The trending page broadened my horizons and informed me about things that I didn't know I didn't know. It was also a satisfying and quick bellwether for seeing if my usual airline is as bad or better than other airlines. I hope they bring it back.

I mean that's not too surprising is it? On most issues requiring a yes or no opinion you can figure the split will be something like 50-50 or 60-40. You saw in 2017 people on one side of the argument, and now you are seeing the other side of it. People rarely post about changes they like, so you only ever see people piping up when something they don't like arises. The only difference I'd argue is the folks in 2017 had a way to opt out whereas we don't have a way to opt-in now. Plus, I imagine in 7 years you've gotten new members that only ever knew the trending post page and liked it.

Anytime you make a change to a software used by a lot of people, you are going to get negative reaction if it breaks their workflow. I've always liked this XKCD comic's humorous take on the issue.

I stand corrected, the announcement is showing now.

Might actually be a good thing that the trending pages are gone because it has significantly decreased my scrolling on the site, but I will miss it because it was a feature that allowed me to read posts from forums I normally would not visit (BA, AA, UA, and was always good for excitement around a good ol ' fat finger fare). I guess I'll just be a bore and check Delta and the Trip Reports every morning and call it a day....

Also, to the poster above who referenced the home page on FT with the links to the trending page - a blue, white and yellow scheme about 2/3ds of the way down - that hasn't updated in days....

Just like GoBob said, if the goal was to lower my activity and engagement on the site then this plan is working wonderfully!

Missing the function already and probably will only stick to my usual forum now rather than browse through different ones due to the trending links.

Same here. Trending was my go-to page for this site. Losing Trending means I will be here much less often(and thereby seeing much less ads)

This is a really good indication that something else on the site is going to change soon. No one makes a change that break’s general functionality on a sites homepage, and leaves it broken for days.

They are either planning a full on site redesign and are behind, or something is really broken on the backend and its held together by tape.

Or, no one at all is in charge and there is a whole lot of finger pointing and not my job boss….

Trending is the best discovery. I have confidence the flyertalk team will make the right choice and bring it back.

I don't get why the reluctance to bring it back... people want it, makes people click more forums they wouldn't have before, and generates more engagement - why not then?

I thought that is a technical glitch but I now know this is intentional. This is super bad decision. I gained so much knowledge by looking at trending threads (airlines/ hotels/ trip reports). Also I was able to provide support if a 'I need help' thread appears in whatever forum.

I understand you guys check traffic - well I visit FT now 50% less just because I don't like to click around. The user friendliness has massively declined for me.

Absolutely the same for me.

“Thanks. I hate it”
+1 for bringing it back!!

Really bad move. I don't have time to go hunt for the good and interesting posts. I detest when people make my decisions for me. Losing respect now. This is how I find out about other people, places, airlines, etc., that I would not know to look for. Ridiculous to disable something we all use.

Getting rid of trending is annoying and makes it harder to discover new content.

I'm kinda curious to know how most users are using the site if Trending was low usage - presumably they stay quite siloed in their particular forums?

I always went through Trending topics first and learned so much about travel from reading threads I’ll never find now. After I read those I would visit two or three hotel and airline threads that I actively use. It’s puzzling why there can’t still be some kind of link to get to it if it’s not the default landing page.

Apparently most users don't use it, only the few complaining here.

Trending was my go to page. I will miss spending time learning on Flyertalk. I'm another vote for a return of Trending. Please?!!

Bring it back please.

I may not be the most active poster, but I visited the 'Trending page' every day to see what I could learn. That would sometimes then lead me to other sub-forums to seek related information. Without the trending page, I will only visit FT when I have a specific query or information to share - so am only likely to hit one sub-forum per visit. Rather than daily (or multiple daily) visits to FT, I can see this dropping to a few times a month.

If some folks don't value the Trending page, would it be possible to make it available as a link rather than the default landing page?

