And, as long as we're talking about editorial control, who is responsible for approving the affiliate-link riddled deals which are anything but? I don't believe those have a specific author name associated with them.

First2Board deals is not a blog, it's a deal site. It does contain affiliate links and whether or not you consider the deals to be good or not is an individual opinion of each person. The intention is not to publish mistake fares, etc.. but to offer discounted travel or vacations, or deals to those who may be interested in that.

Thanks for not answering the question posed.

I wasn't expecting mistake fares, but suggesting that the regularly published LH fares are a special deal is a bit off IMO, especially knowing that you're earning revenue for those bookings. It goes back to the idea of providing the best information or not and the image that presents to readers.

Obviously the home page and individual blogs use a template and we do have some control over sizes and fonts we try to still fit within the template.

To answer your question, which others have already confirmed, F2B has a written agreement with each of the bloggers that outlines terms and conditions of the website. Each blogger has ownership of their own blog and is responsible for the content independent of F2B. I have never been told to write about any particular subject, but have been given a small list of what is not allowed; e.g. discussing Vanilla reloads etc (I got special permission to discuss them for the April Fools Day post).

I agree with you that some of the posts by some bloggers in particular have been a little weak and we are making an effort to point that out internally. Baby steps. I think things have improved especially in the last two weeks.

In addition, my site has its own terms and conditions for readers and its own privacy policy. I do collect email addresses if you submit them and the reason is for a future newsletter, to inform you of new posts and to email "secret deals" before they get published on the site. I may also email you directly regarding a comment on the site. I may email you about a TMP or F2B do, or event that may be held regionally.

I will not sell the list or rent the list. The only way I get your email address is if you voluntarily submit it to me.

F2B's Taxiway is the site of F2B guest bloggers and TheMrPickles is the only other F2B blog site authorized to have guest bloggers. I have an outline of requirements for guest bloggers on my site, which I asked for input from F2B management, but I set the terms for all guest bloggers on my site.

I and my TheMrPickles editor do all edits of content on TMP, and I edit/censor all guest blog posts so they have correct content flow, correct referral links and correct web links to other sites; e.g. airline, hotel, or train information. I also size photos and import photos from various corporate media approved images and wiki-commons.

Sometimes guest bloggers may not be the best at describing a situation or city and I need to give them a push or rewrite the content.

I have sole decision on when the publish button on TMP gets pressed.

In regards to the comments, each individual blogger sets their own approval policy. I have mine set where the first comment posted by an individual is emailed to me and then awaits approval; then all comments that follow from the same person, ip address & email are automatically approved by the software. I will edit out typos or incorrect misinformation. If the post is obnoxious, or harassing in my sole opinion, it will be deleted. If the comment voices an objection or other opinion then the comment will stand as is.

I try to respond to comments that require a response but I reserve the right to ignore them also.

I have some control over which ads are on my pages, but I do not have any control over the F2B negotiated advert terms.

Regarding embedded affiliate links, which I see as different than referral links (but that is another argument) I may post it within the article if there is one and it is integral to the content of the article, but I am not required to write an article solely around an affiliate web link. I will disclose if I am being paid for the link. From today on there will only be one affiliate link in an article if there is one at all. Most certainly every article will not be by, about, and solely inclusive of affiliate links. In other words, NO HAWKING of affiliate links.

There may be a page at the top added with a drop down to get to affiliate links.

But don't hold your breath, it won't be today, or tomorrow.

All F2B bloggers have sole control over their individual twitter accounts and Facebook pages. These social media sites are not part of F2B and you may see content that we are specifically prohibited from publishing on F2B and should have no reflection on F2B or its management.

Likewise all comments on forums like FlyerTalk and MilePoint and the sole comments of the individual blogger hosted by F2B.

I pay no hosting fee to F2B. Hopefully this is a good explanation, sorry it is so long but I ran into MarathonMan on the weekend and I guess he rubbed off on me.

The editor of F2B Deals is responsible for all of the content on that blog. That person is not a blogger but rather someone who has been appointed to maintain that site. We will review content, but it is not our intention to post published fares - everyone's human and I'm sure once in a while a mistake will be made. But the intent is to post discounts, special offers, etc...

