randy.
My Decision to Resign from TalkBoard
My private resignation to
SanDiego1K came before my public resignation, but in truth it actually took me a few weeks to realize that I should step down (to everyone else it was probably obvious, but in my mind it at least it wasn't
a competitor, and my reason for resigning was more that I wasn't going to be able to give Flyertalk the attention and focus it deserved given the new venture rather than any sort of conflict; in hindsight it's obvious that at a minimum it was going to be perceived as a conflict and so my resignation was absolutely required).
My Love for Flyertalk
For me Milepoint was a passion project, coming out of my overall feelings towards Randy and desire to be a part of a community that he would lead, and an opportunity to try to serve a different group of flyers in a different way.
I am in no way critical of Flyertalk, given the role I played here for many years I always considered any shortcomings to have been on me -- which is to say at a minimum that I had failed to change or fix it.
I've gained tremendous learning and lifelong friendships from my time here. I'd like to think that i gave back in both learning for other members and in service, but given how rich my own life has been as a result of the relationships built I'll never consider the scales equal. But I'd like to think that I'll always have a home here, this is where I went to college in some sense.
After more than a decade it was time for something else for me, but I still spend countless hours every day helping frequent flyers in a variety of days and I hope that counts for something.
I'm actually getting choked up about all of this, because I still do have a great love for this community despite the rocks and arrows that get thrown my way from time to time here.
Best,
Gary