Yes, anyone that is not averaging at least 12 posts a year is out

I have a low total post count and have only been active for a short time, but anyone with half a brain could figure out some of these deals with a little effort. I think what AFWD did was reprehensible, but I don't see what could be done to stop it short of a subscription based forum with membership limited to referrals only, and even then, it could still be ripped off.

I eventually figured out the FD thing and know things now that could ruin lots of "deals" out there if I was a bad dog. But I am not a bad dog, just a fairly frequent flier and I hope a somewhat useful member of FT.

I think a paid forum goes against the spirit of FT. I stumbled across the site through Google, and over the past year I've studied to learn all the nuances of the FD, though I still have much to learn to get to Raffles's level. As a broke grad. student with a boyfriend overseas and an insatiable desire to travel, I'm not a real mileage runner but just looking for an affordable way to see the world. Now that I'm graduating and might actually have the freedom to pounce on some great flights, the FD loophole has been tightened to almost nil. Am I ticked off? You bet. But then again, it's not like I discovered this trick; in fact I would have never learned about it without FT. I find that, for the most part, the flyertalk forum model works very well. True, some people will join and spam boards out of greed, while others may rip deals to other sites out of ego, but despite the trolls I tend to believe that most members want to help each other out and learn more about traveling, not spoil everyone else's fun.

The Dog has shown absolutely no contrition, and has been fairly pompous about his �important� role assisting the traveling public.

This tells me it�s largely about ego and conceit, and the Dog will attack again given the opportunity.

Yeah, I sent an email and the reply I got was anything but contrite.

The email reply I got from the Dog was bordering on self-righteous. "Passing on a good deal". If they didn't foresee the eventual consequences, they sure aren't appropriately contrite. Leads me to think there were sour grapes in their motivation. Like "because Dog didn't think of it, we'll kill it for all".

So was it outright word for word plagiarism then from this site?

the big post on his wall right now (40+ comments) has been edited to show nothing but positive comments. what a tool he is. i commented on the wall a few hours ago. let's see how long it stays.

While I only ever took advantage of one of your "special" fares (to SYD last May) I enjoyed your posts and trying to duplicate your prices (never was able to do it, even on that SYD trip, but I got close 'nuff ).

Its sad that someone has to take the work of others and in the process ruin it for all

A paid model will not work. Airlines will cough up the cost of buying a subscription, so they will be in on it. As will anyone else who can make a buck reselling the information. Individual travelers get hit with the extra cost and will get frustrated at 'wasted money' if they don't feel they are getting ROI on the payment.

I'm a newb at the forum, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. It would be a shame if I was left out, a shame I tell ya

Welcome to FT! There really are no rules or even serious proposals to exclude you. These are just lots of ideas on what system might work best on the average, and you are welcome to contribute your own thoughts. Not sure who is listening though.

Whatever tricks you may have up your sleeves, this is not a good time to post them publicly, here or anywhere else. Let the dust settle. In the meantime, I would communicate via PM's, with people I find trustworthy (which is a judgment call, but better that than no call).

I'm not sure why there's any need to "let the dust settle." There's no need to be defensive. We simply alert one another to good deals that the airlines advertise, and that's that. Everything else is up to them. No decent deals, no alerting, right?

welcome to FT caravan70; the advertised fare may not necessarily be the trick, we do have some Twitter'ed fare on the forum. Looking forward to some interesting *A fare soon

It's not just the Dog, but others as well.

Some of us are very careful of who we way things to because we've been burned by others spreading the word for no reason other than to make themselves feel important.