Each group of new members eventually become veterans, and frequently some of those members observe a 'change' in Flyertalk ("it just isn't what it used to be, when a small group of us used to..." ... "back in my day, sonny..."
).
Somehow Flyertalk has managed to grow and yet remain incredibly vibrant and useful. It hasn't become a victim of its own success, despite becoming such a sprawling community.
Yet this is a constant challenge: how can we maintain the quality of information with 80,000 registered members? How do we maintain the high signal to noise ratio?
Put a different way, when major media covers Flyertalk and masses flood the gates looking for the next $0 fare glitches, how do we maintain the giving culture and valuable expert advice and not get overwhelmed by folks looking for a handout? How do we welcome newbies, inculcate them in the Flyertalk culture, educate them, and at the same time provide a forum in which they can educate us?
Part of this is effective moderation, part of it is forum structure, part of it is likely technological: culling member knowledge and distilling it in useful form doesn't need to come exclusively in the form of bulletin-board style postings (or as some here refer to them, MilePosts). Transcending the architecture of the bulletin board software and into other venues becomes part of this challenge.
Hope this doesn't seem too pendantic, I ain't no internet visionary...
