I'm not entirely certain what problem this great rearrangement was intended to solve, but I find the "new" FlyerTalk to be maddeningly fragmented. Where once there was a slightly overloaded "general travel" forum there are now scores of completely empty and hyperspecialized ones.

On USENET, it has long been accepted that a new group should not be created unless there was a demonstrated need for it. The old reasoning had much to do with disk space and other such resource issues, but more relevant reasoning today is that groups with no activity quickly become abandoned distractions. The "regulars" will go where the activity really is, and the only posts that appear in the new, specialized groups are from new users who wonder why their messages are being ignored. Overall, the "law" is that creating new groups does not create new activity, it just mis/displaces existing activity, therefore it is counterproductive to have more groups than can be supported at the present time. Empty groups do not grow, they just provide more spaces in which things can get lost.

For a slightly absurd example, say I am interested in finding a place to eat at/near the Orlando airport. Without stretching things too much, I could presumably post in Travel|TravelBuzz!, Travel|Tourist Traps, Travel|Orlando, Travel|Florida, Travel|South, Dining|DiningBuzz!, Dining|South (not Dining|Orlando, however), Airports|AirportsBuzz!, or Airports|MCO. This is crazy.

Of course, nobody reads all (any?) of these forums, so if I'm smart, I'd probably have to crosspost to a few of them, at least. Of course, if I'm really smart and want the possibility of a timely response, I'll just post in one forum people actually read regularly, regardless of topic. I think the result is that nothing is accomplished overall -- off-topic posts will still exist, but now with the addition of excessive crossposting.

Now, of course the USENET model I am most familiar with largely does not take moderators into account. Certainly, moderators can make sure that posts are in the appropriate forums, moving them around and enforcing the categories as they see fit, forcing people to adapt. That seems to be the strategy in place here. I just happen to think the need for heavy moderation underlines how cumbersome the board is becoming. It shouldn't be that hard.

In summary, I'm not going to sit here and click on 40-50 boards. So, to the extent that posts become spread out across this vast desert that is the new FlyerTalk, my contribution will be diminished. That probably doesn't mean much to anyone, but maybe others feel the same way. Where "Buzz" and "General TravelTalk" could have been easily split up into clean topics like "Miles", "Travel", "Dining", and "Airports" we now have this huge filing system with the inevitable bureaucracy springing up to manage it all.

I really don't understand to whom this new setup is actually more useful.

I totally agree...just today I went to the travel forum and added some useful (I hope) comments - but I don't have the time to go to so many different places to look for what I want, esp with the slow connection!

So for now - I will be following the miles - but very rarely visiting the others.