I just noticed that the LAN YQ thread was closed by Mods, after repeated warnings about staying on topic. Also, the other active long-lived thread, the Good Deal Premium Fares thread, has had multiple Mod warnings this week. Right now I find myself asking, "what happened?" The answer seems to be: the threads are too long, and too old.

As a thread gets older, it will naturally start to turn away from discussion about booking the fare itself, and more into other things related to the thread. No doubt, had the deal disappeared quickly, it would have been moved to MR Discussion and that would be that. But instead, since the deal was alive for so long, the discussion started to take place. Combine it with some frustration about booking the deal, plus people calling, and we got a lot of things considered OT when compared to the deal itself, but still a discussion of the fare or the practice in general. With the GDPF thread, since its a revolving nature, maybe that should be moved to the MR Discussion right away, since a lot of what is posted is more "discussion" than posting of fares.

I'm finding it hard to put my thoughts into words on this, but I am concerned about this and have a strange "this isn't right" feeling in my gut right now. I do trust in the mods to do what's best for the community, but at the same time there is a lot of emotion and frustration over things like the calling airlines. I'm afraid that shutting down the LAN YQ thread, and the fact that the GDPF thread is seemingly on thin ice, are just going to drive fares away from FT even more, and lead to more private groups and circles.

(Mods, if this belongs somewhere else besides MR discussion, please move. Thanks)