koko, while I respect you do have expertise in bulletin board software from when you helped start a competing website against FlyerTalk (moremiles.org) and oliver2002, I also realize that you may have ample knowledge of website operations given your close involvement and active support of another competing website against FlyerTalk (vielfliegertreff.de), I might suggest that you may be misinformed or even uninformed about the customization of FlyerTalk. There is actually very little custom conversion of the vBulletin base software with some additions added to external pages of content such as Best Practices for the Moderators and an outside db of member history related to an occasional infraction of one or more of the basic rules for all members, etc. There may be use of a few plugins for vB that the developers decided to not support for the 4.X release, but those plugins were not developed by those who helped build FlyerTalk. And actually the history of FlyerTalk is that is did in fact move forward with version releases of vB from 2.X to 3.X, etc. and all the .X releases in between with little or no problems that don't typically occur.

Rather than with your expertise with competing websites of FlyerTalk try and blame perhaps something that I do not believe exists with my knowledge, you might consider that perhaps IB has other strategies in mind and I of course would support those. A better user experience has always been a desire of anyone who has managed FlyerTalk. A truly customized solution might be better an example of fatwallet.com. The daily function of FlyerTalk as a forum bulletin board is largely indifferent than that of other websites using vB in the 3.X range, other than the graphics. Even another competitor of FlyerTalk, travelingbetter.com continues to use the same version of vB without moving forward to the 4.X version upgrade of vB and it appears that competing website does not have any custom enhancement.

Anyway, I have faith that IB will figure out which direction of technology they may want to take FlyerTalk and do a good job with it. As a note, there have been many websites not wanting to make the leap to 4.X of vB and it's almost always not because their current website is custom or even "screwed up."

While it may be that you have access to things that even I do not have access to, and thus your explicit knowledge of the difference in a labor of love and a profit, I don't think you can speak for me. I have always had an overall model — trying to help travelers increase their travel knowledge with very special focus on miles and points. Call it what you like, but each new toll i have introduced seems to do well at that and I'll continue to try and help those that appreciate what the gift of more travel knowledge can do for them. As for profit, I'll add my own thought on that since you seem to have yours. I'm was, am and will always be proud that individuals such as yourself seemed to have profited by the existence of FlyerTalk in how you have increased your travel knowledge and social network. My profit from FlyerTalk I define as the next person i meet in an airport with a bag tag going somewhere with a purpose and likely more knowledge than they had before FlyerTalk. There is nothing more valuable than that for me, though you may have other definitions for your own personal use. But please don't try and define my life in helping other travelers for me.

I appreciate your being one of the industry spearheads in helping travelers increase their travel knowledge through your creation of FT (and other ventures, such as Inside Flyer magazine), & of course I've benefited from the knowledge I've gained from my fellow FTers. I'll always be grateful to you for that & you have a special place in my heart.

But I do think it's a bit disengious to say it was only a labor of love, since you did sell FT for a profit - and then created a competing website to FT a few years later ;)

Back on topic - while I might not be up on social media, if IB can implement things in that manner that makes FT a better site for its users, good for them. Whether the software allows it I'll leave to others.

Cheers.

Speaking of which... any updates on the Wikiposts Resolution?

jackal has been spearheading that. I think he's been traveling, but will send a PM.

Cheers.

Thanks for sharing your unique perspective, Randy. I have a lot of respect for you too.

What would you suggest FT do to increase social functionality without losing the attractive simplicity that it currently enjoys, short of abandoning the ship and starting a new site on different BB platform?

I draw my statement from public and private talks I had with people in the know at IB/FT as part of mod Dos and listening to a long winded explanation rcs85551 gave me when VFT went to 4.0 sometime ago. Happy to be proven wrong, but somehow can't believe that this is ignorant behaviour by IB because they have better things to do in other sites in the happy IB brand family.

it seems there are some misconceptions, but i dont think Randy has posted publicly about it.

The facts of the sale and the subsequent founding of a competing board on a different platform are well known and publicly available. There may be some misconceptions about the motivations, intentions and/or regrets. But certainly the facts are not in question.

As I recall, at the outset of the competing BB venture a great deal was made about the social-media-like look and feel of the BB software the competing site was built on.

So, as I say, I think Randy is uniquely positioned to give the TB advice on how to improve the 'social mediaization' of FT. But given his financial stake in a BB that is a direct competitor, and the fact that the relationship between Randy and IB ended in (settled out of court) lawsuits, I guess I can't hold out much hope for actually getting that valuable input...

If it is not,as Randy insists, over customization, then I wonder what the drawbacks of going to v4 are. Anyone have perspective?

Straight from the horse's mouth:

I do wish COdbaUA had taken this cautious approach.

Thanks for re-posting that. So I guess it comes down to the sheer size of FT. A very good problem to have! ^

Where's that PM? ;)

Not traveling so much as moving. I'm a bit closer to being settled down, but moving 4,000 miles across the continent does take a toll on time on FT. ;)

The basic interface of the FlyerTalk iPhone app is not wholly horrible, but there are a few minor bugs that unfortunately make it impossible for me to use it with my browsing habits. Therefore, I haven't opened the app in several months and have little to say about it, other than that while I appreciate the folks at IB who bring us FT and I know they are doing the best they can with the resources they are given, stepping back a bit, I am a little underwhelmed at IB's responsiveness to address some of these (and other) issues.

As it relates to vB 4.0: I have talked with the IB tech guys about this and understand their hesitation. There is something to be said for stability over functionality. On the other hand, where there's a will, there's a way, and I believe it's time to modernize FT. I actually don't even think vB 4.0 goes far enough to that end, but it may be the best we can do with the resources we have. FlyerTalk will ultimately survive for a very long time regardless of the interface simply due to the massive amount of collective knowledge and wisdom (and community) we have here, but I hold out hope that we can also engage with the new social web in a relevant way. I am not the expert in how to do that, though, but like Justice Potter Stewart, I'll know it when I see it. ;)

Bugs aside, what do you see missing?

That basically sums up my thoughts about the FT app for Android. I've gone back to just using FT mobile.