I suggest that on posters handle there could be the years the member had the title, like TB 2007-2009.
Maybe also for others temporarily statuses if they belong to the past, like ambassador/moderator.

Why? q

I guess these titles serve 2 purposes:

1. Showing a current position/authority (moderator/talkboard member)
2. Award/sign of respect (evangelist/original member)

I guess ambassador is a bit between.

Comments from (former) TB members, will have some more authority in many cases, and they also have the knowledge on how many things work. Others might want to PM them before suggesting on FT or to TB etc.
+ I feel this info is more important then any of the 2 mentioned in point 2 above.

If you dont see my point, you might want to agree that we remove whats under 2. ? I dont see it gains anything at all, but its a sign of respect.

If thats the case, I dont really see the need for ambassador title either, as the thread is supposed to be flamefree, and volunteers can help there in any case without the title.

Not to confuse, I support these titles, but lets use the same types of principles for all titles.

Can you give some examples here? What would they know, for instance, that I wouldn't know as a 10 year member of FT?

You do realize we have some members that attained the FT Evangelist title by competing in contests in the Community forum? Some of those folks got 6,000 or more posts in ONE thread. The title used to mean that you typed out a couple lines in thousands of threads and had something to contribute. That is no longer the case.

Im pretty sure that you would know a lot about FT policy, especially how to make changes etc if serving on TB. I think that for some, one term on TB could give you more info than 10 years on FT, but maybe only on specific subjects that are not so frequently discussed.

I didnt know that about evangelists. Thanks for sharing. I just thought you got it from 10K posts! But the way you explain it, it doesnt differ from just a number of posts in principle.

Maybe there is an easy way to read FT history, check previous TBs etc? But it would be easier with extra titles.

You might perhaps want to familiarize yourself a bit more with what TalkBoard does.

Maybe. From me its just a brain storm, a wild shot, and I guess others may chip in.

Not a bad idea though.

Reminds me a bit of when a pro golfer steps up to the first tee in a big event. The announcer says: "Now on the tee...Joe Birdie from Windermere, FL. Winner of the 2001, 2003 Masters, 2004 British Open and the 2005 US Open."

They're giving him some credibility/recognition by mentioning his past performances.

It might be interesting and informative to know who has served on past TB's and who has previously been a moderator. Both volunteer positions imply that that member has at least a bit of familiarity with the workings of FT. That might be useful information for new members trying to figure out whose who in the forums.

It's no guarantee that the member knows any more than the next member just like mentioning a golfers past victories is no guarantee for the future. But it might be useful to some and it does supply recognition for a volunteer's service to FT in the past.

But this means nothing to a newbie.

Maybe a mod is someone who just gets paid a few bucks a week to clean up and police threads?

To the newbie: Maybe there are several hundred people here that are automatically qualify to be called "Talkboard" because of XXX and YYY?

If you're new here, you don't know/care about this, nor should you.

This is the official answer: What is the TalkBoard and How are New Forums and Other Suggestions Considered?

I am confused. Do you want to know FT better or do you want to have a better understanding of certain FTers w/r/t TB?

If it's about people, as you are aware now, the titles may not mean that much. I prefer to learn about posters via what they post. For me, FTers with 100 posts of substance in travel fora weigh much much more than those with 6K "pick me!" sort of posts in one thread. If you pay enough attention, you know who are "experts."

If your focus is about TalkBoard, you may want to look closer TalkBoard Topics Forum. There are separate threads about TB Elections since 2005 at the top, so you get to know who were/are passionate to run for TB. You get to know them by reading Q&As. You probably are too new (Join Date: Sep 2009) to know who once served TB. Did you get to know and vote in TalkBoard Elections/09 in November 2009?

You can look up names in this thread: Town Hall - Official TalkBoard Voting Decisions by years to identify current/previous TBers and where they stood on certain issues.

Hope this helps.

If my math is correct it cant really be more than 50 people? (9 seats on TB, 2 years terms, 10 years of history?). And of course the relevant years of serving must be included, not only "talkboard".

I agree for the total newbies, this would probably mean nada, but when you start rolling, you might have improvement ideas etc. Then it could work well to PM some experienced "lobbyists" first rather than be flamed in the suggestions forum.

My idea was mostly to understand FT better, but it might also help me understand individual members better, and as said, ease any communication on at least TB related topics.
I agree its the content of posting thats important, but TB titles might help identify people with specific knowledge.

I just started posting this year, and did not vote last year. Singed up last year, but rarely visited.

Thanks for your very informative post, including links. However it seems a bit detective work to find out who served when. Maybe I just didnt see the vote results, or table of TB members there?
Opening every years question to candidates, would include a lot of reading about posters not elected etc.
Would be easier with it in the title, then you could check their posting/voting history before PMing.

TB is a popularity contest. Nothing more, sadly.

In my eyes that says more about TBs role than the candidates.

That's probably true.

What kind of specific knowledge are you after? I look at the veteran members who have all posted on this thread and any one of them could answer a question from a new poster if sent a PM (such as what forum would my question be best on, or if there is a forum for technical support or airlines of India).

We have some TalkBoard members running right now that have one month's experience on FT, and another with years here and only 300 posts. I don't think I'd rate either of them as having more experience with FT than those that have taken the time to give you input here. The posters that have answered you here are all very experienced members and know their way around FT.