Mary2e

I always do. But when a post sits for a few days I automatically assume someone has already reported it. I don't want to fill the mods mailboxes with unnecessary mail. Particularly if it's a trafficked formum such as ID. For the Disney forum, I report every post I see because it doesn't get much activity.

squeakr

SkiAdcock

And what would you rename it to if you were going to rename it?

Cheers.

rwoman

Glad you're back up and running! Not envious of the related pain! Just wanted to say thank you to those of you moderating ID; you all do typically respond well to suggestions for moves,e tc.

Unfortunately, in some places, flames are often the response for new FTers. When new folks post in the ID, I try to direct them towards the appropriate threads...to be helpful.

Agreed - in a place as large as FT, those who are familiar, myself included, may take it for granted at times. Scaring off new FTers may be scaring off great contributors in the long term.

Good question!

usAir

I actually think that the Info Desk forum is an amazing resource, not only to encourage new members, but to de-clutter other forums from off-topic posting.

However, I don't think its currently set up in a way that encourages seasoned members to answer questions from new members, and in fact, discourages new members because of a general lack of response to inquiries.

This is true, but I don't think many people realize why this happens. Most posts either don't get answered, or get sent off to another board without a sufficient explanation, and that really discourages new members. I'm not a new member, but I've stopped trying to post questions on certain flyertalk boards because I know that I'm not going to get a response. If I post a question on the Info Desk board and don't get a response, what does that say about the rest of the forum?

We should not get rid of the board, but we definitely need to pivot and find something that works better.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Make un-answered posts much easier to find. Tag any posts that do not yet have a sufficient response [UNANSWERED], and tag posts that do have a sufficient response [ANSWERED] (and maybe even lock them). This way, seasoned members don't have to go rooting through posts to find a place they can help out.

2. Similar to 1, break up long stickies into an [ANSWERED] (and possibly locked) thread, and an [UNANSWERED] thread.

3. Create some sort of badge seasoned posters can get from answering Info Desk posts. The Info Desk won't work unless we do everything possible to encourage seasoned members to check out the Info Desk forum and post answers there.

4. Stop moving posts! Having a post moved can be confusing to a new member, and does not address the unasked question of everyone who posts in the Information Desk Board ("How do I even use flyertalk in the first place? Where do I look for information?")

If, for example, someone posts the question "What is the best seat on a UA 777?", don't just move the question to the UA board. People won't recognize that the person is a new member, and individual airline boards might be a bit more hostile. I think simply linking to various resources (the seatguru link and the UA 777 thread), and adding a good explanation on HOW to use them, would be the best course of action. Then mark the thread as [ANSWERED], and after a few days, lock it to new posting.

Not moving posts would significantly reduce this issue. Also, if there is too much spam, adding more moderators for this board, or maybe adding "janitors" to just delete spam/tag posts would be something to look into.

5 is spam and can be swiftly deleted.

Everything else can be answered simply with links to where the information can be found, with a STRONG emphasis on HOW to look up this information by ones' self in the future.

tl;dr, Librarians exist for a reason. Librarians are a SINGLE point of contact to direct users to the most appropriate place to find information. They help with research, and can help direct people on where to look, even if that just means telling someone to Google it. They encourage people to use the library, and make it seem like an inviting space.

Canarsie

Thank you for posting your suggestions, usAir — but the implementation of them is under the purview of the moderators of that forum and not of members of the TalkBoard...

...and I am still not in favor of closing the Information Desk forum. Rather, it should continue to be improved.

SkiAdcock

Perhaps usAir or a TB member can PM the mods of the ID forum w/ a link to his post. There are suggestions they may wish to consider.

Cheers.

MSPeconomist

Note that usAir also made a recent post in the sticky thread in the Information Desk forum where moderators request suggestions to improve the forum. I was about to suggest that usAir post similar comments over there.

tcook052

And some I hope they don't such as the suggestion to stop moving threads as ID was not meant as a replacement for existing forums and so topics that belong elsewhere should be moved.

cblaisd

^

Thank you! +1! The most frustrating thing you can have on an informational bulletin board is the information scattered in various places. Very frustrating to have the same topic being discussed in multiple forums.

jackal

I think the point wasn't that the Info Desk should host all conversation locally, it was that the Info Desk thread should primarily consist of responses that direct the poster where they can best find the answer to their question, after which the thread is closed/locked and the poster can proceed with asking their question in the correct forum.

I envision it like this:

Newbie: What is United's lost and found policy?
FT Member #1: The United forum has some discussion on this topic; you might want to search there.
FT Member #2: Check out this thread and post there if your question is not answered.
Moderator: Since folks have successfully directed the OP to the right resource to get his/her question answered, we'll go ahead and close this thread. Any additional questions can be asked in the forums/threads mentioned above.

That would actually make the Information Desk work out more like a real airport information desk than it is currently.

The problem is, I don't think all of the responses will be like the ones I made up above. You're going to get a lot of FlyerTalk members actually answering the question rather than simply directing the OP where to get his/her question answered, and now we're back to the conundrum of whether to host that in the Info Desk or just move it to the appropriate forum, and if we do the latter, then that's pretty much what we're already doing.

That said, I have long had a small bit of worry about the confusion that ensues for newbies whose posts have been moved, so making the standard procedure something that avoids that is something I'm definitely interested in exploring. (And unless we triple the number of mods in the Info Desk forum, it's not really feasible to PM the OP every single time we move a thread.)

cblaisd

I guess I'm not getting the angst over the "my post was moved" thing. Unless a moderator moves a post with no-redirect, there is still a link in exactly the same forum where op posted it.

mommafrica

Respectfully, I would like to know the purpose of this forum? If I can't find where the "airline and car rental promo and codes" why would I come here for you to send me back to the same car rental forum where some advanced nuts don't want to answer you and if they do its disrespectful meaning that when you defend yourself on here you will be blocked off of here b/c one of their long-time moderator friends and others see it their way even though they know that their wrong. Absolutely ridiculous.

mia

The purpose of the Information Desk forum is to tell you where to find information on Flyertalk. If have already looked in one or more forums be sure to mention the specifics when you ask in Information Desk. (Useful specifics would be the names of the forums, search terms used. threads found.)

If you cannot find the information in the forum to which you are directed, ask the moderator of that forum for assistance by using the Alert icon in the lower left corner of a post in the thread where you expected to find it -or- through the PM system.

If you are not satisfied by the service provided by a moderator you should contact the Community Director, as explained in this rule:

http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules....deratoractions

dchristiva

This. Unequivocally this.