This reminds me that the single most insane moderator act I've ever seen on FT was a thread in a carrier-specific forum on some mundane topic, such as quarterly financials/load stats, in which criticism of the airline was completely prohibited. (My recollection is that this wasn't a "just the facts" thread with a parallel "reactions & opinions" thread.) This happened within the past year IIRC; looked just now but was unable to find same.

IMO mods should definitely police individual instances of abusive language, and on occasion even lock a thread temporarily when tempers start to run high overall. But a flat-out ban on airline criticism, no matter how well-reasoned or factually supported, is ridiculous. FT isn't a nursery school.

If you happen to do something against the terms and receive a PM from the Mods get them to be polite and not act like High School teachers. Sometimes, inadvertantly, I have slipped up and the tone of the PMs reminds me of when i was at school.

Lighten up !!

The search function is horrible and needs improvement. I did a search for hnl first class flights in trip report forum and the first page results included nothing of the sorts!

This. Even if I don't make the cut for whatever the high bar is, please this. And maybe even keep out the big bloggers

My work is in marketing, demographic and psychographic analysis including media habits of all consumer target groups.

I stated my observation. It seems you took it personally. You should not make assumptions or be rude or defensive. If you think millennials are lazy and such, you need to sort that out. FT is open to anyone.


Further, all of the new media, social media and so on exist because millennials either invented them, use them, or both. And these new media open opportunities for everyone else.


On FT, and in response to a point Dorian made, some forums have some posters who tend to do exactly what I describe. But Dorian is correct in his description of the impact on some conversations and the flow of some threads.



:D

This.

There's one particular mod who I seem to rub up the wrong way, I've had a series of PMs from him/her all with the tone of a retired spinster school marm from early last century.

Others can be a delight

If I ran FlyerTalk...

I'd tell the SPG moderators to let threads about the Marriott takeover thrive vs stuffing them all into one worthless, bizarrely organized 'thread'.

I'd make a FT mobile app that rivals Facebook's.

Redesign the look and feel of FT, something simple yet great design to rival the look and feel of beautiful sites such as Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix.

If I ran Flyertalk, I would

a) start having privilege access only to some of the Forums to keep unexperienced/selfish users from spoiling things for other

b) not add any additional forums/subforum

Cheers!

lots of good ideas keep coming in

i'd like to also add; get rid of Talk board

If I ran FlyerTalk, I'd go back to the days when this was a site for and about frequent travelers, when we had a sense of community and camaraderie (see 9/11 threads), and individuals participating were actually willing to both give and take (information, support, trades for small items) without expecting anything (cash, hat tips, warm fuzzies) in return.

Sadly the Internet has evolved and social media has replaced the spirit many of us created over many nights on chat, hosting community DOs that had (almost) nothing to do with manufactured spending or making money and everything to do with hanging out and socializing with people who traveled as much as we did, and actually knowing many of the people and personalities behind the keyboards.

Now I'm just here for the Fantasy Football. It's my one remaining piece of what FT used to be.

I'd say that still happens on a regular basis with Chicago area FTers.

Totally agree with the posts concerning overly-aggressive and heavy-handed moderation. Not every “infraction” needs to be moderated with the “rule” highlighting the reason being posted; doing so reflects more negatively on the moderator than on the poster in many cases.

Mods should not let their personality/biases show through their moderation.

Some mods need to recognize that discussions evolve and can’t be compartmentalized, i.e., this is the topic of the current discussion and, therefore, such and such must be taken to the thread revolving around that topic, even if doing so completely thwarts discussion of the topic at hand.

Lighten up.

It happens on a regular basis in many cities... the organizing is just occurring on other sites and not FT. ;)

The less "noise" of some sorts that ends up being on FT, the less of a "community" sense there also ends up being. That said, the obsession aimed at reducing the "signal to noise rate/ratio" on FT isn't the only reason the "community" can't be what it used to be. A much larger membership base does have some impact.

since it's 2016 :

realtime chatrooms for city/airport/hotel. Possibly interlinked depending on #tags ?

and reputation badges (based on loyalty program/property/luxury,budget travel etc) so one can easily filter out who has the most palatable/helpful posts on the thread.