Well, if the personal experience was from before Oct 2008, then you should look again.

Heck, even Randy goes into Omni to ask questions, get opinions, and sometimes shoot the breeze.

The establishment of these types of threads (lounge ...) doesn't actually have any particular oversight from me as I've always been comfortable on local decisions within the forums. There certainly is always the goal of any forum to have the topics discussed there to be relevant to the forum description. I'd rather not get specifically involved in making a decision for a Community Lounge thread as I appreciate the implications it may have on existing and future threads in any of our forums. Now, having said that I did just recently make a comment to the volunteers of CommBuzz! in that I did find it interesting in the social media sense the new friendships that seemed to have sprung from the Come Fly To Me thread. The social dynamics were interesting. And I have recently suggested the establishment of a lounge thread for the UA forum when it gets ready to greet the members of the CO forum in that airline merger as recognition of the current Teh Penalty Box.

And while the idea seems popular, I'd like to point out that the idea for them did not come from myself or the TalkBoard, rather the idea actually came from a discussion among the volunteer Moderators -- so that group should certainly be recognized. But the idea is still being tested as to the extent of forums for the idea and really more importantly, the style and manner of the management of these threads which does have to figure into the equation. I would hope that our members understand that I understand the concept of Community, but you also understand that I remain deeply devoted to the topic of miles and points as the solid base for FlyerTalk.

Let me do my stream of conscious on this and comment further if I think it needs it but do like the consensus of the current team of volunteers in CommBuzz! which is actually a unique balance of our members.

Cool?