If this were a perfect world and everybody behaved in a responsible manner, I'd like to see the return of thread ratings as well as reputation ratings. I'd also like to be able to post images and attachments in certain forums.
We are able to post images in a roundabout way in the
Travel Photography subforum as well as in the
Trip Reports forum.
As FT is a website dealing with travel and a picture is worth the proverbial thousand words, I'd support expanding the .img capacity to the airline and hotel forums. These are moderated forums and pictures of questionable content can be removed along with those who post them. Just as we do on text-based posts now.
Plus it's my belief that 99% of FT'ers would not abuse this privilege and it would make the FT experience that much richer.
Many of the wildly popular sites like
Second Life have gone way beyond images to fully animated avatars and alternative cyber-lifestyles. While I'm not advocating this for FlyerTalk, I think the trends on other websites are worthwhile tracking.
One thing I would like to see is an expansion of the smilies we currently offer. We have 15 of the simplest ones available and I'd like to see a few more added. Perhaps chosen by all FT members from a list of acceptable smilies. We're an increasingly international site and a picture (smilie) cuts across language barriers when trying to make a point.
I'm not advocating motion, or neon flashing lights or any of the other distracting things one sees on some other websites.
But I do think we need to be aware of what techniques are used on like websites and also stay tuned to the needs and wants of FlyerTalk's ever-growing and changing membership base.
One of my least favorite slogans is "If it isn't broken, why fix it?"
I'm much more in favor of "If it isn't broken, break it anyway and rebuild it bigger and better than anyone could have imagined."
And, BTW, great post by the OP!!
