Randy,

Wow, that is a very well thought-out response... but why would one expect anything else.

Thanks for our community!

OK, Randy, the other guy with no airline status can jump in line in front of me on the oversold flight, because by the time he gets to the front, the EXP desk will already have rebooked me by phone .

Actually you make good points, and I had not seen the analogy between tiers in airline/hotel programs and the FT community. I had assumed that the screens for CC/OMNI access were merely intended to assess reliability of posters, rather than to be a reward for "top" members. I haven't used CC yet, but it's easy to see the value of efforts by FT (through rules and moderators) to increase the chances that we are dealing with reliable community members when we do use CC. The statistics that Randy cited about the types of posts by people who want CC access are disappointing and enlightening. I spend most of my FT time on the American Airlines board and I have found so many people to be generous contributors.

To Randy's credit, FT has grown way past the point where he, or the moderators, can personally take the time to assess each person's contribution. So I had assumed that the requirements only related to post counts and the passage of time, which do not need human input to compute.

Randy was very kind to give me a personal reply to my earlier post, which I had not asked for or expected. It is easy to see why he has achieved legendary status on FT and elsewhere.

I'll add one of my experiences.

I offered a fairly low value item for trade on CC with a specific request the person first post "you have mail" before contacting. I did this to ensure I could easily research who was contacting me.

Of all the requests I received, my favorite was from someone who wanted the coupon who didn't even have a FT id (this was pre board upgrade). They didn't have a clue of the T&C of the coupon, and just wanted it because they needed it for an upcoming trip. The trade offer to me was "I'll check to see what my husband has."

I guess there were a lot of lurkers sending out emails for trades and the masking of CC, IMHO, is a good thing for the community.

I got bumped from CC. I understand, I think. Flyertalk has been very good and generous to me. I have tried to give back anything I get like car rental coupons. Anything that was requested was immediately sent. I just don't fly much, so I don't have a lot of stuff. I do feel kinda bad that you don't want me in flyertalk. But again, thanks for all the help and generosity that your members have shown me. I had a posting on there and I was hoping for a response. I wanted to trade 2 RCC passes for MLL. I never fly United, and just happen to have the RCC passes. If anyone wants them they are welcome. Sorry.

Just noticed I cannot access OMNI when I hit a link, but I do see coupon connection - don't really care - all OMNI ever did was raise my blood presure.

But are they different levels?

Yes. Omni is 180 posts AND 180 days. This is to keep the folks who like to raise your blood pressure away

(actually, it's to make sure people come to FT for points & miles and not for Omni).

Pretty new, and never new what omni was, and hence didn't miss it. Will check it out if i qualify at some point. This site is a godsend anyway.

I also lost access to CC. I guess I will need to do more participating and less lurking.

me too...

Ido alot of lurking, on many forums... just don't have much to say...

I was disappointed I could no longer lurk in CC

While I completely understand and agree with the rationale behind restricting certain forums based on post count, I wanted to explain why I, perhaps among others, don't post very often. I'm typically a lurker, and I've learned a tremendous amount from my time here at FT reading members' posts. I've been a member for over 3 years, and yet I've only posted a handful of times. The main reason I'm reluctant to post is because of the harsh responses I've seen others receive from longtime members. A few members in particular seem to act as the FT police, telling newbies to search or not ask such inane questions. I do search before I post, although it's possible I've missed previous posts relevant to my questions. Many times I'd rather not deal with the hassle of being criticized for not being an expert here, and so I often don't post and thus my questions go unanswered. I would like to be a contributing member of these boards, and help people in the way I've been helped by the information here. I would be more willing to do so if there was an atmosphere of welcoming questions from newbies and encouraging them in kind ways to find information that may already be available in other threads. I say that recognizing that many here already do that. But there are other vocal longtime members who don't, and I believe there are others, like me, who are scared off from posting because of them.

Thanks for providing a great resource in FT. I will continue to lurk and hopefully post when I feel I have something of value to add.

Peggy J.

I've noticed folks do exactly what you've just pointed out, so I can see why it might scare people off. It seems so much easier to just answer the questions than criticize the poster for not doing a search. About a year back I had a discussion with some folks on the AA forum, asking them to consider posting a link to the answer, versus "do a search". It's met with mixed success.

I would encourage you to answer questions that newbies post that you might have the answers to. That's an easy way to break the ice and get some posts to your credit.

I agree 100% with this, tom911. I've never told a new poster...or even an experienced poster...to "search" for an answer but have, to the best of my ability, directed them toward the source for their answer.
Search is sometimes cumbersome and many times it's like doing a Google search....it returns way too much dated info that requires a lot of additional research.
I'd hope most FT'ers would help out those who have a legitimate question without responding with..." HEY...DO A SEARCH!!

I think some of the comments defending why low count FTers lurk and post infrequently is somewhat of a cop-out. I always find it a bit disappointing to see FTers who have been members for years only have low double digit post counts. It can't be too hard to post a couple times a week at least on average. In that way, I am satisfied with Randy's new # requirements across the board.

I agree that the airline forums are a bit hard to post in because answering threads sometimes requires a bit of inside airline knowledge. I also agree that sometimes veterans are a bit blunt with novices. That said, I think some newbies don't make any effort to do a search or to research. It goes both ways.

However, the biggest issue I have is newbies don't often go exploring beyond Miles & Points. There is a life away from MRs, airline miles, etc. and it is called the Travel and Dining section. Here is a section where FT is devoted to the general topic of travel: dining, technology, news, general, GLBT, women's issues, cruises, destinations, etc. A lot of these subareas are ripe full of threads where people can post their thoughts or opinions without any uber-elite airline flyer knowledge.

To the newbies and low count posters, I encourage everyone to explore all facets of FT. You'll be adding to your post count before you know it.

Heh, I just realized I actually DO have access to CC now!

This IS a community, and I'm a relative newcomer. I've done the things that make the usual suspects yell/whine/bi%$# at me, and I've read enough of their posts now to realize that's just who they are - and every community of any size has people like that, doesn't it?

My observation about lurkers is that virtually every bulletin board/forum posting community has more lurkers than posters - ask any site operator and they'll confirm this. Not everyone is comfortable being 'out front', and the 'net IS a genuinely new social phenomenon. I remember mixers back in my college days in New England: there were always more people standing around the dance floor watching than there were actually mixing - and for the most part, the people on the dance floor didn't need the mixer to actually meet anyone!

It's pretty much the same way here. So, lurk well, all of you who'd rather read than write, I certainly hope you feel welcome (except, of course, to the Coupon Connection and/or OMNI )

I will try to share the free info links that I use as a mystery shopper for hospitality industry.