Some members have expressed concerns about Wikiposts, their purpose and how to "turn them off" so they won't see them. The FAQ in the Wikipost above has been written to inform about their purpose, provide instructions on how to start, edit and eliminate them from viewing. This extract has been privided in post form forbthose using the mobile skin or who have Wikiposts turned off.

Q. What display modes are offered for Wikiposts?

There are three modes of wiki post display: (c/o IBobi)
Wikipost FAQs (EXTRACT, for those turning off wiki post function)

Q. What is a Wikipost?

It is content that appears at the top of a thread, usually used to summarize important information in multi-page threads: "This is a community-maintained wikipost containing the most important information from this thread. You may edit the Wikipost once you have been on FT for 90 days and have made 90 posts." (Written at the top of every wiki post.)


Q. Why are so many threads with Wikiposts concentrated on the front pages?

The threads with the most in-demand information are often those with complicated content - AAdvantage changes, MileSAAver awards, etc. These are the threads most likely to have wiki posts summarizing key points.


Q. How / why did they come about?

Wiki posts came about after many (members and TalkBoard) requests to Internet Brands and a lot of forethought and initial Beta testing. They are considered a valuable asset to FlyerTalk, a viable and "closer" alternative to maintaining an off site, separate wiki.


Q. Can I see a listing of Wikiposts?

Yes. Up in the dark blue navigation bar, a little below the FlyerTalk logo, it says "Flyertalk [sic, should be a capital T] Wiki." Click that and then "Show all Wiki [sic, should be plural]" from the sub-menu. (Thanks to jackal.)


Q. What do I do if I don't want to see / read the Wikiposts?

Just continue browsing normally. The full Wikipost will only be displayed if you click the link to read it. Ignore Wikiposts if you don't want to read the information therein.


Q. What do I do if I feel there are too darn many Wikiposts?

You can go to the "Wikipost" blue menu bar at the top of a thread page and click on the "-" sign at the right end of the bar, which will minimize all Wikiposts; you never have to see a Wikipost again. Wikiposts never have to intrude on your reading of FlyerTalk. (You can turn Wikiposts "on" by clicking the "+" in the same menu bar when you wish.)

Alternately, In your FT Profile, look at Your Control Panel, Edit Options. Toward the bottom of the page you'll see

Q. What are the alternatives to wiki posts in a large forum?

Forum Question: Can the 200 Wiki Stickies Be Put Somewhere Else?
 

Like a link to Wikies? Wiki sub-forum?

There's almost nothing but WIKI buttons on page 1 and 2 now.

There are a grand total of 5 stickies with 4 of them having wikis. Popular posts tend to have wikis to make it easier to find information, and they tend to be commented on so they get bumped to the top.

If the wiki icon is really bothering you, you could <see answer in wiki>.

One thing that contributes is that the moderators of this forum have a policy (as far as I can tell), of being pretty pro-active in merging a new thread into old or existing threads and making "big" resource threads out of them.

A consequence is that the AA/AAdvantage front page is chock-a-block with wiki-threads. Everytime somebody asks a question where there's already a thread, one of the consolidated resource threads gets bumped.

I only see 5 sticky threads that permanently take up space. Wiki is just a tag and those threads are listed in last updated order just like any other thread. I need to deal with Marriott consuming the entire page with 10 stickies, so maybe AA isn't as bad just by comparison, but I don't find 5 to be a problem.

I'm assuming the links to the old, closed forums will go away before long - they're a bit useless now, IMHO.

EDIT: Perhaps a bad assumption - United still has the long-closed UA/CO forums.

We do try to minimize "stickies" because they can take up too much "landscape". We've merged the lounge dashboard thread into the WELCOME GUIDE thread (which has a growing wiki of resource links) so new members can find the forum guide and index to most frequently asked or bumped threads useful to booking, flying, earning and spending, lounges, airport hub master threads, etc.

In a mega forum of this type, we're trying to contain information fragmentation (we don't surface dozens of threads when we're looking for an answer, forcing us to pore through those threads) and to honor the many members who have taken the time and effort to post answers and valuable information.

Ergo, threads with wikis and that are curated to archive off older and obsolete posts.

The "wiki" appearing by a thread title is just a label.

JDiver, Moderator (enjoying my release after four years of Senior Moderator status - aaah, nice to not get mod notifications and post reports from every forum without an appointed moderator as well as my own!)

Congrats!! Who is the new senior moderator who gets our condolences, um I mean our congratulations?

I was hoping that the forum will be tidied up and the 2 closed fora will be moved to the discontinued section - there is a USDM pre 2005 merger forum there, it would seem sensible and tidy to relocate the fora there

(Ocn Vw 1K is FT's new senior moderator. :))

WiKi for all the WiKi's?
 

As i try to read this forum lately ever page is nearly solid with WiKis, seriously!

Shouldn't there be one WiKi for all the WiKis? :eek: :mad:

Maybe some other threads can be seen then.

similar WIKI-RAGE on display here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post25793842

There are not that many wikis cluttering - most are not sticky so are only there when active

I think that the forum area is overly cluttered with 2 dead fora ( which would seem to be logical to me to move to discontinued programmes ) , 2 announcements and 6 sticky threads

Would be nice to reduce the sticky thread count and relocate the dead fora imo, but the wikis themselves are no more obtrusive than other threads imo

You realize this is a feature, not a bug, right? The threads with labels that say "wiki" are regular threads that happen to have a wiki attached to them. Many of these threads have dozens of pages of posts. Attaching a wiki allows the collective wisdom of the posters to be distilled into useful information. Not everyone reads FT every day and even those who do don't read every thread. A lot of traffic to FT is people looking for the answer to a question. The wikis at the top of popular threads help them find that information more efficiently.

Just as an example, one of the threads with a wiki near the top of the page today is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ilability.html, which has 272 pages as of this post. I don't think I've ever been in that thread, so if I wanted to book a F award on CX I would be very happy that the wiki is there, so I don't have to look through 272 pages to try to find where to start.

Wiki-Rage - that made my morning.