Isn't four locked threads of the last 8 threads posted just a little 'over-moderated?

Just an observation. Four of the top eight threads here are now locked. Not my call but all appeared to more or less "fit" here. If there is little interest in a thread it will die and disappear soon enough.

As the 'Star Alliance Silver promo' (note the words 'STAR ALLIANCE' ) already has had 2 or 3 threads on it in the UA forum, my view is moving these often creates and not solves problems. Understandably at times, the Moderator/s of one Forum are not aware what where they are moving is already boring old news to the 'new' Forum. And surely HERE is where it ideally belongs as much as UA?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/017736.html

And questions about a Star Alliance rtw award being moved to LH forum where the thread poster still does not his answer is also an interesting move.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum32/HTML/002405.html

Moderation of the smaller Forums is new, and understandably everyone is on a learning curve. But over-moderation is not always popular:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum21/HTML/009331.html

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~ Glen ~

Come and visit the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!


[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 02-13-2003).]

1.) 4 out of 8 says nothing. Sorry. You can value according to quality and not to quantity.
2.) to more or less "fit" here with this phrase you even admit that some posts didn't belong to the forum. I'm only interested to read posts that fit into the forum. And I also don't want to read the same thread in several areas of this board. IMO, the quality of the board rises if the posts are in the correct forum. People have a chance to find these posts again while doing a search.

[This message has been edited by LH738 (edited 02-13-2003).]

I was aware of at least four threads on the UA forum (I posted these links as I close the thread); customers who are not personally sent an invitation via postcard or email will not have access privileges to this site and the targeted promotion. To avoid further frustration, I closed one thread and moved the other to the UA forum. I hope, letiole receives the information she asked for.
The poster asked for a Round the World award within the Miles & More Award scheme. I moved this thread to the LH forum, because here is the discussion regarding Lufthansa Miles More.

The separation of forums makes it more convenient for people interested in Lufthansa Miles & More issues, rather than having them search through a generic forum to find things related specifically to their program. (� FlyerTalkers Ask Questions)

I would be more than happy if you could help to answer the questions of attorney28.

Patron
*A moderator

With the greatest of respect Patron you are 100% WRONG on that IMO. I would be delighted if you could show me where M&M was even hinted at by him before you locked it? He has since SEVERAL times pointed this out to you on thread and politely asked it be moved BACK. Perhaps you simply assumed he was using M&M? Maybe he said on another thread he planned to use M&M?

attorney28 NOWHERE I can see indicated at any time in his posts before you locked and moved his thread that he was using ANY specific airline plan, much less Lufthansa. He resides in Copenhagen. How do you or I know he was not planning on using SAS points? Or UA? Or Thai? The United points for ME to redeem it are the exact figures he used - so why *assume* he meant Lufthansa, and move it there?

It got farcical as you moved it to LH for some reason, and then folks THERE suggested he post in THIS Forum. Over half of the thread is basically asking why you moved it and you justifying it. Is that making things easier for folks to follow in any way who also just want to learn about RTW questions? And he consequently STILL does not have his question answered.

And .................

Bottom line, Moderators can it seems move things wherever they want.

And humble forum readers like myself can also post that perhaps going a little easy of the thread lockings might not be too bad an idea. HALF the last threads posted being locked in a quiet Forum like this does seems over-zealous. To me anyway.

My original post was not a personal commentary on you ... please do not think that ... just an observation that "letting things ride" a little more may be worth considering.

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~ Glen ~

Come and visit the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!


[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 02-13-2003).]

I couldn't agree more with the title of this particular thread.

Closing threads should surely be something only done in extremis.

While I agree that we should all try to stay in topic, enforcing this too zealously makes the whole forum an unpleasant place where we are constantly looking over our shoulders in fear of intervention by the moderator.

This is not meant as a personal attack on anyone (honest) but I do hope that recent activities is not an indication of what should be expected in future.

Stephen

attorney28 opened on the LH board his original thread on 02-07-2003 04:29 PM

No, ozstamps, I politely disagree. Before I do an action as a moderator, first I think what I can I do in favour for the contributor and second what in favour for the spirit of flyertalk.

I am with you that for the poster the most important thing is that he receives a reliable answer. Let me stick at this example: You overlooked that attorney28 posted the same question on the LH board (= duplicate post). If you do not know, in which FFP he likes to redeem miles in exchange for a *A reward, you are not able to answer this question. As you are a veteran, you know that every FFP has their own rules and what you can do in one FFP is not possible in another. Now as you know that he likes to spend M&M miles you are more than welcome � and I said this already �to answer his question.

On the other side it�s also import that others do not get board; you may have realized that some fellows do not like to read the same question in several board. To rise the quality of the board is also an issue.

But not in situations they may lead to confusion.

Well, Patron at least we agree on that. There certainly is 'confusion.'

Might I share with you my observation after 2� years on FT and quite a few posts?

Threads with little interest to any just fade anyway fast anyway, and do not need to be locked to acheive that end result.

