We have had a truly disgusting situation in Omni and perhaps other places I am not aware of for several weeks now, reminiscent of certain bad times on the board last year. They've been brewing for much longer than that.

FT's TOS is being violated like crazy by a number of people, yet nothing is being done to change the situation.

I agree with jabez' sentiment's in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000608.html

What is our board doing about this situation?

Giving the offenders titles in a governing board.

As a former TalkBoard member, I feel I have to try to clarify a couple of misunderstandings regarding TalkBoard that seem to be floating about.

First of all, TalkBoard is not a governing Board. As defined:

This board is a User Advisory Council consisting of members of the community whose purpose is to provide input regarding FlyerTalk feature requests, action requests that fall outside the scope of established policies and procedures, and general user issues as may be directed to them by the FlyerTalk member population.

When queried by TalkBoard, Randy has been quite clear that TB's role is NOT to get into the business of running FT in terms of day to day issues, TOS violations, etc. So even though one could make the argument that the effects of moderation policies are "user issues", in this particular situation Randy has judged it to be an ongoing, day to day operational area best served by he and his direct staff.

TalkBoard and the FT membership does owe a debt of gratitude to the group of moderators who agreed to accept the role and walk where none had walked before on FT. It has NOT been easy for these folks. I agree, and I think THEY agree, that existing guidelines need to be enhanced. Having walked on the bed of coals for several months now, our existing moderators should be a good source for exactly how those guidelines should be extended.

To malign these moderators as slack, lazy, or inept is inappropriate. These are ALL good folks. We KNOW them. They are loyal friends and loyal FT members. They are doing a tough job in tough circumstances. And remember - OMNI is NOT assigned to any of them.

I agree that OMNI has become a war room. And I agree that action is indicated. I just want to be clear that neither the existing Moderators nor TalkBoard are charged with or able to play a role in situations such as we face today.

Sorry, I stand corrected..

Giving the offenders titles in an advisory board.

Sorry - mistake

[This message has been edited by svpii (edited 12-04-2001).]

I've stayed out of the latest controversy, as it is counterproductive to respond and escalate. FT is much, much more than a few errant posts.

Most of the advisory board is elected, no? You may not like the result, but that is what you, I, and other FTers voted for.

I am hoping this will get to the Talk Board; if not, I would hope that some one would tell me how to get recommendations to the Talk Board - and, ultimately, to Randy.

I think it would be very helpful to have some simple location to post low-fare information and great deals. To the extent this occurs now, it takes place on the Mileage Run board, which is not an inuitively obvious location, and is very limited in scope. Any attempt to post anything in the Buzz, where it might reach a general audience, is immediately met by a lock out, the most direct effect of which has been to discourage any posting at all.

I know the Board is advisory, but this seems to me a subject for which some advice is called for.

Bruce McAlister

dgolds: I've left OMNI for good due to the complete lack of civility there. I could make a list of more than 15 people who seriously broke the house rules but to whom nothing happened anyway.

brucemcal:

In my very first post as a member of the TB (made on the Community board) I made it clear that any member of FT for whatever reason could ALWAYS contact me if they felt something needed to be brought to the TB's attention.

I (and the rest of the TB) are currently on a strict gag order and so though I would very much like to comment more on this I am not allowed at this time.

I think that "gag order" might be a bit too strong.

The Talk Board members did agree that no individual TalkBoard member should publicly discuss either their own or other members' positions on current issues under discussion until the Board has resolved their collective wisdom. I believe that we have all done a good job of exercising discretion, and that can sometimes be tough when one has strongly held opinons on a topic under discussion.

Having said all that, as an individual Flyer Talk participant, and I hope I am not stepping over the line here, I think it is appropriate to say that I would very much like to see all threads moderated.

I would also like to offer congratulations to the current Flyer Talk Moderators. It is a thankless task that they have undertaken, without strong guidelines in place, and they all deserve our thanks and congratulations for their find efforts.



[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 12-05-2001).]

I respect and recognize the FT Board. While some members were chosen by Randy, the majority were elected by FT at large. I understand that the FT Board members are working behind the scenes with Randy et. al. on our behalf. It is not their responsibility to deal with the mess in OMNI.

The forums that do have Moderators seem to be fairly administered. We will all never agree on the when, where, why and how a thread should be locked, moved or, in rare cases, removed. IMHO, the moderated threads seem to be doing OK. On several occasions, I have sent emails to moderators with suggestions. That's my role. Once the email is sent it is up to the moderators to decide if they wish to heed my suggestion or ignore it. That's their role and I respect it. You won't hear me whine and moan IF my suggestion follows the chain of command (so to speak) and is ignored.

OMNI has no moderator and has unfortunately become a wasteland and a wild free for all. There are personal insults, racial slurs, unkind posts... you name it and OMNI's got it. It's a shame.

My suggestion would be for the FT Administration to DECLARE whether OMNI exsists for ANY topic whatsoever or ONLY for the odds and ends of TRAVEL related information that don't belong anywhere else.

Once that is firmly established I would be happy to toss my name in the hat to be moderator of OMNI.

Until then, by definition, OMNI goes where it wants without any guidance, direction or justice.



[This message has been edited by geo1004 (edited 12-05-2001).]

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I agree that something should be done and that a prominent clarification of the rules and a swift appointment of additioanal moderators would make a very good, if not excellent, start!

Just my 0.02.

Thanks!

-Mark

I fully support geo1004 as new moderator of OMNI.

My position on (rather: understanding of) OMNI has been stated before in "Suggestions" and is that OMNI is everything not related (travel or otherwise).

Good, now we have volunteers for both OMNI (geo1004) and Only Randy (me). When do we start?

FewMiles..

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