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Travel News Forum: close, re-purpose or merge with TravelBuzz?

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Old Feb 3, 2016, 1:55 pm
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Should the Travel News forum remain open as its own standalone forum?

Here is the Travel News forum. Should it remain open; or should it be closed? Please post objective reasons for either position below.

Keep the Travel News Forum Open

It provides a place where only news linked to other sources can be posted.

Travel News serves a different function than other forums. It is for news articles that can be quickly perused & not buried in other forums. TravelBuzz, for example, has topics such as 'should the spouse get the upgrade' & discussions re: that. Travel News has links to articles of interest that may or may not get commentary, but does get a lot of views so obviously of interest to FTers. Just as some will read articles in the NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, USAToday because the articles are of interest but not comment. That doesn't mean the articles have no value. They're easier to find in Travel News.

Close/Merge the Travel News Forum

It is redundant; and discussions posted in it are best served when residing in other forums on FlyerTalk — such as TravelBuzz, for example.

It is obsolete due to improved technology which has emerged over the years, allowing news pertaining to travel to be easily obtained elsewhere.

It is not at all clear what types of posts belong in it.

Travel News made a lot more sense before FT had a forum for any and every thing travel related. But now FT does and Travel News is out of step with how FlyerTalk is currently organized.
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Travel News Forum: close, re-purpose or merge with TravelBuzz?

 
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 10:43 am
  #496  
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Originally Posted by rwoman
Something important to consider.

While TN threads do not typically get notable numbers of replies, views alone suggest people ARE looking at TN posts.

I suspect something similar could happen with Spirit, though some do not believe in the "build it and they will come" mentality. Number of threads and replies tell a story but views are an important metric to consider.
View are less an important metric to me than posts or threads as the forum was created to foster active discussion and sharing information not act as a static read only notice board. Just MHO.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 10:47 am
  #497  
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Originally Posted by dchristiva
You can keep typing that (which seems to please you) or you can run this fall and try to enact the changes that you so desperately seem to want.
Do I seem desperate?

I am not.

Persistent? Yes.

Desperate? No.

Do you feel the defenders of the forum are 'desperate?'

Your logic seems to stem mainly from convenience. I agree with CMK10 that redundancy exists in a variety of places on FT. You see what you want to see. I see what I want to see. We make recommendations. Some are accepted. Some are rejected. You can keep saying you are "right", but at the end of the day, it's all just opinion.
Where do you see redundancy as blatant as TN and TB?

Surely not in the hardware vs. software vs. luggage forums?

As I typed above, if you want to take action, you'll have to break up the incumbency. And, really, is your opinion of TB gonna change if TN is abolished? Suddenly we'll go from crappy to great? I'm pretty sure I know the answer.
For the record, my opinion of the TB is generally high. I've served on it. I believe in it. I actually drafted the TB guidelines back in the day!

My view of the TB is not going to change over this decision.

Originally Posted by JDiver
View numbers are probably broader than that. E.g. American Airlines | AAdvantage shows 395 (75 members & 320 guests). I've no clue how much recruitment we receive from Guests, but the number of posts that include statements like "I've been lurking a long time..." may be significant in that regard. It may be some lurk and read because they were searching for travel news or travel smoking related information?
If we are looking at views as a metric then consider that the highest viewed thread in TN so far this year is actually about Air India and has 4768 views. The second most viewed has 1936. The average for threads posted in 2016 is about 1100 views.

Take out that Air India thread and that drops to ~800.

I submit that those threads would have seen double, triple and higher views if they had been posted in TravelBuzz instead, providing greater utility to a far larger number of FlyerTalkers.

So I don't think views is a powerful metrics argument for keeping Travel News.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 1:36 pm
  #498  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Do I seem desperate?

I am not.

Persistent? Yes.

Desperate? No.

Do you feel the defenders of the forum are 'desperate?'
Nope. They just don't share your view of TN. You don't seem to like it, so you're being "persistent".

Originally Posted by kokonutz
Where do you see redundancy as blatant as TN and TB?

Surely not in the hardware vs. software vs. luggage forums?
Now you're just moving the goalposts. The argument wasn't whether the redundancy is "blatant". It was whether there's "redundancy".
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 2:14 pm
  #499  
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Originally Posted by dchristiva
Nope. They just don't share your view of TN. You don't seem to like it, so you're being "persistent".
I believe we are all trying to act in the best interests of FlyerTalk and its posters.

Now you're just moving the goalposts. The argument wasn't whether the redundancy is "blatant". It was whether there's "redundancy".
Ok. Where is there redundancy?
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 2:26 pm
  #500  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
I believe we are all trying to act in the best interests of FlyerTalk and its posters.
That's what I thought when noting the Gaming Loyalty's low traffic numbers last year and suggesting it be shuttered only to be accused of "hating" the forum so look at the bright side: nobody has accused you of that. Yet.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 2:34 pm
  #501  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
That's what I thought when noting the Gaming Loyalty's low traffic numbers last year and suggesting it be shuttered only to be accused of "hating" the forum so look at the bright side: nobody has accused you of that. Yet.
Yes, they have. And of dark conspiracies and grudges. See, eg, the first page of this thread.

