We might just be discussing semantics here, but I do see taking a sub-forum and turning it into a forum, as establishing a new forum.

It is certainly unarguable that by establishing either the VX or the Travel Products Forum, TB would be establishing a new forum.

(Please do not take what I am discussing here as an argument for/against any of the proposed forums. I am mostly interested in knowing how the various TB members plan to proceed in view of Randy's post.

(Given the very different views on what is needed for a forum -- ranging from Spiff's very strict requirements to Cholula's "establish it and people will come" views -- I find it difficult to believe that TB will be able to agree on objective criteria.

(If, as I noted earlier, even four members are unwilling to approve a forum without such criteria, I can foresee a complete halt to the establishment of any forums at all.)

Quantitative criteria are necessarily backward-looking. Therefore I don't particularly favor quantitative criteria to establish a new forum. The TB may be convinced that a new forum will draw traffic, and the TB should be allowed to use its intuition on this. (For example, I favored creation of the VX forum, even though I'm disappointed in the process by which it's happening.)

OTOH, quantitative criteria are quite well suited to helping decide whether to remove an existing forum. Although the specifics may be hard to settle on, I favor using quantitative criteria that will trigger a TB vote on deletion of a forum, with a 2/3 majority needed to retain the forum. This way the TB can keep forums that are clearly valuable but for some reason fail the quantitative metrics.

If I am right (and please correct me if I am not), Cholula, Punki, lucky9876coins, and Kokonutz have all shown that they are willing to vote to establish a new forum without having the any pre-defined metrics in place. They have done so by either already voting for the VX Forum or indicated that they probably will do so.

Bhatnasx has shown his willingness to vote for a new forum by moving to establish the Travel Products Forum.

Jenbel did so when she said "I'm happy to continue to consider forums on an ad hoc basis."

This leaves Spiff, Techgirl, and Gleff. I would like to ask the three of them one question: Assuming that you think a particular proposed forum would be a good addition to FlyerTalk, would you vote for it or would you either vote against it/abstain (which in practical terms is often the same thing) because of Randy's recommendation that predetermined criteria be first established?


Edited to note: After the VX Forum results were announced, it was clear that Techgirl is willing to vote for a forum absent predetermined criteria. This now leaves Spiff and Gleff as the two TalkBoard members whose stand on this is unknown.

This is an outstanding idea.

Throughout the whole VX ordeal, first we were told post count didn't matter, then we were told there weren't enough posts.

Without some kind of tangible measure, including factoring down lightweight posts, the whole process seems arbitrary.