Canarsie

Well, anyone can opt out of the TalkMail newsletter — to which people voluntarily subscribe — at any time, which is one of the vehicles of communication I had in mind.

Weblogs — such as this article at Miles From Blighty — are another means of communicating news about TalkBoard...

JDiver

Hmm, is it me, or is it beginning to feel a little uncharacteristically not like FlyerTalk here - in particular less mutually respectful and more snarky for some reason, a small flurry of Alert a Moderator messages. Given we may be trying to influence others in this forum one way or another, it may pay to think about our post first to imagine how it will be perceived and affect our positioning to others.

/JDiver, Moderator

Jenbel

Because the people who participate in TB are pretty much experienced long term members, often with tens of thousands of posts. Little account is taken of view of people who have joined in the last year (for example) who don't have the long history on FT, often with a fairly fossilised view of what FT should be - because thats what its been for the past 10 years... The most recently joined member on this page joined in 2009.... (and he's a TB member ).

TB is marginalised. It's paid attention to by only a small group of members so the views all come from that group. I don't think my experience greatly differs from those giving their views - that's part of the problem. I'm another of the long term, experienced FTers who knows of TB's existence. What does the 300 post poster who has been on FT for 6 months think of their experience? None of us is at all qualified to say, but they are going to represent an important group on FT.

MSPeconomist

I think that would be me. However, two other participants in this thread joined FT later than I did: rwoman 2010 (also on TB) and exilencfc 2011.

When I joined FT, it didn't take me long to discover TBT and be aware of TB once I had progressed from looking only at the NW/DL merger material to learn about the hotel programs and other types of fora. However, I would not have been so presumptions as to offer opinions when I was a quite new member, especially about general issues rather than fora where I tended to focus.

rwoman

I'm pretty sure one of the most recently joined members on this thread who is a TB member, a she, joined after 2009, and has <10k posts...

Looking back through, there are also participants who joined in 2011.

Perhaps one question is how do we, as a collective FT community and those of us on TB, promote newer FTers to engage more?

kipper

The sitewide announcements are a good start.

SanDiego1K

I've been faithfully making sitewide announcements for 4 years.

rwoman

Agreed. Looking at some of the posts in this thread again, I think there seem to be numerous options:

• Site-wide announcements
• TalkMail
• Sharing on social media (facebook, twitter, etc.)
• Some TB members or other active folks may choose to use their signature to highlight noteworthy messages
• Highlight on the FT landing "front" page

Of course, there are always going to be those who feel they somehow missed something. Unfortunately, that's reality and, as with any decisions, some will be content while others will not.

Canarsie

Thank you for your argument, which to me bolsters the reason why there should be more publicity in the TalkMail newsletter.

Whenever an issue of the TalkMail newsletter is released, I usually click on the links included in that issue; and I am amazed at how many FlyerTalk members who have registered years ago — as well as recently new members — whose “post count” is still in the single digits or low double-digits suddenly decide to post on FlyerTalk to respond to a topic.

I have noticed that this phenomenon occurs after every single issue is released.

While certainly not an exact science, this suggests to me that there are many FlyerTalk members who “lurk” more than post but are compelled to participate because of the TalkMail newsletter.

I would surmise that it is not an unlikely conclusion that a percentage of those otherwise inactive FlyerTalk members might be more interested in what goes on with the TalkBoard and its members and participate in such activities as opining in the appropriate discussions and voting during election times if publicized in the TalkMail newsletter.

Although I do not have the answers at this time — please feel free to offer additional suggestions — I will also go so far as to say that perhaps TalkBoard needs to be “marketed” better to generate more interest; and if that is the case, the TalkMail newsletter and the sitewide announcements posted by SanDiego1K are not enough, in my opinion...

Jenbel

Yes, that's specifically why I said "this page" and didn't claim to be representing the entire thread. Life is too short to spend that much time proving something you know to be true - that awareness of TB is limited (total number of votes in election), and participation is even more limited.

Is it about getting newer FTers to engage more (which suggests the fault lies with them) or is it about making TB relevant to the membership of FT? I'd argue the latter, and I'd argue making assumptions that it is the former leads to the belief that TB doesn't need to change what it is doing. But hey, at least some form of the question has been asked, even if I think it could have been posed in a more open-minded way. And it's something worthwhile asking because unless you can re-engage with the wider membership of FT, what is the point of TB?
I don't think there are many who feel they missed anything - that's my point. I would imagine not many of them even know of TB's existence and those that do, don't care. What I'm saying is that that's a dangerous position for the supposedly 'representative' TB to be in, not least because it marginalises you, but because also it means you end up representing a view of FT which may be slow/slower to suggest/accept innovation.

dchristiva

I agree. That's a great question. TB can't react or adjust to what it doesn't know.

rwoman

As I was responding to your comment about the "senior" presence in this thread/on a particular page, I asked the question about improving new FTers' engagement with FT and TB.

Asked in more broad terms, as it seems I've struck a chord with you on this one, perhaps we should be asking,

"What can we do to improve all FT members' engagement with FT, including the TalkBoard and related TB issues/discussions/voting?"

bdschobel

The observation that long-time FlyerTalkers with tens of thousands of posts are "more engaged" than newer members is simply tautological. Water is wet. This proves nothing.

We will know which newcomers are more engaged when they become long-time FlyerTalkers with tens of thousands of posts. Lots of self-selection going on here.

Some people will become addicted to FlyerTalk, and others won't. TalkBoard has basically nothing to do with it! (Moderators' efforts to keep FlyerTalk welcoming has more effect, but that's going to happen in any case.)

Bruce

SkiAdcock

The reality - and I said this many years ago, have repeated it since then, & will say it in the future - is that the majority of the 500,000 FTers don't give two patooties about TB or the overall admin of FT (which includes items outside TB's purview). They come to FT to learn more about miles & points of their programs or manufactured spending. As long as FT operates smoothly for the most part & they get the miles/points or credit card info they need, they're good to go. To think otherwise is being incredibly naive.

Does that mean TB shouldn't do more to try & engage FTers (whether they be new or established FTers)? Absolutely not. TB should do what it can, whether that be site wide announcements, Talkmail, social media, signatures, etc.

FT is maturing and a lot of the 'hot button' issues have been resolved & a # of forums created. Doesn't mean there aren't a few HB issues left or forums that might be created. in the future. But TB isn't going to be a hotbed of activity with motions cropping up all the time as it's done previously. Heck, this year even FTers didn't offer as many suggestions as in the past.

And getting this back to the original topic, I think koko's proposal is a good compromise between current policy & overreaction to the premium fares forum.

Cheers.

bdschobel

Sharon hits the bull's-eye, as usual!

Bruce