Just what is Milesbuzz?
 

I don't normally do this and I'm sure I'll be on the losing side of any 'vote' as to relevance, but I really found closure of this thread to be inconsistent with Milesbuzz:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321128

If you look at what is being discussed in that forum on a daily basis, it may well be called SPAM #2. The dominant topic is miles for gift certificates, miles for insurance, miles for accepting charges or moving miles into specific programs.

I would not have known about this promotion if not for the thread above, and it looks like well over 700 other folks found the subject interesting.

The sticky in Miles Buzz says:
"What’s that? Well, if you think there is a miles or points offer that the entire FlyerTalk community should know about, then this is the place to post it!"

It sure seems that was done in this case, but was shut down by the mod. I know the sticky goes on to say:
"If you have a question about a specific airline or program, you should post in that airline or programs own forum."

This thread obviously relates to NWA. But if one of the best promos of the year doesn't get a life in Buzz why do these specific program threads (some of which the mod has even replied in):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321391 (Air France)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320565 (Visa, SPAM or UA)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=319314 (ATT if that forum still exists :confused: )

I'm not posting this to bust the chops of the mod who closed this thread down. I am posting it b/c I and countless others would not have known about this promotion were it not for the post cited above. If the intent of the mod is to force everyone to read every forum, I believe that the effectiveness of the site overall is diminished.

I always tell my customers that I can help them if they give me specific action items, so I guess I'd better come up with some of my own to wind this down.

I would ask that some level of consistency be applied when determining what is 'buzzworthy' and what is not. Also, why not a sticky for the Top 10 current promos as identified by IF magazine?

That's all I've got. It just upset me to think of all the promos I'm going to miss out on in the future due to my lack of time to read every forum daily.

Cheers.

Have you emailed the moderator that closed the thread?

Moderators make judgment calls, and speaking only for myself I'm open to having those calls criticized. Sometimes another poster will see things in a different way than I did, and I've been known to re-open a thread if a convincing case can be made.

Just wondering if you've tried that route before venting your frustration here?

In this particular case, I think it's pretty clear that the discussion of the promo is going on in the Northwest forum and that the discussion should probably stay there. pgary posted a cross-reference to the promo, Moderator2 closed the thread so that the discussion would stay unified in one place, you and many others learned about the promo from the cross-reference. I'm not sure I see the problem exactly, but I'm dense sometimes (and I didn't receive an email from you, either).

Admittedly a closed thread will fall off the board after a few days, but so will a cross-reference that's left open if all the discussion ends up in the airline forum in question.

Which is why something like:
is probably a very good idea. I actually mentioned to a poster yesterday that I might try to put together a thread referencing some of the best opportunities throughout the board. I haven't quite gotten there, and I'm not sure that I will, but if you wanted to scour Flyertalk and update such a post it would probably be sticky-worthy. (I'm not sure the answer is Inside Flyer's Top 10 but that's debateable certainly.)

As for I see that you posted in the thread rather than reporting the post to a moderator or emailing about it.

I posted a couple answers in the thread, and I'll tell you why. The poster asked about claiming an Air France award with miles from other accounts. The poster laid out miles from several programs and asked how to redeem those miles, with the goal being a seat on an Air France plane.

The Frequence Plus program wasn't actually an issue here at all. It was kind of a 'mileage makeover' question, which has historically been considered quite appropriate for MilesBuzz.

So I didn't think it off-topic at all, and was even surprised by your take. But you are always welcome to make the case (and provide a bit more explanation than just "Buzz........?") and I'm more than happy to listen.

Regards,
Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz and Delta moderator

I'm not sure what is unclear about my post here that prevents you from seeing the problem. I believe the original post is the exact sort of thing encouraged by the sticky note and that it should not have been muted so quickly. Even more so when one considers the posts that are allowed to flourish that seem even more off topic.

My 'buzz...' comment was made out of wondering how this Air France post was sprinkled by a mod when the NWA promo clamped. Was it b/c it was a cross post or b/c this easy way to earn 10,000 miles redeemable on NWA, CO or Delta really didn't belong...guess it doesn't matter. Don't forget that the CO and Delta flyers stood to benefit from this and may not read the NWA forum.

Sorry I offended you by questioning the consistency being displayed as has obviously occured. This is my one shot. I'm not going to go running to the mod every time I see something I don't care for and unlike that famous post padder we all know I'm not going to throw out the 'buzz?' or 'a search might help' all the time.

Again, this one thread that was closed simply highlights a problem to me. I don't really give a rip whether the thread is closed, opened, moved, deleted or whatever. I'd just hope that those of us with some time constraints have a good shot to learn about the true Miles Buzz topics, like this promo, without having to go to each individual forum.

I'd say go for the sticky note. You don't like the Inside Flyer top 10 (don't know why that wouldn't be a good start) so I'm not real sure who's opinion would be good to use there. I personally feel that Buzz is no longer useful to me. I liked having threads that equated to a top 10 type of thing like this promo, the old AA 20k promo a few years back and so on. If they don't show up in Buzz, FT is not serving its purpose...that's just my opinion.

Don't take this as a personal attack on the moderators; sorry if you're offended, sorry if my point is not clear at this point as you state, and thanks for the work you give the board.

Actually, I'm not offended at all, I was just trying to answer your concern or offer a different perspective.

And FWIW I've taken your suggestion and started a thread on the best current mileage deals on Flyertalk. If folks find it useful I'll sticky it. We'll see.

Thanks,
Gary

FWIW, this has come up before, countless times, including here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=196678


And FWIW, here is the current thread that Gary alluded to:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321723


Excellent job, Gary! Thanks! :)

-Mark