LondonElite

I hear what you say T, oh newly minted Gold..., but for those who are new to FT, there are places in our little world that are veery intimidating (in internet-speak). Those of us who have been around a little longer are generally more relaxed about this, but I do understand that some people can be put off by our public school style banter.

Paralytic

+1

(if only there was a like button)

1010101

I think a 'likes' feature will just end up being misleading, as those genuinely helpful posters will be lost in the sea of 'helpful' posters who are just totting up the likes from their forum friends. I've seen on other forums where exactly this has happened to the point where the reputation of individual members means nothing, other than being a popularity contest (unless the mods are prepared to heavily police it).

I think a happy middle ground would be for useful posters to be tagged as such by mods. Such posters being pilots, ATC, particularly knowledgeable posters etc. Just a small badge so newer posters know which contributors in a thread definitely know what they're talking about.

nsx

I am quite sure that moderators do NOT want to be in the business of rating posters. Can you imagine the disputes that would ensue?

I have been convinced by posters in the "Like" thread on TalkBoard Topics that any public display of a member's Like count or other rating is too susceptible to divisive games. A simple per-post, positive-only reader feedback button is as far as I think we should go. Even that should be tested in a forum or two before deciding whether to continue.

We're human beings here. Most of don't like change unless it's overwhelmingly positive. That's what I intend any reader feedback test to deliver. Rating posters, regardless of the means, cannot satisfy that criterion IMHO. Neither can any inclusion of negative feedback.

1010101

I don't really mean to suggest mods are to rate posters subjectively. I mean if you are a pilot, ATC or employed in some other airline related function, it would be good to know when reading through a thread that your opinion holds more weight than most.

T8191

My 'clique' comment was not directed at you per se ... many others have used that term in this Forum in the past. What the term should actually be is a different question, of course!
Ah, I know what you mean there! I do, subconsciously, try to avoid noting who has posted and simply read the text - but it's difficult to escape the reality! Whether that actually influences me subsequently would be a matter for my psychiatrist to unravel.

MSPeconomist

BUMP: Voting ends in less than 48 hours, mid-late Saturday afternoon in the UK. If you feel strongly about this issue but haven't voted yet, please to to the TalkBoard Topics forum (under Community on FT) and caste your vote.

You're also invited to add comments here or on the thread in TBT about your opinion and reasoning.

Sixth Freedom

The difficulty is that it is not really possible to verify who actually is a pilot, ATC or some other aviation specialist.

Furthermore, different aviation professionals hold expertise in different fields reflecting the vast size of the industry.

With the greatest of respect I would not consider a pilot's opinion on revenue management to be any more weighty than the general layman's, just as how I would not consider a revenue management specialist's opinion to have any substantive weight in flight operations matters.

And an aviation specialist may, in fact, be much less qualified to comment on the general passenger experience than people who work in other industries if those aviation specialists are exclusively travelling through staff travel.

T8191

The curse of cyber-space and the Interweb ^

I guess "Your Profile" is the starting point, along with the degree of credibility that the poster's comment achieve. I would suggest that the community here would quickly spot a "wrong 'un" in the areas you mention.

I WAS a Military ATCO, honestly

As for the GGL/CCR International Flying W/Bankers on Ł500+k a year ... that's slightly more complex

Prospero

Bump. Poll closes in 3 hours

onobond

My 2p: Say no. If I like your post, I can write a positive comment and that's it.

The Like/Helpful counts in other fora may be voting for liking the poster more than the post.
In FT there are more fora than BAEC. For example:

Thread A, generating 46+K posts. 10 posters having more than 1K posts generate more than 79% of the posts, The leader having 8083 posts = 17,5% of all posts

Thread B, generating 20+K posts. 5 posters generating more than 1K posts together generate more than 72% of the posts, the leader having 5494 = 26% of all posts in this thread.


Now, guess who will have the most likes/helpful votes ??
How helpful would you estimate any of these posts to be?

Comparing this to informative threads, like BA TP run thread, Mileage Run and Premium Fare deals, and many more, there are members who actively share knowledge with the community and could deserve some appreciation. They will easily be outnumbered by the chat room posters in Threads A+B above, and propably others, as by some of the Evangelists, flying sometimes or not, who comment on everything anyone else has posted.

If nothing is broken, dont try to fix it.

Crampedin13A

Totally agree but I will be shocked if this change isn't implemented.

CMK10

I actually tend to agree with this. However, one of the most frequent complaints lobbed at TalkBoard is that we do not embrace change and are too stubborn so you have to understand why we're willing to consider it.

uk1

^

I agree.

The danger ... looking at the rate of deterioration in the feel of many of the FT BAEC threads in recent days in terms of an increase in what I perceive as a lack of respect and tolerance for other posters and their posts and their opinions, the suggested FT like buttons will quickly morph more into a method of supporting posts that attack other posters. It will as a result encourage that behaviour to increase as those that do it feel increasingly validated by people voting for them. And for the same reasons it will further become an elitist forum where new people will be even less likely to participate and post and instead choose to shrug and walk away.

Take a closer look at some of the threads where new people have recently made an adverse comment about their BA experience and consider how a like button might make things worst.

HIDDY

I sat on the fence so I'm not fussed either way.

To be honest there are far more important things that need changing on Flyertalk. Ones we'll never get the opportunity to vote or even have our say on....publicly that is.