Cubdriver

An honor system pledge of being a professional pilot in order to gain posting privileges to the top sections seems like an appropriate solution to me, even though I will lose access to them. I try not to post up there out of respect for the rightful users, and when wandering in I tend to keep it short. But not everyone has this presence of mind. Pros like to talk to other pros and APC would be more appealing to them if they could count on neophytes and noncurrent-pilots being absent. It would be an improvement to the value and quality of the pro forums, and I think all would benefit from reading discussions among them even if they could not be involved.

As for a separate APC flight training or general aviation forum, there are already several. APC is the only forum that seems to connect the two worlds efficiently. I would think professional pilots would still enjoy having a GA section, as many of them come from GA and still participate in it. It should probably stay where it is.

Consider requiring a member to pledge he or she is a professional pilot in order to gain posting rights to the professional section. I doubt that many persons would abuse the system, and it would improve their content.

LeoSV

I think it's fine the way it is. I have never had any problems, and if you don't annoy the people to death on the "professional" sections, they aren't going to care. If there is somebody that keeps starting threads in the inappropriate section, then just let them know. If you get enough complaints about a certain member being stupid or annoying, give them a warning, and then just ban them if they keep being annoying. There was a member that was banned not too long ago for doing just that. Just send a PM to a moderator if somebody is out of line. APC is a free service, take it or leave it. 99.9% of the members are happy with it. there is no need to fix anything, IMO.

HSLD

Thanks for the feedback!

We realize that are many new guys looking to make the move into the airlines, so the natural progression would be flight training>regional>and so on. I agree with you that most of the users don't abuse the resource and that the current application of the new/non-pilot profile is subjective at best.

Admins have to make a judgment call based on a users post history. I'll be the first to admit that it's not a perfect system, but I do want to make it clear I'm open to a method that meets the needs of the community and:

• Does not require additional manpower
• Keeps the focus on the primary audience

I really don't want to be exclusionary, but even more important is that the forum keeps it's focus. We may have to settle on the fact that we won't be all things to all people.

Airplane Junkie

I understand what you're saying. Pilot forums are for pilots.

Ewfflyer

I think you're doing an excellent job, going above and beyound in some sense, but that's why this place is as nice as it is.

Diver Driver

I totally agree, you are doing an excellent job and this has been a great place to share information with other pilots and get advice. It's certainly helped me along the way several times when I was interviewing earlier this year. Thanks and keep up the great work!

vagabond

Well, first of all, I hope my luck holds out and I myself do not get restricted since I am not an airline pilot and have absolutely no hope of becoming one. Having said that, however, I have a relatively long relationship with the site if the number of posts is any indication. And I have always felt a loyalty and sense of family that has precluded me from abandoning ship for one of the many other forums available. These same feelings have also, inexplicably, caused me to be very protective of something that is not mine.

The original poster’s issue was that he logs on and “can't view the regional, cargo, major areas” while “without logging in, [he] can see them.” He also cannot post or edit. Perhaps I misunderstood the restriction. I thought everyone who registers and logs on has the ability to view everything, but the restricted ones can only post in the lounge.

One “solution” might be similar to the policy making behind The Boneyard. Newbies and wannabes and lawyers and doctors initially cannot post anywhere but the lounge. After they prove themselves with X number of quality posts, the restriction is lifted. Not all their posts need to be read, just do a random sampling. My experience with databases is that it can be rigged to alert you when a certain poster has reached the requisite number of posts, whereupon you do the sampling. Hopefully, by the time they get there, their total time and flight experience would have increased also and they are even that much nearer to being a pilot, if not an airline pilot.

As already mentioned, there are only a handful of bad apples, and not all of them are the proverbial 17 year old kid who has always dreamed of flying. I have seen some very grouchy old guys here. The majority of us are ok people with a genuine desire to share, teach and learn.

I have said this before – this is a private forum and you do not have to explain yourself to anyone. You have a good thing going here and I hope you keep it that way. You know that I would help out more, but there are already too many demands by too many people on my limited personal time.

razorseal

Next tiem I have a question I'll shoot it in there, but I am almost positive I will get a slower response. but I guess I can't use that as an arguement.

razorseal

how about it make it so we can read it? I mean wouldn't be much diff then just signing out I guess, but saves the hassle

razorseal

Good post Vagabond. It is not my site, this is not a democracy, so what the owner says goes. There are other sites I can go to interact with some airline pilots afterall, I just like reading their stories here (one of my fav was 'interesting stuff you heard on the radio' I actually sat down and read all of it! took me like 2 hours. even though I'm not a airline pilot I added mine in. there were few military guys in there too)

oh also, am I missing something, or I also can't edit my posts? I had to make like 4 posts instead where I could have just edited them into 1 lol.