RichMSN

FT being only about points and miles would be dreadfully boring.

I'm for it, though. I'm for eliminating all the non-points-and-miles forums altogether, cause I'm curious as to who would remain if that happened.

magiciansampras

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

I agree with Mary 100 percent. This is really an enforcement issue.

nsx

Very well stated. I certainly hope someone can come up with a workable compromise. Personally, I wouldn't mind counting all OMNI posts or none of them, just as long as I don't have to count them myself. But I give Randy the benefit of the doubt because he's smart, he's kind, and he knows a lot more about FT in general and OMNI in particular than I ever will.

Moderator2

Time for our regularly scheduled cooling down period..........

It's recess, everyone go outside and play. Calm (hopefully ) debate will begin again later today.

Randy Petersen

Oh, Mary, did you not acknowledge earlier on when referring to OMNI that "The posting content rules are more lenient..."?

Despite your comments below, OMNI is not treated by as you portray it and as you observe, actually is given special distinction not available to other members. I'd think that was more the "favored child," and the "first class citizen." Aren't those two groups more often than not given to leniency?

Just an old OMNI debate method i picked up after watching you all these years..... sorry, could not resist!

And really, I don't recall in my announcement of the change 4 years ago that it was due to members causing any problem. In fact, i thought my reasoning is that i'm still stuck in the good old days and would like to make sure that as new members come on board they are welcome and will find answers to their questions from a solid group of members who know first and foremost that we can help everyone become more knowledgeable about their travel. Only later can we help them with their legal questions, their decision to go with Sirius or XM Radio and just what does anything have to do with nothing.

Can't you for a moment just see me as i really am - a geek about the topic of miles and points and still trying to ad little harm to those who love the dialogue among members within OMNI.

If you agree with me on this one, I'll have MapleLeaf send you a picture of his visit to the House of Miles today.

Randy Petersen

I hope you don't take offense that i don't partake in the "sky is falling" information sometimes passed along here, but rather i deal more in the facts and reality department and I personally am not aware of all "the bad blood, animosity, heated barbs, extra work for MOD's deleting posts, giving warning, etc. that your recent actions have caused these past few days?"

Facts: I have only received 3 PM's at all regarding the down side of this decision, two of them were sent by the same member who i asked in another thread to write me personally. But nothing to brag about on the other side either. I have received only 3 PMs supporting my decision. To date, i have a single PM from a mod saying that despite something that volunteer read in a thread, the volunteer's experience is that it is posting as usual and the volunteer has not seen anything similar to what was described by your post. As well, the only thread among Mods in their forum is the one started in 2005 which helps Mods detect when members are making posting runs for CC or OMNI permissions, but that is nothing new and actually nothing out of the ordinary.

So, based on my personal PM/email and topic buzz among our volunteers, things rather seem normal around here. As for the heated barbs, well, i have seen some of that in the TalkBoard Topics thread, like this one, but really, haven't they ben heated bards about Virgin America forum and other topics? Again, nothing out of the ordinary here!

Moderator2

Hopefully everyone has gotten their excess rhetoric out, while on the playground. Let's be respectful of one another. Obviously this is a divisive subject, but it doesn't mean we can not engage like educated adults.

Attacks on one another, whether veiled or blatant will be strongly dealt with by the moderators. It is recognized this is a political forum and the rules of debate are broad, however the FT TOS are still the "Rules Of Order".

itsaboutthejourney

I agree 100% with mary2e's comments. very well said.

Traveller

And some do not want to get vocal about it. Why doesn't someone set up a simple "Yes-Count OMNI Posts / No-Do Not Count OMNI Posts" confidential poll just to see what the general consensus of FT members really is?

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

I think this is an excellent idea. @:-)

Perhaps the poll should be placed in OMNI, where most FT Contributors would be sure to see it

oneant

First, pardon me if this has already been stated--and more succinctly--by a previous poster in this thread. I just don't have the time to go back through them all right now.

Having been a member of countless forums, and moderator to a few, here is my $.02 (not to be confused with .02 cents for those of you who work for a wireles provider ):

Post counts mean something to some, and absolutely nothing to others. However, as a generalization, forum members see post count as a measure of individual contribution to the forum. While not always the case, the higher the post count of the poster, the higher probability that the information being posted is of value and is correct.

Forums that, by design, cater to a specific topic--like FT--tend to want to maintain that generalized view of post counts. By counting off-topic posts that usually have very little to do with the forums originally designed content, post counts become bloated and no longer have much relevance in determing valuable contribution.

Now, I understand that "valuable" is a very relative term, and some find OMNI posts quite valuable personally. But, I think it still all comes back to the forums original design.

I wasn't around here when FT started, but I doubt it was intended to be a place to blow off steam and discuss whatever came to mind. OMNI is a part of FT, not the other way around.

So, there's my long-winded vote for not counting OMNI posts in the overall post count.

ClueByFour

Based on the percentages of FT members who bother to vote in the Talkboard elections, it's all but impossible to get the "general consensus" of FT members.

ClueByFour

itsaboutthejourney

so Randy has reaffirmed his current decision to enforce the decision of not counting post counts. I assume this means the TB vote & this discussion is a moot point?

myefre

Why would anyone bother to PM you when you appear to be completely set in stone with your decision? Sending you a PM would be about as fruitless as someone trying to persuade me to vote for Hillary Clinton.