I know it's been talked about before... I'm just wondering if maybe starting a new thread since it's been a while might generate some brainstorms.

A fellow FT'er asked me tonight when I'd be attending a DO. So I thought I'd go look at the FT events calendar to see what my options were. Between the empty calendar and a ton of postings in here, it's not the easiest task to find a list of DOs...

So does anyone have any ideas for making this process easier? If there was a simple way to find DOs, I'm guessing more people might attend -- I'd certainly check it any time I plan a business trip to see if a side trip would work.

I'll throw out one thought -- what if we have a (formal? informal?) DoTracker... like a moderator, but their sole purpose is to keep track of the events (either via submission via email or web, or just by committing to staying on top of the posts in community) and then update the Events Calendar (which would be nice to have linked from the Community forum).

What other ideas are out there? I'd really love to see an easier way to find out about the DOs...

Thanks y'all for bearing with what amounts for me to ranting...

I offered to do this a few months ago, but the idea got thoroughly blasted.

I can't find the old thread, but lots of folks weighed in that they thought this was unnecessary and reminded me that the FT Calendar exists for that purpose.

TG, I remember the discussion... and I thought, gee, okay, maybe they have valid points, maybe not. Obviously it hasn't worked out without *some* solution.

Would you still be willing to help, or has the collective FT pessimism turned you away?

Just casting my vote here against the calender.

I still believe that it is rather simple to use this FT Community thread (especially if it is used properly) to track do's.

I find it difficult to comprehend that more FT'ers would come to do's if they could find them more easily.

Here is a simple test. Can someone list all of the planned DOs as a response to this thread?

As much as this appears a way to get someone to list them all to use on a calender.. here is what I could find in five minutes total looking at posts for the last 10 days:

I only included ones that had what appear to have some interest, my judgement call LOL

8/31 to 9/1 SIN
9/4 SYD
8/23 ANC Mini do
8/25 SF Mini do
10/4 LAX Britt dinner
10/4 to 10/6 LAS
10/18 to 10/20 So Fla
12/21 to 12/29 NYC XMAS in the City
no date Kiwi do
9/13 to 9/15 Do by the Bay
8/24 ONT dinner
9/28 to 9/29 CPH
11/22 to 11/24 SCL
9/27 to 9/30 SIN Mini
9/30 to 10/6 HKG Mini

In five minutes I found this, not to hard I don't think. If I didn't have a meeting to run to now, I could have done a better job sorting and identifying descriptions but that just goes to show why a calender is not needed, this process could have been cut down to about 3 minutes if I didn't have to sort through the birthdays, appreciations, and the ten different versions of the same thing-trip reports.


[This message has been edited by TrojanHorse (edited 08-20-2002).]

And what a handy list that is to have!

Now think of how cool it would be to just have a calendar thread that listed upcoming events in order with a link to the original thread.

The first post on the thread would always be the current calendar... cancelled or expired events removed. I'm thinking something similar to the bonus code thread on the US Airways forum.

Well I can't say that I am familiar with the US Air thread all of these were easily identifiable in the current format. Now if we could remove and/or consolidate all of the other clutter in Community then we might have something even easier and a bit more clear than we already do. As it is, it only took a few minutes to scan the FT Community Thread forum to get these. People are still going to come here to Community to post anyway so a new calender link will only make an additional step or two for everyone. As it is, the other Calender thread just isn't used.

I agree that it isn't used... and I would never use it for something "small" like a "hey, anyone want to have dinner in DFW next week" kinda of post.

I would just love to see something up where I can quickly scan all the big and not so big stuff easily without having to search... community threads die sometimes, not for lack of interest, but because they roll of the first couple of pages or go a week without a post and people forget.

I would again volunteer to maintain a master thread... in fact, I would be glad to go ahead and put one together this weekend if no one has any serious objections to it... I'll wait to see if we have any issues arise as I don't want a new thread to turn into a flame war.

I think the same issues as last time

If one person "controls" the master calandar they basically "control" which DO's are on it.

Once again I vote that we either use the feature provided by Flyertak or continue with the willie- nilly posting of DO's in community. As Trojan Horse points out - it would really help if community was used for what it is supposed to be - a listing of get togethers and activities

Jan

Sometime talking about the DO is more interesting than the DO itself

no issues there ankullar - but

Priceline bidding ?

I would love it if the calender would be used more regularly again. I will be for a few weeks in the US in fall and would love to meet up with some people, and hey, DOs seem to be like my kind of party

This was the most accurate statement made to date.

Don't forget DUS-DO-3 (2 for me) 18-21 July 2003.