We do have another product that the auto sites have been using (Auto has over 100 sites and is our primary moneymaker, while we have just over a dozen sites, so we are unfortunately at their whims), so I want to get that rolled out here ASAP. This is a less-obtrusive widget, so it would hopefully be the best of both worlds for all

I am another user for whom the loss of Trending will mean even less participation.

Missing the trending posts page....
 

It was my favorite part of the site. Now I feel I'll be missing posts that would interest me in forums that I'm not currently following. I wonder what were the reasons? Not enough traffic going there?

My gut feeling is that removing it is going to decrease the overall traffic to this site.

(mods not sure where to put this, so feel free to move it)

Me too! I learned a lot by looking at categories that I wouldn't normally.

I also really like the trending page, and like most of you will most likely check a couple of sub-forums and leave. I've found some really useful information via the trending page so shall miss it greatly.

Another vote to bring back the trending page. It was the best (only?) way to view the latest posts from all over the site in one place. As others have said, if they’re trying to reduce traffic to the site they’re off to a great start.

That might work.

I do not follow your claim that Trending was an obtrusive widget. How so? Currently I see a mini Trending list on the home page with a small button to click that says "See All" that links to the now defunct full Trending page. It does not seem very obtrusive to me at all. What is wrong with that? Even just a small button with a link to the full Trending page would be fine for me. Even if it were not linked on the Home Page but it was linked somewhere else, that would be fine for me. It does not have to be intrusive and I would say it was not. Maybe that is because the Trending page was not my Home Page, but if the issue was that it was intrusive to some users because they had Trending default to their home page the answer would be - don't do that! Problem solved!

Clicking on “See all” takes me to page not found for both trending and popular.

count me in as disappointed by this link’s demise. I checked it frequently to get out of my FT subscribed bubble.

Me too! I HATE THIS SO MUCH (please excuse my unprofessional typing/yelling). Every night when I sit down to a very late dinner, I pull up FlyerTalk first. I learned about people and places I would never have thought to even look at otherwise. Now some silly power trip (it feels that way) and I don't even know to look for what happened on some random airline that is not clickbait but just is interesting, or may give me insight. I won't know that something is better than something else because I would not have thought to ask. The best learning happens this way. It's so frustrating. I don't have three hours to find what I usually saw in 30 minutes. This is not my job. I care about all the people here and what I can learn from everyone.

As an aside to all of this, the search function is not great, so even if I knew precisely what I wanted, I'd likely not find it.

MODS: HAVE MERCY. What are you even trying to accomplish?

Another vote to bring back the trending view. Bits are cheap, it doesn’t have to be the home page and still be available for those that want to use it.

Please bring back the trending page (or something similar). I've only been a member for 1 year and the trending page was a life saver to me and provided me with so much valuable knowledge and information that I would struggle to find thrawling through the forums (specially as the search function is not the best).

This is the part I don’t understand. It’s a link. Doesn’t have to be the primary way the site channels folks to the forum from the front page. I just don’t understand the harm in the link. If it’s about ads, enable ads on the trends page (weren’t they there anyway?).

this is bad, please reverse it.

I am really hoping traffic falls off a cliff now to prove it was important!

I’m sooo unhappy Trending was eliminated. It was the first thing I read every single day!

Agree. I checked it everyday. My visits here are now next to nothing. At least give us a link to click on to see the Trending topics.

As another data point, when I could click on "Trending" topics, I would wander all over the site and look at the various forums involved. For the past several days, though, I simply click over to "Finnair," read the two or three articles that have new posts, and bid the site adieu. Regardless of Internet trends, I would hope that the value of a reader utilizing the entire site, not just a small segment, is clear to the site owners.

I'm not spending nearly the time here I did when Trending was the default landing page. I would like the option of it at least, even if it's not the default anymore. I learned a lot by scrolling through the threads shown on that page.

To expand on what I said above. I don’t actually have specific forums that I like to follow. My number one carrier is QF but there’s a dedicated Australian frequent flyer forum elsewhere that is more active than the Qantas forum here. What’s been great about the trending view is it give me a view into what’s interesting people around the globe and it allows me to dip in and out.

without trending the site is pretty meaningless to me.