jerry305

If you expect everyone to be a volunteer travel agent, you won't like the results. Some of our great mentors would be the trolls in the OMNI forums.

CFFrost

I don't think anything was said about volunteer travel agents. Presumably the idea would be to teach new members to research for themselves and point them in the right direction, where they could ask more pointed and direct questions after they have done their own research. This process may involve answering a few simple questions at the outset (such as which airlines fly out of particular airports), while pointing the member in the right direction to find the answer for themselves the next time.

tcook052

I like the 'better yet' part the most as IMHO we can create forums until the proverbial cows come home but they're of little use if we can't convince members, especially new arrivals, to use them as they were designed.

Forum stickies are the perfect example as they're only helpful when they're used and sadly not as many users consult them as we expect. Like you I would like to see a more hands-on user guide or tutorial about using the tools we currently have at hand such as FT search or My Flyertalk because IMHO creating more forums isn't the answer. Just MHO.

crabbing

i can't help but think that more energy and effort is being spent dealing with the "problem" posed by "newbies" than the obvious and simple solution of ignoring questions that you don't want bother answering. besides, many newbies are fully capable of finding the right place to ask their questions - just look at the average post count of members who post in the VX promo codes thread. to the extent that new members aren't asking their questions in the right place, or asking without doing a sufficient (from the perspective of some members complaining here), search first, they probably aren't going to post their questions in an "information desk" forum either.

but even if this is really a problem, there are two alternative solutions that i haven't seen anyone here consider. first, bring back the FF wiki. when i was starting out, the wiki was an invaluable resource, collimating the most basic and most useful information in one place. what ever happened to it?

second, we could have a sticky topic in milesbuzz with a friendly title like "HOW TO EARN FREQUENT FLYER MILES QUICKLY" or "FF FAQ." make it a real FAQ, not something with garbage information like delta's 800 number or other questions that are never asked, let alone "frequently." fill it with links to particularly important and helpful threads, like the hilton master properties list. once, i created a FAQ for the US mint coins deal, and based it on question people were actually asking - it was wildly successful.

that's another downside to an "info desk" or new member forum - i have no reason to believe that such a forum would either contain useful information, or be organized in a way that i could find useful info without wading through countless "i have a question?"* thread titles, so i - and i'm sure many other members - would almost never go there, meaning that a lot of the people, who could be providing useful info for new members, won't be there.

*almost every forum has its share of these threads with unhelpful titles. it has always been a simple matter to ignore them.

saltytheseagull

Something needs to be done about all of these help me get to XYZ posts. I'm not sure what the best solution is; a subforum?

PainCorp

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-adoption.html

Perfect example.

First post, has done no research. He wants to have his hand held and be told what to do to be able to fly for free.

Bolding mine.

I understand what you are saying, but if these threads being gathered in one place makes them too messy to sift through, imagine what they're doing when they're spread everywhere, clogging up multiple forums. Especially when the vast majority of these questions are basic knowledge you can get by reading the last several pages of a thread.

tom911

Hasn't seemed to bother most FTers. It already has 14 posts in the thread and everything looks pretty civil. If it bothers you, just don't read it and move on.

Bender464

^ ^

jatink129

Actually, that's not what I was recommending.
What I was hoping for, is a pool of "mentors"...and NOT some Information desk. You'd have each newbie creating a new thread...and to answer each question, one would have to check each thread and check the forum again and again.

A mentor system would mean, that if I have a question, I ask my mentor. That's it.

Creating a forum where newbies can create their threads isn't going to help them nor is it going to help reducing the clutter.
If you want to clear the clutter, it's better to come up with a cure that'll fix the problem rather than a simple fix that'll just pick up the clutter from one forum and dump it in another.

Someone gets it!
^^ Thank you!

And you've been answered. You are the (very small) minority. For the better part, people don't have a problem helping others.
A kind word will trump a sarcastic comment ANY DAY!

I was and still am a newbie but I now know more than I knew a year ago. I was similarly confused when I started out. Didn't think about using the search function. Asked simple questions.

