Even when I joined FlyerTalk back in 2002, I initially felt a little inhibited. My goal was to post once and then simply fade away.
Obviously, my experience on FlyerTalk back then did not go as initially intended.
I refuse to say that “FlyerTalk is unfriendly and/or snarky” in general because there is almost always someone in the community who will assist you and respond to you if you have a question; but there are also FlyerTalk members who unfortunately feel the need to be “snarky” or “unfriendly” — and those attitudes virtually never do anyone any good.
That is the main reason why I campaigned to launch
The Delta Forum Lounge Thread — Everybody is Welcome! discussion, which was one of the first “lounge-style” discussions launched on FlyerTalk. I purposely wanted
Everybody is Welcome! in the title to ensure that fellow FlyerTalk members — especially those who recently joined — do not feel intimidated to post whatever content they want; and that discussion will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year.
To be fair, however, there are also members of FlyerTalk who place a request but refuse to put any effort and research to what they are requesting, which can result in an unfriendly attitude from other FlyerTalk members. This is why I believe that educating members of the community in a variety of ways is a possible solution to experiencing an optimum experience on FlyerTalk for as many of its members as possible.
Friendliness and civility cannot be legislated, in my opinion; which is why I do not believe TalkBoard will be able to have much of an impact.