I guess a discussion like this here will have some influence on Patron and everything will balance out a bit. Please remember that this moderator job is newly assigned and we have a board here that doesn't have any experience with moderation. So not an easy job...

Anyhow: This board is owned and governed by Randy and he has set up some of the rules. And as he has decided that posts should stay on topic rather than be a "Stammtisch-Runde" we should keep to that. And I just think that it's the right way to do so. It's getting very hard to find anything again if the posts have non-specific headlines, are going off-topic and develop into a funny private discussion sometimes. Some jokes are O.K., but the funny posts without much reference to LH should be posted in OMNI and such boards IMO.

Please don't lets make to much a fuzz about all this. Wait and see. And help Patron with his job rather then only criticizing him.

As one of those guilty of taking the thread off topic, I understand the moderator's point of view.

Based on the topic, you would never be able to find the Currywurst discussion were someone to look for it.

It is a hard decision to know when something has gone too far astray.

I think most posters are not really critizing Patron, but making suggestions how the moderation could be even better.

agreed. I like the example, where the moderator first would post a "topic reminder" and ask people to start postic relevant info.

He can then still close the thread if he feels the comments have not swayed back in the right direction.

Isn't that because some members of the board turn immediately to Randy, as soon as someone voices a comment that stands in contradiction to the general view of the majority of board members - those who feel that SEN qualification is to high and the benefits are to low....


Why did not all of those who now are complaining about the job PATRON does, not put forward their application in the first olace, wehn there was a request on Randy's behalf, or then again if they did so, why was PATRON choosen and not they. As some one pointed out - I believe Ralf Krippner, the board is Randy - i.e he is the host and lets us partake on his board, and he has made the decision that he sees PATRON as the right person to moderate and support the board, so let us support both of them - rather than just critizising - remeber we are guests IMHO.

Cheers

Thomas

First of all let me say this: I see the most important goal, that the opener of a thread receives a reliable answer. Before I do any action as a moderator, I think first what I can I do in favour for the opener of the thread and second what in favour for the spirit of FlyerTalk (eg ability to search in a timely manner, others do not get board).

As I foresaw, there are members who will blame me, that I closed this thread. Honestly speaking, if the same situation come to pass, I would do the same move again.

There are some members who accept this move, others argue, I made the wrong decision. curts contribution is quite helpful to discuss about the intention of the second group:

The topic of the thread in question was cutbacks in F and not about Currywurst places. I tried to explain, that we also have valuable (more silent) members who are interested to read, if LH did cutback in F. If these people see a new post since their last visit and look it up, they maybe are as annoyed to read about sausage sellers as others about closed threads.

Randy & his team decided that within FlyerTalk Miles (stick with FlyerTalk Miles for all your miles and points information) he offers a LH forum where the discussion regarding Lufthansa Miles & More takes place. Besides that, he introduced FlyerTalk Travel, FlyerTalk Dining, FlyerTalk Airports & FlyerTalk Archives with countless boards to the community. There must be reasons for that; maybe one, that a structure is very important and if we try to stick to that structure, the quality of discussion could improve.

Randy & his team sees three primary roles for moderators. They enforce the rules, provide first-level dispute resolution and guide posters towards good behaviour. Enforcing the rules is the obvious task, and moderators will be called upon to take real action, by closing threads, moving them, and even removing them altogether. More often, though, he hopes that moderators will be able to guide posters towards good behaviour.

I see two points in this statement:
1. our forum: LH forum is not a place defined by some contributors. It goes without saying that our ability to post here is purely at the will Randy and his team. He & his team have compiled guidelines and rules to help us get the most from our FlyerTalk experience.

2. Why do we have moderators? Randy & his team thought that FlyerTalk needs some help to keep things running smoothly. He looked for volunteers and asked � among others - to be a supporter of the current moderation criteria. I applied and was accepted. After a while, Randy and his crew can decide if it was worth establish moderation on the LH board at all or � more specifically - if I did more harm than good and he will replace me.

To conclude, as the LH forum is the wrong place for these issue, I close this thread and as LH738 suggests, I bring this discussion to Randy's attention.

Patron
LH TalkTeam Moderator

Yes, that is the point: search & find. If somebody searches for e.g. F-class amenities he will receive a lot of threads that have nothing to do with the search topic - but are about Currywurst, ... For people posting in a forum it is very easy to find "good" threads about e.g. F-Class amenities - but it's very hard for people who rarely read a forum or even have a look into a forum for the first time. It is expected that these people do a search first before asking a question. Unfortunately you get lost in many forums after a search where a lot of ("useless") threads show up.

I agree on that, too
And the LH board is becoming an example for the typical German behaviour...everything must be 100% correct and be controlled twice. No fun just working strictly on the rules.