Keeping minimum post count for CC secret?
 

I saw Randy's nice post on the new requirements to access Coupon Connection. He mentioned that the new minimum was 90 days and X number of posts.

I think letting people know the minimum waiting period is fine, but does anyone else think that letting people know that minimum post count will open FT to more of the spamming that went on in the past?

Is there a gray area between telling people and scaring people off?

On another CC note, I am glad that the new requirements have been implemented. There were far too many people who had joined FT earlier this year and had few posts to their credit active in CC. I also noticed that alot of long-time FTers with not that many posts were grandfathered in. Is this the case or does the new requirements keep them out as well?

Understand that any moderator can "take away" posts if it is felt someone is "padding" their post count.

If people play nice, they gain access to the entire playground... if they don't, well...... :D

William

This isn't really a post to pad my count, but I just noticed that my access to the CC disappeared in the last few days. Thanks for the explanation. :)

Hahah same here... I noticed OMNI disapeared a while before CC, but then today CC disappeared, kinda disappointing that we didn't get grandfathered in :(

The master giveth, the master taketh away

It's Randy's board, he is the master. He is doing his best to make this the best forums possible for us users. Since we pay him $0.00, I don't think we have much to complain about. I'm sure he appreciates constructive critisism, but hopefully he doesn't get so much bs this time around with the changes.

By the way, anyone heard about when or if the paid, ad-free version of flyertalk might come out?

As a new person here I have a couple of observations.

When I first discovered this site I signed up right away. While exploring the site the OMNI section came to my attention. I clicked on the link on the tool bar and got a rather curt message telling me that I wasn't approved for the forum. It suggested that I check the Announcements forum for info, and I could not access that either.

Last week I discovered some threads that gave some insight into what the OMNI forum was, and why I can't access it. While I don't quarrel with the policy per se, I think it should be spelled out in the FAQs for new members.

I participated in the signature thread while it was in the AA forum, and when I logged back on later and found it had been moved and made inaccessible to me I was disappointed that I could no longer follow the discussion.

And finally, tongue firmly in cheek, what are you afraid of if minimum posting requirements for access to the various features are made public? Posting runs?

I just noticed I no longer have CC access, which is a bit of a gutter as I was about to post in it for the first time :(

Can anyone have a guess at what the required post count or membership length is?

Thanks. I was about to post asking for this link.

Ahhh!

So if you are still interested in that UA 15% Friends Plus Coupon for your BDL - SIN trip, and didn't get one from someone else, please send me a PM with your mailing address.

You're disappointed? :) I'm disappointed, but I understand that sometimes, it's not necessarily possible to do that.

I do understand the fear with telling people the minimum post requirements for various forums, as it might lead to people posting things just to boost their post count. At least for me though, while I know the minimum for CC, I also knew that they could say "These posts don't count." It's actually made me be more careful of what I post, but it's also encouraged me to read more than just my normal few sections of the board.

Actually you were all grandfathered in. The original and continuing intent of FlyerTalk is to provide the best possible source of information about frequent flyer programs in the world and to that degree, have grandfathered in all members toward that purpose.

Now, you don't actually have to psot at all to enjoy this live referecne library of miles and points. That is why we don't post any requirements. We assume that our lurker audience is just as supportive and active toward learning information valuable to their miles, points and travel. As far as i know, anyone just visiting for the first time on FlyerTalk has full access to these topics. Am I missing something? Please let me know if you care not able to view United Mileage Plus, Marriott Rewards, British Airways Executive Club, Hyatt Gold Passport or other similar forums related to travel, miles and points and I'll see that the tech guys get it fixed for you.

Thanks.

I totally appreciate the resouces that FT makes available. Just being the spoiled american hate giving something up, but am totally understandable as to why that has happened. In due time I will get it back, and irregardless of CC or OMNI I am still able to enjoy all the other resources on here, that honestly are PRICELESS.

How were we grandfathered in?
 

A few weeks ago I could see Coupon Connection. Now it is gone. Lots of other content is still visible. Is this what you mean by grandfathered in?

Before I post on this forum or other boards I think hard about whether my post will add value, so I have not run up a large post count. Is this the FT reward for not being a blabbermouth? Thank you for the incredibly valuable service that FT is to all of us, but please re-re-think this CC and OMNI policy.

Actually I do re-think the change almost daily. for instance, today i politely turned down the request for an exception to a member of two years that had 100 percent of 82 posts in CC; another who only had 6 posts total and all were in CC; another with 8 posts total and all were in CC; another who only had one post total; another who wanted in and had yet to post a single time on FlyerTalk. Of the 15 members who have contacted me recently to try and get an exception into CC - 11 of them had post averages in the CC forum of greater than 87 percent of the time. I'm sorry, i can't see 87 percent of your time on FT in CC as something that's really going to make me a better traveler. I want your experiences, i want your opinions i want you to assist making FlyerTalk valuable to the next person who visits this Web site.

