Well that's two TB votes for it then - I am happy to support this as I found information I needed for a visit last year a little tricky to locate.

I am in favor of a separate Brazil Forum
 

I wonder what took so long for the idea of a separate Brazil Forum to get this much attention.

Since I am in Brazil so much, I would participate more in such a forum. I have valid first-hand information to share about Brazil. Every now and again I answer questions from posters who inquire about various facets of travel to Brazil.

I look forward to the day the Brazil forum begins -
-

I was always surprised that there was no dedicated Brazilian Forum. This is really weird and very strange on my account.

I fully support a dedicated Brazil Forum. Lets get this happening as soon as possible.

Brazil is a world power, its size is half of South America, with a population of 200 million people and a world top tourist destination, it has the biggest airline in Latin America (TAM) and the busiest (pax/year) and best served airport in Latin America (GRU), the premier financial center in the region (São Paulo) and the premier tourist destination in the region (Rio de Janeiro), and last but not least, it will host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. What more does it take to have a dedicated Forum?

Rgs,

I agree 100% and strongly support the creation of a Brazil forum!

Wooo !!!! Please, hold your horses there for just a minute.

The above statement is just plain wrong. Look at the metrics of the Argentina forum and then re-think what you have posted above. The numbers and the traffic speak for themselves.

Not to mix apples with oranges... and my support of a Brazil forum is clear, and I will help have it get more traffic - I stand 100% behind it.

However, I cannot let the above comment pass without pointing out that it does not reflect the facts.... Argentina´s own forum is something that has been beyond discussion for a long time, so please lets all support Brazil and its own forum with its own merits. Thank you.

I see a need for it given that many of the posts for South America deal with Brazil. Also as the 2014 World Soccer and 2016 Olympics are coming up.

I'm all for it.

If I might make a helpful suggestion to improve the forum, it would be to prevent Argentinians from posting on it. :D:D:D

Good idea! BTW, Gaucho100k is now an honorary Brazilian because he is developing, hopefully, a taste for the excellent Brazilian wines of Garibaldi among other places. He is an essential component of the Southern Brazil views, don't you agree? :D:D:D:D

First draft of Brazil Forum justification
 

Important Criteria for Forum Changes

The following are qualitative criteria that the TalkBoard believes are useful to consider when evaluating proposals to create, close, split, or move forums. Whenever a forum change is discussed on the TalkBoard Topics, the TalkBoard encourages posters to fully address these criteria in addition to any other reasons supporting or opposing the change.

1. Will the forum be (or is it now) beneficial to FlyerTalk?

Brazil is the largest country in South America, the largest economy in South America and has the largest airline in the Southern Hemisphere, TAM. Tourism and business are booming and will do so more as the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics are being prepared. Further, Brazil has a rapidly growing oil industry, now with reserves the highest in the Americas, which is leading to flights crowded with oil industry people going from Houston to Rio de Janeiro and many other routes. The newly signed Open Skies agreement between Brazil and US will produce even more growth in new flights than has already happened in the last two years. The Forum will provide a convenient place for discussion of these events and will also provide information for the many FTers who are now travelling to and from Brazil.

There is no authoritative convenient place now for a frequent-flyer oriented discussion regarding Brazil. Because of distances the many Brazilians who travel regularly to the US and Europe are almost all Elite members of one or more alliance, but have no easy place to learn more about their potential benefits and other issues. The Brazil Forum will act to draw them into the discussion. By having a dedicated forum FT can become known as the authoritative source on all things related to Frequent Flyers.

The current members of FlyerTalk who are located in Brazil are well aware of the lack of reference to this economy among non-Brazilian Frequent Flyers. The Brazil Forum can help to acquaint them with the country, which became the sixth largest economy in the world in 2007. As Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, Accor and other hotel chains open dozens of new hotels in the next two years the forum will help inform people of these options. The forum, by updating on current events relevant to the FT community such as the move to privatize major airports, opening oil exploration and production to foreign interests, allowing foreign firms to lead the development of privatized roads, ports, airports and rail infrastructure will generate much more interest and benefit than the currently diffuse placement affords.

2. Will the new forum benefit a relationship with FlyerTalk? E.g., does the forum provide value for FT members, such as a friendly ear highly placed in the company.

This question is slightly difficult to answer succinctly. However, almost all major politicians, businesspeople and sports figures are elite level frequent flyers. Generating favorable mention of FlyerTalk and the new Brazil Forum (hopefully also discussing Fora for LATAM, GOL and others in the not distant future) is not difficult. FlyerTalkers resident in Brazil possess the contacts to accomplish that.

