MilesBuzz Forum Question
 

To the Moderators,

This is a serious question, without any accusations or ulterior motives. Why is it that some MilesBuzz threads are quickly moved to specific forums and other MilesBuzz threads, with almost identical subjects, remain on the MilesBuzz forum?

For example, at this time there are several threads that have been recently moved from MilesBuzz, including: Old vs New AmEx Biz Gold Rewards, Earning Points w/ Travelocity Packages?, Targeted Offers, I'm Considering Trying to Fly 3 Million Miles on UA/CO in a Short Period of Time, 83K AA Miles Update from Customer Relations!.

At this same time, there are many threads, some very longstanding, that seem to fit the exact same mold as the threads named in the paragraph above, including: American Airlines Citi / Citibank Card, 75K sign up bonus [read post #2 first], SPG Amex - 30,000 bonus Starpoints [Open to all], 2000 Delta Miles For Bose (150 Instant + 350 Easy + 1500 W/Purchase), [extra 50K expired]Chase Sapphire Preferred card 50K points.

It would seem that each of the threads named in the paragraph immediately above could easily have been moved to the appropriate airline or hotel or credit card program forum. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between the topics of the threads named in the 2 paragraphs above yet some have stayed on MilesBuzz and some have been moved.

I mention this as it seems that the MilesBuzz forum gets the most attention. A thread that’s moved from MilesBuzz seems to have a much shorter lifespan than if it had remained on MilesBuzz. A perfect example is the “Churn question” thread which was moved from the MilesBuzz forum to the Credit Card Programs forum where it quickly ended after 34 posts. Had it remained on MilesBuzz it would have remained active for a much longer period of time probably with hundreds of posts.

The nature of the topics for discussion for each specific forum are stated along with the Forum titles. The “Welcome to MilesBuzz! Read me first!” thread is noted but it doesn’t have many comments from moderators and it's quite dated. It’s also understandable that all threads cannot be on MilesBuzz yet decisions to move or not move a thread from MilesBuzz seem arbitrary. Is this just the way FY works or is there something else that is not so readily apparent?

Inquiring minds want to know…
Thank you.
Respectfully,

+1 Always wondered this too

Locked while mods consider a reply. :)

We volunteer moderators work hard to moderate the MilesBuzz! forum. It is a difficult forum to moderate, for exactly the reasons made obvious by your questions. It's tough to have "hard and fast" rules, but we try to be consistent as much as we can.

In general, mileage deals that have the potential for "large" mileage rewards are kept in MilesBuzz!, even if they involve a specific airline or program. Think of MilesBuzz! as a place for mileage addicts. We want to know IMMEDIATELY when there's an opportunity for a large score. For example, large credit card point bonuses, or a method of gaining a large amount of airline miles. On the other hand, general questions about credit cards will be moved to the Credit Card Programs forum. Some older threads have been grandfathered in to avoid confusion.

Sometimes, if there's already a thread about the topic in another forum, we will just merge the two in the other forum.

Things can never be perfectly consistent when you have more than one moderator. You will certainly see some variations on how posts are handled. But we are of the same mind about the end result, which is an informative, civil forum.

Me too, thanks mods for the response.

Have you ever thought about creating a new forum more for the "questions" or newbie type discussions? Seems like this past year there's been an uptick in new folks with general questions and I'd think it might make it a bit easier on mods and readers alike to have the "buzz" threads separate from the "questions/advice" threads.

Anyway thanks for all your work mods, I know it's probably a pain sometimes especially with the busier forums like MilesBuzz!

Understood, thank you very much.