Often, when I am hanging out on the internet, I keep my eye out for ideas/information that might be useful to FlyerTalk (my favorite cyber home). Straight Dope is a very busy bulletin board which gives me interesting input on how bulletin boards work. What other interesting Bulletin Board have you seen from which we can learn?

Straight Dope started about the same time as FlyerTalk and has about twice as many total posts. It has nine segments, all of which have one, two or three moderators. Interestingly, the most popular forum on this board is called Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share, with a total of 743,063 posts, followed by General Questions, with 504,975 posts at the time of this writing.

This board, Straight Dope, can be found at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/

A couple of interesting features of this board are that its opening forum is entitled About This Message Board and contains only 35,218 posts (a smallish number for a board of this size), and it has a BBQ Pit at the very bottom, which contains 297,272 posts.

What are some of the other Bulletin Boards you frequent, from which we can learn?

I love the name BBQ Pit.

A couple of other boards I visit that are NOT role (sic?) models to copy are:

www.USAviation.com (which is a mess, user wise)

and www.cruisecritic.com which has a clunky interface and is TERRIBLY slow. BUT it has far more traffic than FT, and is essentially the same deal, but for cruisers, not fliers.

Try and make a post on this VERY original thread I started there. Takes about 5 minutes to post, even for Reg'd users.

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~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

IMHO, FT does not need to learn from any other board.

It is JUST FINE the way it is.

BTW,

How is this thread ANY different than the countless other "FT is Broken" threads that you have started?

I am glad, to have learned from Randys posts, that he indeed looks at other boards all the time, to learn and to (over-)think his FT-concept constantly.

I myself normally don't (like to) post other commercial links to a board, links that could ultimately be a kind of competition for my favorite home-board (FT). But at first sight, I don't see much of potential competition risks for FT from the boards referenced here.

The day that the advisory board members (or even worse Randy and his team at Colorado Springs, but I see little danger there) start thinking that FT couldn't improve anymore, FT would pretty sure start to decline.

Some answers to Punki really make topics started by Punki regularly look the same soon



[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 10-05-2002).]

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Absolutely! As I'd also noted previously, unless absolutely perfect, there is always room to improve!

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I do hope that we can all hear/read different points of view, respectfully expressed!

-Mark

Same topic, different title.

The horse is dead.

Some answers to Punki really make topics started by Punki regularly look the same soon

In case anyone missed it:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000082.html

Rudi,

Since the topics do not change, just the tread titles, the replies will naturally stay the same.

In case anyone missed it: (Reading the following posts from the very same poster, I really wonder)

1) IMHO, FT does not need to learn from any other board. It is JUST FINE the way it is.

2) The horse is dead

3) Far too often, people are slammed here for having a minority view. IMHO, that only leads to people keeping their views to themselves. That, in turn fuels the Majority to claim that nobody disagrees.

I don�t think, �shutting down� or �censoring� Punki (or me) is (or ever will be) an easy task for any FlyerTalker (except the one legally being in the position to do so on FlyerTalk-Board: Randy (or may be, for single issues/posts FT moderators). And I am glad, to know (and have experienced), that Randy is and acts very different (more liberal) than some other posters here may think/pretend.

Rudi,

I am not following your logic.

The first time Punki started a "FT is Broken", There was a discussion pro/con.

At some point (Maybe not in the intitial thread) Randy weighed in, and for all intents and purposes stated that he was not going to bring a general travel forum to the FT Miles section.

Punki has started, conservativly, at least 5 more threads on the SAME subject. WHY?

So, if I follow your logic, Punki has the right to start as many threads on the same subject as she wishes, yet I do not have the right to reply?

If I am not following your logic correctly, please help me out.

Thank you for the questions.

I don't agree (never did) that FlyerTalk is broken (for me this board is getting better and better, the introduction of moderators should and hopefully will, even address better the too many flame-wars between some oldies here), nor is it perfect and shouldn't consider improvements.

Contrary to the initial posts (at least most of them that I remember) from Punki, that do address general FlyerTalk policies/issues (and not individual persons), I have the impression that you concentrate here (and in the so-called, by you, similiar threads from Punki) your arguments against her/her person/her intentions, instead of dealing with the specific details of her (different) proposals and questions.

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 10-05-2002).]

Actually, in the past five months, Punki has started exactly 3 threads that might in any way shape or form be related to the current conditions (both good and/or bad) of Flyertalk.

This thread, was a simple inquiry as to the location of the most excellent procedures which svpii had written and which were duly accepted by a vote of all then TalkBoard members (inlcuding Randy), except dhammer53 who chose to abstain. As the thread had absolutely no motive other than to find the procedures which I thought were public information, I must say that both Randy and Rudi's responses seemed very out of place to me, given the simplicity of my original post.

This thread , had it been responded to as posted and not attacked by the naysayers, could have provided information that would have proved extremely valuable to Randy, his staff, the TalkBoard and anyone else truly concerned with making FlyerTalk more user friendly. Unfortunately the thread was waylaid by people far more interested in doing battle than seeking answers.

My initial post:

in this thread, was intended purely to help me and others who obviously don't understand the new system, better understand where to post. Even as I read it now, it sounds very respectful and polite to me. The responses thereto seem very inconsistent with the original post.

This instant thread was intended to help us all open our eyes to different ways of doing/approaching things on a large and very busy internet bulletin board. I too believe that even very good things like FT, always have room for improvement.

There are some, however, who are apparently unable to objectively read and understand my simple, polite and noninflammatory posts, and who choose instead to interpret them through their own bias and prejudice and attack them/me apparently without taking the time to actually read or understand what I have posted.

My beloved brother (who is in all things wise and considerate) has finally been able to convince me that it is impossible to open the eyes of those who have steadfastly closed their minds and hearts.

While I still dearly love FlyerTalk and stand ready to help improve it in anyway I can, for now I shall turn my attention to less tiresome endeavors.



[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 10-05-2002).]

Yes, most posters are smarter than the average bear, but there are a few more stubborn and brainless than the average paramecium.

FewMiles..

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