None of which is true.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 2:54 pm
  #502  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
I submit that those threads would have seen double, triple and higher views if they had been posted in TravelBuzz instead, providing greater utility to a far larger number of FlyerTalkers.
To try to get a semi-accurate idea of what typical view counts for news articles posted in TravelBuzz are, I searched TravelBuzz for recent threads with external links in them and then picked the first several I saw that actually linked to external news-type sites. Here's what I found, going back about the last two weeks:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...hard-pile.html - 557 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...on-planes.html - 1,784 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ore-prone.html - 1,398 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...sed-plane.html 1,918 views

Edit: it appears the second thread got moved from TravelBuzz to OMNI right in the middle of me posting this, but the view count reflects what it was when it appeared in TravelBuzz a few minutes ago.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 3:18 pm
  #503  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Yes, they have. And of dark conspiracies and grudges. See, eg, the first page of this thread.
I didn't see that word used so much be my eyesight.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 3:44 pm
  #504  
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Food for thought: One thing that might help is to refrain from making attributions or attributing qualities or feeling states to others we might assume or think we perceive but may not be accurate. That fits well with FT intent and Rules, and avoids possible rancor - particularly where sides may be drawn. In part:

12.1 Friendly, Respectful and Welcoming - Link to this topic

FlyerTalk is a community and is intended to be a friendly, helpful and collegial place.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 4:03 pm
  #505  
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Originally Posted by jackal
To try to get a semi-accurate idea of what typical view counts for news articles posted in TravelBuzz are, I searched TravelBuzz for recent threads with external links in them and then picked the first several I saw that actually linked to external news-type sites. Here's what I found, going back about the last two weeks:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...hard-pile.html - 557 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...on-planes.html - 1,784 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ore-prone.html - 1,398 views
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...sed-plane.html 1,918 views

Edit: it appears the second thread got moved from TravelBuzz to OMNI right in the middle of me posting this, but the view count reflects what it was when it appeared in TravelBuzz a few minutes ago.
Interesting findings, Jackal.

Looking at the activity in TN over the past few days, confusion is continuing to reign in TN with threads relating to Air Force One (duplicated in TravelBuzz), American Airlines profits (duplicated in American Airlines), and Air India’s plans for ultra long haul routes (duplicated in India-Based Airlines).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...force-one.html [TravelBuzz, 78 replies, 6,077 hits]
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-one-jets.html [Travel News, 1 reply, 645 hits]

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/india...r-del-sfo.html [India-Based Airlines, 44 replies, 7,030 hits]
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...er-flight.html [Travel News, 21 replies, 4,777 hits]

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html [American Airlines, 155 replies, 15,876 hits]
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...fits-soar.html [Travel News, 1 reply, 450 hits]

I'll admit the word confusion is subjective but it is worth noting that it isn't only new members who are struggling to interpret the definition of TN's scope but also FT Evangelists. To me, that does not seem to be a healthy situation. Redundancy (in the sense of duplication or the inclusion of extra threads which are not strictly necessary, in case of non-response in other forums) is clearly evident.
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Old Feb 2, 2016, 9:49 pm
  #506  
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I'm glad that Travel News is still around. It's certainly NOT redundant and I'm glad it's not been closed.

Originally Posted by kokonutz
If you like low use redundant forums then you are going to LOVE this place: https://insideflyer.com/forums/

Hey - they've got Teh Penalty Box, the busiest forum on the site - don't knck it!
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 7:31 am
  #507  
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Originally Posted by Xyzzy
I'm glad that Travel News is still around.
Why?

Hey - they've got Teh Penalty Box, the busiest forum on the site - don't knck it!
I'm glad that Teh Penalty Box is still around.
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 7:45 am
  #508  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Ok. Where is there redundancy?
CMK10 illustrated several locations.
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 8:04 am
  #509  
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Originally Posted by dchristiva
CMK10 illustrated several locations.
CMK identified Travel Tools and Travel Technology as redundant.

He asserts that a forum about travel aps, websites and software is redundant to a forum about tablets, laptops and mobile devices. But in my IT world software and hardware are very distinct matters.

I assert that a forum about articles about general travel topics is redundant to a thread about general travel topics. Both forums are about general travel topics.

I feel like maybe we have different definitions of the word 'redundant.'
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 8:25 am
  #510  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
CMK identified Travel Tools and Travel Technology as redundant.

He asserts that a forum about travel aps, websites and software is redundant to a forum about tablets, laptops and mobile devices. But in my IT world software and hardware are very distinct matters.

I assert that a forum about articles about general travel topics is redundant to a thread about general travel topics. Both forums are about general travel topics.

I feel like maybe we have different definitions of the word 'redundant.'
Actually CMK10 said there was redundancy between Travel Tools, Travel Technology and Travel Products and would agree the hardware discussion in travel products is redundant with the hardware discussion in travel technology. Whether you're talking Bose NC headphones or Tumi luggage why couldn't it be accommodated in the same forum?
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