Back in April, with no consultation with the members of this forum, the IC forum moderator unilaterally decided he would move and effectively ban any further posts relating to exchanges or gifting of IC 2nd night certs on the forum.

On the surface, this appeared to be a good decision consistent with FT practices. Afterall, if Coupon Exchange offers were to appear within fora like Hilton, SPG, Hyatt, UA, CO et al, there would be a deluge and those fora could become unmanageable and dysfunctional.

However, the IC Forum is a small one, and it has maybe two dozen regular correspondents, and another couple of dozen drop-ins and lurkers. Let's face it, we're number four or five and quite happy about it. We get little respect among the hotel program biggies. But we are generally happy with our lot and trying to figure out the vaguaries of the PRIORITY CLUB frequent stay program, and AMBASSADOR benefits one.

We here are a lot like those on the Air Canada/Aeroplan forum, which because the vast majority of posters reside in Canada, takes on a bit of a different complexion, covering Off-Topic (OT) things that only Canadians "get", and even having its own intergral Coupon Exchange.

The premise there is that those who visit that forum do not generally visit many other FT fora regularly. That because of the relatively exclusive nature of Aeroplan upgrade certs [they can only be used by elites of that program and not "outsiders"] it is pointless to bother posting on Coupon Exchange since most AC Forum readers seldom venture there. Furthermore, the ethos on that forum is to help out other members if they should happen to be short an SWU or lounge pass. We know that if we help someone out now, there will be someone else who will help us out when we need help. And generally, there is little compensation asked for. The majority of "exchanges" are actually give-aways or lends.

The AC Forum also has no moderator. Though a short while ago, a number of moderators from other fora decided to intervene and shut down this tradition of exchanges. Within hours, the community rose up and threw off the prohibition, and expelled the interloping moderators. There were also in that short period attempts to shut down threads and/or move them. That too was short lived.

So I am positing that the IC forum is much like the AC forum. That those of us who frequent it may occasionally visit other fora, but tend to check this one and our primary airline one when we sign onto FT, and seldom others. [I seldom or never visit Coupon Exchange, and only in the past while when I have seen offers related to IC certs pop up in the initial fora index.]

For that reason, I would like to get some feedback to determine if -- now that the flurry of DL/AMBs have disposed of their 2nd night certs -- we should now remove the "prohibition", and permit the posting of exchanges within the IC forum itself. I also maintain that by moving this activity from the general Coupon Exchange forum, we might return to the situation where we are not all that concerned about maximizing our return from an exchange, but rather wish to see our unneeded items passed along to a fellow member of the community who can use them.

I have always opposed the "monetarization" of IC certificates, be they 2nd night or RA referrals. One offshoot of returning such exchanges to the IC forum itself would be to cultivate this less merchantile value system.

Anyhow, I would like to hear from other members of this community, including the moderators, about this and about the role moderators play on the IC forum.

How confident are you that there are so few participants? It always feels *busy*.

Since the OP seems to be calling for a poll, I vote "no."

I think I'm one of the 2 dozen regulars, but I imagine scores of us think we are the magic 24.


Take a look at the "current promotions" thread. We were golden for about a week. Then it became as cluttered as all the other threads it was created to avoid.

I can't imagine how many people there are out there with these relatively worthless free weekend coupons, etc. Let them clutter up a forum dedicated to this and leave this forum free for other items.

I would prefer maintaining the ban.

I got no problems with that - so long as people don't just suddenly break into an un-related thread with requests to buy/exchange this & that, can really lower the tone sometimes. Mind you - can be fun following & exposing certain poster's intentions, a la a certain Flying Doctor.

Anyways - RA has been so devalued this year, that I don't see, going forward, if I'm going to be given a referral certificate every year, why I shouldn't exchange it for a couple of nights each time - there's only so many people I feel like giving it away completely free to - anyone here in the IC forum should just do 3 stays - if they can't do that, they don't even deserve being gifted it, or belonging here really!

I would have a difficult time criticizing the moderators for keeping the IC certs out of this forum during the "DL rush".

The last thing I would have wanted was for the IC Forum to turn into a circus, attracting only those coming to this forum for the wrong reasons--in search of getting something for little or nothing--and with no inclination to constructively add to this forum. Better to have kept all that in CC.

