dayone

Since we're offering unsolicited opinions and suggestions, I agree with KISS and one or just a few stickies.

I also respectfully propose that the current stickies be reviewed for currency and that some be unstickied. Stickies add clutter, impede navigation and many don't receive the views or updates commensurate with their priority positioning.

TomBrady

This is what i personally would like to see. I love the property specific posts, but a lot of times I feel like they can push some of the other threads to far down. More often the best discussions are about the program as a whoel Personally when Im looking for area or property help i hit the search button on the forum anyway. I also agree that getting more than 2 sub threads is madness.

mahasamatman

I know you didn't mean to, but you've proven my point. If a thread is that active, there's no need for it to be a sticky. Stickies are most effective for useful but hard-to-find threads.

On my MacBookPro, with a full-screen browser, the Marriott forum hasAnd when there are any announcements, active threads don't start until page 4. Completely ridiculous. If stickies were at the bottom of the page, it would help.

CJKatl

The Travel Package thread is not a sticky yet at 634k views it has more views than any of the stickies except the discount code one. The fact it is not a sticky does not seem to have kept people from finding it or using it. The Plat Status in Eight Days thread and the Elite Status threads also have more hits than any of the stickies but the discount code one. Obviously the information in those three threads is more important to users than anything in the other stickies yet people have not avoided those threads because they are not stickies. That negates the arguments that the most important information is in the stickies, people need stickies to find information and people will not use the threads unless they are stickies. While the information in stickies is important enough to be on the forum it is not of such special importance that it needs to be in front of everything else.

In short, while a few people tell us the stickies provide the information people want to access most front and center, the numbers tell a different story.

Another thing: What continues to stand out to me is that all the other FT forums have managed to survive and thrive without the dozen-plus and always growing stickies. Why are there a few people insisting the stickies need to be there when everyone else gets along fine without them?

ryw

For me, the point of a sticky is to have something that is not updated very often, but maintains high importance/relevance to the community and would otherwise get pushed down - often threads that are more about static information than discussion. (Thus something that's active like the Platinum status in Eight Days thread is fine to live on its own). I'd consider some of the threads (ala the Weekend/Holiday Lounge threads) to be informational. For instance, the domestic lounge thread is probably the MR forum thread that I look at the most as reference when I'm searching for properties to stay at, though I've only posted a couple updates in there.

I do agree that there are more stickies than what are needed, and should consider removing some, but I think we might want to look at view count (scaled to how long the thread has been active), as another way to understand their usefulness than post count alone.

(Side note, I actually don't mind the usability aspects of the number of stickies we have - a single roll of the scrollwheel on the mouse or 1 swipe on my phone gets me down to the regular threads easily. But again, I appreciate the need to cut down on the stickies. While I know which 4-5 stickies I would cut, I always assumed that the stickies I don't read are relevant to other FTers, so whatever choice happens it seems likely it'll be sub-optimal for some group. Who knows though, maybe we can actually get a group of people on FT to agree on something ).

bhrubin

I notice that the moderators list for this Marriott Forum now includes those from both the Marriott Forum and Starwood Forum:

bdschobel, AZ Travels the World, Oxon Flyer, yosithezet, hhoope01

I wonder if @bdschobel, @AZ Travels the World, @Oxon Flyer, @yosithezet, and/or @hhoope01 might be able to offer any information on what will happen to the Forums--and when--once the Aug 18 merger is completed?

SkiAdcock

They probably will - after 8/18

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

Since we're all going to be one dysfunctional, er, happy, family in 8 days , I've started adding SPG properties to the 2 exec lounge stickies in this forum. That way if someone is looking at a particular city they can see what's up w/ lounge or breakfast if no lounge w/ both SPG/MAR properties. Also, it will be more helpful to have both listed once the forums get merged.

I'm going from what's currently listed in the SPG lounge thread but shortening it to 'just the facts' like MAR, which is open/closed - some of the SPG posts are very brief - has lounge, but others are 2-3 lines w/ descriptions of offerings. Since there's actually a character limit on a single post (which is why we split the MAR sticky into US & ROW a year ago) I'm not including all the extra verbiage, as I also think that's more pertinent in actual property threads. I'm also checking some SPG property websites for info.

I just started today so it will take me the next few days to get everything updated. Also, don't shoot the messenger if the info is no longer valid or hasn't been updated recently. On the SPG wiki, there often is no date listed next to the update & unlike our sticky thread where someone posts an update it's date/timestamped, with the wiki don't easily have that option.

And crikey - silly me to start w/ Asia. Like MAR, SPG has a lot of properties in Asia. I'll feel like I've really accomplished something when I get through w/ Asia

Cheers.

bhrubin

Wow, that's a lot of work, Sharon. Even if I don't care for lounges, myself, I thank you on behalf of everyone on the Marriott and SPG forums for taking so much time to compile and confirm that info.

SkiAdcock

Thanks - and you're welcome.

I've now updated both the US & ROW exec lounge stickies in this forum w/ SPG properties; info based on the listings in the existing SPG lounge thread. There may be properties missing (for example, in my state I know there were a few SPG properties not listed so I added them), but I really don't have the time to do that for each state & each country at the moment. It took me quite a bit of time to just get SPG added in (did I mention yet that Asia was long - between MAR & SPG they must own the Asia market, or at least in China ).

I'll do another pass in a month or so to find any missing properties when the IT merger is sorted - ie, none of us expect this weekend to go smoothly. And then I'll get back to updating the US states (ie, calling all the properties), which I had started to do but stopped to incorporate SPG properties into the stickies before 8/18/18.

Of course, both SPG & MAR FTers are encouraged to add their updates on either existing properties or properties that are missing from the threads. That would be much appreciated.

One thing I should note - when the SPG/MAR first occurred, there were a lot of yeah MAR has a lot of CYs but I don't need those/don't travel, pooh, etc.. Having just updated US & ROW stickies I will note that SPGers are getting a LOT more full-service options than they had w/ just SPG, including in cities, states & countries they didn't have options before. And MAR are getting some of the same ( SPG gaining way more than MAR). But a win-win for both sides on full-service options.

Cheers.

Muerz

soy

Well we know the answer now.
We have a new forum for the new program which right now has no threads, and the existing SPG and MRR forums are sub-forums. Just like how they dealt with some of the airline mergers

AZ Travels the World

FYI, there is a post in the new Marriott forum which speaks to the structure going forward:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...ott-forum.html

-AZ

Wickersley

AZ Travels the World

The stickies were tagged to move to the new forum as part of a mass movement of threads at the data base level. They came through retaining their stickiness, which we didn't anticipate. Evaluating the merits of each of the stickies is on our list to complete in this transition process, so within a few days I'm confident that list will be shorter.