Originally Posted by
mwsea
simply requiring registration before viewing the MS sub-forum could be beneficial. Additionally, I'm very in favor of not having these pages searchable by search engines.
The Talk Board did vote on something similar with the Mileage Run Deals forum, addressing both logging in and search engines, and it was shot down with a very close 5-4 vote. I wouldn't be surprised to see a revote on that in 2015 with a new Talk Board.
On February 29, 2012, Talkboard failed to pass 5-4:
"The TalkBoard would like to reduce visibility of perishable Mileage Run Deals content to search engines and non-members of FlyerTalk, therefore:
The TalkBoard recommends that, beginning 30 days from the completion of this vote, the Mileage Run Deals forum and its sub-forum Mileage Run Discussion be masked from users who are not registered and logged in."
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/town-...run-forum.html
Reading some of the past discussion on restrictions for this forum, though, you really do have a wide range of viewpoints. You're at the low end just asking for users to log in, while others are at much higher ends wanting 180 days/180 posts or even an advanced forum with some entry criteria ranging from a quiz to a selection committee. Others don't want any restrictions at all. When it comes down to voting, the Talk Board really can't address all those viewpoints in one single motion, and that's probably why there hasn't been a motion voted on so far.