Originally Posted by
Punki
I understand what you are saying about the stickies, Lehava , but I think it tends to be human nature to ignore the stickies, just like it is human nature to plunge right in first, and then only read the directions when our instincts fail.
FlyerTalk was the very first bulletin board I every visited. When I came here I wouldn't have known a stickie from a banana peel, and search was a totally foreign concept. Heck, I still have a hard time coming up with the exactly right combination of search terms to find the precise answers I want.
Part of the beauty (maybe most of the beauty), of a bulletin board, from my point of view, is that it is a naturally flowing interaction between human beings from all over the world. If it comes to the point where all of the questions have been asked, answered and indexed, the interactive responses between human beings cease to exist and instead of a bulletin board, we have an electronic travel manual. Not that there would be anything wrong with an excellent electronic travel manual, but it wouldn't be a bulletin board.
Actually, for many of us who have been around since the beginning, we already really do know everything we need or want to know about miles and points. That is probably the reason that fora like OMNI and Community are so popular. We still love the community, but don't really have much need for mile and point information.
Personaly, I am glad I joined during the time when all stupid questions were personally and graciously anwered, thereby forming permanent real-life friendships in the process. If you ever do form a Newbie board, I will be happy to go there and answer any questions that I can. I doubt that I could ever give back an amount equal to what I have learned.
I disagree with your assessment... while I do respect your opinions and see your points as very valid there are always some questions that a newbie will -always- ask... the idea behind FAQs and Wiki's is to make the most commonly requested info available to anyone, anytime.
FT's been around since 1998 (in it's current form, i suppose) and you were around when it was a few people communicating, but most of the "wow, that seemed so basic but I never knew that" questions that were asked when you first came around have been answered 100x over at this point.
The volume of traffic here has increased exponentally. I don't mind personally answering questions, but, if it's something that keeps coming up... then it's tedious.
FAQs and such do not stifle discussion. I can assure you that a lot of people are tired of the "What is a Global Services member?" type questions. FAQs handle that just fine. They don't call it Frequently Asked Questions for nothing
. Point is, it doesn't stifle discussion at all, it actually can enhance it by making sure members are 'armed and ready' when asking questions in the forums.