BA Board Stickies - Your thoughts....
#16
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: London
Posts: 3,459
Which will you all find more annoying - one extra sticky at the top of the page, or many threads asking about how to get a free upgrade a week (and people posting getting huffy when told to pay for it!)? The flood of them into the board prior to ScottC's thread was why they started to be called u******... because the regulars didn't dare mention them, they were such a sore point...
Hello all, I'd like to use this thread to add all the information we have to offer BA board visitors on the famous "U" word.
As you are all aware that question gets asked at least 2 or 3 times a week so if we have a single thread with all the answers it will save us laughing when someone asks how they upgrade their ultra cheap fare...
As you are all aware that question gets asked at least 2 or 3 times a week so if we have a single thread with all the answers it will save us laughing when someone asks how they upgrade their ultra cheap fare...
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
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My person preference is to avoid sticky overload. These are my thoughts on the 4 current stickies:
Read this first - The Ultimate BA Guide
No teflon coating needed - this thread deserves a good dollop of UHU. ^
List of all known issues with ba.com (and related BA Policy)
It still serves a useful purpose - more to regulars than new members of the community, so I am inclined to vote for this one to be untethered.
Ultimate guide to what routes have BA's new clubworld seat
Or should this now be which routes do not feature NCW 2.0?
I expect discussion on this shall continue, most probably peaking again once the 777 embodiment comes on line. Does it still warrant ever present sticky status? Probably yes as it allows containment of discussion avoiding ad hoc posting of related threads. Having said that, I hold no strong feelings on this.
ULTIMATE BA Upgrade Guide - For All Your Upgrade Questions!
I would like to see this incorporated into a single ultimate "read this first" guide. Jenbel raised a good point about its historic purpose and this shouldn't be overlooked but I am confident with some clever rewording along the lines as suggested by G-BOAC, this can still be achieved with a single, all-encompassing ultimate thread,
Read this first - The Ultimate BA Guide
No teflon coating needed - this thread deserves a good dollop of UHU. ^
List of all known issues with ba.com (and related BA Policy)
It still serves a useful purpose - more to regulars than new members of the community, so I am inclined to vote for this one to be untethered.
Ultimate guide to what routes have BA's new clubworld seat
Or should this now be which routes do not feature NCW 2.0?
I expect discussion on this shall continue, most probably peaking again once the 777 embodiment comes on line. Does it still warrant ever present sticky status? Probably yes as it allows containment of discussion avoiding ad hoc posting of related threads. Having said that, I hold no strong feelings on this.
ULTIMATE BA Upgrade Guide - For All Your Upgrade Questions!
I would like to see this incorporated into a single ultimate "read this first" guide. Jenbel raised a good point about its historic purpose and this shouldn't be overlooked but I am confident with some clever rewording along the lines as suggested by G-BOAC, this can still be achieved with a single, all-encompassing ultimate thread,
#18
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold, BD Gold, PC Ambassador, SPG Gold
Posts: 4,001
Personally I don't find the number of stickies a problem. Four is fine. A while back when we had six at one point (IIRC) then it got a bit messy. Although I feel the BA.com one could now be dropped.
My main problem is with the wording of the thread title. I would prefer, as many have suggested, a "READ THIS FIRST" sticky which stands out at you and is basically the Ultimate guide, but also includes information about posting etiquette - most particularly to do a search before posting - including details of how to search via Google Advanced which is vastly superior to the FT search engine.
Something like this maybe for sticky thread titles:
***READ THIS FIRST*** - the ultimate guide to BA and posting on this forum
Upgrade Guide - for all your upgrade questions
Club World Guide - a guide to which routes have the new Club World cabin
My main problem is with the wording of the thread title. I would prefer, as many have suggested, a "READ THIS FIRST" sticky which stands out at you and is basically the Ultimate guide, but also includes information about posting etiquette - most particularly to do a search before posting - including details of how to search via Google Advanced which is vastly superior to the FT search engine.
