Adam1222

A blogger posts that something terrible has happened, and apologizes for a lack of posts
People post in a forum about the blog saying I wonder what it was, and note that the post volume has not
Nothing derogatory, nothing wishing ill will, somewhat sympathetic, and a number of comments from community members sharing their own personal experiences about family illness. You know, things that are perfectly okay in a community.
Speculation, of course, but if we closed down every forum on FT that involved speculation, it would be a small community.


To claim the discussion of bloggers' sexuality is somehow improper, regardless of context, is homophobic baiting. The discussion of sexuality has been related to the ethics of an LGBT blogger traveling to homophobic countries without giving any indication of the human rights problem. Whether you agree with that or not, that is indeed an extremely worthwhile discussion to have, and Flyertalk is the perfect place for it. And I think as a result of discussions of it, Ben at OMAAT has begun addressing that topic more and more.

For example, last week, a trans person was denied entry to Dubai and detained there because of her gender identity. One of Ben's staff members covered it. I honestly don't think it would have gotten a post had there not been criticism by me, endorsed by some others, about the oddity of an openly gay man extolling Dubai as one of the best places on earth.

The idea that all talk about "sexuality" is outrageous or improper comes from a narrowminded view that discussing issues of sexuality is necessarily mean-spirited or gossip. That is incorrect, and a relic of homophobic culture, as recognized by the numerous courts who have held over the past 10 years that discussion of a person's sexuality is not slander/libel per se. As one of those courts stated, the argument is that "the flawed premise that it is shameful and disgraceful to be described as lesbian, gay or bisexual." As one of the people who has raised sexual orientation in the EM&PR space, I find it offensive to accuse members of the forum of "calling someone gay." If that actually were the case, it would have been moderated. But I just searched for LGBT in the OMAAT forum, and posts I found were:

1) A discussion of a blog post about a "romantic weekend" in the Maldives and the fact that homosexuality is actually illegal there - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/25932340-post1457.html
2) Whether it was odd for a Floridian LGBT blogger to not post anything about the shooting in Orlando (notably, the Points Guy and other blogs did)

The first one actually led to the blog in question posting about homosexuality in the Maldives. (And a Talkboard member referred to my posts on the topic as "exemplary in their calm rationality and good humor.") I've actually learned quite a bit from other peoples' views on these subjects, even if they disagree with me. FT has threads that consist solely of people saying what they ate today, or what's in their beer fridge. EM&PR contributes as much or more to the community. A forum about blogs that have radically changed this community, that produces substantive criticism that makes its way into the blogs, is valuable. While there are certainly some posts that border closer to namecalling, it seems critics are being awfully selective and mentioning sexual orientation as a boogeyman, when a look at the actual posts shows those were some of the most substantive posts in the thread. You can find garbage in any forum.

The EMPR forum is one of the few places where people who have been in the miles and points "game" for a long time still make up a majority of posters. Other forums are mostly filled with people looking for help these days, rarely offering any. Flyertalk should be a place to discuss the good and bad of all aspects of the miles and points community.

As with any forum, no one is required to visit it. People feel very strongly about some of the bloggers -- positively and negatively -- and both for good reasons. For example, Alaska admitted that it changed Emirates redemptions largely because of a blogger. Why on earth would that not merit a discussion -- a critical one -- on Flyertalk. I think the blogs are better because of the EMPR forum; although they dont admit it, there are often changes in the blogs that clearly parallel the discussion,

Blogging has become an aspect of the travel business. People say good and bad things about these businesses -- just like they do about any other business. If there are questionable ethical practices engaged in by a hotel, its discussed on Flyertalk. Why would we not treat a multimillion dollar blog the same way? Shutting down the forum essentially because people are too critical of businesses which have radically changed the community and hobby -- expanding the number of people involved, but hastening devaluations -- is counter to the whole purpose of Flyertalk.

Everyone finds different things valuable. I personally find photos of the view from random hotel rooms useless, I find people asking for help they can find on google to be of little value, and I find people complaining about flight delays or predeparture beverages to not contribute. No one is forcing anyone to partake in the EM&PR forum, If you don't like it, stay away. Don't deprive others of something *they* value.