hobo13

I have no stats to back this up, but it feels like the United forum on FT is getting less traffic than it was even a few months ago. Discussion threads don't grow as fast. Questions go unanswered.

A few years ago, the United forum was THE happening place on FT. Today, maybe not so much.

A. Am I imagining this?
B. Is it because so many FTers have left United? (And maybe the AA forum is now where it's at?)
C. Is all of FT quieter now, possibly because of other forum sites, or more likely, because of the blogs? And as such the UA forum is still the most prolific forum, but the whole ocean is calmer?
D. Does FT make any stats available that would confirm or disprove my hypothesis?

RockinRon

Just wait until United announces a new change to the boarding process or upgrades. That'll get people fired up and talking again.

It would be fascinating to see stats on FT. Being in IT, a peek behind the scenes would be very, very cool. Traffic loads, infrastructure used to host the site, etc.

phillychuck

I have been more a lurker than a poster, but as a PHL based flyer who has been loyal to *A via UAL, I am in a bit of a quandary (not helped by the fact that I made 1K this year) about whether I should continue my loyalty or suck up and be prepared to jump to 1-World, since USAir is our dominant carrier.

Daniel-SYD

For me I'm still actively reading and enjoying several of interesting threads, such as the one on surviving long haul E. But honestly, the continuous negative B-grade rhetoric is having it's toll. It drowns out useful advice and conversation. It is tiring, and frankly I think that is doing more damage to UA FT than what we can account to UA. So I suspect most people do not have much patience for that and have walked away or zoned out.

I'd also say there isn't too much to report. The "excitement" of the merger has died down...

hobo13

The United forum was THE place to be from say 2005 - 2010 and there was no merger to talk about at all.

Daniel-SYD

I hope in the full context of what I said it makes more sense. The fall out of the merger has taken its toll on UA FT. From my PoV i think you're seeing that quiet down now. Lets hope the good stuff will pick up.

hobo13

Well, yes, I would agree with you that the merger has driven away hundreds of FTers from United, and by extension, the United forum on FT. No argument there at all. I'm only disputing the assertion that the United forum was rockin' because of merger discussion, and perhaps that's not what you meant.

Daniel-SYD

When I joined I thought it was rockin! Definitely agree with you. I'd love to know what you and other FTers think would turn it around and resemble more what it used to be like in the glory days.

Doug 1029

But if you remember Glenn Tilton was the subject of so many post. We should also note there has been nearly 100,000 threads and a million and a half post.

hobo13

This isn't a discussion about WHAT was talked about then vs. now, it's a discussion about HOW MUCH is being talked about then vs. now.

JetAway

Many of the long-time, big name posters have left (for a variety of reasons) and I'm sure the proliferation of blogs and alternative sites is having an effect on readership. And a lot of people seem to have moved to other carriers (at least they are posting on those carriers' forums).

cordelli

I know date last posted to is a horrible way to get numbers, but it's also a pretty easy way.

In 2012, across the three boards, 42 pages of threads had a date last posted of February.

In 2013, across the three boards, 40 pages of threads had a date last posted of February.

So the activity, going by the date a thread was last posted to, is pretty close. I think the content has shifted away from an informational exchange to a place people come to complain and correct others, but that's across FT and any board as they keep growing over years. Because there are more of the complaint type of threads, there's less of the informational ones, and it seems like there is less content.

The how much is about the same from last February, the what is probably much less.

To the obsessive self proclaimed fact checkers who have nothing to add to a thread then verifying and correcting things like page counts, remember to set your number of displayed threads to the same setting mine is in my profile, or you will get a different page count.

chasbondy

They've been in customer service subtraction mode for years and seem to be concentrated on how to hose passengers instead of operating a business. I had zero complaints on 14 AA segments last year and I has issues with every United flight flight (ie stopping at Madison to get gas because they didnt load enuf fuel to get to Chicago fom SAN, and cancellations of a couple of flights). They are basically garbage

andrewwm

I'd guess three things:

1. A number of posters have left UA for AA after the merger, so the number of long-time active posters on here has declined

2. Competition for ft has increased - the other forum and blogs seem to have drawn the interests of a sizable group of long-time posters.

3. There continues to be a very high level of negativity on this forum. There exists some subset of posters here that want to relitigate the merger and how superior pmUA was in every single thread possible.

Even though I agree in part with the posters about the effects of the merger, continually refighting the merger is tiresome, unconstructive, and doesn't do anything to help advance the goals of this forum, which is flyers helping flyers.

Just the other day on the CLE-PDX new route thread one of those negative posters tried to turn the thread into how boring and generic the PCs are, which had nothing at all to do with the discussion among a group of CLE and PDX-based posters who were excited about the new non-stop.

I think this kind of negativity scares away forum newbies and wears down other, helpful posters.

PHLGovFlyer

IME this is a big part of the evolving reality of FT. My impression is that when I first came here 8 years ago there was a higher proportion of information and tip sharing versus complaint posts. Over time the complaint posts have grown considerably and they definitely spiked on the UA board in the past two years with merger related issues. Perhaps the complaining is starting to fade as people get used to the new UA.