SanDiego1K

I am continuing to listen, but this is the direction I am leaning. The core of FlyerTalk is the airline, hotel, and other forums about travel providers that deal with earning points and status. I am not convinced that a discussion of other sites belongs above them.

kokonutz

Newbies. @:-)

Ie, this coming from the blogs and those who could be helped by the blogs.

jackal

Right, and so the last bit of my last post is applicable:

goalie

You might not be the lone dissenter as originally I was leaning towards moving it as not as above but thinking about your suggestion, me likey

SkiAdcock

As I mentioned, at the Chicago Seminar Event, 375 of 500 attendees were new to the event & had never heard of FT but had come to the event because they heard about the event from bloggers. If moving up the blogger forum to M&P (which is where it belongs given the bloggers talk about miles & points) means more of those newbies discover FT, then more power to it!*

Burying it in T&D when it doesn't pertain to T&D doesn't make sense to me, and pretty much most of the folk who have been questioning why it's been buried there since the beginning. FT is strong; it can handle people checking out different sites, whether it be TripAdvisor or bloggers. To try & prevent that does a disservice both to FT and to FTers IMO. Just as we chose not to restrict MileageRun to continue to draw more folk to FT via google, I think moving EM&PR forum to the M&P forum will have the same effect. We want FT to continue to grow & meet those who travel needs.

And to quote jackal, "The only time I care about what forum a sub-forum is in is when I'm trying to find one I don't normally visit, and in that case, you just have to think, "Where would it be most logical to find this forum?" And for that purpose, it makes much more sense that you'd find a forum talking about miles and points blogs in Miles & Points instead of Travel & Dining." That's especially true of newbies!

* There is the potential that moving the forum to M&P section won't really have much effect, in which case it will just continue on as it has & no harm, no foul.

Cheers.

CokeandTaco

I am no expert on these things, but I will add some thoughts:

IIRC, many of the threads that exist in EM&PR used to exist in the MileBuzz forum. Moving the forum back to M&P kinda feels like a move backward.

If the move is to connect with new members, maybe the move should be into the Information Desk....

Not all blogs/external resources deal with miles and points.

I generally agree with tcook052, the forum seems to be in the right place, and maybe rename the forum by adding "blog" to the title.

kokonutz

But 95% of what points and miles blogs talk about are...how to earn points and miles (with about 60% of that being about credit cards with affiliate links )

And the purpose of the forum is not to talk about the people who blog or offer other types of external points and miles resources. It's to talk about the relative merits of the various points and miles resources as a way to stay on top of earning points and miles. Just like the point of the credit card forum is to talk about the relative merits of mileage or points earning cards.

I look at it this way: the top half of the main forum screen is points and miles resources (mileage runs, points hacking talk and talk about the specific providers). They are the core resources FT offers. Ft's product, as it were. But there are other resources out there. And the external miles and points forum is the place to talk about them.

Iow, the external points and miles resources is a points and miles resource about other avenues to points and miles information. A mile and point blog advisor, using the trip advisor approach.

Now. There may be a business reason to keep the forum away from FTs core points and miles resources. And that business reason could easily trump logic. And if so, so be it.

tcook052

It may not be the purpose but it seems the practise as a good number of threads on page one focus on blogs and/or bloggers including whether they take comps, if they've been to the Maldives, which ones censor comments and whether payments to them have gone up. That to me says the focus is not on talking about M&P programs but rather talking about those who talk about M&P and as I said earlier to me there's a difference.

kokonutz

And a good number of threads in the MP forum are about Smisek and his team and the airplanes they use what routes are getting added and cut. That doesn't change the fact that the focus of the forum is on miles.

Sorry...What exactly is the difference again?

tcook052

The difference is this thread isn't about the MP forum but rather the EM&PR forum and its location.

84fiero

I never understood why EM&PR was in Travel & Dining to begin with, except if the intent had been to make it less accessible or noticeable on purpose, while simultaneously pacifying those who had advocated for the forum's creation.

As mentioned above it certainly make sense from the standpoint of ability to locate and notice it, when browsing or using the miles & points resources on here. Or even convenience for those of us existing members, when surfing around the M&P area (my main section usually).

From a logical standpoint, having a forum with the name "Miles & Points" in the very title, in the Miles & Points section, would certainly seem like a better fit!

kellio33

It should be near the SPAM forum. It's currently not much more than the TMZ of FT. Trash blogs and dig for dirt.

I see very few (there are a couple) construction conversations regarding any blogs or external sites. I just see the same group of a few people that seem to have an axe to grind.



Like it or not, that's my opinion and it's sad to see FT go down this negative path.

sbm12

So, no discussion of redemptions then, right? What about discussions of how to maximize the in-flight experience, comparisons of different products or the lounges? Maybe even discussions about routes, aircraft and other "business"decisions the companies make?

All of those things are in the M&P section already. Pretending otherwise helps no one. And all of those same things are also discussed in the external resources which are the subject of the new forum.

The more bizarre split to me is between EM&PR and Travel Tools (or whatever that one is called). They're all external resources generally focused on this market segment, however you name it.

cblaisd

Exactly. I can't imagine trying to use FT without MyFlyerTalk. It would be hugely frustrating.

lin821

Trust me, tcook052, you are not alone.

Exactly! ^

Really? You think? What about exemplary threads like this, this, and that?

EMPR is de facto actively being used to provide "feedback" on what to blog and/or the (bad) practice/motives of bloggers that has nothing to do with "how to earn miles and points" for the general public.

If the percentage of points-miles talking blogs were really as high as koko stated, "95%" ("of what points and miles blogs talk about are...how to earn points and miles"), why aren't there as many discussion threads in EMPR Forum about merits or good value in those blogs? Can you imagine not seeing extensive coverage on FT when there's a good window of opportunity to earn quality miles or points? Heck, FTers even helped spread an unfounded rumor with more than 10 threads. (Yes, there's never such person who ate free at XIY's VIP lounge for almost a year using China Eastern's 1st class tix. I don't recall if there's any one blogger who corrected the wrong in the English world of blogs though).

If I know FT well enough, FTers will definitely leave no stone unturned when great deals & value are spotted. OTOH, the status quo of EMPR simply shows the directions the current participants in EMPR are interested in and/or heading for, which is far from not talking people who blog nor attracting a handsome amount of new fan base:
So it seems some "newer" folks learn about FT via reading blogs, not from reading our EMPR Forum. The bottom line is non-FT people don't come to EMPR Forum to read or learn about blogs. Sharon's question perhaps can be better rephrased as how FT can expand its member base and take advantage those bloggers who help promote FT. How to connect or collaborate with bloggers is something for IB or FT admin to consider but not a task for EMPR Forum to embark.

Not to ignore the fact that certain bloggers does help FT reach out, but I personally don't think a retitled and/or relocated EMPR would make a difference in what EMPR has become. If I were a blogger, I wouldn't count on EMPR on FT to be my platform or venue for visibility. YMMV.