I love it when folks set up boards in reaction to FlyerTalk...especially when it is set up in reaction to FT moderators or to mock FT posters.

Moremiles, TireFlock, moreflyingtalk, milepoint.

They all eventually flame out, but it's always fun to watch. ^

mFT trundles along happily .... perhaps easier to think of it as an FT alumni group than anything else!

Are some of these types of private boards the kind of thing folks allude to when they brag about "the best deals [mfg spending, fuel dumps, etc] are now only discussed in private forums"? Or maybe it's 99% high school drama and 1% deals?

That's mostly done on real private boards and listservs, not 'alumni' boards.

That appears to describe MilePoint as well!

I was lurking at the time, but the thread was key in encouraging me to make one or two posts. It was so funny to see the bubble of deference to mods pricked when it materialised they were in tacit, and sometime active, approval of slagging off of FT members

Wasn't it this that led to the ambassador thing drawing its final breath on the BA board - weren't most of the ambassadors some of the most abusive members of moreflyertalk or something?

One thing I noticed after that famous blowup thread was that the average quality of the threads in the BA forum seemed to improve significantly.

I'm really hoping this doesn't kick off the whole discussion again...

I cringed when I read this because it simply isn't true.

^ If the folks involved want to rehash their grievances and fingerpointing, take it to the BAEC forum.

Valid points. I hate to close threads, so please keep the above in mind.

Regards Oliver2002
Moderator EM & PR forum

There's an element of truth to it, but it is very over-exaggerated. There certainly were forum ambassadors boasting on mFT about launching a thread on FT to bait a particular member who was unpopular with the mFT crowd, to much back-slapping and enjoyment from some other mFTers.

As to the forum itself, it's ok. It gets some good information, some of which is not on FT which tends to be BA relevant. Although they like to claim they are independent of FT, they tend to get most of their members from FT. Before anyone is accepted, I understand they will be discussed in the even more private mFT forum (given the whole thing is private/by invite only, there's at least one more hidden level beyond that) to make sure only the 'right' people are allowed on - that engenders a certain attitude I don't particularly enjoy so although I am a member, I don't usually read it. Interestingly, despite kokonutz's pessimistic prognosis, I seem to think it started not long after the TireFlock scandal broke, but took about 18 months to really take off. There's a very active core group who like hanging out there so it's been going for quite a long time now. Most of them are not there to gossip about FTers, and the vast majority of the board is not about that - the owner and the mod have also clamped down where people have tried to use it to generate support for their vendettas on FT.

...... is very fair.

In some ways it did indeed seem to go that way, although the undercurrent of
"anger" and related "vendettas" never completely disappeared even after that.

The various sort of "protest"-response boards to FT have been sort of useful in that regard, as over time they seem to become less "anger"-driven even as the sentiment that got them launched or kept them sort of more active (than they would otherwise be) bubbles up from time to time on those sites and even on FT.

Except mFT was not launched as an anger or vendetta driven board. It was originally launched as a social adjunct. There is a group who did go over to it out of anger though.

"[P]rotest"-response boards to FT, whether started as such or not. mFT isn't the only one.