SoCalFlyer97 is exploring some of the other traveler-to-traveler forums such as Reddit, TripAdvisor and FlyerTalk. Also taking a deeper look into SW's official Social Media platforms to share future trip experiences.
I'll share some personal recommendations after the Labor Day Holiday. I'm also archiving all of my Trip Reports, my SW Community Photo Album, and plan to post future reports/reviews in one or more of the other places.
While I'm not at all thrilled of SW's decision (and I don't think they wanted to do it either), I can understand the possible reasoning of why it had to be done.
My opinion is speculative and I don't think it has to do with its current investor relationship, but rather based on the current job/economic market and my background in Marketing, Graphic Design, and basic IT. Unlike SW's Social Media channels and third-party forum websites, managing and maintaining an internal, dynamic, and custom-built message board like the Southwest Airlines Community requires a good amount of internal IT resources beyond having staff moderators (e.g. SW Reps and moderators can easily staff the Twitter/X, Facebook platforms as the social media companies would have to handle anything IT-related whereas SW IT is responsible to maintain the backend of its internal forum).
IT labor is expensive and those with this skillset can make some good money in the market economy. My assumption is SW needed to prioritize its IT resources in other areas of the company that included addressing the 2022 technical flaws that led to the '22 meltdown and more recently addressing inflight Wi-Fi and error code issues, updating the reservation interface to support the new Assigned Seating policy and adding support for the upcoming overnight owl/redeye trips.
Those who post regularly to this board know some of its ongoing "flaws". This included a well-intended spam bot filter that has been known to remove legitimate posts while allowing obvious spam and AI posts to get published (e.g. using the layman's suffix when calling out a 737-8H4 aircraft tripped the bot). The other were addressing imperfections with the bad word filter. Another were users not being able to change their community profile avatars or send/receive private messages. Some of these fixes look simple from the outside but could get complex when working behind the scenes of a custom-built web engine.
Anyway, that is my speculative guess on all this behind the why. I could be wrong.
Moving ahead--I'll be exploring the other forums and will offer some personal recommendations after the holiday as I don't think SW is in a position to officially recommend the aforementioned alternatives except for their social media channels and the new Help Center, but just like having third-party flight tracking tools like FlightAware and FlightRadar24, there are in fact other customer-to-customer forums that we as travelers can utilize and support.
Enjoy and travel safely.
ps. Gonna miss seeing these notifications pop up on my screen throughout the day:
@SoCalFlyer97 wrote:
Moving ahead--I'll be exploring the other forums and will offer some personal recommendations after the holiday as I don't think SW is in a position to officially recommend the aforementioned alternatives except for their social media channels and the new Help Center, but just like having third-party flight tracking tools like FlightAware and FlightRadar24, there are in fact other customer-to-customer forums that we as travelers can utilize and support.
Greetings Community Southwest:
As we're entering into the final full week of operations for the Southwest Airlines Community Discussion Board, I wanted to provide some personal recommendations to stay connected that I promised to you all before Labor Day. These are my personal ones and not endorsed SW or any entity.
One of the goals of this board was community-based sharing which was one of the reasons that drew me to this board. "The Southwest Airlines Community is full of people just like you, who enjoy low-cost travel and great Customer Service. This is where they tell their stories and share their knowledge, and we’re inviting you to join in."
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Welcome-and-Announcements/Welcome-to-the-Southwest-Airlines-Commu...
Therefore, here are SoCalFlyer97's recommendations to continue this great storytelling and customer-to-customer knowledge exchanging:
1. If you want to continue to follow my photo trip reporting of both flights and hotel stays, this will continue. The best place to go would be my newly built Twitter/X account. It is under the same profile name: SoCalFlyer97. As I write posts, they will be posted or linked from there. I'll also be posting reports in a review format to TripAdvisor under the same profile. Twitter/X is also my direct channel to SW Staff; everything related to SW will include their hashtag which ensures their social media staff receives and processes it.a
I also recommend FlyerTalk's Trip Report Forum too. I'm not the only one sharing in-flight experiences!
2. If you're an everyday traveler looking for a customer-to-customer message board desiring to ask or answer other travelers' questions on Southwest travel, I recommend FlyerTalk's Southwest Airline's forum. I found that the knowledge base there is overall decent and that will be the place where I plan to answer questions for this first phase. I've already posted my "intro" post there and got my first 2 "LUV's".
3. Reddit thoughts...Ummm....I did consider establishing a presence on the Southwest forum hosted there. I took a fair look. There was some good traveler-to-traveler discussion there and I'll probably begin posting after I get better established on Twitter and FlyerTalk. It's certainly looks like it is saturated with much user interaction which may be good thing. My only gripe about that forum is they display by default posts that get the most "like's" at the top of the page, which could "hide" other posts. Good or bad? There may be the benefit of finding a "buried" unanswered question and addressing it. I did "reserve" the SoCalFlyer97 label by registering for an account and subscribing to the SW forum but will likely begin interacting there later once I had time to better study it, who the "trusted" or frequent profiles are, and its audience.
4. And of course, any questions directly related to Southwest Flights, a reservation, or a comment or praise...that still continues to be done directly with SW Customer Service via the "Help Center" link below, a DM to SW's Twitter/X or a phone call or email to Customer Service. Those portals aren't going anywhere.
So there you have it. That is where SoCalFlyer97 will be once this forum retires. I'm prepping a few last remarks for the SW forum and will post them in a few days.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Greetings!
I've set up a FlyerTalk discussion thread entitled "Funniest Moments with Southwest Flight Attendants."
It is on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum and has generated some lively discussion. Check it out!
What are your funny moments when the FA's took the mic? Join the discussion there and let's keep the spirit of the SW Airlines Community alive!
Don't forget that SoCalFlyer is now on FlyerTalk, Twitter/X, and TripAdvisor under the same profile name and with a soon-to-be presence on Reddit.
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Follow SoCalFlyer97 after the SW Community Forums Closes:
The SW Community Forums will be retiring effective 9/16; see the official announcement in the headers. SoCalFlyer97 is now on FlyerTalk's Southwest Airlines Forum to answer traveler questions going forward and plans to publish future Trip Reports there in their Trip Report forum. Also currently on TripAdvisor and Twitter/X under the same name. Soon on Reddit. See you there!
