SkiAdcock

Well there were other issues, but obviously this one was important to you. Doesn't mean other FTers didn't find other issues of importance to them that TB decided on & for them MR Deals wasn't important.

I was the deciding vote on whether to restrict MR & it went down to the wire. I originally was inclined to support the restriction, but after reading all the posts (pros/cons) by FTers & thinking more about what FT is all about I changed my mind. Ultimately I voted to keep it open because FT is a BB for sharing information & I'm not big on the let's keep it to ourselves/prevent others from finding about it/I've got mine. Some folk come to FT via the MR forum due to Google & then stay around to become contributing FTers, which they wouldn't do if it was restricted.

And ultimately I don't think the FT MR forum is the only way the general public & those interested in travel find out about mistake fares or good deals - there are a myriad of travel BB available, news media, bloggers, online sources, etc. The days of keeping anything a secret for very long are over. And the airlines aren't stoo-pid. They can usually figure out relatively quickly if a rate has been entered incorrectly/lock it down & then it's up to them to decide whether to honor it or not. We've seen some airlines do so & some not.

JDiver, thanks for the explanation re: mods & the annual mod mtg. It helps others not familiar with either.

Cheers.

cactuspete

Tee point being, there are a good many FT members who, through experience, would strongly disagree with your characteriziation.

JDiver

Those would be perceptions and feelings from some members, which though I respect and don't invalidate them, they are not the facts.

But, moderation is not for discussion here, and those with concerns about moderation or moderators can always feel free to contact the Community Director; her "inbox" is always open to members. I merely wanted to add the basic organizational structure and information about those wild parties, er, training sessions, we hold annually. (Several of us are preparing training materials and presentations even as we post - not much of a party, I'm afraid.)

cblaisd

^ As Senator Moynihan so aptly reminded us....

cactuspete

Again, a comment quite indicative of the underlying issue. The ruling class determines "the facts"".

SkiAdcock

(from a non-mod).

Cheers.

Kagehitokiri

wait.. AFTER the "current" TB election, a thread could be started about locking MR forum and getting people to run for TB in order to vote that way, without the people running actually saying theyre running

and same could be done for any TB issue

cactuspete

More of the same. Thank you (to a TB member) for your support of FT members.

SkiAdcock

I'm quite supportive of FT members, both as a regular FTer and as a TB member. IMO as a regular FTer I think the 'ruling class' comment was a bit silly/not really accurate, but if it's your opinion it's your opinion. However, that doesn't make it 'fact'. FWIW - I'm not a mod, so I don't have a dog in the anti-mod hunt.

Cheers.

janetdoe

In an effort to get this back on topic...
Oh, and by the way, the policy you highlighted doesn't at all address my situation, which is an independent member (not a candidate involved in the elections) wanting to do issue advocacy via mass PM or threads in non-election forums. There was nothing in the official rules against what I did, but clearly it was against policy. @:-)

travelkid

I havent seen what cactuspete is trying to say, and which has affected lots of great members, been taken seriously during my years at FT. But its probably hard when you are not allowed to discuss. "Ruling class" is the most accurate term I have seen. Sorry if this offends anyone, but I hope Im entitled to my opinion as well (coincidentally shared by large number of the people I have met at DOs FWIW).

And campaigning and other rules are not the problem. Wouldnt change a thing if TB closed down. Its just a pro-forma members representation/board. The main issue is TBs purview. There is the big black helicopter downside of making things properly democratic.

travelkid

You should have known. Its against the spirit

Reminds me of the good old russian penal law. No-one were allowed to actually read it@:-)

janetdoe

Thank you for the explanation. I respect your contributions and your long history on FlyerTalk, but I have to say that I respectfully disagree with your decision in this case.

But I really didn't want to re-hash this issue in this thread, more to express my frustration with the way the campaigning restrictions are a) unclear for non-candidates and b) make it hard to 'get out the vote', even when voters are particularly engaged with an issue, and would likely be interested in voting if they knew it was an issue in the election.

I do wonder what is your perspective on the point and utility of TB (as compared to Jenbel and RichMSN). If there is a consensus that the TalkBoard is incredibly limited in scope of duties to the point of irrelevance, then there is no need to have a "tempest in a teapot" regarding campaign reform.

Kagehitokiri

and this is where it gets sticky because technically this can be interpreted as discussing moderation

it seems to me that an incredible amount of stuff falls under 'technically/hypothetically possible to interpret as discussing moderation'

i avoid a number of topics entirely because i dont see how i can discuss them in any way without posting anything that can be hypothetically interpreted in such ways

janetdoe

If we can't discuss campaign rules and policy for TB simply because the moderators are the people who enforce them... then we are in a very sad place.