No, I didn't miss it. I also pointed out that already in-place systems were at work ameliorating the perceived problem.

but part of OMNI are broken...
 

The problem is that parts of it are broken, particularly number counting threads that have allowed at least one poster to accumulate FT Evangelist Status by posting 14,000 numbers (though I notice he is down to 3 posts today). There are others on track in those threads to do the same thing.

What happens when another dozen number counting threads start? I can go and start one today to count down from 2,000,000. Tomorrow someone can go and start one to count down from 3,000,000. The following day a new one counting down from 4,000,000. Those new posters with just the 180 posts to get into OMNI could be FT Evangelist just a few days after they get OMNI access.

The title does mean something to me, as it took 5 years to get there, and a lot of posts, and not numbers. I was rewarded for my contributions, not the ability to count.

Do we want FT Evangelists who have skill in counting numbers, or do we want FT Evangelists who have made contributions? For that matter, do we want our third FT Posting Legend to get there with contributions across the forums of FT, or just by counting 40,000 numbers?

I still think these OMNI number counting games still need to go in a non-counting forum all to themselves. Failing that, maybe the senior moderators can review who gets the Evangelist title, and limit it to those that have made a substantive contribution on the travel side of FT. Without the travel forums, OMNI would not be here.

So, what happens to FT after 5 , 10 or 100 guys have reached Evangelist status because of OMNI?

FT will have lost its focus of being a forum to discuss travel.

FlyerTalk, part of the WebFlyer Network, features discussions and chat boards that covers the most up-to-date traveler information. An interactive community dedicated to your favorite topic: travel! That's right: all travel, all the time. The FlyerTalk forums are open for business 24 hours, 7 days a week. Even better, all travelers -- from vacation travelers to mileage junkies -- are welcome in the community. Just choose a forum and you can get to the business at hand: conversing about programs, how to make the most of your miles and points, general travel, airports, destination and dining information.

Problem solved.

and the problem will be solved as above. You can't post any faster on multiple threads than you can with one. Upping the Omni post interval to five minutes would just about eliminate the counting threads.

I've been here seven years. It will mean something to me, in two more years, as well. I'm just not as prolific as you are. :p

Oh, and I forget, I don't contribute. :D

The problem is being dealt with in egregious cases. The grey areas will probably need to be lived with. It has never bothered me that the counters are accumulating posts faster than I am. I don't think they are doing it to achieve a title next to their names.

I would support that as a sociological experiment,

I'll bet an FT luggage tag that it makes no difference to the counters whatsoever.

How can that be possible

FT has 135,000+ members, and if only 5% is active, that means that there are 6,000+ active members

Those number counting games shouldn't have enough impact in membership

Fringe benefit of retirement :)

You do realize that there is a good chance that if/when this passes you will lose that title you say you value, right? I did a quick search and you have way over 2000 posts in Omni, my guess is that the number is much higher but a search gets clunky over 500 so I did random period of time. Seems a good part of your "contribution" is omni based also, so not sure why you feel it doesnt have merit in getting people to evangelist.

This whole issue just confuses me, so much double talk and so few answers from those who have the ability to make the call.

So the problem is being fixed like a few of us proposed. Moderation out of existence and suspension for those who have abused the posting privileges.

Thanks for being honest about this. Getting to the 10K post count is a big deal on any forum and I think even the OMNItes would agree that spamming to 10K is abusing the system.

Do we want Evangelists who have spammed a good number of their post counts in Lounge and other non-travel related threads?

As long as there is some metric by which people can be measured on their contributions I would support this. Problem is that if you make a good deal of good contributions to FT but piss off a few people you could be screwed out of a title on an internet message board. :D

I would love to see this proven.


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What would it take to get an average words per post count added to peoples signature right under the number of posts?

Fine with me, if that's what the numbers show. Back on page 1 of this thread, in post #6, I guessed my OMNI posts accounted for 10-15% of my total posts, so I'm not surprised. I wish others on this thread would post how they would be similarly impacted (some have). Not one of those posts is in a number counting thread. Could we have some posters here whose numbers go in the exact opposite direction (say 10-15% on the travel forums, and 85-90% in OMNI)? I don't know, and I'm not going to take the time to research it.

Honestly, I don't have an opinion on that, as the airline forums I frequent don't have lounge forums, so I haven't used those, and have no idea if there's travel information contained within those threads (or if they are, in fact, spam filled). As to non-travel, reading prior posts in this thread, I'm not sure there's agreement as to which forums are the "non-travel" forums. I've seen different posters mention different forums. If a new thread starts on that topic after this vote, I'll give it some thought and post my ideas.

I appreciate you raising this issue.

I don't entirely disagree with you, but how do you determine that there is an ongoing community concern over an issue? Is it enough if one FT member says so? Should any issue that any FTer raises go to vote? And if so, how small is the constituency being served?

I expect an elected rep to have a stance and a belief, that is why I voted for him/her. Not everything should automatically go to a vote (else, let's just have ongoing plebiscites/referendums and eliminate the elected bodies altogether). I have served on elected bodies where no one was willing to second a motion because it would lead to a big waste of time. We elect people to be thoughtful on behalf of the issues; that doesn't mean automatically proposing or seconding a vote on anything.

Personally, I expect my elected representatives to carry to a vote only those issues that they believe NEED to go to a vote and that they are willing to speak out for/against.

Getting myself up to date on this thread...I'm now thinking there may be a couple of other angles to look at to solve this alleged problem:

--Flow control. As noted previously, perhaps moving the counting threads (and others deemed by mods to be obviously created for non-travel, non-discussion purposes) to a new forum called OMNI Games or something like that. Set the flow control on this forum only to, say, one post per hour. Even one post per ten minutes would significantly inhibit post-padding, while still providing community and a games atmosphere.

--Flow control on individual threads. This solution extends past OMNI to the entire site, which would have the advantage of not appearing to be OMNI-biased. Perhaps, at mod discretion, any individual thread anywhere within FT could be subject to flow control for a time - say, an automatic restriction to one post per hour or per ten minutes or whatever for 24 hours.

Actually, using both solutions above could resolve many post-padding issues without singling out OMNI as the "evil source" of the post-padding.

Frankly, I'm still scratching my head over posters who describe Evangelist as "Evangelist status." Status?!?

I do know, Abby, that the validity of OMNI post counts has been an issue for the community time and time again. There was a very brief period, very early on, when OMNI was just a fun place to share our non-travel experiences, but that era quickly passed. Then we moved on to no OMNI, OMNI without post counts, trashing OMNI, and, who knows what else.

Sadly, since TalkBoard deliberations are currently closed, I have no idea what specific incident/s spurred this particular motion. I do, however, know both Cholula and Dovster personally and voted for both of them because I knew them both to be among the most intelligent, fair, honest and objective men whom I have ever met, either on or off FT. I am, therefore, confident, that the current motion was spurred by a serious concern.

Does the fact that I respect the men who proposed this motion mean that I will automatically vote for it? Of course not.

I do, however, appreciate the fact that the issue has been raised, and also appreciate the honest discussion it has generated, and some of the good ideas for dealing with blatant "post padders" that have arisen.

Working together to understand the problem (which I believe to be blatant post padding), I am confident we will find a very good solution.

@:-) How about this idea? @:-)

When it turns out that someone has been obviously "post padding" how about just changing their handle to "Blatant Post Padder". :D :D

A neat, sweet simple solution that would certainly solve the problem. ^