We’ve got volunteers working in many, many areas who help make FlyerTalk the valuable resource and community that it has become.

And now we have an admitted Excel geek who actually likes developing spreadsheets and is willing to lend that expertise to help inform his fellow FT’ers.

Doesn’t get much better than that IMO.

Thanks in advance.

More positive feedback from me!

GREAT idea, and the initiative is appreciated!!! ^^

This is a very intriguing statement. Could you expand more?

We, then, will engage in the time-honored practice of canceling each other out, as I will never vote for those who voted YES. Feel better?

I just don't see how this result is so horrible.

Dovster, if you don't mind, I'll jump in here. For what I believe to be the right reasons, there will always be a private forum for discussions of ideas, concepts and even measures and motions. What only matters, is what comes before the Board for a vote. Motions that get no where, ideas that can't find base support are not for you nor others including me to worry about. This life of FlyerTalk is about what is being posted here, not the what ifs and the left outs. This type of questioning about things that may or may not be part of any private forum discussion does not serve the interest of this forum. Measure the public performance of our Talkboard members, just as we measure the public performance on FlyerTalk of all our members, not their performance elsewhere.

Thanks for understanding.

Agreed. Of course, there are a few TB members wo have not posted a word - either way - about these guidelines. I would like to hear from some of them.

This would be very nice to see.

I don't feel better at all. The actions, or lack thereof from a vocal minority of TB members over the last 4 years has left me very dissatisfied with FT. I rarely post here anymore.

This outcome is horrible because once again a very vocal minority of TB members has decided that poor and belligerent behaviour is acceptable for TB members.

Randy, in general I agree with you. Indeed, I did not ask for any specifics. I don't want to know the name of the member nor if it happened this week or last year.

I was interested in whether Jenbel had ever made such a motion for one reason only -- she complained that TalkBoard members have never had the opportunity to vote on expelling another member.

She, of course, could have given them that opportunity (assuming that one other member seconded it).

Personally, of course, I hope that there never is such a vote on any TalkBoard member -- but I am no longer a member, never will run for TB again, and thus have very little opportunity to influence that.

Ok, challenge accepted. I will endeavor to create a guidelines draft for reconsideration with plenty of time for the current TB to act on them, if that be the will of 2/3 of the current TB!

I wasnt doing anything tonight anyway.

Let me start by saying that I have no doubts as to Randy's motivations and how positive they have been and continue to be. But at the end of the day, we are all customers, not partners.

And if you think we're not customers, think again. There is a lot of money on the table. I have zero idea about FT's finances, but if a single guy like John Chow or Darren Rouse can make US$350k+/year online from a mix of fixed price monthly, CPM, and click-through advertising on a blog with only 250-350 posts per year... well then either Internet Brands is doing really well, or they are making a mess of things.

A volunteer effort was appropriate at one point in time. Today, a volunteer effort is leading to a lot of customer vs. customer fighting. And I'll admit that I'm in the fray, because of my views about the TB and suspensions.

But customer vs. customer fighting is not good for anybody. Think about it, would most people continue to shop at Costco if customers could get into fights with each other in the aisles? Specifically for FT:

• It is not good for the blood pressure of the combatants,
• It is not good for newbies who miss the wisdom of people who have given up and left, or are about to do so and
• It is not good for IB's bottom line.

In short, I think this business has reached the point where, now that the system upgrades are in place, IB has to consider investing more resources in the people side of management. To me, that means slowly investing in quality control of the user experience, which means an incremental evolution (as in over a year) away from a volunteer-based management of the moderators and the TalkBoard, to management by IB employees who are evaluated based on their ability to maintain a consistent high quality experience for IB's customers - us.

I know that I am in the minority of people who read this particular little part of FT on this topic. I do not have the emotional attachment of however many moderators there are, and probably 25 people who are, were, or want to be TB members.

Customers fighting with customers has to stop. And no matter what any of us might think about ourselves and our capabilities, no customer can really make it stop.

But ElmhurstNick, if IB makes money on ad views and click-throughs then doesn't it make sense to keep us engaged and clicking back here several times a day to make our same old tired points back and forth over and over and over!? ^

I myself have been doing my part by clicking on that nuvaring girl over and over and over!

I agree with you about us being customers.

I agree with you that moderators, who represent management, should be phased out and replaced with a few professionals who will be on IB's payroll.

I don't agree about TB. It represents the customers, not the business, and it should be completely independent of IB. Its sole function should be to recommend/request IB to make changes which TB feels will benefit the customers.

I got roped into a useless listen-in conference call this afternoon, so I've got the 2007 (12/06-11/07) votes tallied as well. Data will be online late tonight, most likely - I'll create a new thread with download info.

Gang,

I have had to make some wholesale deletions in this thread. This thread is about the failure of the motion... NOT about how a member was able to vote or not. In addition, it is NOT time to be electioneering.

William

I agree with this as well. I was trying to reply to the original quote but somehow the software will not take me back to it. Maybe there's something wrong with the forum?