QtownDave

This is a very important distinction. Smokers do NOT want to debate smoking. We have heard and know all sides of the issue. Asking where to smoke at FRA is one thing that would be helpful. If I should smoke at FRA is a completely different issue I doubt any smoker has any interest in.

bdschobel

I totally agree.

Bruce

Dovster

No, I didn't misread him. I was agreeing with what he said and expanding on it.

MatthewLAX

Sometimes guidelines are exactly that, just guidelines, and the "spirt of the FT constitution" means that existing forums should be broadened to include new groups that the founders did not envision as sufficiently in demand, noting also their minority status and the tyranny of the majority!

^
I'm no smoker, but this is a pet-peeve issue of mine I have blogged about it often. That spreadsheet in Travel Buzz is very out of date, and if the Talkboard refuses to create a smoking section, I am going to attempt to construct one on my blog!

skitch23

As a person who is adamantly against smoking, I agree with Swag's comments. I can see why a forum would be needed and think it would be beneficial to the smokers. Much better than having separate threads in nearly every forum.

Maluku_Flyer

In favo(u)r.

JDiver

<chuckle> As a mod and onetime smoker, I am visualizing... a flame-free smoking forum! Would not have worked for me...

Y'all might want to make room for non-hostile posts or contained threads that include alternatives: e.g. I know some chew Nicorette / nicotine polyacrylex gum. Unfortunately, it won't do much good if you use it improperly (absorbing through the oral mucosa, good; chewing and swallowing, burping, dyspepsia, no useful function at all. Or, using it and consuming soft drinks with carbonic or / and citric acid, which neutralizes the nicotine.

There are often those who seek to quit. A thread with reputable information and resource links for anyone contemplating quitting might be useful, yet it doesn't strike out and beat people with a dead lung; it's just there for anyone who wants it. So might a thread encouraging and supporting anyone taking such action.

S'up to you; I'd not want to exclude those, though I also think that even under current mod conditions anyone who arrives in this putative forum and bashes, harasses, posts disruptively, etc. would be violating at least one of several rules.

dhammer53

So now we're encouraging people to smoke?

I oppose creating this new forum.

Dovster

This forum would in no way encourage anyone to smoke. In fact, any non-smoker who might read it and see all the problems that smokers have in finding accommodations would be given an additional, and more immediate, reason not to start smoking.

MatthewLAX

Who said anything about that?

nsx

It's just like the other Special Interest Travel forums encourage people to procreate, to buy pets, or to become disabled, GLBT, religious, or female (oops, the T of GLBT already covers that one).

braslvr

Support 100%.

tom911

I made a similar point in the other discussion thread. By having a smoking forum open to all, teenage smokers who are undecided may think smoking is just fine because a site dedicated to frequent flyers just treats it no differently than a discussion about hotels or airlines. Smoking is very different than any other forum we have on FT because it kills 480,000 Americans a year.

At the very least, the Talk Board should post the Surgeon General's warning about smoking in the forum description and if they elect not to do it, Internet Brands, as the site owner and also owner of a portfolio of health-related sites, should put that warning up in an effort to deter teenage smoking.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...a/tobacco_use/

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...king/index.htm

I don't see anything in the Talk Board proposal about a warning to teenage smokers, or smokers to be, that will be entering the forum. Without such a warning, I want the Talk Board to vote the current motion down.

jason8612

That brings up a good point. While I was in Norway I seen that Nicorette makes a inhalator for those trying to quit but I haven't seen that in USA or in PL.
That can be a great alternative when one is flying and can't use the e-cigs, smoke, and those who don't like the gum.

Dovster

Those same teenagers, who have seen health warnings about cigarettes from the day they were born, have either decided not to smoke because of them or else ignored them (as teens tend to think they are invulnerable).

What they might not know, however, is the number of non health related problems they will face if they start smoking.

Should they go to this proposed forum, they will learn about them. I doubt that they will be turned on by learning that it is almost impossible, no matter what your status, to get an upgraded room at most hotels if you want to smoke.

I don't think they will get excited to learn that out of over 20 HHonors hotels in Manhattan, only two allow smoking.

I doubt they will be thrilled to learn that at many airports if you want to light up during a long connection you have to go outside even if it is the middle of winter and snowing and then come back through the TSA line.

I can't see them looking forward to not being able to rent a car and smoke in it or, if they do find an agency which allows it, to always get the oldest car in the worse condition.

I suspect that it will not be a big plus for them to find out that if they want to smoke in the airport in Prague they will have to go to one of two bar/restaurants where the prices are about double.

These are the conditions that travelers who smoke face on a regular basis. If you really want to make a contribution towards reducing teen smoking don't waste your time with additional health warnings -- instead, push for this forum to be established and then ask your local high school to make it part of the mandatory reading in a health education class.