SkiAdcock

First Omni gets opened to the entire world - hello google - w/ zero announcement to the regular FTers. And not only do people not have to have X amount of posts to access Omni, they don't even have to be even registered or even logged in to FT!!

So - for those of us who have been on FT for several years who have been told you 'earned' your way into the Candyland of Omni by contributing "X" posts to the "CORE" of FT. Guess what. Anyone can come on board. You go IB & Randy! Whoo-hoo!! You're meeting your constituents needs - not.

No longer does ANYONE need to contribute to FT & contribute to the 'core' - ie, miles & points. We're downgrading to be like lesser BBs.

Then a number of FTers complain about this unannounced decision & ask that Omni be switched back to restricted. Randy comes on to the thread & says he didn't realize all the ramifications & he'll research & get back to us, then the thread gets shut down, and THEN several days later after the I'll get back to you stuff, we discover that - in a your input didn't matter at all move - to the FTers who were upset about Omni being opened up, that it actually gets posted in a Talkmail email blast that it's being opened up. Wow - talk about a total slap in the face!!

If you (Randy) were going to open it up:

a) why didn't you just say point-blank in advance it was (so that some could edit their posts and/or request to change their handle);

b) I'm a huge fan of Randy & have been, but still on this one he's talking out of both sides of his mouth IMO - that I'm going to open it up & tell everyone about it on TalkMail - SEVERAL days after I told all of you who complained that I was taking it under consideration/would research/get back to you - and then like the original decision, didn't have the courtesy to do so.

I never in my lifetime thought I'd say this, but to Randy.

OVMV. And for those who told me if I posted this thread I say to you, while Randy might not like this thread, I don't see him & the mods shutting it down because it doesn't violate TOS & we've always been encouraged to express ourselves, good or bad. In this case, Randy bad. But I give them all credit for keeping the thread open.

Cheers.

tcook052

Don't forget the OMNI poll asking folks if they were happy with the split after it's happened and in all probability zero chance of changing anything even if the overwhelming majority disapproved.

Yes, curious times indeed.

moondog

Randy: If what the OP alleges is true, add me to the shocked/disgusted list. While I'll stop short of boycotting FT forever if you don't rescind these new policies, here are a few things to consider:

1) many veteran FTers (I think I meet this benchmark, but even if I don't, the point still stands) have already gleaned 99% of what there is to know about miles, points, and the like
2) a considerable portion of this group has taken its juiciest finds to private bulletin boards that are devoid of industry lurkers
3) they still enjoy participating in meaningless discussions on OMNI and occasionally pop into airline forums (almost always to answer questions or post feedback) as a tribute to their routes

If you are intent upon opening OMNI up to the entire world (while the entry barriers were low before, they were still high enough to preserve an element of privacy), you're in danger of losing a great deal of the old OMNI crowd. Not only will you lose their opinions on matters core to FT, but you also run the risk of replacing them with types of "hit and run" posters that frequent other forums.

ajax

I'm not going to rant, nor am I going to make weird threats.

I will say that I wish OMNI were still private (i.e., non-searchable through Google) and that the membership qualifications were still in place. Requiring posters to develop a bit of community spirit and understanding of how FT works is not a bad thing.

RichMSN

This decision makes absolutely no sense, considering the host's decision to not increment post counts in OMNI earlier this year.

Consider in the past year:

(1) OMNI post counts eliminated
(2) OMNI moderators appointed
(3) OMNI split into OMNI and OMNI/PR
(4) OMNI opened up to anyone, regardless of post count and time as a member
(5) OMNI opened up to Google crawlers

It's not been a good year for OMNI posters and I would argue not a good year for being on TalkBoard. None of the above was recommended by TB and none of the above appears to even been passed TB's way for their opinions. Normally, by now, I would've put my application in to run for TB, but it's been reduced to such an ineffectual, not even consulted body, that I wonder "What's the point?"

If OMNI is going to be treated like every other forum, Randy, why isn't my post count being incremented each time I post there? Of course, my postings are way down, too, because I find it too easy to avoid the PR forum (I used to like posting on politics, but am not going to specifically seek it out) and OMNI just ain't what it used to be. Congrats for finding yet another way to marginalize OMNI for many of us.

uncertaintraveler

Deleted deleted deleted

bdjohns1

^ +1

anonplz

Um, maybe it wasn't his decision. He did sell FT, you know. IB has its own agenda. @:-)

My opinion is that many of you are making too big a deal out of this.

Though I agree with Rich that OMNI posts should now count, since you are treating it like any other forum rather than the garbage pail it used to be viewed as.

SkiAdcock

Randy said point blank in a different thread that it was his decision to open it up w/ no input from others. Granted, someone hypothesized that there might be a performance bonus from IB; I have no idea if that's true. And I agree that IB could actually be behind it, even if Randy was the front guy. But then he should have said btw, we've decided to open it up for these reasons - in advance.

But opening it up w/ no notice to FTers & not even requiring someone else to be logged in to acess it was very bad form, just as announcing it was still open & going to stay that way via Talkmail when he said he'd research & get back to us in the forum is another very bad form.

I agree w/ Rich re: his points that these decisions were made unilaterally & didn't involve TB at all. Since this dealt with a forum & TB is supposed to be thinking of what benefits FTers w/ regard to forums, I think they should have been given a heads up or asked for their input.

I didn't really care one way or the other re: post counts, but agree that if Omni is now going to be like the other forums then posts should count.

BTW - as long as we're on the all forums being created equal thing, why are SPAM & CC still restricted access? If it's such a wonderful thing, then open those up to everyone w/ no restrictions. After all it's gotta benefit FT to be totally open, right?

Cheers.

annerj

I'm anxious to hear Randy's response.

I too give the changes a big and a double to how they were done.

TrojanHorse

just to providing an opposing view point

I'm quite pleased with the current state of omni

thank you for splitting the Political and religious mumbo jumbo into its own void

so far so good on the new (old) omni

as a long time omnite ... I love it ^

karenkay

+1.

color me very disappointed that randy said he'd 'get back to us' in the other thread, and next thing you know we're all getting an email trumpeting that omni is now open to everyone. very, very bad form.

really does make me think that the guy in the other thread was exactly right...and that makes me look at randy, and this entire board, in a much less favorable light. pity, that.

SkiAdcock

I didn't really care about the split, although I thought having one forum made the most sense. After all, people aren't required to open threads. But this isn't about splitting the Omni forum into two.

It's about Omni being made open to the entire google world with no advance notice, that people aren't even required to register on FT, much less contribute to the 'core' forums, that Randy said he'd do more research on the other thread once FTers made their concerns known & would get back to us, and then not only didn't get back to us, but trumpeted the decision to open up Omni to the entire world in Talkmail.

Hence the ignoring of FTers input & the slap in the face 2x.

Cheers.

scoow

SPAM is open access.

Mary2e

Again, I have to agree with Sharon.