Please see a response to my inquiry below from one of the mods:
"I know change is something that can take a bit to get used to and after long deliberation (And I do mean LONG. We're talking months of discussion amongst ourselves and with members of the travel community) it was decided that the Travel forum would be best used for discussions and Deals would be merged into HD.
The rationale was that the number of "deals" posted in travel was really light in comparison with the number of request threads that it made more sense to simply make it a forum for travel and keep all deals in one place.
Several weeks ago, when they changed the names of the forums (that time when they changed the name of Deal Discussion to Consumer Research and wisely back again to Deal Discussion), I asked them on their threads that announced these name changes to actually explain in Travel what their new "view" and policies were towards Travel, but they don't seem to have explained to the users of Travel what the new system is. Or maybe they did and I missed it.
I remember during our lively thread about half a year ago where the moderator said exciting changes were coming to the travel section - maybe this is it?
I can see where it's hard to categorize threads that cover more than one category. For example, with frequent-flier-program credit cards (like the DeltaAMEX), news/deals about them could easily fit in Finance or Travel.
In a situation like that, I would have the topic listed in both sections, to have the widest possible audience for it, but maybe the technology isn't there for them to allow one topic to show up in 2 places on the site.
Oddly enough, a few weeks ago they placed a thread asking about rental car policies in "deal discussions", with the poster claiming he had originally put it in Travel and then they moved it to Deal Discussions. I think that's going too far.
I am not sure what the point of having a Travel section is now. If they keep siphoning off the topics that were traditionally covered under Travel, it's not going to have any content.
I guess these days people don't travel as much as they used to.
Maybe they should just have a "Las Vegas" forum and get rid of Travel.
I have always been for having Travel discussions and deals in one place. I think that makes sense.
I do not take the time to weed through the thousands of "hot deals" every week, so now I will miss the travel deals that are posted there. Maybe they figure that the greater good is served by having the bulk of the site's visitors, who probably do not venture past the "hot deals" forum, having the travel-related deals show up in their own forum.
Since I've been visiting the site, there's always been a light touch on travel, the kind of "you need to see the Flyertalk website (etc.) if you really want to know what's going on in the world of travel deals and information", and that is continuing apace. Seems a shame to concede the travel aspect of saving money, sharing coupons, sharing deals to other sites, but maybe it's a minority subject that isn't worth scattering the attention of FW for. There is something to be said for specializing, firming up the brand image, not trying to be everything to everybody.
I thought maybe it was only me who missed this drastic change, but I have been following the travel forum for years, and in the past, have found some excellent deals here. I'm just wondering what "members of the travel community" they talked to ( I guess the members who post requests that are too lazy too search their specific itinerary for themselves?).
Thanks for posting this, skibum43. Clearly we need to work on our communication skill. Sometimes it seems after long, long, LONG deliberation, we drop the ball when it comes to actually communicating what we've decided. As for our rationale, though, I think your title says it all - "...the travel forum is longer the place for hot travel deals." We thought the travel deals themselves would be better served in Hot Deals, where they would get more exposure. But if you have thoughts otherwise, let us know.
I have read through travel deals and posts alike in the travel forum for maybe a year now. I don't see why travel deals should be moved, they don't 'pollute' the travel requests in the forum. Maybe I'm missing the point, but wouldn't one surmise that 'hot travel deals' would be found under a travel forum rather than sort through the 'hot deals' forum with twenty something categories? Perhaps once we as readers are use to something, change doesn't come easily, however, it makes me think 'if it isn't broke, don't fix it'.
Here is one of the threads which we had conversations about separating the Travel Deals. Most of the conversation is about the "Request" threads but I found some things regarding the separation. I know there is more discussion on this somewhere.
One option we could do is put the deal in HD, and drop a place holder link into travel. This makes the deals viewable in travel, but keeps them deals Hot Deals.
The problem on the Travel forum is the clogging up with lazy, often rude, people posting what can loosely be called "requests." That plus the moronic "where should I go and what should I do on my vacation" posts....
If we make it clear that the Travel forum is for the posting of deals and discussion thereof, and summarily delete all the other nonsense, that'd go a long way towards tightening things up.
MarsdenFubar said: One option we could do is put the deal in HD, and drop a place holder link into travel. This makes the deals viewable in travel, but keeps them deals Hot Deals.
skibum43 said: According to the Mods, the travel forum is no longer the place for hot travel deals Virgil27 said: We thought the travel deals themselves would be better served in Hot Deals, where they would get more exposure.
I'm still bummed that I missed out on the $61 roundtrip ticket to Iceland a few years back because it was posted in Hot Deals then quickly moved by the mods to the Travel forum.
I think the real problem is with mediocre-travel deals, like "100 free Continental Miles for doing x survey". While the HD crowd will eat that post alive, it would likely get a positive reaction from the Travel forum.
NantucketSunrise said: This is what I've been advocating for a while.