Something like this maybe for sticky thread titles:
***READ THIS FIRST*** - the ultimate guide to BA and posting on this forum
Upgrade Guide - for all your upgrade questions
Club World Guide - a guide to which routes have the new Club World cabin
#19
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: BNE
Posts: 2,622
The ba.com sticky can be unstickied. It may have served a purpose at the time but I'm not sure it does anymore - if BA ever looked at it it would have been at the time BA Nick etc were on here.
The NCW sticky saves a lot of posts elsewhere so I am tempted to leave it even though I don't like it much.
The Upgdade sticky could be melded into the main sticky with no great loss.
The NCW sticky saves a lot of posts elsewhere so I am tempted to leave it even though I don't like it much.
The Upgdade sticky could be melded into the main sticky with no great loss.
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2004
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I would be strongly against the unlocking of the threads - that was how it used to be and after a while you get hundreds of replies and it's just too daunting for new people to want to bother opening. So they don't. So they start a new thread With the current setup, the guide itself is locked but there's a feedback/discussion thread for it...perhaps it would help to rename that thread (and amend its link text in the guide) to point out it should/could be for discussion of the guide too rather than starting a new thread every time?
#21
Moderator: GLBT travelers, India-based Airlines and India; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
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I would be strongly against the unlocking of the threads - that was how it used to be and after a while you get hundreds of replies and it's just too daunting for new people to want to bother opening. So they don't. So they start a new thread With the current setup, the guide itself is locked but there's a feedback/discussion thread for it...perhaps it would help to rename that thread (and amend its link text in the guide) to point out it should/could be for discussion of the guide too rather than starting a new thread every time?
#22
Join Date: Jan 2006
Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, HHonours Diamond, BA AMEX PremPlus
Posts: 5,140
Indeed. On my infrequent trips to other forums on FT, to see a sticky with 50+ pages is a real turn-off. Lean and mean is the way forward, and the only way to achieve that is to have them locked. By all means have a discussion thread linked to in the stickie, but please, quality over quantity every time.
Regarding the NGCW thread - we could do with some less-subtle information at the moment, in the top thread - like IF YOU ARE FLYING ON A 777, THE ANSWER IS NO! and something similar to say that if you're on a 747, that you probably stand more chance than not.
Also agree with the consensus that the ba.com one has served its time.
Regarding the NGCW thread - we could do with some less-subtle information at the moment, in the top thread - like IF YOU ARE FLYING ON A 777, THE ANSWER IS NO! and something similar to say that if you're on a 747, that you probably stand more chance than not.
Also agree with the consensus that the ba.com one has served its time.
#23
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 2,688
I would be strongly against the unlocking of the threads - that was how it used to be and after a while you get hundreds of replies and it's just too daunting for new people to want to bother opening. So they don't. So they start a new thread With the current setup, the guide itself is locked but there's a feedback/discussion thread for it...perhaps it would help to rename that thread (and amend its link text in the guide) to point out it should/could be for discussion of the guide too rather than starting a new thread every time?
The challenges thread and the NGBC thread (probably the two most topical ones atm) just get ignored because new members (and many older ones from other boards) just get put off by their mammoth length. They then ask the question which is answered in the sticky, suffer a tirade of abuse, never come back, and kill off a few valuable posters from high blood pressure in the process.
I really would rather that didn't happen over here!
#24
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges and Environmentally Friendly Travel
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: London, UK
Posts: 22,213
Suggestion noted and now actioned
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,929
Thanks for all the replies!
As you may have noticed:
- The known issues with ba.com has floated off from stickydom
- The green arrow has been restored
- The "Ultimate" guide now had "READ THIS FIRST >>>>" at the beginning of the title
- The NNCW thread is now titled "Club World Guide - which routes have the new Club World cabin"
- The upgrade thread is now "The BA Upgrade Guide - For All Your Upgrade Questions!"
I guess we'll see this works and review in a wee while....
