kokonutz

With the (US) election over, should the TB recommend re-merging OMNI and OMNNI P/R?

I realize this will be an issue for the new TB to make a recommendation on (or not), and of course it's just a recommendation and Randy can and will do whatever he wants in the end. But I just thought I'd open the conversation.

Do we like 2 separate forums? Not like it? Indifferent?

I personally lean toward a merge because I don't really see politics or religion overwhelming other OMNI topics now that the silly season is over...and so many topics have an element of either politics or religion that there seems to be a very fuzzy line between the two, leading to duplicate topics and parallel discussions.

But I'd like to hear what others think!

MatthewLAX

I agree. Merge the forums.

Gargoyle

And at the same time, close it to google and reinstitute post counts.

Jenbel

What next - passing motions on moderation which Randy can then chose to ignore?

If Randy has chosen to remove something from TB's remit, then I think that should be respected. He sets our terms of reference - ignoring him to decide that we can make 'recommendations' on anything which he then has to ignore, in the process no doubt raising an outcry from some members that he is ignoring the elected representatives on an issue which he has removed from their remit? I had hoped that this year might be less political, but apparently not

bhatnasx

If someone were to make the motion and have it seconded to merge the two together, at this time, I'd vote against it. However, as I'm not a true Omni-ite (is that the word?), my opinion is based on what I perceive as an outsider to the OMNI forum.

I'd really rely on the member feedback on this and try to gather input - keeping in mind that I think I'm pretty darn good at monitoring the signal to noise ratio...

Randy Petersen

Actually, without trying to make it an issue which can than be wrangled, why not look at a poll-in-passing which doesn't seem to be influenced by anyone trying to make a point - kind of things as a "still life" for FlyerTalk.

Click over here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=881589

What you see is that without the effort to influence, roughly 54% of the population are OK or great with it. Considering that you would need to ratch up the policking to get to the 2/3 majority to come up with a stronger argument, why not really just let it lie because even in the most popular forum you can see that the issue is hardly top-of-mind for those who use the forum the most.

Granted, we can get out the campaigning and try to make it a cause célèbre but then maybe it's OK to not popularize everything. In this case, you won't be able at this point to run rabid through the streets of FlyerTalk screaming from the top of your lungs that "AHA! Randy was soooooooo wrong for messing with this and splitting the topics though it seems successful for other Web sites. See it is the most controversial thing to ever hit FlyerTalk and all 160,000+ members have now come together and their 160,000 votes in this poll clearly show that Randy has lost touch."

Well, you actually can do that, but it doesn't seem to correlate with the unpolitical results of this poll.

Next move is yours, though I'm scratching my head because i didn't think you were up for re-election this year. Just kidding with you, just in case you were actually kidding with your post!

tcook052

It's 180K members.

OP, I'd favor a remarriage of the now divorced OMNI's. ^

lin821

It's actually 170944, according to FT Forum Homepage: (most current as I type)
The number of registered FTers dropped by about 20K in mid October. It's discussed in this thread and you can find Mikel's official response here.

tcook052

Sorry hadn't seen the housekeeping that was done since I posted in the thread I linked. But it's semantics and apologies for diverting the course of the discussion. FWIW, I don't like a divided OMNI but am sensing that's the way it's going to be so am learning to live with it. IJAFIBB after all and I try and note the difference between passion and insanity.

dhammer53

I hated the breakup at first. It meant opening yet another forum.
But now, the breakup has created the illusion that I'm reading Omni(s) faster.

And who doesn't think fast is good.

Cholula

I'm 110% in favor of having separate forums. And as Randy indicated above, over half of those polled are also fine with the split. And it's hard to find anything that half of the OMNIites would agree on. In another recent OMNI poll, only 38% agree that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

Elections or not, folks are still going to want to jawbone about politics. The new political threads haven't slowed down a bit since the elections. And folks are always going to want to inject religion into every topic under the sun.

Since we can't all agree on which religion is the best or on what brand of politics is most effective, I say keep politics and religion separate from the other topics. Not everybody wants to wade through a gazillion political/religious threads looking for that one special thread on $2.59 Egg McMuffins.

kokonutz

If polls are the metric for forum decisions, why not just disband the TB and hold polls?

I'm more interested in discussing people's thoughts and opinions after a couple of months of segregation rather than a simple yes/no.

But Randy, if your mind is made up and you don't want to allow any more discussion of the matter then Thy Will be Done. But I thought the reason you created the TB was to allow for poster input and feedback into FT forums.

And FWIW, I don't have an agenda here. I don't personally feel strongly one way or the other. Just wanted to create an opportunity for discusion and feedback through the formal TB process.

RichMSN

Hey, I started that thread!

I would say this: It's still November, the election is over, but still fresh.

Why not revisit this with another poll in OMNI and OMNI/PR in March after the inauguration is in the past? I don't think numbers from October, now, or even mid-January would reflect the views of people once the super-political threads die down, which they will.

stevenshev

Though I thought that this was a dead issue, I'm strongly in favor of a merge.

I just wanted to point out that a vote for being "okay with the idea" should not be counted in the pro-Randy's move camp. It can just as easily be counted in the other camp.

Eliminating this category, more are actively displeased with the move than are actively pleased.

Randy, if you wanted an honest poll, you should create one with only two options: 1) keep it split, 2) merge it back. That would give you an accurate estimate of people's opinion on this issue, not a retrospective view on a decision that was perceived as unchangable.

kipper

I have mixed feelings on if they should merge. I like that I don't have to wade through a ton of political threads, but there were a few that would usually get me interested, and I'd end up commenting on those. Now, I just usually don't bother with that forum.

If forced to choose between the two options (merging or not), I'd have to say that I'd prefer they merge back. It's not THAT difficult to scroll past a thread I don't want to read.