linsj

Most of the time it makes sense to me to merge threads that deal with the same topic since doing so makes searching easier. What irritates me is when a mega thread is years old and policies, etc., have changed, so a lot of the earlier info is out of date. I'd rather see such threads have a time limit, although the beginning of each year may not always be the best time to start a new thread.

Markie

I think it's disappointing that the mega-threads are under attack when I personally have found them very useful in the forums I help Moderate.

- Star Alliance was peppered with 'Which FF scheme should I join?' With the help of the members we created a set of questions which posters were asked to answer and then a series of expert FTs posted suggested and reasoning. This works well in a Megathread and I would hate to see it stopped.

- Hyatt - well the review threads are the obvious target here. I wonder really if it would be better to have a dozen threads on each property forcing members to search all over the place for comments on properties? If you are coming to Hyatt planning to visit a property I would think it best to have the index that was created and then search for the hotel. Yes, some of the data is old - we have postings going back several years; but going to the end and reading backwards is not that hard.

I have to say that I've had very little feedback on the two areas mentioned above from actual members. Most of the complaints are from TB and Moderators who seem to find it unusually hard to find information for some reason.

You will see review threads at the top of the forum very often, as members post their experiences and update the reviews. Perhaps I have an overly excited sence of order, but to have each of these in its own little thread does not seem terribly helpful.

Clearly, however, if instructed, I'll abandon them.

tcook052

FWIW I don't have a problem using Megathreads to find information I'm looking for.

DeaconFlyer

I feel like mega-threads are appropriate for some subjects, but I agree that there needs to be a time-limit placed on them, so information is not stale, outdated, or flat out wrong.

Unfortunately, the appropriate time-limit varies by subject, so I don't think a uniform policy could be put into place. It would have to be up to the mod's discretion.

Michael El

I hate reading through megathreads. Especially the ones that started several years back.

peteropny

+1 - There needs to be some order - before the Master Review Threads were "consolidated" in Hyatt - we had a weekly question from members on "How to get from NRT to PH Tokyo" and that got very tiresome and subject to flames from members (and somewhat understandably so). Yes some of the posts are quite old and some threads are very long - but it is obvious that if people are only seeking recent information they can just read backwards from the end. I wouldn't mind splitting out some of the lengthier threads into time periods - however, the software doesn't allow for selecting page(s) of posts for an action and you must do it one post at a time. Also, some have said that it's often good to let "new" threads stand alone for some period of time before merging - again, I agree with the concept but the software doesn't allow us to "pre-merge" threads and I don't want to have to remember to do it especially if it's fallen off the first page of threads. So there are two tech things that could help some. We don't merge into the Master Threads questions that ask which of the properties in an area is preferred (however, we have now included those threads in the "Index" sticky).


For National, I asked for the forum since frustration were building from the weekly threads asking "what cars are on the Emerald Aisle at LAX", so some structure needed to be put in place.


For GLBT, we rarely merge any threads since the questions are pretty unique and the "scene" can change pretty often - and the forum is pretty small anyways.


However, I'm not willing to go back to the "old" system of "never" merging threads into "mega-threads" - that serves no purpose and is a backwards move.

dhammer53

The thing about Megathreads is that many of them are old and dated. If I'm looking for information on a Sheraton property in Portland OR, I'll only read 'current info'. By current I mean the past 2 years. There's no point in going back all the way to 2004, unless I want general background (which is probably outdated anyway).

Markie

And you think the price (having data back to 2004) is not worth the benefit (not having to search potentially dozens of threads duplicating information)?

holtju2

The "Mega" threads are the best way to organize information about specific hotels. Also, not sure how information about airline awards, upgrades, and other information, that doesn't change daily, would be better organized? Most certainly there is no need for a new thread in each and every instance when someone has a question?

Just compare Bangkok properties and the way information about the specific hotels and the elite treatment between SPG and InterContinental Hotels Group forums are displayed. The latter is loosely moderated i.e. the info is all over the place and you have to go through numerous threads etc.

On Starwood forum there is one thread purely for choosing a Starwood property that suites ones needs, and then there are comprehensive separate threads for each of the properties.

Not sure why there is such a animosity towards "Mega" threads?

jackal

Nope. Not that I've seen, anyway.

Jenbel

I'm surprised - and very disappointed - that an honest discussion as to how users find the experiences of mega-threads - is being characterised as 'being under attack'

I've long stated - as is clear from the dig in this post - that I don't like mega-threads, that I find them awkward to use, rendering the information in them virtually inaccessible to me. If I want to find information on hotels, I use tripadvisor now, not FT. Differences between TA and FT is that on TA, the most recent reviews are first, and the reviews do not become a catch all for all kinds of odd queries about the properties that I have little/no interest in, which, if I used them, would necessitate a lot of skimming of useless information to find the information that I do want.

A mega-thread, dating back more than 2 years, and with more than 200 posts is one of the most daunting places you can store information on FT. It strikes me that this is not a good way to store information for people to access easily. It's way easier, using FT's search engine, to search for threads rather than posts.

Perhaps we can all attempt to listen with an open mind, rather than attempting to find reasons to dismiss the negative feelings which mega-threads conjure up amongst a group of us?

travelkid

Did you mix the words mega-threads and moderators

Your main idea of listening is great^

We definately need Markies master threads- like for hotels. I just look through the last pages/years. But I guess there should be some time limit IF there are more than x pages? 10 year old Hilton reviews are not that interesting.

Mary2e

I personally don't care for mega threads. However, the hotel master threads are a very valuable tool. I was going to suggest to Peter & Mark they go through them and delete all the "thank yous" etc, and only leave what is real information. That should shorten the threads considerably.

I know that people ask the same questions time and time again, however, perhaps it would be a better practice to wait a week or so before merging, and that's after a minor clean up to get rid of extraneous information. However, that would be asking a lot of the mods.

Still, I avoid mega threads like the plague.

Jinxy

+1

Ancien Maestro

Personally, I try to read through mega threads, but its just a big time consumption issue that I end up just posting my comments and getting answers to my questions..