For the better part, I was helped...and that urged me to want to learn more.
When I see a newbie asking a question that was answered 2 page ago, I remember that I was as confused as he is right now, and instead of saying something smart like "Google is your friend" or the ever creative "lmgtfy" or "reading is your friend...that post was answered 2 pages ago", you JUST HELP OUT.
Or not. If stuff like this annoys you, then you just ignore it.


^^^ x googolplex!!!

kipper

This!!! ^ If people want to be hostile, the place for that is generally OMNI/PR, not the rest of FT. In the time it takes to type, "Google is your friend," one can simply quote the answer or answer the question.

artemis

The poster in question looks like a complete newbie - and I don't mean I newbie to the points/miles game, I mean a newbie to flying in general. He mentions he's only flown a few times in his life ever; I'm sure all those flights were domestic coach on a US carrier, and booked on a site like Travelocity. I doubt he's even been out of the US. And now he's suddenly faced with needing to book at least two (and possibly three) very expensive tickets, and for the first time he's wondering if those frequent flyer miles he's occasionally heard about can be used to offset the costs of this necessary, and very expensive, trip.

Yeah, he looks like the PERFECT candidate for ExpertFlyer or the KVS Tool.

Right now, he's so lost that he doesn't know where to BEGIN to learn how mileage programs work. Is it so surprising that he's asking for a bit of help? To someone who's not very familiar with flying, learning about frequent flyer programs can seem overwhelming. A few kind words and a link to some explanatory posts might be the first steps toward eventually converting him into a useful member of the community.

If FlyerTalk wants to create a new "Ask for Advice Here" forum, that's fine. But it's naive to think that most people are going to do hours of research before making their first post on the board. It doesn't happen at any other travel forum I know of, and it won't happen here.

tom911

Some existing forums have a thread just like that, such as the "Newbie" master threads in AA and Hyatt. It's up to the moderators in the various forums, though, and not the Talk Board, as to whether they think the demand is there to create such a thread. If you see a forum where you think such a thread would be useful, you might want to run it past the moderators of that forum.

artemis

Will do, tom911! I know I've found the AAdvantage newbie master thread quite useful in the past (I've never posted to it, but I've learned a lot by reading it).

MSPeconomist

In some cases, the forum's Ambassadors on FT have initiated and maintained some very helpful threads. This is, of course, with the approval and encouragement of that forum's moderators, if any. Some of this material has been stickied (by mods) and in the future might appear in WiKis attached to the forum or to particular important threads.

jackal

It sounds like an interesting idea, but one of the biggest challenges is that the topics on FT are so varied that a particular mentor cannot be knowledgeable about all of the questions a particular user may ask.

As a moderator in the Alaska Airlines forum, I occasionally get PMs from new users asking me questions. I'm happy to answer them, but a few of these users seem to attach themselves to me and start asking me all kinds of questions. I usually try to gently refer them to the dedicated Newbie Thread that we have in the AS Forum (with mixed success), in part because I alone can't always take the time to give a fully comprehensive answer to their questions but mostly because oftentimes, many of their questions are ones to which I really don't know the answer, and in order for them to get a good answer, they need to ask where others can see and respond.

And that's just in the Alaska Airlines forum. I haven't yet had someone start asking me about SPG points or things to see in Moscow or whatever, but if a newbie PMed me asking for such information, I would be absolutely clueless.

Really, I think the idea nsx mentioned is the way to go. Let's create a place where people who don't even know where to start can go, and those who are interested in helping those kinds of people can go to help. Those who don't want to deal with elementary questions like that can stay away from that forum. Win-win for everybody.

FWIW, FT does have a crew of Ambassadors that put themselves out there for anyone to contact (even directly, by PM) for help. Note that even these guys, though, are forum-specific--for good reason, as an AA Ambassador really isn't going to necessarily have a clue how the DL, UA, or SPG programs work. I do agree that the Ambassador program could benefit from some increased visibility, though. Currently I don't believe there is a list of them. Maybe that's something that can go into the new Newbie forum, if it ever comes to pass.