if you pay a subscriber fee, you can post

well ... some times I might think, some colleague-Flyertalkers should be paid (and not have to pay) for posting/replying and serving with advices/experiences/trip-reports the FlyerTalk-community ...

... or how about a retro-active fee per post since FlyerTalk started? (do I have to pay then in US$ or will some 'weak' SFr be accepted?).

It's interesting that a board where a large contingent of people are doing their best to get something for nothing (free upgrades on low fares) are considering charging a fee

While I know the value of this board as anyone can attest to I am CHEAP. I think many other people on this board are too. If the powers that be declare a fee, I'm outta here....

Just my $.02. My suggestion is if some folks want a restricted 'inner sanctum' with real emails and fee only access, do it -- and keep the rest of the board open. That way the inner sanctum can be abuse-free (but in my opinion with less diversity) and the rest of us can wallow in our own filth <grin>

I think protecting the board's integrety is worth the fee and/or efforst discussed.

If a new poster were only allowed to post in "the Buzz" and "omni" until they received a password in the mail (real, postal, paper, snail-mail requiring a valid mailing address), then they's still have the ability to join the discussion and/or ask for assistance immediately, but they would not have the freedom to do this (From this morning):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/003077.html http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/000471.html http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/001976.html http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/001025.html

IF you check alt-net-abuse, this (in a newsgroup) is called "crossposting", one of the trolls favorite tools. Weather or not it is intentionally looking for a response, we should have a board that prevents it.

NJDavid .. don't know if the above posting is aimed at me or just the "Pezzy.com" person??

I was just curious that this person had 4 posts only, so went and found them all, saw they were all identical, and said what I did. Pretty rude to have posted that on Randy's boards IMHO, but it might be from someone not aware of that, who knows?

I have been on boards where you can READ but not post until you are registered. The 10,000's of posts daily on all the eBay chat boards are perfect examples. You can all go there right now and READ, but not post until you supply a REAL e-mail addresss.

Despite a comment above, eBay INSIST on a real e-mail address, and will NOT (when I last checked) accept a Hotmail or Yahoo account.

All your details are checkable on eBay. I outlined this and other self-regulatory suggestions on Randy's forum, that others may like to add to, or disagree with, at:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000176.html

For the record, say 10 or 20 bucks a year to be a member of this board to help pay Randy's costs would not bother me at all. 4,000 registered users at $10 is $40,000 and would not hurt any of us. Maybe after 50 or 100 posts a fee is "requested", so that new visitors are not scared off?

Maybe a Star or notation to each poster as per my posting above that indicates "a F.T. Supporter that voluntarily pays a user fee" might be the way to do it? Those who opt out can do so and be conspicious by it. Maybe we are all "cheap" as DG1 surmises .... I don't know. But doubt it.

I have just worked out how to completely legally get myself upgraded and confirmed in my favourite seat 15B on a Jumbo from SYD-SFO-JFK-LHR in both directions (=30,000+ paid miles) for absolutely no cost to me instead of the 100,000 points it should have cost me.All due to the superb input and advice of one board here, so the info to be learned and shared here is astounding to keen Frequent Flyers. Long may it reign, and long may the "Mileage Moron" type Trolls and his alter ego he changed to soon afterwards, stay well away.




[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 07-17-2000).]

Rudi, I'll pay your fees in arrears if allowed to use Zloty's or Turkish Lira. That way, I could clean out my sock drawer. I still have my SFr in crisp, new, pristine condition!

thank you