BA Board Stickies - Your thoughts....

Old Aug 5, 2007, 3:58 am
  #1  
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BA Board Stickies - Your thoughts....

There have been a couple of thoughts given over here on the Stickies which appear at the top of the BA board, in terms of which we should/shouldn't have. So to test the opinion of the board before doing anything, your thoughts please!

Currently we have:
- Ultimate guide
- Ultimate upgrade guide
- Which routes have NGCW
- Known issues with BA.com

Which do we keep, which have served their time? Or are we happy to keep the status quo?
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 4:11 am
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And to kick this off, the views from the other thread:

Originally Posted by BraniffLuvr
I agree. Too many stickies makes any board look messy, and reduces space for more topical front page issues/threads.
Originally Posted by G-BOAC
I am normally a big advocate of avoiding sticky overload - but I think the reason there were always 2 stickies for the main guide and upgrades was that 'upgrades' was yakked about SO much by visitors popping in to see how they could 'score' them without paying a cent that calling it out separately not having it in a longer guide some people (sadly) can't be bothered to look at was more effective.

What does everyone else think? Perhaps we could try merging it in to the main guide and see if there's any major impact - it could always be unmerged if needed later. Perhaps the main guide could be renamed "Read this first - The Ultimate BA, BAEC and Upgrades Guide!" or similar?
Originally Posted by Jenbel
I agree that we need a separate thread for the Upgrade sticky, just because with 'upgrade' in the title it's slightly more noticeable. Going back over my considerable time on the board before we had an upgrade sticky, the most commonly asked question wasn't 'which seat' it was 'I'm travelling on BA with no status and will never fly them again, how do I get an upgrade?' type variants. I really don't want to see all those threads returning again - people used to get quite upset when told they'd need to pay
Originally Posted by matthewuk
Am personally not a fan of lots of sticky threads - the Ultimate Guide is obviously the Ultimate Sticky though. Not convinced the 'List all problems with BA.COM' warrants a sticky and I think the 'Upgrade' sticky should be referenced in the Ultimate guide now to be honest.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 5:19 am
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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,

As a postscript, I'd like to add that I have read suggestions over on the TalkBoard Topics forum that a stickied link to the Travel & Dining: UK & Ireland forum be added here. I would be firmly against such a proposal, for no reason other than I not a fan of superfluous stickies.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 5:22 am
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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.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 5:24 am
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Originally Posted by Raffles
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.
I agree fully with Raffles!!!
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 5:49 am
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Originally Posted by yyzlhr
I agree fully with Raffles!!!
And so do I. We really do still need the NNCW sticky - there have been plenty of newcomer posts on that thread - keeping the main forum tidier and also ensuring they get a fit for purpose answer without the flamethrower being applied.

The idea of a link to London and the provinces forum () isn't a great one for the reason Prospero mentions.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 7:31 am
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And I agree entirely with the above posts by Swanhunter, yyzlhr, Raffles and Prospero! (Have I left anyone out? )

3 or less does seem a good number for the total number of stickies.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 7:47 am
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Could the "Ultimate NGCW..." sticky be changed into a "The Ultimate BA Seating Guide.."

This would contain all updates on equipment refurbishments, which hopefully soon should be "All 747's done..", the rollout of the 777's update and sections on the "best and worst" seats. So for starters...

- NGCW roll out
- Seat allocation policy, comments, link to BA.com
- Comment on such as 3 class 777 and crew rest seats 4A/4K lottery
- The "on it's own seat" on 747 WT+
- Routes that have CW seating like CAI and routes that don't, like IST.

The only problem I would see with that is the best and worst becomes a bit subjective, but OP's are often just after that sort of view. In terms of seating questions there seems to be a reasonable degree of consensus amongst the board regulars.

An awful lot of the low post count OP's questions are seating related, you help out with the usual advice and they are never seen again. More often than not they don't even acknowledge the helpful posts made. So a gentle point in the direction of a seating guide would be appropriate.

I'd also vote for the BA.com issues sticky to be downgraded to a normal thread, such as Tesco & BA, all the board regulars will know it's there and it can be resuscitated when the need arises.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 8:18 am
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Originally Posted by AJLondon
And I agree entirely with the above posts by Swanhunter, yyzlhr, Raffles and Prospero! (Have I left anyone out? )

3 or less does seem a good number for the total number of stickies.
And I totally agree with Swanhunter, yyzlhr, Raffles and Prospero and AJLondon.

No more than 3 stickies.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 8:21 am
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Further to what phreegreens says above, I think the NGCW sticky should be transformed into a guide to the different cabins and seating (not just CW) and their variations...

... whether it shold then form part of the ultimate guide is another question.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 8:26 am
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Originally Posted by David-A
Further to what phreegreens says above, I think the NGCW sticky should be transformed into a guide to the different cabins and seating (not just CW) and their variations...

... whether it shold then form part of the ultimate guide is another question.
There is already a fairly comprehensive seating section in the Ultimate Guide, so my view is that the NNCW thread should stay until the rollout is done, then the relevant info rolled into the UG and the thread itself cast adrift.

I can see the merit in trying to tidy all the seat questions up in one place, but I for one thoroughly enjoy the 68th debate of the month on the merits of the best seat in F on a 747.
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 8:32 am
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Originally Posted by Prospero
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,

As a postscript, I'd like to add that I have read suggestions over on the TalkBoard Topics forum that a stickied link to the Travel & Dining: UK & Ireland forum be added here. I would be firmly against such a proposal, for no reason other than I not a fan of superfluous stickies.

