“‘Mega-threads’ are out of control. What can the TB do to fix it?”

Before asking the question of whether or not the TalkBoard should address this issue, the first question should probably be whether or not particularly lengthy threads are even an issue at all.

FlyerTalk members are divided regarding this topic. Some feel that information about a particular topic should be consolidated into one thread and one should therefore search within that thread to find information, while others feel that there should be separate threads that are shorter in length that are more specific, concise and detailed regarding the topic.

Who is right? Which method is best? What is the most efficient solution to this issue? Will one solution successfully address this problem in all FlyerTalk forums, or should more than a single solution be considered?

…and, as promised, The Gate is proud to announce the official winner of the 1,000,000th FlyerTalk thread, launched on May 7, 2010 at 4:46 in the afternoon Eastern Daylight Time, in the words of FlyerTalk member and founder Randy Petersen:

“Here’s the 1,000,000th thread on FlyerTalk:

It is in the Delta SkyMiles forum and titled: Fewer mileage earning opportunities this year?

The winner is member samonyc — Tom Wallace of New York City, who joined FlyerTalk in July 2009. Says Tom, ‘I discovered FlyerTalk just about a year ago when I was trying to figure out why 10,000 MQMs suddenly appeared in my SkyMiles account. I was so enthralled by all the useful information (and speculation) that I’ve been visiting several times a day ever since.’

And this week I’ll be sending Tom a new iPad (which he is very, very excited about) to thank him for his support of FlyerTalk and for being the starter of FlyerTalk’s one millionth thread.”

We at The Gate congratulate Tom as well, and we hope Tom enjoys his new Apple iPad!

For your enjoyment, the following links are to FlyerTalk threads regarding discussion amongst FlyerTalk members speculating on who posted the 1,000,000th FlyerTalk thread and when:

• 1,000,000 threads
• First and millionth thread

If you are the lucky FlyerTalk member who launches the 1,000,000th thread on FlyerTalk, you will win a new Apple iPad, courtesy of FlyerTalk member and founder Randy Petersen.

The posting of the 1,000,000th thread on FlyerTalk is expected to occur sometime within the next two weeks. The next issue of TalkMail will have a story which will highlight this unique and incredible milestone, and the winner will be announced here in The Gate, which is the official weblog of FlyerTalk. This story will also get picked up on the FlyerTalk Twitter feed.

Here is an early congratulations to FlyerTalk for reaching the milestone of having one million threads posted to it. What a remarkable achievement!

So — who do you think will post the one millionth thread on FlyerTalk, when do you believe it will happen, in which FlyerTalk forum will this special moment occur, and what will be the topic of the one millionth thread?

Could the person who launches the 1,000,000th FlyerTalk thread be you?!?

…and not everybody is happy about the change.

In the past, once a FlyerTalk member logs off of FlyerTalk or after the session has expired due to lack of activity, all threads were considered read even if the FlyerTalk member had not yet read some of those threads.

Now, FlyerTalk threads remain bold, meaning that they are not yet read by the FlyerTalk member, until the FlyerTalk member chooses to read that thread, no matter how many times that FlyerTalk member logs out and logs back in.

Personally, this new method of threads remaining unread until I actually read them has enhanced my FlyerTalk experience, allowing me to log on to FlyerTalk more often without being concerned that I will miss information in FlyerTalk threads that I have not yet read.

However, there are other FlyerTalk members who are unhappy with the changes, to say the least. Find out why, as well as more details on the controversial change in how threads are considered read or unread, in the My Flyertalk showing all threads since 3/1/10 thread.

The thread “a better way to search“, contains tips for improving on the standard FT search.

To see what interested Flyer Talkers the most over the past year, the most popular* threads from 2009 in each forum are posted below.  They sure cover some highs and lows of the travel industry & FF programs.  Some of the biggest news events (including 3 crashes) as well as some more surprising topics. A thread started on December 26th made it into the top 20.

* Most popular is taken as the thread started in 2009 with the most views.

Community Buzz | Be my guest (fly for free) at the Star Alliance megado

Hotel Deals | Fairmont Hotels – promo valid until 31 March 2010

Miles Buzz | 100,000 miles for new BA chase visa

Air France | AF flight from Rio missing

British Airways | Tesco and BA (2009)

Starwood | Leaving SPG 1/15/10 Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

bmi | Successful redemptions using BD miles (2009)

Other Credit Cards | Wiki for TYN 90k fixed redemption strategies

United | Unlimited domestic upgrades coming

Hilton | Hilton HHonors Surpass card from Amex

Read More…

A new and improved feature has been added to private messages in FlyerTalk: there is now a Change to “Reply to All” in PMs where a new Reply to All button has been added.

At first glance, this may not seem like such a big deal. However, if you wanted to reply to two FlyerTalk members simultaneously in a private message, the only way to do this until now was to reply to one FlyerTalk member and manually add the name of the other FlyerTalk member in the Recipient Username(s) field.

With the improvement of the Reply to All feature, the private messaging function in the vBulletin bulletin board software that powers FlyerTalk just became a little more convenient and efficient.

According to this announcement, FlyerTalk was disabled — during Friday the 13th, coincidentally — primarily because it “has experienced intermittent website outages caused by a cyber-attack. Our troubleshooting team has resolved the issue, and the site should now be functioning normally.”

So, What did YOU do during the great FT blackout?

As the Northwest Airlines WorldPerks program has been integrated into the new Delta Air Lines SkyMiles program, so have the two FlyerTalk forums combined into the new Delta Air Lines SkyMiles forum, where one can stop by and read the comments lamenting the end of the Northwest WorldPerks frequent flier program, as well as optimistic comments pertaining to the new Delta Air Lines SkyMiles program.

Both the old Delta SkyMiles and Northwest WorldPerks forums are still intact as sub-forums of the new Delta SkyMiles forum.

Thanks to a suggestion by cepheid, you can now very easily add a link to a Flyer Guide wiki entry in your post using [wiki] tags.

Flyer Guide is the wiki for Flyer Talk, by Flyer Talkers.