do we need a moderator? + let's merge some threads
 

While I (still) kind of like the fact that this forum is unmoderated... a bit of a "wild west" feel, given our rise in popularity, things are getting a bit hectic around here.

I actually volunteered to serve as a moderator for this forum around 5 years ago, but was pretty much ignored by the FT people. No hard feelings because: 1) I didn't crave unpaid work; and 2) there wasn't much of a need.

While I still don't desire additional responsibilities, I am in favor of a platoon approach that affords those of us who post here the most the ability to clean house. Basically, I envision 5 or 6 moderators,... unprecedented on FT, perhaps.

Moving on, following are some topics that I would love to see consolidated:

-DCC
-the teahouse scam
-drivers pretty much anywhere (we should have a big thread in which we post city names and phone numbers)
-the whole "organized tour v. not using one" topic
-flying between Beijing and Shanghai
-airline ticket pricing in general (i.e. the mechanics of it)
-Chinese visas (including the stopover rules)
-trains
-Shenzhen to HK
-hotels in cities X, Y, and Z

That's all I can think of for now. In the event none of us are "moderator material", it would be nice if an actual moderator would pay us a visit once or twice a month. Speaking of that, I fully appreciate the efforts of the moderators that do help us out.

Great idea, & add Ctrip & Tibet as possible topics

Very good idea, moondog. One question: if this forum is unmoderated, who is going to see your idea? :)

I'd also add, "What to do with 3 days in [city]?" to the list.

Actually, I think that at least the visa rules, teahouse scam, and DCC threads should be stickied.

I agree that a bit of limited moderation would be a good idea, mainly just to consolidate some of the duplicate threads.

I would prefer not to see this forum turned into the heavily moderated AA or UA forums where nearly every thread is merged into megathreads or referred to wikis or stickies, but a little cleaning up would certainly help to improve the usability of the forum. No reason to have two dueling threads on dynamic currency conversion, or the constant Chinese Visa Question threads.

The consolidated threads suggested by moondog are a good start.

I'd prefer hotel threads for Shanghai, Beijing, and maybe Xi'an instead of for X, Y, and Z. I don't even know anyone who's been to Z! :)

If you haven't been to Z, then you really don't know China. ;)

+1, this is something I've brought up before. I PM'd a few FT mods but was largely ignored on this issue. My votes:

1. China Visas
2. China trains
3. China taxis
4. China tours and hiring personal drivers
5. What to see in: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Xian
6. Scams (including the teahouse and DCC/CC ripoff)
7. Shenzhen to HKG (and other trips such as PVG-City via Maglev)
8. Foods in China
9. Language Primer

I'd be happy to help, but I think we need to get some true mod support to at least create some stickys...

Add a topic "what are the best restaurants in Y?" ;-)

I wouldn't want to see this forum get over-regimented, and I don't think a lot of what's mentioned above belongs as separate stickies. I'm not sure how the formatting would go on this subforum--I looked at the Japan and UK subforums but haven't come to any conclusions yet. However, anything that is extremely changeable within a one-year period, or a matter or personal opinion (what's the "best" hotels, restaurants, etc. in a given city) doesn't belong as a sticky or even in an FAQ section. China changes too fast for those kinds of things. Individuals can take responsibility for using the FT search function, reading guidebooks or other travel websites, or posting a specific question for their own needs.

I would limit any stickies to items of factual importance that affect the largest number of readers, and which have relatively few changes in process or procedure during the course of an average year, so are manageable to keep up with and add accurate incremental information. IMO, candidates are:
--Chinese visa FAQ, including visa free-transit
--Transportation FAQ Sticky, including buying domestic Chinese air tickets, train tickets, transportation from major airports to town (PEK, PVG, SHA as a start), overland crossing between HKG and Shenzhen/Guangzhou
--Ways to/How to Structure a China tour, including the "guided vs independent" discussion, taking into account holiday periods, time frames needed for distances, etc.

I'm on the fence as to whether scams needs to be its own sticky. It seems more fruitful to have an overall FAQ on Money in China and Cheat Avoidance, which contains money management issues specific to China including ATM's, RMB conversion/control, TC's etc. and then links to the DCC and tea scam topics.

I'm also "anti-sticky"... with a few possible exceptions, perhaps,... but, that's just not our style.

Actually, this forum is moderated — not by a moderator dedicated to this forum, but by the Senior Moderators.

Please let us know what you want and need, and we will be of service to you. It is the least we can do.

By the way, one option is to have a main “sticky” thread with links to the most popular topics — as many or as few as you want — in this forum. Other forums, such as Delta SkyMiles and Hilton HHonors, use a main “sticky” thread. If someone wants to launch one, we will be more than happy to “stick” the thread in this forum.

Regards,

Canarsie
Senior Moderator

I recently received an email from SD1k (senior moderator) informing me that she is willing to help us clean house (merge threads, create stickies, etc). I suggested to her that myself, Andrew, and Karen volunteer to take the first stab at this task, but the rest of you are welcome to join in the fun as well.

I volunteered to take on:

-all things related to ground transportation
-using organized tours v. not using organized tours
-ctrip/elong

While I loathe the thought of an entire (first) page of stickies, and hope this doesn't happen, a bit of merging would be good first step.

Once we've done a bit of merging, perhaps we can nominate sticky topics, vote on them, and go with the top 5?

Actually, SanDiego1K is no longer a Senior Moderator, as she is now the Community Director of FlyerTalk.

Regardless of who is moderating what forum on FlyerTalk, this forum is your forum. All we as moderators want to do is to help enhance your user experience on FlyerTalk as much as possible so that you may benefit from it.

As I said:

canarsie is a genius at putting together resource threads that have links to a number of topics. This keeps you from having a long line of stickies. If you get beyond 3 or 4 topics that you'd like to keep master links to, I'm sure he would help do this. Also, any time you want to draw the attention of the senior mods, just use the red triangle icon on any post and ask them for whatever help you need.