I would broadly agree with these suggestions.

As a user of several fora throughout the interweb, I am familiar with several newsgroup style boards such as this one.

As a relative newcomer, I was seriously impressed by the sticky and its comprehensive nature, especially the way the individual posts are linked to at the first page. IMHO this is the way forward for many of the currently stickied threads, being incorporated into the ULTIMATE Guide, which is a terrific piece of work by those who compiled it.

I would however make a plea for brevity and concise use of language; especially important for committee-edited pieces.

Apart from the loss of the gree arrow thingy, why has ULTIMATE been decapitalised? Perhaps this could be fixed to make it distinctive from other "Ultimate" threads (which, technically I suppose would be penultimate threads...)?

1) The naming of the stickies is also important.

Read This First - The BA ULTIMATE GUIDE including How To Get An Upgrade

The thread should prominently include the words British Airways/BA as otherwise not all comers will understand what the ULTIMATE GUIDE (UG) is all about - though I know it's pretty obvious to most here.

Capitalisation draws the eye to this post, as does the green arrow.

Incorporating the Upgrade sticky into this guide should answer most everyone's questions about using miles, or cash/bribery/a suit and tie to garner an upgrade...and therefore it makes total sense to have a permanent link to an upgrade thread.

The reason why the upgrade thread has not been a sticky within the UG is that the UG is a locked thread to avoid it getting cluttered, and people do like to ask questions about upgrades and also share their experiences. That is why such a thread should really be the first text section in the sticky with a referenced/linked thread at the end of that full explanation of BA policy and the Board's experiences, ecouraging poeple to add their views into an unstickied thread which can pop up as required.

2) Issues with BA.com - a great thread which sadly does not seem to be paid a blind bit of notice by BA. If it was, it would be worth having a sticky, but again I think this can be prominently included with some text and a referenced thread, along the lines suggested above for the Upgarde thread, but with no mention in the title as it's less relevant to newcomers.

3) 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 was a bit confused by this this as I thought BA has flatbeds in all its planes now, and didn't understand the difference between NGCW and NCW and OCW and seats and beds and it all got a little confusing. And anyway, it seems there is no way of telling precisely which planes have what seating/bedding, so actually its really just a case of summarising the current rollout plan.

Opps gotta go.

-----

Back again.

This thread was great when the rollout began, but now the news is basically quite high level again. My view is it should remain as a sticky, but unlocked.

The key points are that former BMed routes still feature the OCW Cradle seat, soon to be replaced by bmi, the 767s feature the NCW 1.0 flat bed, all now have AVOD but none will ever get NCW 2.0. 50% of 747s have NCW 2.0, and none of the 777s have been started yet, and the whole lots hsould be finished (middle of next year?). What seats are going into the exEurope fleet?

Suggested title:

Will my Flight Feature BA's Latest Club World 2.0 Flat Bed

Between Prospero and Can I Help You and the other crew a good up to date sticky along these lines should be able to be developed and would be comprehensive, perhaps divided into four sections:

- thorough description of what to expect in NCW 2.0 vs previous seat/cabin, including links to trip reports
- the latest timetable for conversion
- current progress
- known issues with the seat

I think it's really important to have clear unambiguous illustrations/photo links to all the publicity shots and photos for NCW 2.0 as Seats/beds NGCW/NCW/OCW/NCW 2.0 can get very confusing.

So I think that sums it up; just two stickies are really required, with the ULTIMATE GUIDE incorporating in the first two posts sections with full info and perma-links to other threads on ba.com issues and upgrading.

Then when an issue occurs like a strike/yet more lost bags/terror attack there is now room for a third sticky as appropriate, which gives space for two more current issues than current space allows.

Last edited by BraniffLuvr; Aug 5, 2007 at 10:10 am
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Old Aug 5, 2007, 1:17 pm
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I agree there should only be two or three stickies max. IMHO one should be the BA Guide sticky, and the other the U****** thread. People talk about it having an "historic" purpose, but I suspect that is a measure of its success in deflecting the ubiquitous "How do I upgrade my V class ticket to FIRST for free" post. Although I suppose it's all fresh meat for the prod...
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Old Aug 6, 2007, 3:05 am
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Originally Posted by BraniffLuvr
Apart from the loss of the gree arrow thingy, why has ULTIMATE been decapitalised? Perhaps this could be fixed to make it distinctive from other "Ultimate" threads (which, technically I suppose would be penultimate threads...)?
Pedantically, the term "Ultimate" is incorrect, given that the thread keeps getting revised. We see a similar issue at work, when we get sent files called things like "Project Alpha - Executive Summary Final v16.ppt".

Anyways...My votes goes to a single sticky, which links out to all relevant areas. I don't think the "Issues with BA.com" thread needs to be stickied.
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Old Aug 6, 2007, 3:20 am
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Originally Posted by Disco Volante
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I agree there should only be two or three stickies max. IMHO one should be the BA Guide sticky, and the other the U****** thread. People talk about it having an "historic" purpose, but I suspect that is a measure of its success in deflecting the ubiquitous "How do I upgrade my V class ticket to FIRST for free" post. Although I suppose it's all fresh meat for the prod...
Completely agree with this. Before we had 'best' seat queries, there were upgrade queries. By the bucket load. Which is why ScottC started the original upgrade thread, superceeded by G-BOAC's efforts.

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. Now it could be FTers have changed and aren't looking for free upgrades any more - but what do you guys think?
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