So the deals are wholly chosen by a 3rd party who is not one of the bloggers on the site, but then they are approved or declined by people who are bloggers on the site? Did I get that right?

Thanks, MrPickles! Very good of you to spell it all out. Cheers!

Nope, our bloggers can submit deals to f2b deals for review and positioning on the f2b deals page but the f2b deals 'moderator' has final say as to what deals are posted to the site. F2B deals casts a wide net trying to capture as many relevant deals as possible. As far as some of the fare sales that you mentioned they are kept out there for the duration of the sale if they are compelling.

Is every fare sale a barn burner? no, but the objective here is to try and bring the best deals to our readers as is available currently without them having to go out and scour for all of them.

So the moderator is not one of the bloggers? Or is it someone who wears both hats?


Until such time as some of the deals are not driven by affiliate link revenue hopes I'm going to have a hard time believing that the goal is really to offer the best deals to readers.

Here are two more posts I thought were extremely helpful, at least to a newbie:

http://thepointstraveler.com/masteri...tention-bonus/

http://first2board.com/pointssummary...nnect/#respond

Again, they were clear, offered info I found useful and new, and were not cluttered with affiliate links. I think that The Points Summary could be even better if one did not need to scroll down so far to actually see some text - right now we get a lot of white space around the blog's title, and an awfully large font for the post's title, which combine to mean that the reader scrolls a lot to get to the post itself. But perhaps the re-design Very Good Points mentioned will soon be in play here.

Here's one more I found helpful:

http://saverocity.com/blog/the-ulitm...nd-hotels-com/

Thanks for the inclusion. I was worried that the post was too detailed and glad that someone found it useful! If nothing else it shares how I think about complex bookings like this, perhaps with a few take-aways too.

Hey Mr Pickles - why did you chose to work with F2B as opposed to having your blog standalone? I had thought to join one of these amalgamation sites in the past, but now don't see where the value is?

The f2b deals mod is NOT a blogger.....and no Blogger is a Mod for f2b deals.

That is a good question. I did have my site as a stand alone for a few years and have have very few hits. There were many comments every time I posted and almost everyone were spam. i could have hired a consultant and spent a lot of money to set it up. But i have a real job too.

Occasionally there were real comments but it just was too much trouble to screen through all of the (5900) viagra ads, mortgage ads ad other garbage posted. I was forced to lock down the comments and screen all of them. This became too time consuming so I tended to not post as often.

My social media talents were then redirected to my Facebook and twitter account. Quite often I would receive communication from people asking me to blog more often and when the opportunity came up to work with First2Board I immediately saw the benefits of working as a team.

1) F2B provided the hosting, which on the surface is not that hard since I was self hosting already but now when there is a problem I have someone who is responsive that I can contact immediately to fix things for me on the site.

2) F2b coordinates advertising agreements.

3) Working as a team with the other F2B bloggers drives page views by cross linking posts.

4) I am now able to concentrate on content instead of format and design.

5) Better recognition of my site as a part of a larger organization.

6) F2B has an internal forum website for F2B bloggers which will act a database for files, photos, charts and other reference materials for the bloggers.

7) F2B provides artwork support and has designed the logos for most of the sites.

8) F2B provide all of the technical support to transition my website from Network Solutions platform to their platform.

9) F2B coordinates all of the contests and giveaway promotions, including the acquisition of prizes, distribution of prizes and contracting with third party contest promotion websites.

10) I am able to work with like minded people that I trust and who do not have a hidden agenda.

11) I have had very few spam comments since the go-live date, the spam filters are working great.

12) I have complete editorial control over the content, there only requirement is to have fun.

13) I own all of my own content, if I ever choose to leave they will cooperate with exporting the content back.

14) My ideas, recommendations and concepts for F2B have been accepted warmly and have driven several aspects of the site; it is refreshing to be part of something new.

The best part of all of this, is that it all happened in a 72 hour period from the time of first contact to going live. They were responsive and welcoming.

I acknowledge that the timing was essential as my site went live on the same day as the go-live day of First2Board's own website (although it was in beta for 4 weeks prior).

I have looked at your website and I think that it is excellent blog and it is exactly the the type of talent that would be a good fit with F2B. You should consider talking to them about joining the team. i would be happy to recommend you.