ma91pmh

if they draw less... not really. if they draw virtually none, yes they should

kokonutz

And more to the point, even if it did lose money the founders may be willing to run it a loss indefinitely as it ties their various ventures together.

tom911

Isn't that how FT was run before the ownership change (basically, at a loss, subsidized by other ventures or from the owner's pocket)?

I don't own the site, or have a financial interest in it, so really don't have an opinion whether it should be shut down. Just not my place to opine. I do occasionally post there, primarily on the AA forum. I don't do lounge threads which I know are very popular there (are they still around on FT or has everyone gone to Milepoint for those?).

I think competition is good---look at all the travel blogs out there competing for posts against FT now. One that I follow says he was following almost 600 of them and had reduced his list to 344. I just can't imagine keeping up with that amount of material. That blogger offers commentary on other travel blogs and is an interesting read.

I noticed one of the blogs on manufactured spend even has its own private forum. I'm not in the club there so don't know how many FTers have made the move.

FT should be worried about who they're losing to blogs. Maybe the real topic for this thread should be "Does anyone here post on blogs that compete with FlyerTalk for revenue?". That's where the challenge is in losing membership here.

Tom in Costa Mesa

sbm12

I have no idea what the financials were prior to the IB purchase, but I'd be surprised if they paid as much as they did for a site which was showing negative cash flow.

rehoult

Interestingly, present cash flow and profit are generally not relevant when taking over a business that can be perfectly integrated with your current business (as was the case with IB). IB knows, based on their experience, how much they earn per page view. Times that by the page views of the takeover target and you have the expected earnings. That the current site is (likely) earning less than that isn't important as it's based on a revenue/cost basis that isn't going to be retained.

Kagehitokiri

two completely different populations.. (TARGET audience)

84fiero

I don't think they're completely different. FT'ers do read and post on blogs. Some bloggers (fewer these days, it seems) are also active FT members. There are blogs that cater to different clientele, sure, but I suspect there's a fair amount of crossover in general.

To tom911's point, I've said before in discussions about things like tone and snark on FT, that they run the risk of driving folks away. What would someone prefer to experience.... (1) the friendly smiling blogger with helpful arrows and circles showing how to get that special honeymoon trip on miles; or (2) Being greeted here with a response to your question of "If you would've taken the time to search...." by someone whose title is Flyertalk Evangelist? (This isn't to diminish the efforts being taken to address those concerns - Information Desk, for example. Just pointing out the risks there).

Now some of those hand-holding blogs are not providing the best information, or accurate information, so the customer is losing out in the end possible. But they don't know that. So if I were IB I would definitely wonder how I might be losing out to blogs or other resources.

MP likes to pat itself on the back for being friendlier, but in the time I spent there I saw some poor manners and snark, even by someone who helps run it, on occasion. Is it still more "kinder, gentler"? Yeah I suppose so. But MP's small size is probably as much a contributor to its tone as anything special about its construct.

I wouldn't rule out becoming more active there in the future, but right now it just doesn't have what I'm looking for personally. If it does have what others need, more power to them, I wouldn't advocate that it shouldn't exist.

Globaliser

Why should it be shut down? Even if MilePoint might not have achieved what it originally aimed to do, that's no reason to shut it down. At the very worst, it's harming nobody. None of us is entitled to demand that it be shut down just because we think it's not doing well.

I see some IBBs that have far less traffic than MilePoint, yet still survive quite happily in their own niches with their own communities.

stackm

Does anyone know how many premium memberships have been sold? At 50 bucks a pop, that could be a very profitable source of income at minimal cost to site operators.

Even if the place is a ghost town, if people continue to pay just for the benefits (bonus miles, elite status, etc) there's no reason to shut it down.

Kagehitokiri

small IBBs can be great

IMHO would have been interesting if MP organized itself in slightly different way

freeloader

I've always gotten a big kick out of this aspect MP. It's always seemed to me that half the posts are simply pats on the pack to each other for how friendly they are. Which I always found funny since it seems like that's the majority of their content, and that some of the original posters there are some of the snarky-est personalities I see online

Kagehitokiri

80% community/lounge - i dont recall seeing that outside of those areas
but 80% does fully prove your "majority of content" comment - it is indeed

eponymous_coward

Your site isn't as popular as VFTW or OMAT. QED your should shut it down, by your logic.

I'm going to guess that you don't see it the same way, and neither do the folks at MP. Why should whether or not you do something be based on a popularity contest? There are lots of writers who don't end up with best-sellers, should they stop writing? If I play in a beer softball league that doesn't get many people watching a game compared to Major League Baseball, should I stop playing?

ma91pmh

I guess my point was that MP was started as an exact clone of FT, and has clearly failed in "replacing" it. For all the BS that Leff/Randy spout about it not being an FT competitor, it started out with the exact same forum structure, and to this day it does not offer anything different. In fact it appears to be just an alternative Omni. So it has failed in it's intended task of replacing FT. Of course nobody involved will actually admit that was it's intended purpose much less admit defeat in failure of that.

I totally get there are many small BBs, blogs and other sites that are very happy with their traffic levels. But none of them - to my knowledge - are direct clones of other large websites set up by founders and key contributors of said larger sites.

tcook052

Oh I've found that perception to not always be the reality especially in the Off Topic MP forum where potshots at FT were posted.