I PM'd the moderator for hotel deals about this, and I've read the thread about moderators actions here. Volunteers or not when you post guidelines and they are adhered to if they are going to delete threads with no noticable violation they need to contact the poster and tell them why.

my message to him is as follows:
Whats the deal with cancelling threads with no notice or explanation?...or for that matter no good reason!!!!
I read a deal today about a $10 AI property in puerto plata DR which I found very interesting, It caused me to remember an article with half a dozen 10-10 deals from various properties which I posted a thread about.
I come back this afternoon and both threads are GONE...with no notice or explanation. The first thread had no reason to be deleted and I am glad the OP shared the info. My thread after reading a bit in hotel deals contained a link to a story that was already in another thread. My thread title was broader and reflected that many deals that were listed in the linked story. whereas the other thread that contains the link deals only with the marriott deal, which is only a small part of the story and technically belongs in the marriott hotels section. I think you are over stepping your bounds and authority here. I am reporting this. In the future it would be nice to be notified if our threads are being moved or deleted and for what reasons!!!!

If they are volunteers then they need to be responsible for their actions and deleting posts should require an explanation. It might make them think twice before deleting posts that have valid, valuable info. I see so many stupid, off topic, and irrevelant posts that slide by, while your mods take down valuable content.

You need to get control over your moderators, if they are deleting valuable info with no notice they need to have valid reasons...I'd love to hear the reason this mod deleted these 2 threads. Who polices your police? If a mod has many complaints about his actions do you review him and if nessesary replace him? you need to!!!

Pretty demanding today aren't you? I'll take the time to answer your questions, only if you also take the time to listen -- and remember, listening is best done when you are not talking.

Let's look at the facts -- you posted this message or variations of it three time, see the links below at the bottom of this reply. That alone would likely find you being reported by other members. Clearly, you don't need to talk (post) over yourself, once is enough and BTW, it's really not considered cool by any means to be ripping on the Mods, especially when there's a little bit of responsibility to go around.

Fact is, it looks like upon further view that the Moderator was imply acting on the advise of your fellow members of FlyerTalk that determined your post was really a repeat of other information, that it was not as unique as you have thought. Proof of this is in the post:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...l#post14867386

Yesterday, a member posted a link to hotels deals in the Caribbean and Mexico and in the thread title was 10-10-10. That was posted at 2:11 yesterday. At 3:57 yesterday, another member commented on the other members links to Marriott and then, like you mentioned and then posted a link to a Atlanta Journal article, the very same Atlanta Journal article that you posted today at 9:12 a.m.

Understand the chronicle here? You posted something that was already posted and in fact, another member even pointed that out to you in your post. What happened was that other members of FlyerTalk reported to the Moderator that your thread, was dupe of existing information already posted. The Moderator took a quick look, saw that the link from a day earlier to the Atlanta Journal was the same was the same as you posted today and deleted your thread. The Moderator then went back to a meeting and other business they had going in closing out their work week. While I did not find out yet if the Moderator had plans later on to let you know that they had deleted your post/thread, trying to make this solely a tirade against a Moderator is certainly not fair.

Your whole case is that the thread title wasn't broad enough for you. Here's a suggestion, which happens daily: When you see that the same information is within a thread and links already exist there, rather than start a brand new thread with the same information as the existing thread ... simply notify the volunteer Moderator to modify the thread title to better reflect the way that the thread has been broadened. If you'll look at the thread, you'll see that is actually what happened, when the other member added the link to the Atlanta Journal article ... a request was made and thread title was changed. That surely makes much more sense than starting another thread with the exact same content, but a more refined thread title.

Come on, work with us here. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder against Moderators. Drop the attitude, understand that much of the actions of the Moderators are simply work orders from your other members. They don't get paid, they have families and work and other interests and frankly when they are doing this type of cleanup, they have to give up enjoying FlyerTalk for their own benefit and knowledge.

So enough of the "if only ...." speech. I think you should take some responsibility for the situation and really, "control over your moderators."? Fact is, they are your Moderators and this is really not a cool way to treat them. So, do you get the reason why the threads were deleted (links below may not work because of the deletions)? You posted information that beat you by a day. You tried to make complicated something that had a very easy solution (modify the thread title). Polices the police? I wasn't aware we had police on FlyerTalk. And for your information, the Moderators actually have a review board for when a Moderator does have too many complaints against. Do you honestly think this is merit to fire a Moderator?

Anyway, apologies if I appear harsh in any comments regarding this. Its a case of communication. Take Moderators on as partners and you'll see a different FlyerTalk.

Thanks for allowing me my explanation.

Randy

Again?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...l#post14870454

Complain:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...l#post14870319

With its over 500 [Merged] threads, I thought there was a better than 50/50 chance that this thread was about the UA Forum.

