jjmiller69

Good post, I'm going on 2 years and still learning alot. There are a couple people I watch and read everything they say even if it's in a forum I don't have much interest right now. Some day it may help. I do agree some in authority I ignore and some others I read everything they say. Oh well

WOXOF

Hey, I just spent the past 45mn typing a response to this thread, when I hit my last return, the whole thing disappeard. Anyway to get it back? Now, this may be a newbie mistake because I don't understand the nuances of this editor but I don think so

tom911

If it's something lengthy, best to compose it offline so you have a working copy. Sometimes if you hit the backspace button on your browser you might be able to get back to your reply.

belfordrocks

This. +1

Bolded (mine) +1000

Kagehitokiri

mia didnt say anything along those lines

this topic contains "anti-FT" sentiment - that always goes in this forum, unless ive missed something

two unfortunate things >

- ego feeding is never a positive thing, and this is not an FT specific thing, but some believe ego feeding is not only a positive, but desired and appropriate (and for example, this includes feeding the ego of newbies, in other words promoting "attitude" in the opposite direction)

- blogs can use "anti-FT" sentiment - for example to justify and defend their existence, to promote the idea of people including newbies switching from FT to their blog - when revenue is involved, this means they have an incentive to promote "anti-FT" sentiment, and things that drive it, as well as a disincentive to see FT improve/etc

(improvement is always possible, regardless of specifics)

booyaa

Some blogs regurgitate "old" material for "beginners", hence they attract newbies because they are presented cleanly and easy to find. If forums also somehow regurgitated similar type of information to the first page or to the top of of a thread list, or compiled into an "information-only" thread, then newbies wouldn't find it so "hard" to LEARN.

In short, the majority of the newbies want to just take shortcuts and dive in by putting the minimal amount of effort. Some don't even bother reading the first post of some lengthy threads, where the thread creator has diligently tried to maintain the most up-to-date info. I think many FT members are simply irritated that newbies are not willing to put in effort to gain the information they need, but instead want to be spoon-fed. Blogs exploited that mentality and give newbies that by compiling and package the necessary information, forums don't.

Many blogs on the other hand, often times get TIPPED by whoever of the awesome deals that OTHERS found, then put that info on their blogs to make them look like they are these awesome gurus always in-the-know, so people/newbies will constantly go back, and in-turn, bloggers use that advantage to push more CCs.

Though not explicitly stated, with CC links and $$ in play, bloggers are implicitly fighting for their STATUS in the blog-chain to be the top-dog so readers will go to them for applications. Though a reader may read multiple blogs, when they need to apply for A card, they can apply through A link, so that top spot is important. When one posts some awesome deal first, he/she seems the most knowledgeable, others posting the same material just look like copy-cats, which lead to bad taste. Nobody wants to follow the runner-up.

It's all a psychology game, really. Blogs are made to look appealing to their targeted audience through various methods, as there is $$ at stake. Forum posts are not. Nothing is objective when there is $$ at stake.

WOXOF

I don't think it's fair to bundle "newbie" with "lack of common sense". .The two are not synonymous. .Lots of people, even after being told there is a mine field in front of them, wander off anyway believing they can out smart anything and nothing will ever blow up in their face. The Blogger may not have done "due diligence" but that doesn't excuse the reader from doing theirs.

Tiki

Personally, I hate rudeness and snarkiness and think the mods should take action when people post in a rude or demeaning manner.

One way to avoid having newbies defect to blogs is to prevent bloggers from advertising their blog in their siggies. Why is FT giving them free advertising?

The "blog" in my siggie is just a travel diary on Travelpod which back in the day, that's what blogs usually were; so it is not one of those commercial blogs that are all over the place so I wouldn't think it is a threat. I have been seeing heaps of blogs that are competition to FT being advertised in various siggies and this also raises said blogger's profile on search engines.

I am not one for politics but if Talkboard is supposed to be about running FT and keeping it's members happy, a lot of FTers are unhappy when the bloggers expose hidden loopholes in certain promos that lead to the promos getting shut down. The same thing seems to be happening on the Trick It thread. Many of us have developed a way to discuss promos discreetly, so loopholes don't get picked up by search engines or over-exposed. The bloggers not only expose the loopholes, they give step by step instructions to all and sundry. I've already noticed that this year there are fewer promos than last year, jury's still out on if there will be a Grand Slam and I expect the lucrative points deals on DA in April and May won't happen next year either.

In short, it is not in the best interests of FT to help bloggers increase their readership.

RTW1

I couldn't agree more.

I like blogs that have some original content but despise the cc pushers and the ones that just copy info from others and try to pass it as their own.

lo2e

While I don't necessarily disagree with you, as I tell my wife when we send text messages back and forth, it is nearly impossible to look at printed words and determine with 100% accuracy the tone or relative "snarkiness" of what is written. What one determines as rude or snarky COULD have not meant to be so by the poster. If I were in a position to judge whether a post is rude or snarky, most times I would probably give the benefit of the doubt to the poster to clarify themselves before taking action.

IMO the rules are written in a way that just about everyone one would be able to tell what is an overly rude or offensive post (and of course it is ultimately up to our highly-trained moderation staff to use their personal judgment to determine what is or isn't rude/offensive), but one that might just be a bit snarky or potentially rude is a bit more gray area IMO.

Canarsie

I agree.

Quite a number of FlyerTalk members who may be perceived as having an attitude or being rude as a result of the manner in which they post on FlyerTalk are amongst some of the most helpful, nicest people you could meet in person.

I am not defending being rude or having a negative attitude, but perhaps sometimes being direct — due to lack of time to craft a friendlier response, for example — could possibly be misconstrued as being rude.

Tiki

Here's another idea. Internet Brands is here to make a profit, they do have to pay for all the expenses running a huge site like FT so why not capture the credit card revenue currently going into the pockets of bloggers? Maybe set up a whole newbie miles and points clinic in which the mods or ambassadors or whatever guide the newbie through the basics, links are provided to the usual credit cards but they are not given the advanced secrets and loopholes until they are ready to learn on their own via the usual forums.

Clever use of meta-tags and subject lines can keep FT's Newbie clinic at the top of the search engines ahead of the dime-a-dozen bloggers. That coupled with my earlier suggestion of banning links in siggies to competing blogs should keep most of the newbies here on FT.

I do know technical ways of preventing use of the VB software from being used in a way that helps competitors but would prefer not to post that in public. Mods/Admins can PM me if they are interested.

MissJoeyDFW

CodeAdam it happens, I see it happen on a regular basis, it has happened to me recently even though I have been around for 5+ years. I posted a question and got two responses (more feedback would have been helpful) because I am not part of the "in crowd" on a particular posting board. I lurked for 2-3 years before I was brave enough to put up a posting name and jump out there. By that time I had a pretty good idea flow of various forums. FT is the toughest posting forums I have ever been a regular poster on. People can be helpful but they can also be rude, condescending, exclusionary, know-it-all, have an attitude their way is the only way or everyone should have the same beliefs they do. In some ways I am still feel like I am a newbie because I don't have posting numbers in the 10s of thousands and probably never will.

You can't be thin skinned if you want to post on FT.

belfordrocks

I think that has to do with more the nature of FT and the type of question you are posting. If the thread is about deal/s that could potential save thousands, a question like "I have no idea, someone please help me do this" is going to be met with a less positive response than a similar thread asking about the best seat on the aircraft, for example.

MissJoeyDFW

Actually the seat question example is exactly the kind of question I was referring to. Funny you should mention that scenario.