brp

It's an excellent suggestion, and it has been discussed. To say it's "in the works" would imply that we have people signed up to do it. We're close on that, though

Cheers.

daggett24

ok, thoughts from a new guy..

I stumbled across this board a week or so ago, and as soon as I got here, I had dozens of questions, many questions I didn't even know I had. My first instinct was to post them, as many do.. but then..

I read a couple quick questions/answers and immediately saw that this board was going to be a lot more helpful to me if I researched it on my own, rather than just post my question.

By reading one thread alone, I was able to expand my knowledge enough that I bet single handedly I can answer about 80% of the threads I see pop up here since I have been on. So for about 1 week’s investment of time, I have gained the knowledge to maximize my AA account. I am working on that now.. I was able to calculate my own points for my challenge. I have yet to have anyone confirm my calculations for me, well that’s not True, AA is doing it, one flight at a time.. and they are right on. Is painfully easy, I feel no need to burden someone who obviously is a busy individual in their job, but has given back to this board with such a simple question. If and when I have a question, I spend ample time searching. Yes many times the search doesn't bring back the first hit, but if you read through the top 2 pages of threads, threads that come back, I have found that 99% of my question was answered. Plus I have learned a great deal more. If not, I modify the search. Easy as that. I have yet to have a question that I could not answer from a search. I knew nothing about AA before I got here.

Bottom line, I feel folks who come here, post a question, then leave after they get their answer are the same types of people that want the rest of the world handed to them.

To get ahead in life, you have to put in the time/hard work, then network with your peers. So here I am, putting in the time, reading many and many threads, but have yet to ask a question of this board, I've answered them all on my own, and for that, I feel much more educated. Knowledge is power! Simply asking questions, well my 4 year old does that.. Why is the sky blue? Why do bees sting, Why is my AA account not credited yet?

Thanks FT..

brp

Let's clone daggett24 and only allow the clones to join. Welcome daggett25, daggett26, daggett27, ...

Seriously- I lover this attitude and approach and think that this is what a lot of us are asking.hoping for.

Cheers.

gemac

To me, the question that Flyertalk should be asking is:

How can we be really helpful to newbies like daggett24, while at the same time shooing away the newbies who clutter up the board with questions like "Why is the sky blue"? I don't think that the two can and will coexist on the same board. Obviously, others may disagree, and at least one significant other does.

AA Novice

What amazes me is the countless hours a few people on the BBS spend running from thread to thread trying to tell the newbie’s ( of which I am one) how things should be done. If they spent just half the time trying to be helpful as they do trying to admonish people or being condescending it would sure be a lot nicer. A lot of times there are questions ask that I had never thought of so a search feature wouldn’t help but someone asking the question did. Just because someone ask a question today that was ask a year ago doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of newbie’s and lurkers that have never seen the question.

DallasAudiGuy

It is who the new users are, not the fact that they are new to FT. The problem is that the demographics of who are going to forums such as FT is getting OLDER.

In the past, people had a better understanding of forum decorum.

I would suggest that younger and more web-enabled users have a built in idea of how forum searches work, because they are more likely to have used forums as a place to trade information from early on.

However, the later in life the OP started scouring forums for information, two things happen

1) They are less likely to STFA.

2) They are more likely to take being eviscerated personally.

Just my 2 cents, but I believe that FT should e-mail specific instructions to each new user who registers about searching, and that a splash screen that comes up after each log in should reinforce this.

DallasAudiGuy

The goal is to make you aware of forum etiquette and the best way to use it.

How old are you, and how long have you been using the Internet?

How many other forums do you participate in?

AA Novice

50

10 Years

3

Good thing you didn't ask for my credit card number pin number and SSN or I would have had to post them too.

AA Novice

I only participate in American AAdvantage forum but I lurk on Marriott and Hilton forums also. So change 3 to 1. I do however participate in other BBS forums besides FT.

miki

I know I (and probaly most of you) can't make this happen but if newbies were limited to x number of days from signing up to being able to post maybe they would read first. It would work kind of like a coupon connection/OMNI thing but with just a number of days since registering, say 3 days or a week. I know some of them would just blow off FT until they had posting privilages but hopefully some of them would take the time to read things such as a FAQ/READ ME FIRST post and learn to use the search function.

wannabe_plat

Lot of good suggestions there, but it is not just age. ^

A number of people do not understand online "communities", the culture, the context, etc.

The only way to understand a community is to be a part of it for a while, which automatically means, either a senior member walks you through various steps, or you ask questions only after getting familiar.

It is difficult to enforce the former in a volunteer community. The latter is much easier - I can think of various solutions. Here are three in no particular order of preference:
@:-) 1. A new registrant cannot post for 3 days.
@:-) 2. A new registrant may not post a thread for 3 weeks.
@:-) 3. All threads thereafter for 6 weeks be moderated for approval BEFORE being posted.

There you go -- problem solved -- all newbies have to write in existing threads, which means you are forcing them to read something.

I never felt any of this FT rejection syndrome so I just went through my initial posts here. I find that many of my questions were fairly specific and to the point. This automatically tells the reader that I have spent at least some time reading the material and am asking for help on something I could not easily find or understand. Some senior members walked me through building a MR and helped me understand the process, but their role was to fill in gaps and accelerate my understanding. People ought be taught how to ask good questions, not just on FT, but everywhere in life.

Of course, it is unclear whether the new flyertalk wants to build a community or just inflate its number of registered users.

ContinentalFan

I really like the AA Forum. There is just lots of information here, particularly in the stickies!

PantyWaster

I think this has merit.

gemac

There are two types of questions that tend to irritate more experienced users. The first one is questions that already have a discussion going on on the front page (occasionally on the second or third page, but mostly on the front page). This indicates to the experienced user that the newbie is not willing to read anything that is already written here, but he expects the experienced users to hop to it and answer his question.

The second type of irritating question is the one that gets asked every single week. One popular one goes something like "I've never flown AA before. I just bought deep-discount coach tickets to Hawaii for my honeymoon. I want to fly first-class for free. How can I do this?" After answering this question 50 times, the thrill is gone. The last instance of this question is perhaps a little farther back than the first few pages, but it is easily dug out with the search function.

There are some newbies (like daggett24) who manage to find most of the information they require on their own, and ask interesting, well-thought-out questions. They are invariably treated with respect, as are any newbies who post questions on how to research a topic, how to use search, etc.

I would posit that a newbie who posts the simplest of questions without looking to see if it has already been asked and answered is condescending - by implication, he is saying that his time is valuable and not to be wasted doing research, whereas the time of the responder is not valuable, and should be used giving information to the newbie that the newbie could easily get for himself.

Whenever one enters a community, one should look around and see how members of that community behave. If one does not, and violates the standards of that community, one is often admonished. That does not make the people who admonished you bad people - they are just trying to preserve their community. And it doesn't make the newcomer a bad person - they are just perhaps a bit thoughtless.

daggett24

Your last paragraph sums it up quite well. The first day on my new job, I went in, sat down, and observed.. Did that for a few months, before I really knew what was acceptable and what was not.

Just doing the same here...