MarsdenFubar said: One option we could do is put the deal in HD, and drop a place holder link into travel. This makes the deals viewable in travel, but keeps them deals Hot Deals.
Yeah, I was going to suggest this. It would be pretty easy to do when we're categorizing the deals.
benjiem1
Member
posted: Oct. 16, 2009 @ 12:03a
I'm a regular at another deal site, but check FW pretty much daily, if only to see what's popped up in the travel deals section. I love travel, so I always appreciated having a dedicated forum for travel deals. This kind of kills any incentive I had to come to FW over any other deal site. Not trying to sound like a traitor or anything, just pointing out that I'm certainly not the only one in this situation.
I like this move as it means having to check less forums when you are browsing for deals. Can you imagine if FW had separate deal forums for electronics, clothing, furniture, etc? I'm sure the people who are really into one of those niches would like it, but for the general public in search of hot deals, it would be a pain to have to visit each forum to look browse for deals.
Since Hot Deals has a lot more traffic, I think we'll see more travel hot deals posted as well. BTW if you just want to see travel deals in the Hot Deals forum, using the category view filter for "Travel & Tickets" will do just that for you.
I totally agree. I usually just look for travel deals. Who wants to sift through a million hot deals to find a good travel deal?
benjiem1 said: I'm a regular at another deal site, but check FW pretty much daily, if only to see what's popped up in the travel deals section. I love travel, so I always appreciated having a dedicated forum for travel deals. This kind of kills any incentive I had to come to FW over any other deal site. Not trying to sound like a traitor or anything, just pointing out that I'm certainly not the only one in this situation.
I certainly think FW has policed this site to much as of recently. When we ask them for assistance we get none, but they seem to enjoy changes for changes sake. FW must be part of the Govt now.
germanpope said: if you post your deal here and no one complains --- then I am sure the deal will stay here. must be that the mods just don't like dealing with all the whining
it's the randomness in approach and "rules" that is annoying.
if there isn't any logic to it, that makes it worse, not better. you have to check every forum all the time in that case, if you aren't sure where things are going to end up.
i'm afraid i gave up a few weeks ago after a rental car question was forced to be in "deal discussions" instead of "travel discussions".
i STILL don't see any overarching explanation on the travel forum about the travel deals' now being moved to Hot Deals. do they think that admitting it in a couple of posts on one obscure (and now old) thread (this one) is equivalent to telling all the users of the travel forum an important announcement?
i'm not sure how FW conceives of its information-sharing and transparency, but the current process is not getting through to the users, i must tell you. this is only detrimental to your site - people aren't complaining to you about this just for the joy of complaining, they are trying to make a better outcome for FW as well as the users.
I don't think this is a good idea. If FW is trying to be more efficient to the FW community, then a the travel forum should be left alone. It is like moving the finance forum to HD (good CC rate thread or something like that).
IMHO, the deal discussion forum is a waste. You go there to discuss if an item you are interested in buying is a good deal or not? that is what the HD forums is for as well: Post your HD item and users will tell you if it is good or not and why.
this makes me upset, its one of the few threads I check daily, ever since I missed the deal last fall from EWR - central america for like 100 round trip I have checked it daily, and I really enjoyed my free southbeach hotel on spring break from LMT, not cool fat wallet, not cool, all the changes lately have me thinking about going to the dark side (SD)
wutsdadealio said: I like this move as it means having to check less forums when you are browsing for deals. 1. It's "fewer" not "less" 2. Actually, it's "more."
I don't browse the hot deals forum. It's full of umpteen million posts of which I have absolutely no interest. Now have to wade through those to find "hot" travel deals? That's garbage.
Can you imagine if FW had separate deal forums for electronics, clothing, furniture, etc?It would be awesome, because no one comes here looking for "general deals."
sechs said: wutsdadealio said: I like this move as it means having to check less forums when you are browsing for deals. 1. It's "fewer" not "less" 2. Actually, it's "more."
I don't browse the hot deals forum. It's full of umpteen million posts of which I have absolutely no interest. Now have to wade through those to find "hot" travel deals? That's garbage.
Can you imagine if FW had separate deal forums for electronics, clothing, furniture, etc?It would be awesome, because no one comes here looking for "general deals."
Again there's a filter in the Hot Deals forum to just see the deal category you want, check "Travel & Tickets" and that's all you will see. With tagging, there's no reason to have separate forums for each deal category.
rickt86 said: this makes me upset, its one of the few threads I check daily, ever since I missed the deal last fall from EWR - central america for like 100 round trip I have checked it daily, and I really enjoyed my free southbeach hotel on spring break from LMT, not cool fat wallet, not cool, all the changes lately have me thinking about going to the dark side (SD)
SD posts Travel Deals in the Hot Deals forum as well so what is that saying? BTW SD gets more travel deals posted in their Hot Deals forum compared to what FW has had posted in its dedicated Travel Deals forum, so I really don't fault FW for making this change.
wutsdadealio said: With tagging, there's no reason to have separate forums for each deal category.By your argument, there's really no reason to have separate fora at all. Just tag everything and throw it into the sea of threads.
