January 8
What?
If you are reading this, chances are you have, at one time or another, visited FlyerTalk.com, if not, here is a primer. FlyerTalk claims to be the “world’s most popular frequent flier community” (and I believe it is, based on traffic anyway) where travelers from all over the world can post opinions, ask questions and mention deals about almost anything travel related, but most discussions pertain to airlines and hotels. Each subject or brand has its own forum (i.e. the Delta Airlines forum). Each forum is assigned a moderator to edit or block submissions that are inappropriate or off topic. The moderators are a somewhat salty bunch and jump at the opportunity to reprimand you, should you post something that they already knew. I suppose, these moderators know every possible thing there is know about a particular topic… how else would one obtain the astute title: FlyerTalk Forum Moderator?
Who?
There are a number of users who take themselves extremely seriously, sometimes called FlyerTalk Evangelists, who I assume aspire to become moderators. Many of these folks find it their duty to not only welcome new users, but to also scold users who post topics in the wrong forums, question a user’s character when they make errors while posting, chastise them when something has been previously mentioned and make all “community” members aware that they knew something before all other users…. This all makes for pretty solid entertainment.
What Happened?
A few months ago I found an airfare on my online booking engine that I determined to be a very good value which did not require a minimum stay. I thought it would make a perfect fit in the mileage run forum. What I failed to do was include the details of where I found the fare. I received an email immediately from the “Mod” (cool member slang for Moderator) asking me to please include where I found the fare. In addition, several other users asked where they could find the fare. I obliged, posted where I found the fare and…voila…I received an email notifying me that I had been suspended from FlyerTalk for 48 hours for including a link to what they called a “commercial link.” (this was right after another user suggested that my post may be some type of scam, but, in true FlyerTalk fashion, I think he was just annoyed because he didn’t find the fare first and turn did not get to post it)
Still Confused…
I was somewhat confused (not unusual) …users should never post an airfare without saying where they found it but you can’t include any commercial links. I asked the “Mod” if I could say where I found it without including a link (just plain text) and the response was that if it was my own booking engine, this was not allowed. From what I gather, users can only link to the big boys…Expedia, Priceline and airline web sites, so long as one does not have any official “tie” to that particular web site.
I’m Rich!
In fairness of full disclosure, I stood to gross a whopping $3, for each of those fares sold. In contrast, the fare was roughly $150 less than what I could find on other web sites. FlyerTalk can be a very helpful resource for extracting information, but I will leave the input to the “experts”
[...] While I have poked fun at Flyertalk in the past, it remains a tremendous resource for even the occasional frequent flyer. From the most basic [...]
HAHAHA!!! Newcomers to FlyerTalk should be issued a protective cup!!! There are some guys on there who must spend ten hours/day looking for posters to ridicule; it really is a sad bunch at times. I remember reading a thread where a dozen guys piled onto a traveler who said he gave his free upgrade to a soldier on the soldier’s way home from Iraq. I think the argument was that the upgrade should’ve gone to the next FlyerTalker in line if the original guy wasn’t going to use it himself. Hilarious!!
I’ve been a FlyerTalker since 2002, and it has changed a LOT since then.
It used to be very free-form, but in the past few years, as it became widely known, SPAM became more and more of a problem. It really threatened to destroy community we had become.
All the moderators are volunteers and frequently claim to be overwhelmed by SPAM. The result is that a policy was instituted that no moderator action can be questioned.
This, too, can get out of hand, and be very confusing.
But the value of FT for travel info is beyond compare, and I for one want to keep it a valuable source for info. So I’m willing to put up with the constraints.
All the rules are clearly posted in extensive detail. I found it useful to study them, even as a long time member. It cleared up a lot of the confusion for me:
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php