In the past unless they were WAYYYY off topic, or involved flame attacks or personal insults etc, they were never locked or moved.

Unless certain people keep bumping them up!

I was going to ask if it wouldn't be fair to subtract the time you were on lifetime ban from those 2.5 years, but then remembered you kept posting under other handles during that time.

As for moderation/locking of threads, Randy has written on this (particularly in response to Punki's "enabling" comments about locking of threads in Buzz.) If you find the moderation to be excessive, shouldn't these comments be directed to him?

Sorry guys, I guess the confusion was really caused by me. I did indeed first post it in the Lufthansa forum and then CGK suggested to post it in the Star Alliance forum which I subsequently did because I felt (and kind of still do) that it would be more appropriate there.

I understand, however, that moderation is necessary to keep the boards clean and organized and I am thankful that Patron takes the time to do that (moreover, he also gave me some really good advice, thanks for that as well). As to the "strictness" of policing, I guess it is up to the individual moderator's judgment.

I was surprised that my thread was locked because from other message boards, I am used to threads only being locked when they are really redundant or offensive. I assumed that not all people read both the Lufthansa and the Star board.

Back to my original question - if I understood all the answers correctly - EVEN IF I have a Business class RTW ticket (whether it is an award ticket or not) - if I want to change the date of the flight, I have to pay. So the only difference of the business class ticket to the economy ticket is that I sit somewhere else and get more miles (if I pay the ticket)? I am not sure if I would want to pay more than twice as much for that .

attorney28. Not sure now on WHAT thread to answer your query. ( )

I know for sure that using UNITED miles to book a Star normal award you may change DATES at will. ROUTING or CARRIER changes incurs a small charge. Never booked a Star RTW award so not certain if THEY preclude date changes.

Joh and I are flying to Madrid next month via BKK on Thai business class and for example have changed dates 5 times so far. All changes necessary to dodge those 1980s museum piece [in C and F seats/facilities] 747s that TG mostly run.

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~ Glen ~

Come and visit the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

First of all, thanks for your comments, attorney28.

ozstamps answer could show us, that it is very important, in which *A FFP you spend miles. For a flyertalker who uses M&M miles MP rules are insignificant, as they are different. For M&M award tickets, I repeat my answer from the LH Board:
� You can change the dates or flight times of your free flight award for a change fee of � 50 provided award travel is available in the class you are booked. Once issued, free flight awards are nontransferable.
� Routing changes are not permitted. Unused free flight awards expire and cannot be returned or credited back to your mileage account.
If you look on RWSTAR fares for sale after 01OCT01 � kempis, it is different:

After departure:
Rerouting/reissue permitted at a charge of USD 75 per reissue.
rebooking/validation permitted at no charge except
(a) For travel originating other than Europe:
No changes permitted on remaining outbound sectors up to and including first international sector.
(b) For travel originating in Europe:
No changes permitted on remaining outbound sectors up to and including first intercontinental sector.
So basically the difference between a M&M *A Round the World Business Class award and a CRWSTAR ticket are:

� Different class of booking (=availability)
� Routing changes are not permitted on award tickets are not permitted, or RWSTAR tickets is rerouting/reissue permitted at a charge of USD 75 per reissue
� If booking class is available, change of the dates or flight times is permitted in general in both cases for free flight award the change fee is � 50.

[This message has been edited by Patron (edited 02-13-2003).]

Patron: I responded to you on the thread on the UA board, but I have no idea if you read that.

The reason I started a second thread here after you closed the first one was that I had more info to add (that my uninvited son was able to register) that might have helped people in all *A programs earn more miles ... and isn't that the point of FT - helping each other earn more miles?

I have no idea why you moved the thread to UA and then decided to belittle me for there being yet another thread on the same subject on the UA board. I find your actions very odd and your condescending comments very inappropriate for anyone but especially a moderator.

You should have easily been able to see that the point of my thread wasn't to get an answer to my question, but to encourage others to try the link as they just might qualify. Had you not closed the original thread my comments would have gone there.

Other moderators close threads when they've gotten hostile or way off track. I encourage you to emulate them.

I only discovered FT about a 3 months ago and only started posting 3 days ago so I don't know how much my opinion matters but here it is anyhow.

I read the 4 closed threads and it seemed like they all seemed on tthe star alliance topic. I think that whoever the Patron is may be getting a little overzealous in their duties...kinda like a new cop on the beat looking to bust everyone. Closing down or moving threads is disruptive and shouldn't be done unless the post is way way off topic. I've noticed that when the new moderators came on all the threads there are a lot more closed threads now. I guess people feel that since they are a moderator they have to "moderate" to show how important they are. Its all quite silly really and is making the flyertalk experience less than is should be.

I'm sure all the moderation is with the best of intentions and I appreciate the moderators giving up their time to do it, but can I also add my voice to the request for a little less of it? IMHO, moderation should be for when things get offensive or out of hand.