Thank you.

Indeed, that is the case. As opposed to earlier days when it functioned more like a catch-all clipping service with little or no discussion, the forum is now well-focused on the discussion of travel news stories of general interest that are not airline-, hotel-, or destination-specific.

I'm seeing 21 new threads in the past month, with 2 of those having been moved and 4 having been locked by the moderator. That leaves 15 new threads in a month. Then again, unlike many, I don't measure the value of forums by how popular they are. Never have.

In any case, this proposal is not about the Travel News forum as it exists. It's about treating travel and point blogs just like any other commercial travel, points and miles information outlet. :)

Which is why all of those plus our various friendly but spammy data-scraper-and-resellers and shillers for various for-profit "educational" events and blogospammers ought to have their own "Marketplace" forum (a la Howard Forums and others) where they can advertise to their hearts' content and keep spam and self-serving commercial posts that are dressed up as "information" out of the rest of the forums.

From what you've been posting, you seem to like it when Flyertalkers mix it up a little bit. Steel cage match, that sort of thing.

So if that's your vision for the community, it would seem like moving forward with this proposal would be a good idea.

But if you think that having a friendly, welcoming, open community that's conducive to civil discourse matters then it would seem like this proposal would be a bad idea.

I have plenty of criticisms of bloggers but as a relatively new poster (though fairly long time reader), and I wouldn't mind airing those sometimes among like-minded individuals, I have no illusiosn that this could be accomplished in a civil, open-minded, productive way. Drawing a circle around these things and calling them a forum is likely to make Travel Safety/Security look as docile as the Cruises section of Flyertalk.

Since I haven't seen any postings at all here by the organizers of Frequent Traveler University about their events, I assume you must be kvetching about the Chicago Seminar?

As far as I can tell that's limited to one thread. It seems to be of at least a little bit of interest to Flyertalkers, there's over 150 posts in that thread so far and since hundreds go each year.

Not everyone enjoys the mega events but any time that 300+ Flyertalkers get together I give the organizers of that event a big ^

And yet another points and miles IBB that markets itself as the most friendly, welcoming and open (if boooooring) community on the WWW treats news outlets and blogs in the same manner as I am suggesting here: as two sides of the same coin. With no ill effect or any of the possible-terribles that some here keep fretting about.

And yet this 'non-boring' IBB with a whole lot more traffic has already demonstrated the venom these discussions generate. Just because another forum does something and doesn't implode doesn't mean it will be peaceful here.

Please re-read this post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20465075-post71.html

There have been thousands and thousands of blog-related posts on FlyerTalk well within the TOS.

There are posts about these events which amount to free advertising for a competitor. That issue aside, let's put all such commercial stuff into a segregated area where shilling can abound.

I haven't seen the organizers post about these events. If I'm wrong, and I certainly might be, I'd love to see a link rather than an assertion (and in which case I'd be happy to apologize!)

On the other hand if you mean that Flyertalkers have discussed these events, what's your concern? Flyertalkers discuss lots of things, both for-profit and non-profit. If it's interesting and useful to them your concern is that it competes with the corporation Internet Brands? Are you a shareholder?

Thanks for coming around to my way of thinking! :p

Yes, Flyertalkers have and will want to discuss things like blogs and their posts. It's interesting and useful to them. This proposal is about giving them a well-defined place to do that! :D^

Disappointed by the disingenousness of this post - you certainly realize I don't agree with you one bit, there's a big difference between a gathering of hundreds of Flyertalkers spending time together and the acrimony and venom that's spewed forth in the blogger hate threads in MIlesbuzz. Creating a whole forum for that filth just doesn't make Flyertalk a better place. Even if some folks enjoy watching it for sport :(

I'm leaning towards a "no" on this for pretty much the same reasons Sharon stated plus imho (which is a little worn out right now over Hahvid and FGC ), having the word "Blog" in a forum title is asking for trouble as I can see a lot of blog 'n blogger bashing creating more work than it's worth for moderators. Also, why include "points news" in a forum name where as Sharon points out, the forum is more about generic travel news as most of the points news is already posted in the respective airline, hotel and cah forums.

^

Exactly. Travel News is now a very well defined niche for discussing (not just a clipping service) general travel news stories that do not fit elsewhere.

In that case I am disappointed that you espouse a double standard: anything goes with regard to the discussion of seminars, but those who want to discuss blogs are promoting filth. :rolleyes:

Again, review the blog discussion threads I linked to. They are filled with interesting and useful discussion of blogs, not "filth."

Phantom possible-terribles are a distressingly bad reason to not improve FlyerTalk.