Increasing Irrelevant Buzz Postings
 

Dear fellow F-Ters,

I feel that the Buzz forum is increasingly clustered with irrelevant postings. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Let's try to keep off non Buzz postings such as hotel recommendations, cheap fare recommendation, jokes and etc from this forum. IMHO, we DO have appropriate forums handle such postings. I do not mind for newies making initial mistakes but I'm seeing more & more regular F-Ters are posting irrelevant topics. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

My two cents.

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Just what is a relevant topic for the Buzz?.?.?.?...... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

I thought "Buzz" was for irrelevant topics?? Maybe I'm wrong, I have been many times in the past http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

But really, I thought Buzz was for anything that was not a specific hotel, airline or car rental program subject or a coupon exchange type activity.



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Ken in Sacramento

Good post.

Just to update newcomers, bookmark this link to get to
Flyertalk without frames.

Also, keep in mind that:

The Buzz posting guidelines are:
Discussion of the latest frequent flyer buzz...

Examples of which are: Pudding Guy's latest Million Mile scheme!; Airline MXM's 10k-mile promo; etc.

General TravelTalk posting guidelines are:
Discussion of everything BUT frequent travel programs

Examples of which are: What are the best seats on the EMB-120?; Which airline has the best low-carb special meals?; Hotel recommendations in Laos; etc.

OMNI guidelines are:
A discussion of all things not related to travel

Examples of which are: Deja vu? Will the Blazers face Philly in the 2001 NBA finals?; UA posts $.31/share 4Q earnings; "Raid On Entebbe" terroists ticked at portrayal 25 years after the fact ...; etc.

Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 03-01-2001).]

Ooh. I just love self-referential postings. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

NJDavid posted, in 1999, the following guideline http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000020.html

Examples of which are: Pudding Guy's latest Million Mile scheme!; Airline MXM's 10k-mile promo; etc.


What is the latest? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Please note, however, that this was in the old pre-S.P.A.M. days! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

It is important to keep the board organized, and to keep threads in the right forums. Kind of like how it is important to keep your filing cabinet at home or the office organized, so if your looking for your 1996 tax return you don't have to look through your washing machine warranty in the same file folder.

For me, en example of what should not be here:
The thread on the hilton promtion for Gold. this was discussed for days, eben weeks in the Hilton forum, and the thread was launched by X, and Y took the idea, appropriated it and brought it back here. i do not think it is normal.

On the other hand, I would have understood that a simple link from the Buss to the Hilton threadon the Conquest promotion would have been appropriate.

Felis: By your definition, the Buzz would contain nothing but links.

As **** annoying as the Hilton thread became, I think it *does* belong in the Buzz. Just like "buy 40 bags of peanuts for 500 miles" or "Airline MXM's 10K mile promo" belong here.

I'd say that "4 HHonors stays for 50K points" was the hottest Buzz going on in February.

(Maybe I'm biased...I actually learned about this promo here, and was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of it. I owe the people here enormous thanks for a LOT of bonus points.)

What *would* be inappropriate in the Buzz: Ten threads about the same air/car/hotel promo. For that, you can go to the individual boards. I also agree that many "General Travel" threads wind up here.

Jetsetter, thanks for the advice, I have been looking for the washing machine warranty for awhile. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

RULES, RULES, RULES!! Why so many GOSH DARN RULES??

Help! We're being invaded by the commies!!
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Heil FlyerTalk
Heil Flyertalk

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Anarchy Rules
Anarchy Rules

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Yes, perhaps Anarchy actually does rule. I, too, find the Buzz has less and less to do with ff miles and is more and more chaotic and irrelevant. Look at just a few of the topics that had posts today... "Cheap and Decent Hotel in London," "Where to Stay in... Florence" "Where to Stay in Venice"... "Is the Seoul Airport open yet?" "Tube Strike Threatened".. "Airline Laughter".." You Be the Agent".. on and on and on with many more topics that belong in "General Travel" or "Omni" or "News". Of course, I can skip all these in "The Buzz", and I do that. But it gets more wearisome to plow through all this stuff to find worthwhile posts about miles..

I wonder if people post to The Buzz because it is the first Sub Board listed?

An interesting experiment would be to moved it under Coupon Connection.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

William

What is this about the Blazers meeting Philly in the finals???

Sam, have you lost your mind? The Clippers are beating the Blazers! Sorry to go OMNI especially in the BUZZ.

