AZ Travels the World

Very insightful statement.

I nominate you for TalkBoard, mjm!

SkiAdcock

Since elections are a few months away, I nominate mjm to represent me re: this issue. I agree w/ his points, but he's more eloquent than me.

Cheers.

NickB

Absolutely about the destination fora, but I thought that there was a certain consensus about not taking destination-specific information out of the destination fora, which then leaves us just with DiningBuzz as a forum comparable to fitness on the go.

Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that anything to do with fitness should be proscribed from any forum on FT . I am merely saying that fitness is no different from anything that you might want to do while away on travel and if you think that it is an appropriate topic for a forum, I do not see how you could argue against any other activity that can be undertaken by FTers (i.e. by anybody) while traveling as an equallly appropriate topic for its own dedicated forum
For many FTers, going to museums is part of traveling, going to concerts is part of traveling, golfing is part of traveling, sampling the architectural delights of their destination is part of traveling, listening to music on their IPOD is part of traveling, reading novels is part of traveling, etc... So, if you think that it is a good idea to have a 'fitness on the go' forum, I find it hard to see how you could be consistent with yourself and not be equally in favour of fora such as those I just mentioned or any other activity "on the go". So can I take as read that you would would be happy to have a few hundred fora on activities "on the go", as long as some FTers want it? If not, why not?

And if so, what would one do with the destination fora, which would be largely emptied of all contents?

Again, as I said above, I have difficulty identifying many topics of discussion on fitness which are both travel-related and non-destination specific. Sure, there are some but enough to sustain a forum? I'd dearly love to have a few examples, as those provided by mjm above are, it seems to me, mostly either destination-specific or non-travel related.

bhatnasx

Can folks who support this idea for a forum provide some links maybe of existing threads that may fit in this proposed forum. After discussing it with others, I can see some more value to this concept - but I'm still interested in seeing some sample discussion that may fit within this category. The only reason I ask is because I'm curious just how much traffic this forum will have. Some other forums created recently have been near dead zones even though there was a lot of support recently (so dead, that I'm thinking they should be shut down - but that's another topic...).

Thanks!

tcook052

Agree, though I've long been questioning the real need for a super-sized FT which caters to every conceivable activity, pasttime or hobby.

Jenbel

Ok, now we've got the new software, is this something that could be addressed by establishing a social group for those interested in discussing all things active while travelling?

Obviously destination related stuff remains in the destination forum, but with social groups, we've now got the ability to start to add multi-dimensional stuff instead of always thinking of forums and threads.

Just a thought...

NickB

Now that sounds interesting and a potential solution indeed, but where can we get info on the features of the spanking new FT?

Jenbel

By just having a poke around I'm afraid. Social Groups are under My Flyertalk. There's a lot of stuff out there to find and play with - I've just had my first 'friend notification'!

mjm

An interesting posibility indeed. But as your subsequent post points out, how visible will it really be. Could a sticky to the various active social groups be added in a very obvious place or places?

Will try and dig up some thrteads another time. I am on a borrowed computer in a hotel business center until Wednesday.

lin821

According to Mikel, a new announcement should be up sometimes today.

No idea as to how much "improvements" are put into play and how "loose" the fora boundary would be with the new software though.

I am still way behind the Facebook or MySpace. As Jenbel hinted, it may be interesting to see how FT as a vBulletin functions with the now popular social (network) groups.

lin821

Just saw the Flyertalk Upgrade announcement:

Would this new "Social Groups" feature good enough to satisfy and cover the scope of fitness-on-the-go forum proposal?

Even though social groups appear to be "open" to the FT public, I assume the info/discussion won't be as easily accessibile/viewable as the threads/forum in FT, right?

dhammer53

Same goes for me. While I'm not known around these parts as an exercise expert, I think that a new forum will be a good idea for health nuts.

Cholula

They can be public or private. It's the choice of the social group organizer. And though they're not as easily accessible as a normal FT thread, they can easily be viewed by anyone familiar with navigating FT.

One caveat....you must be a FT Premium Member, i.e., subscribe to the ad-free version of FT, to be able to create a new social group.

BiziBB

Cholula, thank you for this info.

I'd like to set up a group or two, once I understand what's practical.
Are these groups an extension of the PM functionality, the forum/threads or something else, like chat?

I'd like to set up groups for sharing news and reviews on:
- Duty Free deals (DiningBuzz)
- Fine dining
- Travel photography
- Premium fares
- Sydney / SYD get togethers
- FT Downunder
- Fitness on the go (pls PM/invite me!)

I'm unsure how the social groups work, but perhaps participants in this debate for a FotG forum could join such a group t and we can put all existing threads into an index.

Would that be helpful in the interim?

Thanks...
A fitness on the go grou

Jenbel

Well it's there as a link on various of the FT menus - My Flyertalk, quick links. So it is pretty prominent.