Referring to the girl that was posting? Because she was actually relatively nice & non-condescending and polite, unlike some of us "old-timer" FT'ers who weren't so nice.

Referring to the person that told her to try her luck in the Coupon Connection, probably not - if they told her to outright solicit here without implying that she could trade here - but it very well could have been an FT'er who told her that.

Either way, the girl was notified by several FT'er (myself & you included) that her posts were not going to going to get a warm welcome & she actually did change and create a new post that offers2 Alaska Upgrades available for trade for one companion ticket and some other items - which, to some, is a reasonable offer. If you've got an a Companion Cert that you're not planning on using & she's got 2 Alaska upgrades that you could use, it seems worthwhile to me.

I have definitely referred a person or two to the Coupon Connection and told them about the Flyertalk Community while travelling - it's one of the neatest aspects of FT in my opinion.

Not that it's any of my business and I'm not asking you to reply here or even to me, but I did notice that you offered a non-travel related Lands End coupon to the first 2 long-standing FT'ers that e-mailed you, and the first two that posted didn't even have 100 posts as of today, although they had each been around for over a year - would they have met the qualifications of the XXX post count that you're asking for?

Please do not take any offense by the latter part of this post, I am just using it as an example & I do not feel that this is inappropriate or that I am "mud-slinging" - if you'd like me to edit that part out, e-mail me to let me know and I will.

Absolutely no offense taken by your post. Thank you for your offer to edit.

Yes, I did notice they didn't have 100 posts - but they are not the only ones that replied. Just because I used three xxxs doesn't mean they had to have more than 100. My point is they should contribute something to the community before being allowed to trade. Randy or the Talk Board could determine the number.

As for our friend with the donation request. Well, she had be told before this wasn't the place. Her story kept on changing. She kept on coming back & posting under two ids. I still don't fully believe if her story is true. Let's face it, how much money could she get for her thesis project? I'm sure she could auction off the free tickets she requested for a lot more money to donate. Then again, I'm skeptical about a lot of things. She did repost a trade offer at my suggestion. I wonder if she got any offers. She also only asked for a companion certificate after she saw she was getting nowhere with the 120,000 mile request.

As I said in my original post, this really isn't all that important to me. I rarely have much to trade and give away any excess I have.

Again, thanks for your offer to edit. I appreciate it.
Mary


[This message has been edited by Mary2e (edited Dec 19, 2003).]

I too have encountered people sending private e mails in response to offers on CC and even started a thread about it approximately a year ago. But I have to add that when I first came to FT, my way of becoming part of the community was to post items I had. I think it's like bringing a cake when you go to someone's house. It sends a message that you want to offer something. Not everyone is out to take things, some people want to give, and I think we might shut out some newbies who would become valuable members of our community. Thus it might be a better investment to be tolerant of the few bad apples.