I also must say, being responded to in blog form by Brian now twice due my criticism(s) in this thread, he has come off as extremely measured, humble, and likeable. I still viscerally dislike the picture, but he has at least stepped up to the plate and responded to criticism in a very personable and rational way, unlike one of his fellow BA bloggers, who responds to any perceived slight on FT with a barrage of knee-jerk and defensive posts. I am beginning to understand why so many on FT are quick to come to Brian's defense.

I always appreciate being reminded that this forum is required reading for points, miles and transportation bloggers. ^@:-)

The BBB should never have come into existence.

Clearly the M O D eration is atrocious.

It is no wounder FT is asking for help of what to do next.

Close this board would be step one! ^

I control-clicked "quote" to respond to your post in a background tab before continuing to read the thread, so I see it's been addressed already in his blog post, but I think I'm going to make the comment I was going to make when I first read your post.

I think the thing that makes Brian such a refreshing voice (I know him reasonably well in person) is that he almost certainly does care what you think. He may not necessarily agree with you (I don't), but he appreciates all perspectives and takes all points of view into account when making what he feels is the best decision. He is one of the nicest, most open-minded people I know.

(And now, having finished the rest of this thread and his blog post and seen others' and his responses, I hope that comes across to you!)

The Better Business Bureau serves an enormous value in protecting consumers.

I think you meant "wonder." You realize your post comes right after a series of posts talking about a blogger in a positive light, right? If you were honest, respectful, and gracious, perhaps you could receive praise too. As I've noted before, I never thought you were a bad person until I read your posts here.

The only businesses that argue a forum for criticism should be shut down are those who realize sunshine is the best disinfectant and fear that.

(Ironically, if this forum were shUT down, you'd have one less place to artificially drive up page views.)

If this board bothers you so much, why don't you just ignore it?

For example, there is this terrible blog out there called renespoints.com - filled with all sorts of bad advice and bad grammar. My reaction to it is to ignore it. Perhaps you should try doing the same here?

I've found this thread interesting, and while from a certain perspective, definitely information about Boarding Area I wouldn't have known without it. Flyertalk is a great place to get multiple viewpoints IMO.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Even Delta didn't want their brand name associated with his 'bog'

Does anyone know if there is a 'new' 'exciting' 'big deal' 'amazing' 'very nice' Ritz Carlton branded credit card available?

If so, does anyone know where I can read a dozen or so articles about it?

By "articles," do you mean hastily assembled, copy-paste jobs riddled with cliches, poor grammar, and "what do you think?" platitudes? Then yes.

Actually, yes. That is precisely what I meant.

Thank you.

I wonder...when a card gets a makeover like this, are the TITANS able to do some quick math in their heads and say 'this program tweak is going to make me $X ?

To be fair, as a Brit with nothing like this on the UK market, I was reading the details on VFTW and thinking 'wow, I wish I could get something like this'.

To be honest, my 2nd thought was 'and think how many I could sell'.

My 3rd thought then being 'but I wouldn't be paid for any of them' .....

Read the comments. Most of the 'benefits' are classic bait and un-redeemable.

Some good news (and I bet you can't guess what it is):

'Facebook is escalating its war on “clickbait” headlines by instituting a new system on its newsfeed that will weed out misleading and exaggerated headlines the same way that email spam filters weed out fantastic offers to help Nigerian princes recover their lost fortunes.

The tweaks to the algorithm, announced today in a blog post, will de-prioritize posts with headlines that “withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations”.'

Great start! Next they need to de-emphasize any blog post that ends with a contrived request for engagement. What do you think: should Facebook do that? Post your comments below.


:D