sbm12

Agreed. I used to spend a decent amount of time in that forum. The changes made in 2005 were to the detriment of the forum (and possibly the community) IMO and it has become quite the shell of the value it used to provide.

jackal

So, what's the fix?

kipper

Why was the moderation change made?

Eastbay1K

The fix may be an amputation, and a reboot, because the M word is a word that we must all tread very lightly upon. Corrective surgery may not be an option.

Moderator2

Contributors, please be careful about crossing the line from a macro discussion of why moderation of Travel News has been a contributor to this TalkBoard initiative. Posts that drift into the overall behavior of moderators or specific action will be redacted.

kokonutz

That's what makes this whole situation so frustrating: This situation could be easily addressed if the TB (or just the popular will) had a say in certain things. But it does not. So we are left with the blunt tools at our disposal.

And that is this: Moderation of Travel News has been a contributor to this TalkBoard initiative because moderation of Travel News that requires discussion rather than links with as much or little discussion as a poster desires has turned it from a manual RSS feed into a mini TravelBuzz!. Discussion of general travel topics belong in a single forum: TravelBuzz!, even if they are based on a news article, just like discussion of articles about BA belong in BA and articles about SPG belong in SPG.

If we want a forum for just linking to travel articles, we should create that forum with that specific remit. Maybe make it so that only one post per thread is allowed so as to keep it just about links with no discussion. Or perhaps it could be set up such that any posted link gets forwarded to the appropriate forum for discussion but that forward stays permanently in the new Newsstand forum so if one wants to just peruse the travel news headlines, they can do that in Newsstand and if they want to discuss them that will happen in the appropriate forum.

CPRich

I count 25 moved/closed threads of the 52 I see going back to that June 3 date. So just make it "a very, very large number, way more than any other forum, and sometimes "most" depending on the time period chosen".

I used to post there somewhat regularly but have given up trying after being scolded, even trying to follow the guidelines. To me that's a decent indicator.

CPRich

Which cannot be addressed by this body, apparently. So there's only one choice.

jackal

Forgive me, but I'm trying to piece all this together in order to make an educated decision on this vote (and perhaps prepare for an adjusted proposal if this one fails).

I don't see in the 2005 TalkBoard proposal anything that required discussion and not just bare links. Am I completely blind? If so, can someone copy and paste the relevant section of the 2005 proposal that turned Travel News into the useless forum it is today?

tom911

No, it's not there. I have no idea who came up with the idea that commentary is mandatory--it just appeared one day. Maybe the Community Director? Vote among moderators? Maybe the current moderator of Travel News might know where that direction came from. It probably came about around the same time there were concerns about copyright violations by those posting a lot more than a few lines. There had been some lawsuits in that area in Las Vegas around 2-3 years ago.

I also don't know who made the decision to remove doc's name from the forum after it had been there for years.

tom911

I should add that the 2005 vote, IIRC, came about because of news articles posted in the Northwest Airlines forum, and some controversy as to whether they should be posted there or in Newsstand. A separate subforum had been created within the Northwest forum for news articles on a trial basis. If tocook052 is reading he might be more familiar with the history than me.

I guess that could even be put back on the table again as an option---news article subforums for each major forum or just for Travel Buzz. Would a news subforum within Travel Buzz address kokonutz's concerns? I think I could live with it being relocated in that manner.

kokonutz

News articles about United go in the United forum for discussion. News articles about SPG go in the SPG forum for discussion. News articles about miles go in MilesBuzz! for discussion.

'Travel' is the only subject on FT that has a separate forum for news articles discussion from the general topic discussion. There used to be a reason for that (the RSS aspect), but due to a change in moderation policy that distinction no longer exists.

A new forum that is more like the old forum may have merit. But having a separate travel news discussion forum from the travel discussion forum just because we always have seems silly to me. Others may feel differently.

Sorry if I am starting to sound like a broken record.

tomnativenewyorker

no, do not close

Eastbay1K

Don't worry. About 1/3 of FTers probably don't know what such a thing is.

Better that than an 8 Track.

I'd say you're preaching to the choir, but I was the choirmaster

The "sub-heading" under Travel Buzz may not be a bad idea, as long as it is a "link only w/o commentary required" category.

mbstone

Righthaven is extinct. Nobody is going to copyright-troll FT over a quoted paragraph from a news story, not anymore.