StayingHomeIsBetter

My only appeal to the Community Director languished 9 weeks before I received a response.

What I would do... require MODs to PM a poster when a post is deleted, or other corrective actions are implemented. I was once suspended for reposting something that had been deleted, and I was not advised of the action taken by the MOD. I reposted when I could not find the original post, believing that I had used the "Review Post" function and then forgot to hit "Submit reply"... an omission that I sometimes make. Putting someone on Double Secret Probation, then suspending them when they repeat an action that they can't have a way of knowing whether or why it caused MOD angst does not improve the tenor of the forum.

There are some who come here, is seems, not to seek information, not to provide help to others, not to share interesting travel experiences, not to offer relevant opinions, not to offer cogent rebuttal to others' opinions... but, rather, solely to deride and mock others for having their opinions. MODS will tell us that these people know the T&Cs so well that they can put their toes right on the line without crossing the line and, thus, there is no basis for moderation. Perhaps the line need to be moved. The tenor of the forum is damaged by the supercilious attitudes and behaviors of these non-contributors.

mywanderlust

I would only use quote boxes to quote actual posters on these forums. Plain text quotation marks or italics would suffice for quoting other websites.

Using a quote box for something from a different site instead of another poster on this site looks confusing and makes it look like the other site is a poster on the board.

T8191

I will not discuss Moderator actions, as it's contrary to the T&C

However, as a former Moderator on the British Army website at http://www.arrse.co.uk/community/ [warning, strong language and strong views] I can assure you that being a Mod isn't a lot of fun. It's little wonder that sometimes it's hard to keep things on the rails on FT. How that's achieved is down to individual styles, and I would agree that some Mods can be rather heavy handed [Oh, can I say that?]

Lauried1079

I joined FT in 2009 and read the "ReadMe" post.
I still browse because your blog has helpful information.
I'm a frequent flyer but I don't know every lingo, abbreviations, etc.
I was treated like a child and never interacted.
I have over 300k followers on various networks.
I would never recommend anyone to join or give you all props due to my lack of a few abbreviations and status.
End the negativity and create an app vs this mobile site.

T8191

That's one perspectibve... another is to carry on learning the jargon, as I comfortably do in my 70s. Every day's a school day

bchandler02

This. Threads get merged too quickly - there's threads on the AA forum that encompass years of data over a very general/high level topic. Who has the time to sort through 100+ pages to find the specific info they need?

I will question a mod if I feel they are out of line. If they want to punish me (again) for it, so be it. We are a community, not a dictatorship. Mods should be able to publicly explain their actions and have healthy discussions about them when appropriate.

MikeMpls

It wasn't supposed to be. When people who had thought their OMNI posts were not open to search engines & to the public discovered that the restriction had been quietly removed, there was a bit of a rucus.

Personally I would open it up. Many forum sites have "off-topic" forums. But removing the content contributed by those who were promised it would not be exposed would be a hassle.

Or ... lock down the old "private" OMNI & start a new public one.

+1

It's both a strenghth and a weakness, and a lot of good participation (as well as participants) are lost because of this.

T8191

Straying slightly Off topic (OT) ... about 50% of our sectors are AA these days, but I never read the AA "Warfare Forum". Extract from that comment what you wish.

MikeMpls

The state of the art in forum software is XenForo, developed by the same core of developers (Kier Darby & Mike Sullivan) that made vBulletin 2 & 3 the best in its class at the time. Given that Internet Brands now owns Jelsoft & vBulletin, an upgrade to XenForo seems unlikely.

Many very large sites have converted from vBulletin to XenForo; very few have migrated in the other direction.

techgirl

Antiquated technology issues aside (which is an entirely different animal and one I'm not qualified to speak on as the "tech" in my handle does NOT stand for technology), there is a major emerging theme I see.

Is this a message board or is this a wiki?

If it is the former then fostering and preserving a collective community that is engaging and welcoming and able to grow its own culture organically is critical to the continuation of that flora. That was the model that Randy embraced for many years and its what has kept us old timers still occasionally clicking.

If it is the latter then put the effort into that. Cultivate information and organize it succinctly and don't worry about the community element.

Where I see the conflict is that this site wants to be both... because some members have a strong desire for one or the other. As a result, we end up with heavy handed moderation and reorganization of data that achieves one goal but stifles the other.

FlyerTalk needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up because right now it is an 18-19 year old bulletin board that is destined to live in its mother's basement if it can't figure that out.

MikeMpls

+1

This would fix two problems at once -- TalkBoard's relevance and bad moderators.

I was actually threatened by a moderator for bringing up moderation in a TalkBoard forum discussion. These days I rarely venture outside of one particular lounge thread; it's just not worth the hassle.

GUWonder

When I joined FT as a member, OMNI was viewable even when I was not logged in and I would use google to search for my Omni posts (and I did have a lot until 2004). It stayed that way for at least a couple of years.

My suggestion about TB was in the TB forum and it aligns with what some here have said. Make of that what you wish.

beltway

I respectfully submit that this is a false dichotomy. I'm the primary maintainer for several wikis, and can attest that they continue to evolve thanks to ongoing suggestions/input/data points from posts in the thread. (Even among posters who are rule-qualified to edit wikis, many seem unwilling to put in the additional effort and/or incapable of doing the modest layout/typography design needed to make a wiki readable & easy to navigate.)

Likewise, a well-crafted wiki should ideally improve a thread by eliminating (in practice, reducing) the number of repetitive/newbie questions, thereby allowing for more focused and interesting discussion. That, in turn, arguably makes for a better community. As I say, the reality falls a little short of the theory, although I attribute some of that to the stupid mobile skin's failure to display wikis at all.

kipper

I wouldn't participate in OMNI if posts were visible to all.
I've not been threatened, but...

SkiAdcock

Having read the entire thread so far, it seems the #1 issue from a technology perspective is for IB to fix or come up w/ a better mobile situation (via site or app), especially since most folk access FT via mobile devices. In this day & age there's no excuse for a crap mobile experience (especially from a company that owns multiple websites).

Cheers.