Shows how much I know...

Thank you for taking the time to reply, unlike the Mod who started all this...as I said in a recent post, (the only one not deleted): a constructive idea would be to have the Mods check a box from a list of valid reasons for deleting a post or thread and have the system PM that notice to the OP.
I wrote my complaint as a PM to 2 mods, and you in this thread, sorry if thats redundant, but one of the mods took the time to say he was not responsible, the other still hasn't bothered to justify himself. You were polite enough to reply but dont seem to have all the info. this is the only thread I posted publicaly about this, I dont know where you get I posted this 3 times or variations thereof unless you count my complaint in the technical thread , which was not a tirade and contained a constructive solution (mentioned above)to the problem. My last post in the "hotel deals" thread was nowhere close to this tirade, as you call it, and only mentions that I have carefully read the posting guidlines and dont see any reason why it should be deleted by the mods. I listened to your reply and I understand your community volunteers arent perfect and like you said he only took a quick look at the post and decided to delete it...I can understand your explanation of why that happened with that particular post, and if that were all that was involved I wouldnt have a problem, except for his lack of courtesy in explaining it to me.
You do not seem to have all the facts on all the stuff that was deleted.
The first thread deleted was from another poster about a deal not mentioned at all in the link from the AJC...it was about a $10 AI in the Dominican Republic.
After that thread was the one that talked aboout a mariott promo (the only surviving thread) where the OP failed to mention anything but the marriot deal and included an invalid useless link. the second poster in the thread posted the link from the AJC to show more details on the Marriott promos.
At this point you say I could have had the OP's title to the thread expanded to show the reply posted in his thread had a broader range of promos??
I didnt know that was possible or appropriate, so I posted a thread with a broader title, I half expected the previous thread to be moved to the Marriott forum. I am aware I reposted a link but with my title I was trying to enlighten more people than just those looking for a marriott deal...I didnt know this was innappropriate.
When i returned to the hotel deals section a couple of hours later, my thread was gone ( i never read any replies to it) as was the totally unrelated thread by the other poster about the $10 AI deal.
I became upset and PM'd both mods demanding explanation, as well as posted to this thread to get some answers.
A few hours later I reposted to the Hotel Deals thread with a new thread that contained a totally new link to a completely different AJC story posted about the $10 AI offer through CheapCaribbean.
I included the fact that after carefully reading the posting guidelines I could find no reason for the mods to delete this info, and that I reposted the second link with info on multiple promotions in mexico and Carrib to benefit the general bargain hunter...(at this point the other thread still had a Marriott specific title)...once again the thread was summarily taken down.

There is currently no mention on the hotel deal boards about a ultra-affordable deal of $10 pp/pn AI deal to the lifestyles resort in Puerto Plata DR that is part of a 10 year anniversary sale from cheapcaribbean....probably because the same Mod didnt bother to read the whole post or look at the content in the links, they just noticed the same link back again and deleted the whole thing. The is a disservice to your readers, it also makes me reluctant to share any info on your site if it can be summarily dismissed without explanation by a mod, who volunteer or not, is not being thourough enough to look at content.
If redundant information were to be deleted then half your postings in years old threads should be edited....I've read hundreds of posts with the same answers to the same questions and tons of posts with no relevance at all, wasting hours of my time...should I report all those posts to your Moderators?

My point is if the Mod wants to exclude new, relevant information because it may share a common link in another thread then they should go through all the old stuff as well. It seems a little picky to delete valid info in threads with a common link as reposts (without looking at all the info contained in the post and seeing if it is redundant)...while ignoring years of garbage piled up and bumped every few months for new readers to slog through. I suggest any topic over a year old be closed and archived. New promotions and info needs to be put out in new threads, not piled on top of year old garbage heaps.
Sorry if I come off as critical or demanding, it is just your moderator's (or as you put it, my moderator's) actions have confused and angered me.
I am not going off on a tirade against moderators, I was asking for clarification for their actions. Since they dont bother responding, I'm glad you did. I hope you get the fact that I'm trying to make FT a better place with useful info and suggestions. I know moderators are here to help with that, but believe they should explain their actions, have justification for their actions and be held accountable and made to apologise if their actions are found to be wrong.
I used to belong to the cruisecritic boards years ago until they allowed their most active posters (who hated any anti-cruise sentiment) to become moderators...they were unpaid cruise industry cheerleaders who edited posts that didnt agree with their mindset and banned users they disagreed with, they abused their power and were not held accountable. I would just hate to see that happen here.

Will close to give Randy or Mikel an opportunity to respond, if they wish.

cblaisd
Senior Moderator

Ah, good point. But if that were really the situation, wouldn't it have said, "overzealous members"? After all, factually it is overwhelmingly the members of FlyerTalk that recommend that threads are merged. Come on, give the members their due!