FallenPlat

I wasn't going to say anything but, yes, writing publicly about an expert witness assignment is quasi-insane. Among other things, he'll have his blog post read back to him on the stand and he'll be asked about its inconsistencies with his testimony in both nuance and substance. Talking to the press (let alone blogging) about an assignment without clearing it first with the lawyers who hired him will endear him to no one, and a seemingly cavalier disregard of even basic notions of confidentiality won't exactly win him any friends either. The flip side of all this is that the blog post was general and not situation-specific -- so it could've been a lot worse.

But I still thought the post was interesting.

pricesquire

I don't have the 35 years of legal experience (just one here, ), and I think this is one of the most ridiculous blog posts I've ever seen.

I mean....really?

lwildernorva

If he thinks he can testify with the same lack of attention to detail and shoddy analysis he sometimes brings to his blog posts, he'd better hope opposing counsel is asleep at the switch. If not, he'll quickly learn the difference between blogging and testifying in court.

pricesquire

What about counsel who hired him? I wonder if they know about the post.

If I hired an expert, just to find out they then wrote a blog post about being an expert.....

gleff

Since there seem to be lots of assumptions here: this is a past case, successfully resolved. Posts contain only a very generic level of detail, which engaging counsel is specifically comfortable with. Seemed to me there were some worthwhile lessons for at least some frequent flyers but as always YMMV.

lwildernorva

Good. Because the post's language "recently engaged" could mean "recently served" but more generally would be interpreted to mean "recently retained"--implying that the litigation hadn't yet concluded. And I guarantee that most trial judges are none too happy with pending or current litigation being discussed in a forum outside the courtroom.

If our assumptions are faulty, then the conclusions may be as well. Also a worthwhile lesson.

kokonutz

Yay! Gary posts on Flyertalk!!! Welcome home!

FallenPlat

Via a link from Gary, there's an interesting recent post by Pizza in Motion about American's possible pull-out from EZE by year-end. No, I don't mean the substance. The interesting part for me is how much better and well-informed -- in every way -- the several comments from JBCarioca are than the blog post itself. I'm not sure I've ever seen such an extreme blog-versus-comments quality disparity before but then, too, I stopped reading Pizza in Motion after his first couple of posts.

pricesquire

Saw this too. One of the only reasons I visit BA now .... comments!

FallenPlat

Yes, I absolutely agree though a lot of the blogs unfortunately don't get much in the way of comments. In particular, a lot of the comments at One Mile at a Time are really good -- part of the reason why I usually like the blog -- and sometimes Gary's answers to comments are even better than his original post.

By way of contrast, the comments at The Points Guy are often clueless although I suppose we all realize that he pitches to a completely different audience.

Raffles

Except, oddly, TPG articles are upmarket (in terms of the writing style and layout). We're not in MMS circles and arrows territory!

IMH

Layout: sure. But writing style??!?

The whole thing's very neatly put together, and most of the articles are search engine friendly and follow the house formula. But being professional -- in the same way a tabloid newspaper has to be professional to survive and thrive -- doesn't make a site "upmarket". Most of TPG's writing could benefit from being trimmed by ten to fifteen per cent, much of it by more.

[Maybe we need a thread without "Boarding Area" in the title if we want to discuss TPG and MMS?]

pricesquire

I think OMAAT's comments are some of the worst, easily on par with TPG.

The reason is: OMAAT's fans are drooling over Ben. He can do no wrong in their eyes. The comments range from "have a good flight, Ben!" to "leave Ben alone!"

FallenPlat

Ok, sure, those kinds of comments are pretty silly and, as you say, OMAT has more than its share of that sort of thing. (For what it's worth, I also skip most of the esoterica involving premium cabin redemptions on foreign airlines and almost anything having to do with credit cards.) But I think saying that OMAT's and TPG's comments are "on a par" with each other isn't really defensible. Put differently, I think that fawning silliness (OMAT) and simple lack of sophistication (TPG) are two very different problems. Perhaps in your view both problems nonetheless conflate into one -- the comments just aren't worthwhile -- but in my view the more insightful comments on OMAT make all the difference . . . or at least a lot of difference a lot of the time.

As I've said before about Boarding Area as a whole, I would certainly agree that you do have to pick and choose what you read.

lwildernorva

To be fair, he's had his share of true trolls who would post awful comments about his lifestyle and orientation--issues other blogs don't face. I think some of his regular commenters feel more protective of him as a result although I agree their comments tend to go overboard. I no longer go to OMAAT as often, but it's mostly because Ben's just gotten stuck in a feedback loop of premium cabins, airport lounges, and upscale chain hotels. After awhile, that just bores me because to my mind, on any decent trip, the airline flight ought to be a minor part of the experience, and if the world outside my hotel room is interesting enough, then I really only need a hotel with a good location that's kept safe and clean with a staff that's not rude to me (or anyone else, no matter the status).

Slightly OT, my sister sent me an article about the rash of uber-upscale first class cabins and asked me if I'd consider one (I regularly fly business class and did an international first last month while she's a coach devotee). In our email exchange, she said that she might consider one, but only if she was stuck on a plane--she rather get back on the ground and enjoy life again.

Just a reminder that FT is a definite subsection of the flying public and that bloggers like Ben are an even smaller subsection.