I just checked and not one of these forums has had a posting for the last 10 days. Yet they occupy a place of honor high up in the forum list and there are a whole lot of them.

If they provide historical context, can they be combined or moved somewhere less prominent? If not, how about considering deletion again? If the "phone services provider" forum is just being deleted, certainly these can be too.

I think hardly anyone even bothers with these forums once the program they report on has been moribund for a year or more -- even the Ansett one isn't being used for jokes anymore.

I vote for deletion.

I think there is still some good information in them, especially for someone interested in researching the history of frequent flyer programs. In my own case, I wondered how TWA's FFP was structured since they died before I became actively involved in FFPs. As such, the old TWA board served as a useful resource for my research.

Perhaps they could be archieved and moved somewhere else so that the information in them is not lost, while also serving to clean up the main page?

Richard - I think you do make a common sense point in the main thrust of your post that TB might well look at. I'll suggest that we do.

Re the Phone services provider forum cessation, yes we are voting on that now via a motion that I moved. If it passes (which does appear quite likely) it will not be deleted, but moved to the area that in turn you are suggesting we delete.


Moved that the "Phone Programs/Partners Forum" be closed to future posting due to lack of patronage, and moved to the "Discontinued Programs" archive, where members may research all past posts.

I think the idea of an archive is a good one. It moves the clutterness of unnecessary forums and at the same time preserves important information and data. ^

Chexfan .... my use of the word 'archive' was not strictly meant in that fashion -- it really meant move it to the existing discontinued programs area of forums - if the vote was supported that idea.

If you go to the "Forum Jump" Drop down menu the oldies are all there.

TWA. Vanguard. Sun Air, National, Sheraton Club etc.

14 of them. No posts for several years on some of them.

I do agree with those above that it clogs things up un-necessarily in the navigation drop down. And on the Forums home page:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

I know nothing of the technical limitations, but it may be possible to have ONE master forum called "Discontinued Forums" (i.e. the kind of archive you and humanoid94 suggest) and if anyone clicks on that they still see the 15 or so old forums in there. If it is technically possible, and if it gets some support on TB we can discuss it further.

As always, input from members helps influences our collective thinking.

That way the posts and threads are still available for research, and for anyone using "search" - they'd just clutter up the current layout of forums less than they do now.

I guess my main question is "what clutter?"

The Discontinued forums show up as one blue line on my screen. To actually see them you'd need to click on the blue line so the subforums open up.

I can see where it takes a little extra scrolling if you use forum jump. Is that a frequently used tool? I haven't ever used it.

I love forum jump, so yeah, that's where I see these mostly. There is a hierarchical structure here in the Talk Board forums, so it presumably would be easy to do for the discontinued programs, although it would be nice if they weren't all separately listed in forum jump.

Alternatively, I'd be content if they just moved to the end of the list.

Proposal #2: Just like "premier associate" at UA, we could have a "suspended member associate" who can only post in the discontinued programs forums. JUST KIDDING!

I navigate through via Forum Jump too. If the discontinued programs have to hang around, putting them at the end of the list is the least disruptive place for them even if it isn't the most logical.

The couple of posts above mine seem to indicate it is.

That is 100% how I navigate FT, and always have, FWIW.

This sounds like a great idea.

FWIW I have also never used the Forum Jump Drop-Down list. Might have to try it out!