goZing
 

From what I gather, goZing is an outside travel survey vendor. I understand & appreciate the fact that FT is probably making some money off of the referrals, but I think it's a little weird that it appears that they have their own forum. I'm assuming that any/all travel surveys should be posted here (i.e. any surveys from SPG for example that offer bonus miles & from other airlines too?) I just think it's weird that goZing has it's own sticky for a third-party revenue based site. Although I completely support FT making money to cover operational costs, etc, from advertising, etc, this seems to be a little over the top that certain companies have that kind of influence - I don't think theres anything wrong with companies like SPG & Marriott & Hilton having official reps/contact points & other airlines, etc, having lurkers, but it seems weird that there's now an advertising based forum - I don't think it'll detract from my FT experience, however, it seems to "cheapen" the (free & wonderful & personal - not corporate based) experience that is FT.

Another instance that disappointed me in the same regards that I never mentioned before is that in the SPG forum, there was a post about how to contact various SPG entities - SPG forum readers commented on it - some were less flattering than others - and that whole post was removed & replaced with a cleaner & "happier" post that didn't have any criticisms of SPG. Having that old post removed was a little disappointing & made me feel like FT "sold out" to SPG in some way.

Just my 2 cents...

In the hopes that Randy was making some money on this, I foolishly spent the 20 minutes on their survey.

This should be in the SPAM folder, not a sticky

I don't agree. This should be anywhere Randy feels like it.

If he put it there, I agree. I was afraid one of the moderators did it trying to scam a free honeymoon :p

The user has their own custom title, so I can only conclude that Randy or one of his staff took this action. Moderators also can not create new boards.