Either post in the appropriate forum or get rid of all the subcategories, one or the other.

See related discussions here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum73/HTML/000447.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000713.html

[This message has been edited by cactuspete (edited 05-06-2003).]

THAT is a catch-22 statement IMO.

At what point is critical mass? when the critical mass does occur, many posters have been trained to ignore the subgroups and post in Travelbuzz.

For the record, I don't care one way or another, but would like to see FT make it clear if Travelbuzz is to be a catch-all for all non-point/mile topics or not.

I personally believe that Travelbuzz will eventually have some of the same issues that Omni has, namely many FT'ers do not dig for all new posts in Omni because it is TOO busy/too many topics hence some get lost.

While Travelbuzz may not be that way now, I could see it becoming that way in the future if FT grows with new members the way I would like to see grow.

TravelBuzz! has been pretty steady for the last few months. New threads haven't been increasing dramatically. The tone is very civil. Very few misposts, virtually no flaming. Lots of great information.

Go TravelBuzz!

"Very few misposts.."

Some disagree with this.

Richard, thank you for posting to this thead and for explaining your thoughts. Thank you too for giving your time to moderate. It really is appreciated.

I think the problem is that the post level is between the two points you describe. If everyone posted their location-specific posts in TravelBuzz then it would be too busy.

At the moment, some post to Buzz and some post to the individual fora. Which is why Buzz seems manageable. The problem, surely, is duplication. The same information could be contained in one of 2 places (or even 3 or 4 - should a question about London, say, be in "Buzz", "London", "UK & Ireland" or even "Europe"? Where should someone search?

A logical extension of the position that anything goes in Buzz would be to delete all the individual fora. Then I think Buzz would become too busy and unwieldy. However, I also think that if a "stricter" moderation were to be used, then the categories should be rethought first.

Just my tuppence...

[This message has been edited by Wingnut (edited 05-07-2003).]

Sorry, but that is a lame excuse. If you really don't have the time, then wouldn't it make more sense to have all of the travel threads posted in their correct/specific forums? So that if you are interested in, for example, travel to the Caribbean, you go straight to that forum rather than wade through a bunch of other posts in TravelBuzz? Similarly, I don't have time to read through every forum either, and a more eficiently managed/segregated board would save me time. Also, I believe that FT Travel is a much more valuable resource if topics are properly categorized and archived.

Actually, it is a valuable resource if people go there and participate. If things are too fragmented, nobody will go to those fragmented places and nobody will get value out of their (few) posts.

The value of FlyerTalk Travel is highest as more people participate. The price you pay is that you may have to ignore threads you are not interested in.

It is worth it though. Any question you have about travel (non miles related) -- ask and ye shall have an incredibly informed answer. What value!!

Richard, it seems as if you truly believe what you are stating (obviously a good thing ).

Why then did Flyertalk switch to the new style and add all the subgroups they did?

The only conclusion I can come to is that it is expected that Flyertalk will grow and as it grows one forum such as Travelbuzz will not be enough, thus the creation of the subgroups below for the express purpose of placing geographic specific information/posts into those groups.

A New FT Travel: The chexfan Plan

FlyerTalk is a much more valuable resource if topics are properly categorized and archived. I hope I choose the proper place for my contribution, as I widen slaweckis opener to Why is FlyerTalk divided into Miles, Travel, Airport, Dining & Archives in the first and in subgroups in the second place?

As I am moderate the LH & the *A board on FlyerTalk Miles, once in a while I will be confronted to find a new home for misplaced threads. I relocated

Overnighting in FRA - recommendations?
MIA food and drug import question
Security concerns with cargo on pay flights from FRA?

to TravelBuzz, knowing that this is not correct place. The reason why I choose this kind of overview travel related place and not the proper regional forum was this: I was pretty sure, that on this busy board, the poster gets a profound answer in a reasonable amount of time.

Moving threads is not popular among posters; I completely agree, that posts should be in the right place, but to move a thread to a place with very low traffic cannot be the best choice. Let me show you three current threads from the LH board; they are not miles, but travel related, so definitely in the wrong place. But where should be the new home?

On arrival at FRA - how to rendezvous?: I should have moved it to FlyerTalk Airport � subforum Frankfurt, but �
Car rental prices in HAM...suddenly quite pricey: There is a fellow flyertalker who likes to rent a cheap car next weekend �
FRA - how to make the best of it?: I should have moved it to FlyerTalk Travel � subforum Europe (Coiaflyer is waiting for an answer)

I did not move these threads which is a bad decision, but as long as I do not know where the tread is welcome, I do not change anything.

for Patron.

Agreed, if this is not the case why have any forums, just one massive one? I feel it would be overwhelming, way too much information.

That is the key for me, "place with a very low traffic count". Why does the forum have low traffic count?

I believe that there has not been proactive education of the subgroups and moving of posts by FT staff, hence the complacency w/posting wherever one feels they wish to post.

Chexfan above has some neat ideas on condensing the Travel forum into more macro groups so the post count would be much higher, response rate much higher, etc.

The FT staff arranged the new Travel Forum to have subgroups, obviously done for a reason. A guess of mine would be that it is expected that FT�ers will use the subgroups.

Richard, I understand completely what you're saying about posts in busy places, but isn't this exactly the argument which took place 6 months or so ago when the decision was made to "enforce" through the moving of threads the distinction between MilesBuzz & TravelBuzz? I'm sure there were similar threads to this at the time, and everyone whinged about it for a bit, but in the end I think most would agree it was the right thing to do and FT is a better place as a result. I can't really see the distinction between that issue then and this one now.

Wingnut, the distinction is this: splitting a group into two is one thing. Splitting it into 50 is quite another. The 50 will have very low traffic and everyone loses.