As you may have noticed:
- The known issues with ba.com has floated off from stickydom
- The green arrow has been restored
- The "Ultimate" guide now had "READ THIS FIRST >>>>" at the beginning of the title
- The NNCW thread is now titled "Club World Guide - which routes have the new Club World cabin"
- The upgrade thread is now "The BA Upgrade Guide - For All Your Upgrade Questions!"
I guess we'll see this works and review in a wee while....
#26
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: SCL, MCT, LGW and a variety of 1W lounges in between.
Programs: BA Mucci (Seigneur et Ingenieur des Appareils Volants (Gold)), QF (WP and LTG), AA EXP, GF Gold
Posts: 3,931
From the Society of Pedants...
3 or FEWER, not less!
The Club seat is not NCW v2 as that was the change in colour and slightly softer version of NCW, or are we now calling that NCW v1.1? Of course, there is still OCW in CW at the moment too. So the answer is NO for the Airbus BMEDs. What about the 767s? What about pre-emptive strike on the 757 fleet as well when they go long haul, to say we have no idea!
Is there not some button which one of our IT chaps here can put on the top which flashes with "how to upgrade a cheap BA fare to business class" which then downloads a virus to give the visitor the blue screen of death, or similar?
Retitle the BA Upgrade thread with new text to discourage posting of "all your questions" but more to answer them. BA Upgrades for Dummies, or should that be comforters for our transatlantic cousins?
I think that it would be interesting if we could get a summary of the ba.com current issues and then take it to BA and then start again.
3 or FEWER, not less!
The Club seat is not NCW v2 as that was the change in colour and slightly softer version of NCW, or are we now calling that NCW v1.1? Of course, there is still OCW in CW at the moment too. So the answer is NO for the Airbus BMEDs. What about the 767s? What about pre-emptive strike on the 757 fleet as well when they go long haul, to say we have no idea!
Is there not some button which one of our IT chaps here can put on the top which flashes with "how to upgrade a cheap BA fare to business class" which then downloads a virus to give the visitor the blue screen of death, or similar?
Retitle the BA Upgrade thread with new text to discourage posting of "all your questions" but more to answer them. BA Upgrades for Dummies, or should that be comforters for our transatlantic cousins?
I think that it would be interesting if we could get a summary of the ba.com current issues and then take it to BA and then start again.
#27
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Programs: No longer bothered chasing FF status.
Posts: 2,345
Excerpt from kered's post in the Why did BA stop seat selection? thread:
So I was wondering if perhaps it might be a nice idea to create a sticky about the [BA Seating] policy, so that someone looking at the BA board for the first time & not familiar with the format, or realise what the ultimate guide is, can immediately see a thread about the seating policy. Therein they can find out the details of the policy, with pointers to the “Ultimate Guide" as well.
Then perhaps the resurrection of this subject can be reduced & a newcomer's introduction to the board can be a little smoother & the regulars annoyed by this ongoing discussion, need not have their feathers ruffled.
So I was wondering if perhaps it might be a nice idea to create a sticky about the [BA Seating] policy, so that someone looking at the BA board for the first time & not familiar with the format, or realise what the ultimate guide is, can immediately see a thread about the seating policy. Therein they can find out the details of the policy, with pointers to the “Ultimate Guide" as well.
Then perhaps the resurrection of this subject can be reduced & a newcomer's introduction to the board can be a little smoother & the regulars annoyed by this ongoing discussion, need not have their feathers ruffled.
Last edited by Prospero; Jan 8, 2009 at 12:26 pm
#29
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 3,806
My vote would be for a self-contained whinge thread, preferably sound-proofed with padded walls. I'd call it the Rant Room. Then, all those who feel the need to get things off their chest can rail against BA to their hearts' content with like-minded souls. The rest of us need never be bothered with the tedium of more seating policy rants.
#30
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: UK
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Posts: 12,695
I would prefer to see the number of stickies kept to a minimum - the IC forum for example is a tad annoying with so many. All the seating info is in the Ultimte Guide already. But I like powlo's idea of trying a more descriptive name out for it.