If we have a travel forum, and it's not drowning in threads (which it isn't), why not put all travel posts there? Is the goal here simply to confuse and inconvenience?
wutsdadealio said: Again there's a filter in the Hot Deals forum to just see the deal category you want, check "Travel & Tickets" and that's all you will see. With tagging, there's no reason to have separate forums for each deal category.I went to the Hot Deals forum (which now appears, even though I've set it no to so do) to see all of the "hot" travel deals that should suddenly be there.
First, I found no "filters." Second, there's no place to "check 'Travel & Tickets.'" Finally, I still see a lot of stuff that's not interesting to me. Travel deals are now officially lost in there somewhere. This is not an improvement.
sechsFirst, I found no "filters." Second, there's said: no place to "check 'Travel & Tickets.'" Finally, I still see a lot of stuff that's not interesting to me. Travel deals are now officially lost in there somewhere.
There are Lots of travel related posts in hot deals. Try this....
If it relates to travel, please let it be under Travel Deals. If mods feel that the Hot Deals should have that topic, why not put a link to the post in Hot Deals, and then lock the thread, so that future comments are aggregated under the main post in Travel Deals?
MarsdenFubar said: From now on, even though the deals are in HD, we will be dropping a place holder of travel deals in travel.
If you see a deal in HD that is not listed in Travel, please hit the alert mods button in that thread, and we'll take care of it. I think the placeholder is an excellent idea.
Isnt there a way to automate it, so that ANY new HD post tagged as travel/tickets gets a placeholder thread in this forum?
pulokk23
Member
posted: Oct. 22, 2009 @ 10:11a
Bad idea, moving Travel deals to Hot Deals. I wonder whose feedback the Mods used to come to this decison. Certainly not the majority of feedback posts I saw when the Mods asked for feedback not too long ago. So many of us wanted to get Requests either out of Travel or enforce, as the Mods did for awhile, a policy that posters first demonstrate having done some research themselves. In short, many of us simply wanted Travel to be a forum for sharing deals and sharing research done in pursuit of a deal, which could help others.
Like many others I often look only at the Travel forum, my primary interest, vs. going into the HD forum. This will definitely reduce my loyalty to and use of FW as a soouce of travel deals.
Rant disclosure:
Sounds like a decision made by a government agency (I work for one so know of what I speak). Ask staff for feedback on a proposed new policy, then make a decision completely different, based on (in my agency's case) the fix having already been in on what the ultimate decison would be, or (perhaps in FW's case) the feedback of some unclear minority. Solicitation of feedback (by the Mods here, or my government management) is often just window-dressing to be able to justify a bad decision. "Well, we did solicit feedback, DIDN'T WE?"
dstankus2 said: The problem on the Travel forum is the clogging up with lazy, often rude, people posting what can loosely be called "requests." That plus the moronic "where should I go and what should I do on my vacation" posts....
If we make it clear that the Travel forum is for the posting of deals and discussion thereof, and summarily delete all the other nonsense, that'd go a long way towards tightening things up.
That's been a problem all along. This certainly does nothing to fix it. Rarely did FW Travel have a deal that I didn't know about thanks to FlyerTalk, but now this just torpedoes any chance. I won't bother checking this forum as often.
Hey - people with "requests" - IT'S CALLED GOOGLE.
dougtr
Member
posted: Oct. 23, 2009 @ 8:08p
I do enjoy seeing the separate category just for travel deals. I know they may not be considered a hot deal next to a 1TB hard drive for 40 bucks, but it was nice to be able to scroll down on the page to see hot travel deals. Now when I look at all the hot deals on the forums page (which is nothing more than a synopsis of the deals out there) I have to click on hot deals, then travel deals and then it is still not all that clear on which ones are the hottest travel deals on there. I would rather see hot travel deals listed than 99% of the free deals. Maybe if the OP's reconsider putting travel deals in some kind of a format where we can expand the list of travel deals on the forum page so it does not take up so much room.
Thanks for reading my point of view, Doug
MaddyTears
Member
posted: Oct. 24, 2009 @ 12:21p
I have to say i am a bit disappointed with the change. I check the travel site on and off and a lot when we have a trip coming up, several times a year but this is the first time I have tried to find something specific since the change and frankly its takes way too much time now.
Going to one forum was much easier, consolidated and simple. Now I have to sift through all of the other deals and feel like there is no way I can keep track of the the travel deals like I use too.
I am all for change, many have been quite positive. I guess I just fail to see what overall benefit this change had. While the over all goal may have appeared great, the result for me has made it less functional.
jgates8
Member
posted: Oct. 24, 2009 @ 3:03p
Seriously hate to have to go through all deals when 99% of the time I come to FW is to visit the travel section.
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