The only way you can misrepresent my views is if they start making sense

So, has thing passed yet?

Post counts, high or low, have absolutely no relation to anyone's travel knowledge. Being an FT Evangelist is an indicator of an outgoing personality, but no guarantee of a shred of accurate, meaningful, and useful travel knowledge.

The American AAdvantage board has become vacuous. I go to OMNI for amusement and entertainment; it never fails to deliver.

The counts mean nothing to me. My vote is available to the highest bidder.

That thread is embarrassing. It supports the idea of removing all post counts, if anything.

I agree with the motions...don't count the OMNI posts towards post count.
Just my $00.02.

Why change things now? Leave things as they are.

Posted by Punki back in 2000, IIRC. This was about the time that doc, a true FlyerTalk Legend, was the first to hit 10,000 posts:

I don't care much about post counts and never give them any credibility at all. Hitting 10,000 posts just isn't unique anymore, and certainly not very important, but I still think my old idea is a good one, that should be instituted retroactively--when a poster hits 10,000 posts they should be able to select an appropriate title, either their previous title, a totally unique or a title from an approved list. Of course, the TalkBoard would have to approve the appropriateness of each uniqe title selected, especially since these days it appears that even folks who have high 5 digit and maybe even 6 digit join numbers are hitting "Evangelist". What's up with that?

Maybe it would make more sense to just list join numbers as titles instead of post counts. That is something that no one could fake or manipulate. Maybe I will suggest that as another motion.

Personally I hope to be able to retain my "original member" status if and when I hit 10,000 posts. Someone hinted earlier in this thread that that was possible, but I have seen no confirmation of that fact.

Like dhammer53, I am a poster who is trying to keep my post count down. Therefore, if I had a vote in this issue, I would vote to eliminate post counts from OMNI and every other non-travel related fora so I can keep posting and posting and still remain "original".

Posted by holtju2:

I believe, holtju2 that similar actions have in the past been taken by some high-count posters.

Such is life.

p.s. Darn, I just increased my post count.

Punki Original Member ^

I am soooooooooooooo�� jealous

Rudi (only an Evangelist)

I'm all for the changes. Taking away postings in OMNI should knock me down below the 10k level, but I'm rather proud to say that a greater majority of posts in my FT tenure have been in the Miles/Points side as opposed to OMNI.

The great majority of my FT posts in my FT tenure have been outside OMNI too, yet I'm still opposed to this because I don't think this motion solves any stated problem that can't be addressed by the status quo tools/items.

And about the idea of getting rid of all post counts, I don't think that helps resolve anything stated here either.

The pro-motion crowd here are "an utterly tiny component of the total membership, though they do use their megaphone to sound as large as possible" too.

This is not a motion about the larger interests of FT, it's about things far more petty. If people can't judge a post by its content, there's no easy remedy for that -- and this motion won't improve (or make worse) an FTer's judgment either.

Of FT's 125,000 or so members, what percentage actually do have access to OMNI? Maybe something like 5-10% (6-12,000 total members)? Do we have any real hard numbers as to the size of the OMNI Community, other than speculation from those of us that don't have the numbers? Could it be that half of FT may even have access?

I've seen posts about the "community" in OMNI, and even OMNI DO's, but I haven't really seen hard numbers as to how many FTers really do have access there, and how big this "community" is.

No matter which way this vote goes, I would like TalkBoard to consider opening up OMNI to everyone, so all posters on FT can share in the sense of community that many say is found there (even in the counting threads).

Except this isn't about post counts, at all. It never has been. Some of the folks in favor of this are trying to veil this as such, nothing could be further from the truth.

Virtually every poster that I have seen who is opposed to this measure has stated that if this declassification were applied in a unilateral fashion to all non-travel related fora; they would support this measure. In fact, that is how this measure was presented by a "regular member." It was the talkboard who elected to modify the content to facilitate passage (in his opinion). What does that tell you? It makes a glaring statement that this is not about the counts, at all. There has to be an ulterior motive.

What this is about is few people who think that anything non-travel related detracts from the purist ideology that FT is a travel forum and that is the only thing that is relevant. Community be damned.

Tom the Talkboard private forum has had long and interesting debate on this whole vote. One TB member asked Randy if we might have a few actual stats to assist our thoughts and votes on this.

He was happy to oblige, and we got given some most useful stats and %'s and even what % of posts some members had in OMNI versus other forums.

Whilst I do not think I am authorised to release the actual number of FT'ers right now (quite a bit higher than 125,000 actually!) the figures we were given is that less than 5% of all FT'ers are able to post or view OMNI. And that includes all those who have been granted special rights to post there etc over the years, which is quite a few.

So we are seeing a forum where not even 5% of FT'ers have access, spawn a large number of Evangelists upon the other 95% of members. And that will continue unabated unless an adjustment of some kind is made.

That is what concerns many members posting above, from my close reading of all posts. This post a few back has been like many others:


There are some vocal folks whose post counts will drop by some 10,000 posts if this measure succeeds. Clearly making noise to stop it is their right. Many have not disclosed the high % of their OMNI post, which I do find a little disingenuous. That is the one argument they have NOT touched upon.

Clearly no-one is permitted to start threads in UA, AA, Hilton etc asking folks to come charging over to this thread, as those threads would be locked as being OT.

But on OMNI that is fine, hence the number of "for" posts above - clearly derived from OMNI board, and not being balanced by posts form the other 95% of members who may well not realise this is even being discussed and have strong views on it.

1. Your entire post is disingenuous -- using words like "spawn" and "foist" and hinting at numbers without giving the whole picture. Additionally, if it's true that members were singled out for having high OMNI post percentages, that's pretty discriminatory and smacks of a personal attack.
2. Perhaps the people posting in UA, AA, Hilton etc. don't care? In other words, and as others have stated better than me, this is a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. And a targeted, discriminatory solution that has the appearance of some people looking to effect a personal vendetta.
3. If this is such a big issue that there will be such strong views, why not put a sticky at the top of each forum so that people are aware of the issue? Of course, this would eliminate one potential avenue for demagoguery.