3. Is FT the best place to discuss this subject?

The subjects of FlyerTalk are acutely relevant to all visitors and many residents of Brazil precisely because frequent flying is part of the psyche of the country and the region. There is no better place to discuss loyalty and rewards. Because even frozen yogurt shops and ‘comida a quilo’ restaurants have loyalty schemes in Brazil today, the ability of FT to decipher the crucial points is even more relevant to many consumers here.

FT is the only responsible arena for discussing travel related loyalty programs!

4. Is there a passionate following? This is essential in order to provide dedicated expert helpers to get questions answered.

We have a small but enthusiastic cadre of people who know the country and the issues well and will work to maintain an active and productive forum. Many more will appear as we better publicize the relevance of the Brazil Forum. Many are not appearing now because Brazil is relegated to the status of a minor country with equivalence to Surinam. That dismissal of Brazil discourages anyone from seeking answers of discussions here, precisely because it is FlyerTalk that ignores the reality of the country. We indeed must be passionate and devotes to redress this legacy, and get the attention that the country with the third largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft deserves.

Passion we have! We need to channel the passion to develop a solid cadre of people who will provide the constant attention the forum will require. We will do that.

5. Is a critical mass of posts and readers anticipated or existing? We need adequate traffic to keep everyone visiting frequently. One living forum is more valuable than two mostly dead ones.

It is true that the existing South America forum has had only 33 new threads since September, but even the obscure placement produced 478 posts and 24,904 views in the same period. In the equally dismissive Other North and South America Frequent Flyer Programs there were about 25 posts in the same period asking questions of general relevance about Brazil and facilities and those had 294 posts and 20,805 views. Were these to be placed as people would reasonably expect them to be there will be a huge increase in activity and relevance. Even the Orlando forum will benefit, since Brazilian visitors are now the largest national group to Orlando, and they have minimal ability to link those interests in the country. Given that Brazilians now spend more in New York than do the residents of any single European country it should prove beneficial to New York as well. Brazil deserves a vibrant living forum, which it will have soon after the TalkBoard approves it.

6. Is this the best place on FlyerTalk for this subject? This is the classification issue. The answer depends primarily on achieving and maintaining critical mass. It also depends on whether or where the discussion might (or does) occur in the absence of the forum.

Of course in the absence of the Brazil Forum most discussions regarding Brazil do not happen on FlyerTalk at all, simply because intelligent people will not waste their time when it is clear that FlyerTalk sees Argentina as more important than Brazil. (I apologize to Gaucho100k, but it is clear that his role is a huge factor in creating the successful Argentina Forum rather than the intrinsic preference of FlyerTalkers to know more about Argentina than Brazil). It is precisely the classification issue that will make this Brazil Forum a success.

7. For proposals to split a forum, is the split expected to improve the signal to noise ratio? Why?


While the S/N ratio in this context might be unclear, it is clear that the current forum generates more generic continent hopping questions such as ones by newbys asking about the short flight from Cancun to Iguassu Falls. (that one happened!) We should certainly help those people, but we should also encourage those with more specific tastes, especially when Brazil itself is the size of the continental US and encompasses diversity quite analogous to that of the US.

Thus the smaller countries will have more attention in their existing forum and the Brazil Forum will become more topical. That will increase the quality and quantity of posts and utility, reducing spurious broadly stated questions.

As the signal improves, the noise becomes less disturbing to the signal. That will happen in this case. Thus the more clearly topical the posts are the less likely it is that off-topic and irrelevant posts will occur.


Please offer any criticism or modifications anyone desires. This is a first draft.

Happy holidays everyone.

He he he.... leaving soccer aside, Argentines have no beef with Brazilians... its with our cousins from the wrong side of the Andes that we have issues..... :p :D

Heck... Ive long had*** a developed taste for Brazilian Stewardesses.... does that count..??!!!! :D :p

(***) no longer current as Im now married to an Argentine who would kill me if she read my above post... :eek: :o

What is soccer? If you mean futebal some Argentines do play a little bit, it is true. Of course we must remember that Maradona confuses the game with fealty to Fidel, so... it is little wonder that he is not such a stellar guide for the team. Who am I to criticize when we did not do better?

I agree with everyone who has supported the idea of a Brasil forum and will also echo what Markie said in that finding information about Brasil can be a little tricky.

Totally agree..this is long overdue :)

With the upcoming events and Brazil's growing economic power it certainly deserves a forum of it's own - never mind it's relative size to some of the other territories represented by forums and the sheer differences between it and the rest of South America (language difference aside!)

I fully support this, long overdue.

We'll most likely need an "Airlines of Brazil" forum pretty soon as well given the growth on the domestic market here and the number of small regional airlines that are appearing, but one battle at a time.

FR