In that sense maybe I'm a little protective, but I like being part of a small and cozy forum as this, and consider this my "home base." I do sometimes post in several other forums, and do check the CC (but this is more idle curiosity to see if there are any IC/PC items, than anything else.)

That being said, now that the IC cert rush is ending with this month (June), I have no disagreement with allowing IC certs and such to be traded/gifted either (not both) in this forum or in the CC (up to the poster). Considering that IC Second Night Free certs can only be used by Ambassadors (and RAs) anyway, it does make sense to allow one the chance to offer it in this (the IC) forum. Again, it is up to the poster wishing to trade/gift the cert.

Another possibility, and a compromise of sorts, would be to allow those wishing to gift a cert, to do so in this forum, while those wishing to trade could use the CC, where they might have a better chance of getting that Hilton stay or lounge pass they want.

It doesn't to me - maybe because your posts only average about once a fortnight - presumably if you're logging in as often as that, seems like things are moving on more. Least with relaxing the forum rules, might increase it a bit, attract others to it...there are plenty of IC hotels no-one here's visited yet to provide feeback on, and I mean actual IC's, not hotels in the IC Group.

This is so true and I hope we can all make a concerted effor to keep what's left of the promo thread clean. The problem there is obvious though. I added a new promo last week but it was so far buried down inside the thread I'm sure noone has seen it.

As for certs here, I am in favor of the ban staying on. I like the smaller feeling of community we have here and would like to keep it. I prefer to think most posters here think, "Seach 1st, new thread 2nd!" That's why we stay so low on threads. I am in SPG as well and sometimes hate lurking / posting there as there is just so much, or esp the AA forum!

I agree with the OP. I had several IC certs that I wanted to gift and I would have preferred to post it here, but I listed them on CC. I got several responses from people who aren't regular posters here and some had the flavor of "if it's free it's me." I say let's give it a shot an see how it goes.

moving to ORP

Randy has made it clear he wants these items going to the CC, so I am moving it here so he can comment on your issues directly.

If Randy says it ok for them to be in the Interconti Forum then so am I I am here to observe the wishes of Randy

As a note to anyone who is not familiar with the TOS Randy has made it clear that Moderator actions are not up for public discussion, but I feel the topic is more directed at Randys wishes regarding vouchers and certs so I think its best if he comments, and I will follow any rule changes he agrees.


Thanks
Dino

Two cents

I agree with Shareholder's premise.

The regular contributors and those of us on the fringes certainly consider our forum "special." This is the first place I check each day. As far as exchanges and the like, I would rather see RA gifting, etc, here as the first exposure. Some of the items, like the IC Free Night Certificate, seem to have commodity value but the RA gifting is somewhat unique and I cringe when I see a bidding war per se in the CC.

I can understand the moderator's position but perhaps there is a middle road with the Free Night certs and the like being in the CC and RA certificates here where they are appreciated more, if not to just give us right of first refusal.

Simplistic maybe but I would love to be gifted but do not have a chance in a bidding frenzy to go up against those members with significant resources from other programs.

A policy which has been adopted in other airline forums is to allow an initial post which links back to the "official" Coupon Connection thread. You'd get the ability to notify the regular visitors of the forum while still posting the core info where Randy has asked you to post it.

While I 100% understand and agree with Randy's reason for restricting trades to Coupon Connection, I just don't like Coupon Connection, and probably won't ever use it. I used to, years ago, before it became so "gimmee, gimmee".

My new alternative method for giving away upgrades, is to go into the club at the airport, and ask which long flights have available upgrade seats. I then determine the gate from which they depart, and walk out to the gate and pick a likely suspect. It really is a kick. Actually more fun than giving away an upgrade to a Coupon Connection stranger.

Works for me.

I'm sure that's great for you Punki, but it's not really germane to this discussion, as I don't think that's a really feasible thing to be doing with IC certs....

I'd say keep them out, currently it's a nice compact forum, and the other info is easy to find as is...the forum shouldn't be about freebies, but about information.

Punki, didn't we actually ascertain quite awhile ago that you almost never ever gave away any upgrades or offered any type of upgrade to anyone on any forum at anytime, either on FT or even the other board which you seem to run these days? Yeah, I specifically remember that searches of the past yielded almost nothing in this regard the last time you got holier than thou regarding UA upgrades.