Boarding Area's Fall
 

Let's talk about BA's rapid decline into a garbage dumb that seems to only be accelerating. I don't mean the generally declining quality of the content that bloggers produce, but rather the Boarding Area apparatus itself.

"But RFD, what do you mean? Isn't it just a landing page?"

Sure, but it's a landing page that USED to give the appearance of bloggers being vetted for content and quality before acceptance. In 2014, I've seen the site add tons of bloggers and for the most part, are just rehashing the same garbage as the other ones. Apparently, you no longer need something to differentiate your blog from others, but rather just a different blog title.

Let's look at what gems BA has brought us this year:

1. Will run for miles
2. Running with miles

^^Are they even trying anymore?

3. Thread tripping (Definitely needs to learn how to in-line link better)
4. Magic of Miles
5. Canadian Travel Hacking (Here, his competition with CAN Kilometers has cheapened the latter's blog…sad)
6. Points and Pixie Dust (Cannot stand this author, especially after her maniacal foray into healthcare provider territory)
7. Pizza in motion (Really?)
8. Jeffsetter (I really have nothing specific to dislike, but there's also nothing I can find on his blog that I can't find on someone else's)

And I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of other ones too

There is a total of one that actually seems to add real value to the BA collection:

1. Travelblawg - Unquestionably unique travel blog compared to the others
2. TBD

I can't be the only one that thinks this to be the case. Thoughts?

Mods: Maybe you can let this one play itself out instead of acting like a over controlling mother and closing a thread down the first time someone calls someone "stupid." Let's try not to play China on this one

You are not alone
 

I read only two BA blogs and I do not get to them via BA as I don't want BA to get the click.

This year it seems that BA has just been on a rapid descent to the bottom. All it is for the most part is a group of excuses to pump cards. I went there once and I swear nearly every featured blogger and the same bs headline about a CC. OMAAT self serving Kickstarter combined with Points and Pixie Dust Ambien for a child post were the deal breakers. I use to visit BA all the time and now Saverocity, TBB, Travel is Free, etc get my page views.

I've thought the same thing. There's such a quantity vs. quality disparity. For that matter, I gave up (i.e., too lazy:)) trying to count how many total bloggers they have listed.

I don't know how a newcomer to the site would ever find a blog or two that they like and identify with unless they really were motivated to trudge through each one. I'd imagine the blogs that are most commonly on the front page would catch the most newbie fish.

Maybe if they were categorized but I'm not sure what categorization methods would work, or if that would even matter since so many just repeat the same things (did you know there are some limited time CC offers out there, or that AA is reducing its 772 business seat quantity??)

Now they have some foreign language blogs, which is fine though I'm not sure if they offer anything unique - I suppose they may not pimp CCs since that's such a U.S. based phenomenon.

Like the OP, I don't see the value in everything that's been added. Apparently their formula is Miles & Points Blog + Characteristic X = Great New Content, where Characteristic X is some supposedly unique "perspective" (running, Canadian, pixie dust, etc). Which in theory sounds good, but I generally don't see their content really bringing much different to the table.

I only read a couple BA blogs regularly.

What about First2Board.com? I've admittedly only read a few blogs there on occasion, mostly Mr Pickles. How do folks feel it compares to BA in some of these areas?

Exactly! And it passed the realm of ridiculous a long time ago... Perhaps it's ludicrous (for any of you space balls fans out there)

Boarding Area's Fall
 

10 bucks says oliver2002 prematurely closes this thread. I PM'd him asking why he randomly closed my last two in this forum and he never responded.

"What'sa matter, Colonel Sanders, chicken?!" Great movie.

I think you have to start with what you know, and a lot of the BoardingArea bloggers know miles and points. They then put their own unique spin and/or give their take on the miles/points news of the day. There are some who will go beyond this and also feature destinations, hotel reviews, etc. Still others will have a specific perspective (Running with Miles, Spaceballs Milers, etc.).

So as consumers we start from something we all have in common (miles and points), then if you want something more you go and find it. BoardingArea has a lot of blogs, sure, but I imagine a lot of people eventually gravitate towards 2-3 that they actively follow (based on the right fit of perspective) and then monitor the front page for anything else that grabs their attention. So it shouldn't be incredibly surprising that a lot of the content is similar, a lot of the bloggers are starting from the same foundation and building on top of that in their own unique way.

I think from time to time bloggers will fall into the rut of letting the news of the day provide them with their content, instead of their content driving the news of the day. They're only human. That said, with the amount of various bloggers they have, BA will inevitably generate more unique (non-news) content than any other blog network out there over almost any period of time, and that's what ultimately sets them apart.

I don't know if I'm completely objective here though. I completely underestimated how much time and effort a travel blog can be, and I'm nothing (in terms of traffic) compared to the following that many of these people have. So if nothing else I respect them for putting themselves out there.

A couple of silly blogs of course, but PizzaInMotion?

When Mods close a thread, it's for a reason. As a new member 100orBust, if they're closing your threads, you may want to re-think what you're posting. @:-)

Boarding Area's Fall
 

Both threads were commented on by many normal readers- I believe you might have been one. And nope no reason other than 'well I think this has run it's course'.

And I'm not new, this is just a merged new sn.

Lets stay on topic. Comments about moderation are a nono on FT:
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules....deratoractions

Regards Oliver2002
Mod EM&PR forum

^^

Tommy and Co. seem to forget that content is key. Credit card shilling and re-blogging things from FT or other blogs isn't exactly content people will seek out.

BA is a CC link spewing pit.
Hell. Any wiff of a change they plug the cards even harder.

Thanks for linking Oliver.

PizzaInMotion = Ed Pizzarello: https://twitter.com/pizzainmotion

Ed = co-owner of MilePoint (along with Randy, Gary and Tommy): Do any milepointers besides Randy have a financial stake in milepoint? Is there a way to get one?

So while the name of the blog is kinda silly on its face, its author is a big name in the points and miles ventures world.

FWIW




As for the OP, my feeling is that it's 2 things driving the glut of blogs at BA

1) To maximize monetization (either for RMR under the BA business model or for valuation for a future sale) the key is volume, volume, volume.

2) Randy's still a hippie. So the more the merrier in his drum circle! :)

"garbage dumb" !!

Ok, I'm guilty of popping over there just now to see if any of the featured on the home page are talking about the WM death spiral re VGCs. Not a peep! I think it's sort of important as all the pumpers tell the noobs how to MS using VGCs and WM to meet min spend. Looks like that door closed.

If you call $2 extra per 1k closed :o