I agree with what you are saying. The reason I would like to see the guidleines tightened is to put the onus on the member to keep things on-topic, rather then the hard working moderator corps.

We should be thinking about how we can make life easier for the moderators, not harder.

I can almost feel the tension lifting from my overburdened shoulders as I read these words....;).

Give the membership time... they will find some way to re-burden those shoulders... :)

William

Is this policy still in effect? I just posted an article regarding a medical emergency on a specific carrier, and within minutes it was moved to Newsstand.

I'd suggest a PM to the moderator of the forum if you have questions about such actions.

This was deemed a moderation issue many years ago, and remains such. As Spiff suggests, please contact a forum moderator with any questions about specific threads.

So where do I post news articles about specific airlines, no matter what the carrier? I've had a number posted in airline forums this year moved to Newsstand. Do I ignore the Talk Board policy and post them all in Newsstand, or do I continue to post them in the individual airline forum and follow the Talk Board policy? That really doesn't address where the appropriate place is to post them.

What is the current policy on news article posting? Is the Talk Board policy still in effect or not? I would read your post to mean the Talk Board policy should be ignored as the topic does not fall under their purview. Is that the correct reading? Just point me where to post so I don't create extra work for the moderators.

You're probably going to get a TSA type response here which is that there is a policy but they cant tell you what it is as to discuss the policy would be to discuss moderation which is verboten, but for security reasons the policy is subject to change at any time to keep the trolls and spammers guessing. Think of the children.

Cut the B.S. It may surprise you and others that I could not even quote what the policy was if asked a day or two ago. It's likely that the person, like me, did not recall and simply passed it on in a natural manner as any other topic. It may well be that there are several of you so damn perfect that you never forget anything and never error in any manner you'd admit and let my one-handed applause salute you.

It's really an easy thing to look in on and update to make a more correct call. And it's hardly a TSA comparison for something like that. Frankly, as a newly elected member to TalkBoard, I find it very discomforting that members elected a smart ... with what appears as nothing concrete to contribute to a conversation. Are we to expect you'll take everything off-topic?

Now, with that in mind, I'll do the right thing and actually refresh my own knowledge of the policy -- it's nice to actually have a refresher once and a while and look in on this and give you an answer back. If only some of our members would follow this example and go back and review their own posts and actions and make a correction if warranted from time to time.

Thank you.

I don't think there is a single answer to this question. Smaller airline forums benefit from having the news item posted there. Larger airline forums are already overwhelmed with program-specific threads, and those moderators will tend to move pure news threads to Newsstand. By analogy, the rules for high school and college and professional football have subtle differences.

Different forums have different personalities. This is merely one example of that. I hope it doesn't upset anyone too much. The common objective is to maximize the value of the FT experience.

I'd just like to see a clear policy "where" I should post. If the Talk Board policy from 2005 has changed (or needs to be updated), just tell me it's changed and present the new policy for all of the members to see. I'll be happy to post under whatever the current guidelines are, as I'm sure other members would, too, if the policy has changed. (All my postings have been in the larger airline forums.)

The 2005 policy came about, IIRC, concerning complaints about Northwest Airlines articles being posted in the Northwest forum. Some members of that forum did not want it clogged with news articles, while others thought Northwest specific articles were fine. The Talk Board ruling came from that discussion. I'll see if I can find the discussion thread and link it.

Thanks for the background. Would you be happy with a policy statement that moderators of busy forums may choose to move purely news threads to Newsstand? As I see it, this is a forum-specific decision made by moderators. I realize that this does not provide posters any way to be 100% sure of the result before posting, but hey, IJAbleepingIBB.

Moderators are human and not clones of each other. They don't always agree with each other, and that's a real understatement. I don't always agree with myself before and after thinking something over. So please accept that these volunteers are not going to agree with you all the time. FT would probably be boring if they did.

I did find the thread from 2005 that caused the Talk Board to vote on the issue. It is in the Only Randy Petersen forum, and Randy did post in it:

seriously, the Northwest Newsstand needs to go

There are also two related threads linked within that thread.

I don't want to create work for moderators. I'd like a policy that applies across the board for all airline forums so that both old members and new members of FT have direction where to post.

Tom. I have found the thread I believe you are referring to and frankly, I don't find this at all about "where" to post something like this. For the sake of reference, here's the thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newss...eding-jet.html

I have now read it three times and even read the actual article this references and don't see this as a topic of "where" to post. In my personal opinion, and it may disagree with yours, I just don't see this as a story about United Airlines. They seem to play a very minor background in it. And I'm sure that the picture of the United Airlines jet on the newspaper story is not actually the jet on which this tragedy happened. It's a story about a child's suffocation. In fact, we see from the article that "Scotland Yard's Child Abuse Investigation Team officers are investigating." Nothing about United Airlines. This could have included the name of any airline and I still think it is about a situation involving a passenger who was involved in a situation whereby a child was smothered to death - a tragic accident. If I had been the Moderator for whichever airline forum this might have been posted to, I likely would have moved it as well. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose for United Airlines, have any direct relation to the travel and related benefits of United Airlines.

The point being that it is less likely about "where" to post something like this than it is the judgment call for what the crux of the news item topic is about.

I hope that makes sense. I think you continue to post items like that as you normally would and allow others if necessary to help locate them if that is necessary. I seriously doubt that any Moderator would shame you for posting it in the United forum. And if they would, then we'll just have to have a talk with them. Judgment calls can occur from many different views, this being one of them. I hope helps solve this particular topic and question.

THanks for allowing us to at least examine something like this. Gives us a chance to actually think about how things can be viewed on FlyerTalk.