I think wharvey may be onto something here.
I love the way Rudi explained his thoughts.
and
I don't like to upset myself about why something is posted here and not there. Life is too short to get my knickers in a twist over something so trivial. I plow through the subject headings and move on if it doesn't interest me. Period.

I also agree with wharvey. I think if the positions of The Buzz and General Travel Talk were reversed, most of the postings that really belong under General Travel Talk would be posted there.

I like the guidelines developed by NJDavid and refered to by Rudi.

They are what I'll be using. However, I am not the "order police" so I won't get upset if others feel differently. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Are posts about off-topic posts on Buzz off-topic on Buzz? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I actually did think it through my "You Be the Agent" thread which was the right board. It was about multiple airlines, so it wasn't really appropriate on the individual airline boards. It wasn't about General Travel, so that was out. It came down to Omni or Buzz -- Omni seems to be more about Survivor, In-N-Out Burgers and sports, these days. Since the post touched on some Frequent Flyer program issues (like companion upgrades, waivers, certificate misuse), I opted for Buzz.

Sorry if offended anyone. Some threads are hard to classify exactly.

Rudy hit the nail on the head, as usual.

And who the heck is that idiot several posts above mine.

Maybe a post on the 'how to's' is in order here, or maybe that's OMNI. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Dan

I think it's so cute when people try to police the Internet.

It's so cute when people join a group and don't read the FAQs and accepted terms for the group. I don't mean to single out anyone, but there are so many topics that are off-topic it is difficult for one to even read the buzz anymore. What happened to that idea of moderators? I also think we can all cut back on the attitude and sarcasm. Someone expressed a view, we are discussing it. Some people listen and learn. Others will never see themselves as the problem. But we could ALL try to be a BIT more "on topic" and a bit more cordial to one another. So I'll start by apologizing for my sarcastic first sentence of this post. Although the meaning behind it is sincere - we DO have some accepted guidelines here at FT.

I am fairly new here so perhaps I should not make too many judgments too fast but I agree with ]DH. When I go to the Buzz I want to read about some great mile earning opportunity or a ground shaking earth quake. (Posting a link to the original thread in the News about the SEA earthquake was a good way of handling it. Not everyone reads the News)

It needs to benefit a lot of people. I admit my 2nd post was a thread I started in the Buzz. I don't remember what it was about but I thought it would receive the most attention there. Since then I created a post in Omni where. It did not receive as much traffic but that is where it belongs.

When someone is asking a question, no matter what it is about it is not a Buzz topic.

Anyway, wharvey had an excellent suggestion. Since Buzz has basically turned into OMNI. I think OMNI should be the first topic on the list.

The new FT will be coming out soon. Hopefully it will be organized completely different.

Perhaps a FORUM title, that is MORE descriptive of the TOPICS to be included within. The BUZZ alludes to anything that causes a discussion or is current stuff.

Shouldn't this thread be on OMNI?

Sorry......an uncalled for swipe at the posting police.

I think a good use of Buzz for the Hilton Gold promotion would have been to anounce the promotion and post a link to the Hilton forum where the discussion could have taken off.

Nobbi

There do seem to have been a lot of what I’d consider General Travel topics posted in The Buzz lately. Something in the water? Cabin fever? What I’ve noticed is how many of those topics begin with the “maybe this should have gone elsewhere but it’ll get attention here” disclaimer.

wharvey: an interesting point – something as simple as layout sometimes has a tremendous effect on function.

Roadrunner: you also have a good point. Calling it “The Buzz” implies it’s the forum for whatever’s immediately “happening”. Furthermore, the subheading reinforces that idea: Discussion of the latest frequent flyer buzz. Clear as mud.

The FAQ page does not address how to choose a forum to post in. NJDavid’s guidelines passed on by Rudi are amusing and useful, but they’re not exactly easily accessible. And opus is right: some topics are simply ambiguous. (Is that an oxymoron?)

Compared to other issues of the moment, all this doesn’t strike me as terrifically important, but it may be worth mentioning in light of the touted redesign of Flyertalk. I expect Randy & Co. have tried to take things like this into account. More importantly, I hope they’ll be ready to take feedback once the new site is up and running, and to make further modifications as needed. Maybe I’ll cross-post in several other forums to make sure – no, sorry, not a good joke right now.

dhammer53, re “and who the heck is that idiot several posts above mine?”: I really don’t want to know!