IBobi

Hello FlyerTalkers,

In our continued efforts to bring our members the best, free travel experience on the Web, FlyerTalk is implementing several new social features to make it easier to get the latest information on programs and travel industry developments. These features are live as of 12pm PT on Monday, March 27, 2017.

The new features will allow logged-in users who are not using ad blockers on FT to do the following:

1. Set up automatic KEYWORD ALERTS and HASHTAGS that let you track mentions of your favorite programs, events, or anything else.
2. FOLLOW USERS who post information you find useful.
3. TAG USERS in posts, and get notifications when you've been tagged -- an easy way to bring a thread to someone's attention.

You can access each of these new features by going to My FlyerTalk, and scroll all the way down to view each new feature in the bottom of the left side menu.



KEYWORD ALERTS

Once you click on "Keyword Alerts" on MyFlyerTalk, you can set up an alert by:

1. Typing in a keyword
2. Selecting whether you want to receive this alert hourly, daily or weekly
3. Selecting whether you want to receive alerts via email, as a private message, or both
4. Selecting a forum
5. Clicking "Create and Save Alert"

Disabling alerts:

Once you set up an alert, that alert will display in a list. You can turn off an alert by simply clicking "Delete" on the far right of the corresponding alert.



HASHTAGS

In "Hash Tag Subscriptions", you can add hashtag subscriptions by typing in the hashtag you'd like to subscribe to and clicking "Submit". You will get an email whenever one of your subscribed hashtags is used. Whenever someone uses this hashtag in a post, you'll get an alert. For example, if you subscribe to #Avios you will get an alert every time someone types "#Avios" on FlyerTalk.

Disabling Hashtags:

1. Click the checkbox next to the hashtag you wish to delete and click "Submit"

or

2. Go to "Settings" under "User Tagging" in MyFlyerTalk, select the "Disable Hash Tag Subscription Emails" option, and click "Save Changes".




FOLLOW USERS

To follow another member, click on the member's username. This will take you to that user's profile where you can click "Follow User". You may also click their username in a post, and use the pulldown menu.

To view the activity of other members you are following, click on "You are following 'x' users" in MyFlyerTalk, which will take you to a list of the users you're following. Then click "Find Recent Posts" to view the other members' activity.

Unfollow a User

1. Click "Unfollow User" on the user profile page

or

2. Click "You are following 'x' users", which will take you to a page with a list of the users you're following. To unfollow a specific user, you would click "Un-Follow / Remove" for the corresponding user

You can also turn off the ability of others to follow you, in your user CP. If you do this, you will disappear from their list of followed users.




TAGGING A MEMBER

Tagging allows FTers to bring a thread to the attention of other members.

To tag another member, make a post that includes @ and their username, such as @IBobi.

To manage who can tag you, go to "Settings" in your Control Panel and do one or more of the following:

1. Restrict tag alerts to only come from users on your friends list.
2. Hide tag alerts
3. Disable thread tag emails
4. Disable desktop notifications

(since getting notified is the only effect of being tagged, disabling these notifications is the same thing as turning off tagging for yourself)

We hope these features help you to get more out of FlyerTalk, and if not, we have made every effort to ensure that if you do not want them, you do not have to use them

Best,

The FT Team

Silver Fox

What is this new nonsense that I don't recall anyone asking for and how do I turn this additional piece of absolute garbagio off?

Oh it gets even better when I look under my post count! This place is going backwards. Thank goodness there is value in the posts on this forum.

qatest

@IBxAnders

IBobi

Maybe take a peek at the announcements before railing against something you can just turn off if you don't like it?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...-blockers.html

Silver Fox

Maybe just leave it as it was? Just a thought.

Or at the absolute very least don't force people to all of a sudden have a ton of spam shoved down their throats. Unbelievable.

canadiancow

The latest FT software update means I get an email whenever anyone quotes me.

When you have ~20k posts, that tends to happen frequently.

Hint: You can turn it off on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/usert...action=options (Disable Quote Emails)

IBobi

We won't be leaving FT's features static.

The only way to allow users to see what these new features are like is to turn them on. You can turn them off easy as pie, with the instructions that were posted before they were even turned on.

As far as I know, the only way you could even be getting new notifications from these tools is if you had previously hashtagged anything, @ tagged users (or been tagged by someone else), or followed people. And there was no way to add keyword alerts to a list before, so you couldn't have been notified of those at all.

jc94

That reminds me, how can I find this elusive 10,000th post that was mentioned a few pages back. Possibly in another thread.

Or is it lost and gone forever?

TravelinSperry

I'll be leaving my adblocker on. Nothing in those features worthy of turning it off.

What I can never understand is why companies want you to turn off the adblocker anyway. By the fact that I've already installed it I am saying to you and your advertisers that I do not want their product. So even if I turned it off - I'd be ignoring them. And as such you'd be selling a product that I can guarantee I'd never use. What good is that to anyone?

Silver Fox

It was the email for quotes. I had done none of those things you describe.

IBobi

You should not be getting alerts when someone quotes you. I'll look into it.

Bohemian1

Do you get lifetime status for that many posts?

IBobi

Just viewing the ads is good for the website (which provides its services for free BTW). And nobody knows they don't want a product that they haven't been shown

flyerCO

Someone should tell the system that. My emaol box is flooded with SPAM as far as I'm concerned. Everything a person quotes you, you get another.

BTW real websites don't turn junk like this on with no notice, test their updates before making them live, and finally they listen to their user base.

tcook052

Posts relocated from Air Canada forum for further discussion.

tcook052
Air Canada forum moderator