Why? How would your FT experience be different if your (and everyone else's posts) in OMNI DID count?

Ordinary members could not post. However, they did in the numerous threads about the topic over the last year. I believe a few clearly stated that clearing up the inconsistency was one of the main reasons they were running.

Unsure if this has been answered yet, but: Is the grand total of posts listed on FT's home page (over 17.5 million as of tonight) inclusive of OMNI and P/R, or not?

Post count, like it or not, is usually used as a reflection of the commitment to the community. If I see someone who has posted 10,000 times, I would like to know that those posts came while discussing travel, the driving topic of FT. I really don't care if they can count backwards from 5 million or if they have some awesome baking or gardening tips.

So if OMNI posts counted, post count would not accurately reflect the poster's commitment to increasing the FT travel community.

exactly.

You're excluding TB members. Since we are members first and foremost and all....I think it's a lot closer with the TB members included.

TB members shouldn't be included. This is about the community that you guys are supposed to represent. The numbers should reflect the community, not the representatives.

Wow, I'm really struggling with the fact that you clearly have no interest in listening to the community that you are supposed to represent!

I'm shocked that you don't see that as an issue, or in fact, any of the TB members, or even comment on it.

I am an equal member to you and the rest of the community. TB members (and moderators, so I'm told) are members first and foremost. Our opinions should be counted in a poll like this right alongside yours. Still, I don't think representative government involves poll-taking on every issue. Candidates run, are elected based on stands they take during a campaign, and then vote their conscience.

I am listening -- to the people that voted for me in November. I clearly, CLEARLY said I would be raising this and supporting this during the campaign and I received enough votes to be seated. So did kokonutz. I would be going back on my word to the voters who voted for me if I didn't support this.

Furthermore, the opinions here are *not* overwhelmingly in one direction or the other. As I've been told, being loud or repeating yourself over and over does not mean more people feel a certain way.

Finally, If you don't like me keeping my promises, I will be up for re-election (if I choose to stand again) in November 2013. Feel free to vote against me then. Most issues where I don't have a particular viewpoint or feel I need some guidance I'll be leaning on the opinions of members in this forums or by PMs I receive. But for this one? My vote was already set in stone when I made the motion. Sorry if that offends you, but it's the truth.

I'll bet the Omni numbers are included in the figures they show advertisers. @:-)

You aren't equal. You have specific rights and privileges that other members do not, that makes you unequal to the majority of the community. You can vote on changes that affect FT, ordinary members cannot. If the matter was anything else but Talkboard related, I would agree with you, but it isn't.

Why try to collect feedback from ordinary members and then muddy it with the votes of people that have the power to vote anyway. Yet another sign that the TB is not interested in the thoughts of the community.

I think I've asked this about 3 times now: who do you represent? Is it youself, a small subset of 'friends' or the broader community? I really have no idea anymore.

I strongly disagree, since you already have the power to vote. Ordinary, non-voting members do not, the only thing we can do is express an opinion.

Can you confirm that everybody that voted for you did so because of this one issue? What happened to the other questions? People may well have voted based on the answers that you gave to those and not just this one issue.

If you are implying that this is what I am doing, then fine, but I only got counted once in the 'poll' as did everyone else, regardless of how many posts have been made by the individual.

The only promise that I want you to keep is the one where you said that you would represent the community.


What offends me is the fact that you appear to be following your own agenda, rather than listening to the community, or maybe, our definitions of the 'community' differ. Your community might only be made up of the people that you know, rather than a broader sense, which is where this forum comes in to play.

What was the point in voting for fresh new people with great ideas and thoughts if they then turn around and tell members: 'thanks for voting for me, but from now on, I'll only listen to you if I feel like it'?

I give up.

Sure, travel is the driving topic of FT. But it is not its ONLY topic. And the VAST majority of posts in the Omni forums do not involve counting backwards from 5 million, or such nonsense. I would argue that there is great value to be found in many Omni threads, and these posts play a significant role in building the overall "FT Community".

If the only value you see in FT is discussing travel-related topics, that is fine. But don't wrongly assume that everyone else sees the same value proposition as you.

For me, I also use the post count to get a sense for the poster's commitment and contribution to the community. It isn't the only metric I use, but it is a starting point. I really don't care too much about the travel/non-travel post ratio (although, if I know that a member used post-padding just to build their numbers, I would consider that in my evaluation of them).

RichMSN IS listening to the community. He stated his positions during the election. Apparently a few hundred people, including me, took him at his word and voted for him. To turn around now and change his position on this issue would make him nothing more than a lying politician.

We have enough of those already.

Thank you, RichMSN and the others I voted for in the last election, for keeping true to your word. FT will be a better place for it.

I see the issue as black and white. If you are going to count CC post and lounge posts, then by all means count the OMNI posts too.

Count all or none. Either is acceptable to me.

Which community is that exactly? The community that wasn't able to state an opinion during the election or the community of members who have posted on this thread (the official place for feedback I might add)?

I'd have a lot more respect for a politician that didn't barge on with an idea post election that turned out not to be popular with the people that he/she is supposed to represent.

To turn around and change his position based on community feedback, even if that means breaking an election promise is absolutely the right thing to do. I cannot see why anyone would be upset by that, if this is supposed to be a democratic situation.

This is nonsense.

In any other representative scheme, those serving as representatives have an opinion just like everyone else. They don't lose a "common person" vote just because they were elected.

And listening to the community doesn't mean doing what they tell you. I voted for the people who I thought would best represent me, not just do what I tell them.

Edmund Burke, the great orator of the British Parliament, said it best: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serves you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

Sorry for the history lesson, but if all we want is TB representatives that do nothing more than serve as automatons for the majority, then we might as well just have a direct vote for every TB issue that comes up.

That, however, would be a nightmare.

BTW, I am firmly in the "let all posts count" group.

Which community is that exactly? The community that wasn't able to state an opinion during the election or the community of members who have posted on this thread (the official place for feedback I might add)?

That community would be the 408 people that voted for RichMSN. They read what his positions were and voted for him, expecting him to keep to his views.

I'd have a lot more respect for a politician that didn't barge on with an idea post election that turned out not to be popular with the people that he/she is supposed to represent.

I would have no respect for a politician that promises one thing and then does the opposite after securing the election.


To turn around and change his position based on community feedback, even if that means breaking an election promise is absolutely the right thing to do. I cannot see why anyone would be upset by that, if this is supposed to be a democratic situation.

I guess we will have to disagree on this one. The community already endorsed his actions when they voted for him. To break his promise (s) would be nothing more than betrayal of this community.

Of course, you are entitled to your opinions and I respect that.