I very much appreciated all the input. I would like to ask bobovespa a question: you don't have any problem with any passenger at all getting in front of you in line to board an oversold flight correct? The reason i ask that is i see you are EXP which is something to be very proud of. I'd like your thoughts if AA gave every passenger the very same benefits you enjoy. Or when checking in at the next Sheraton if the "upgrade" was not available since the hotel gave the best room away an hour ago to the next person who just happened to be checking in. The point being is that in the case of EXP, you just didn't get if by not flying much. At Starwood by not staying a lot of times at their properties. There is a reward at FT for being a blabbermouth, similar to the rewards you get from American Airlines and Starwood for traveling a lot. Neither of us are denying you anything, but all of us require something in return. I think it easier to talk about your life as a frequent traveler than flying 100,000 miles with American. I'll look at your request bobovespa, but i'm hoping you aren't in that category that has spent 87% of your time on FT in CC.

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." :eek: :eek:

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 :D :D :D :D

(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.

Add me to the list
 

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!! :mad:

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 :p )

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

As a relatively new member with a low post total compared to some, I think that the current thresholds for access to CC are actually too LOW. It took me almost a year of lurking to really get to the point where I felt that I could start adding value to other members in the course of the discussions and not just chime in saying "me too" as so many folks do. If I were Randy, I would make the minimum membership time at least 1 year for access to CC.

Do you and tom911 have anyone in particular in mind? :)

I've been on this board for quite some time and overall the members here are terrific but I can understand the previous posts about not feeling comfortable asking a question. I've seen the flame wars between members in the past. That has seemed to subside thanffully:) I would visit the chat and for a newbie or even someone like myself it is difficult to engage in a conversation of any quality. Alot of the FT'er's here are friends and the newbies are outside that circle or you don't travel on a regular basis like some. I can recall in my earlier days thinking wondering what all the acronyms meant! Yes, I was shy to ask because I didn't want to sound dumb.

As far as posting, I personally don't post for the mere reason of posting. My useless comments of "I agree" or "I'd do the same thing" adds little or no value and just expands the thread. Ever try to read a thread that has a significant amount of replies, pages of them? It's cumbersome and time consuming and I prefer not to add to it unless I can contribute something new that would be beneficial. Therefore, I read and lately helping another FT with their travel plans. When I have a question or can contribute, then I post.

This site is awesome, so if you can't get into the CC it's not so horrible as you have the entire content of this site with an extreme amount of valuable information. I can't begin to tell you how much I've benefited from this site.

I refer so many people here and what I have learned about FF miles has spiked the interest of so many others to also get involved in gathering miles. Randy was the one who helped me years ago get two 25K bonus miles from AA and I truly appreciated his help! Again, thank you Randy!

FWIW, I'm new to FT, so I don't have access to CC yet. However, being a senior member of some other boards, I can definitely appreciate the concept of making CC available to more established members only. Even though I'm personally on th losing end of this policy right now, I think it's a good idea.

Rosemarie-
Your post was very well written, and I can certainly understand where you are coming from.
However, I must disagree with the above portion of your post.
If I'm asking the board's opinion, I would like to see a large number of posts - the bigger the group, the more accurate the data. If only one person posts an opinion and nobody backs it up, then that isn't really very comforting.

When people tell a story of something that happened or how they reacted, they want people to post things like "I would've done the same thing," or "I agree with you."

Just my $0.02

Those are a very valuable $0.02.

In relation to an industry where experiences vary -- i.e., inconsistent application of rules, no rules, changing rules, etc. -- some of us have come to realize the phrase YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) rightfully gets a lot of mileage on FT (especially when the objective is to get good service and/or for the outcome to be more predictable or desirable). People saying "same here" definitely provides me with potentially more data points to: a) determine if there's a rule; b) if the rule is consistent; and/or c) how/when to attempt a "workaround" when the outcome is not consistent or amenable. Given the nature of the internet (and the world at large), corroborating evidence (and/or opinions) can help lead to more accurate descriptions (and/or functioning conclusions).

G_leyser, I can see your point of view and perhaps my example wasn't the best. Surely if a member of the board was seeking information as it pertains to a policy, procedure, or to a specific situation then I would post. It's the questions such as "What's the best mileage cc?" and my opinion is that the Starwood Amex or Citibank Aadvantage is the best but it's already been posted twenty times by other members then I don't see the value I can add. IF theres a specific benefit or feature of a particular card that has not been addressed then I would add to the thread. Another example, if there was a significant worldwide event and it's already been posted then for me to mimic the other posts is not beneficial. Perhaps that might be a better example.

I think GUwonder's post sums it up pretty well as to when I personally would post or not.

Fair enough :)

I lost my CC access too. :(
I just don't like throwing my 2 cents in just to bulk the posts.
I guess I'll start posting more deals I find - its kinda hard though seems like a deal that is no older than 2 minutes in your mail box has already been posted with the link and everything. ;)
I guess I better try harder or get faster! :D

As you can see, I have been a member for several years; however, I only have a handful of posts. I did post once on cc--with no results, sadly. I have just lost my access to cc. I am trying to actually post some--which I suppose is good for me, although it is usually a challenge to think of something to add which may actually be useful. I'm not a super-fabulous-extraordinary-double-triple-platinum-titanium-elite in anything. I do really value the information I get from Flyertalk. It's made a good difference to me many times. I can't see the harm in easier access to all forums. OMNI isn't usually of much interest to me, but still. . . . I suppose I'll get there sooner or later.

Much thanks to all who contribute.