hobo13

Pretty insightful comments, MM.

Unrelated, but I've been meaning to say this:

I think it's pathetic the number of bloggers who have <500 posts on FT. Their claim that they are giving back to the community makes me laugh! And to think, many of them have quit their real job to blog full-time. Simply incredible.

belfordrocks

The whole concept of "blogging full-time" makes me laugh, to say the least. This shouldn't be anyone's dayjob (but I've come close on a few occasions )...

Marathon Man

Unless youre a parent with kids now in school and you suddenly have like 4-6hrs a day free that you may not have enjoyed in years!

Or if you lose your job but have also found ways to actually make a near living off points and miles and cash back deals

Then its not laughable at all because such a blogger would be laughing at everyone who is working 9-5 and has to sit in traffic twice a day to do so and then get max two weeks off a year when its hard to book and redeem for travel at all the busy vacation times

I also must add i have nothing bad against bloggers. Many have helped me both in their posts and in person. Some only have like 500 ft posts because they learned how to watch and listen rather than blabber like me lol

belfordrocks

As in, repackaged FT posts?

Marathon Man

Nope! Not that
And not me-cuz i can find those meself

Marathon Man

In fact id like to once again thank mommypoints for the time not long ago where she personally pmd me codes for something i needed that she read my post about

And her blog has much original content to it

srdshelly

If they can pluck the jewel in FT post #487 from a thread that goes for 23 pages and save me having to read all the rest, well I'm OK with that. Each format has its uses.

justforfun

This is patently untrue. While many FTers are great individuals and will gladly help a "newbie", there are way too many that are nothing but snark and condescension. One just need to look at the noxious environment of the AA forum to see what nastiness lurks on FT in the forum of "evangelists" and wannabes.

vortix

I actually don't believe FT "attitude" is the reason some people choose blogs over FT. Instead, I believe people read blogs because they are simply more user friendly to use than FT is. You can quickly read several blog articles without having to dig through lots and lots of posts on FT to find the content you're looking for. The FT user interface also leaves much to desire. It is ugly, outdated, and hard to find information. Blogs look pretty, modern, and are easy to find information.

If the FT forums looked and operated more like http://slickdeals.net/forums/ , the user community would grow.

Kagehitokiri

re blogs >

interesting - IB, CD, TB >

and i dont see any reason why not. revenue blogs wouldnt like the competition.

...

new media. blogger = independent writer.

tom911

That forum has plenty of moderators. Have you alerted them about any of these issues?

Mile-a-holic

I think that sums it extremely well.

And what I see is that some blogs (Miles Abound, Frequent Miler) encourage independent thinking. Others...not so much. They follow the same marketing approach as MLM, and push what is best for them recognizing that they need to cash in before the bubble bursts. "Big" blogs like FTG don't need to do that, because they know they'll survive.

But, at the end of the day, we're all responsible for ourselves.

djp98374

This is the core of the problem here....you demonstrated it in your post.

Just because someone has a low post count DOES NOT mean they dont know what they are talking about.

This is a common attitude not just on here but on many topic driven chat boards----you get cliques that develop and people that have attitude. Generally its when they dont like repeating themselves. Its also split by people who have been around vs people who havent.

The person posting in that thread is not sure how the site works. YOU ARE NOT the one to judge that...you need someone who hasnt posted much on here if at all or someone who never saw the site and ask their opinion on how user friendly the topics boards are in finding items.

You may saw there is a thread on a topic---but nobody in their right mind is going to read some 30 pages of posts just to try and find the info they want.

tom911

And once we find this person and ask them about whether a specific forum is user friendly, what do we do once he answers that it's not? I just don't see how this is a topic for the Talk Board as it's about moderation in the various FT forums. I see a lot of comments here about how bad things are, but solutions seem to be lacking. Do have have a suggestion as to what the Talk Board should do once this new member says a forum he visited is not friendly? Keep in mind that the Talk Board does not supervise moderators.

Marathon Man

ahhhh but isnt THAT like calling customer service and going through something like this?

Grandpa Joe: Mr. Wonka?
Willy Wonka: [pointedly ignoring them] I am extraordinarily busy, sir.
Grandpa Joe: [tentatively] I just wanted to ask about the chocolate - The-the lifetime supply of chocolate, for Charlie. Wh-When does he get it?
Willy Wonka: He doesn't.
Grandpa Joe: Why not?
Willy Wonka: Because he broke the rules.
Grandpa Joe: What rules? We didn't see any rules, did we, Charlie?
[Charlie shakes his head briefly]
Willy Wonka: [springs up from his chair, angrily] Wrong, sir! Wrong! Under section 37B of the contract signed by him, it states quite clearly that all offers shall become null and void if - and you can read it for yourself in this photostatic copy:
[grabs a magnifying glass and reads]
Willy Wonka: I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained, et cetera, et cetera... Fax mentis incendium gloria cultum, et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum!
[slams the contract copy and the magnifying glass down, continues shouting]
Willy Wonka: It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole fizzy lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!



I think people DO need to find post 437 or 556 in a thread of thousands and read the info. I think people should follow along as best they could and find allies along the way with whom to chat and learn from. I think at the very least, a long thread should be attempted to read in full, if not most. It is our responsibility if we wish to learn the ins and outs of a rule.

Now on the other hand, I am not one of those who spends the exact same amount of time typing something like, "are you lazy? I think you should read before making me repeat it again" to people. I do not normally care if someone is new or not, and I will often direct people who seem vested in things to where the data is or what steps to do, AND I generally do not discriminate between someone with 40 posts vs 4,000. Then again I'm just awesome so there

But think of it this way too: Some teacher asks you to write a paper on a subject that you need to toil with for days before finally completing the project. And then when you pass it in, they glance, toss it on the table and give you a B--without actively reading it! How would you feel? We do WORK in here and when someone comes along who just wants the benes but isnt willing to do the work, it's a bit sad. Of course, the game is all about doing as little as possible for the biggest gain (ie, doing some simple online promo and ending up with two C tix on a plane to Europe or something) but we shouldnt be doing that to each other!

In Ft, I find one will discover all the pieces to most puzzles if they are willing to do two things:

1) put in the time
2) think and be creative.

In blogs, a blogger lays out a well designed step by step story of how something goes but does by nature leave out a lot of the what ifs and nitty gritty that people NEED to be aware of to be truly educated on how to run and maintain a deal. The key here is MAINTAIN. Blogs usually tend to display things that, once they get out there on the front page, get killed off quickly. Some have to be, like, "act now and get the 2500 points because this deal ends next week" but some could last longer if all the players were acting with wisdom instead of just speed.

Hence, a marathon is run by pacing one's self. And unless you are from Kenya or something, it's not done at record breaking speed for most people. You obviously can push to go faster, etc, but you need to learn and maintain your calculated pace.

Airlines and banks and Carteras, etc read these blogs and this forum too. If something is kosher they may not mind it if it is kept in the lower levels of view. But blogs are up top and out front, so all the cameras are on them. So when something hits a blog, it could get killed because those companies now HAVE to find a way to stop this.

So in my opinion, as much as blogs can be very helpful in many ways, they can end gigs because:

1) people may read them and NOT find nor learn the little pieces that you NEED in order to do some deals, and this lack of wisdom makes for choppy action, and that leads to death in many ways.

2) they present deals right out there in front, so it's blaring in the faces of those who made offers, as if to say: hahaha we gotcha!

What do you think those entities will do about that?