This is a creative idea, but there are several ideas why I don't think it would be a better solution than what Scott has offered us now:
1) One of the three moderators would have to be available in order to update that thread. On the mailing list, Scott can designate as many administrators as he wants who can put the alert out on the list.
2) The Thread Subscription feature will only notify your FT-associated email address. Many people want these alerts to go to cell phones, pagers, work email, etc where it will be immediately noticed, whereas the email from FT goes to "personal" mailboxes such as hotmail, gmail, etc. All mail would have to go to the same place, and that doesn't work for many people.
Once the kinks get worked out with the mail server and spam filter, I can say from a historical perspective that this list is very effective if people notice the deals and post them. I am hopeful that we'll see fewer of the "fare sales" (things that happen every day -- Airline X offers LAX-NYC for $129 r/t) and more for true gotta-get-it-now fare deals ($2 to ART, $51 to NAN, etc).
-Dave
Originally Posted by luv2ctheworld
Scott,
Thanks for all your work on the fare alert system. I was thinking about other possible ways to get info out to members and recalled a Thread Subscription capability. It also has the ability to notify whenever a new posting was made (almost instantly if I understood it correctly).
Would it be possible to create 1 thread called "Fare Alert" or something to that effect, and only let the Moderators have access to it. Whenever a member has found a fare, they can send it to the Moderator(s) and then they could post the information. Those who subscribe to that thread would then be automatically notified and, of course, the ensuing mayhem of rapid FT dialogue would occur on a separate member created discussion (couldn't believe the volume of posting re. USAir's $2 error).
Of course, this is just a concept and don't know if it would actually work in reality. Just my two cents, or centavos, or pence...
Ideas, suggestions, complaints, contemplations, musings?