Guidelines

ARNK is a small community of people who work in travel, and it stays worth reading because of how they behave in it. These are the guidelines. They are shorter than the terms and they matter more day to day.

What to submit

Anything that a person who works in travel would want to know about: a fare change, a schedule cut, a contract, a rule, a strike, a merger, a piece of technology, a number that explains something. The test is whether it tells the industry something, not whether it is about a big company.

Off topic: consumer complaints about one trip, deals and coupons, press releases with nothing in them, and politics except where it lands on travel itself. A story about an election is off topic; a story about the visa rule the election changed is on.

Something old is fine if it has not been discussed here and is still true.

In submissions

Use the original title unless it is misleading or clickbait, and do not editorialize in it. Say what happened in the title; say what you think of it in the body or in a comment.

Link to the original source, not to a rewrite of it. If the source is behind a paywall it is still the source; the site marks it.

Do not submit your own company's news more than occasionally, and say that it is yours when you do. A submission is not an advertisement, and a reader can tell.

Do not ask people to vote for a post, in a comment or anywhere else. Votes that are asked for are removed, and so are the accounts that ask.

In comments

Be kind. Do not be snarky. The person you are replying to works in the same industry you do, and you will probably meet them.

Comment on the substance, not on the person. "That is wrong, and here is why" is a comment. "You clearly have never worked a ticket counter" is not.

Assume good faith. Most people who are wrong on the internet are wrong, not malicious, and a reply that treats them that way gets a better answer back.

Bring what you know. The reason to read a thread here rather than anywhere else is that the people in it have sat in the seat, and a comment that says what the practice actually is, with the detail that shows you have seen it, is the most valuable thing on the site.

Do not post shallow dismissals. "This will never work" and "who cares" add nothing; if you think a thing is wrong, say what is wrong with it.

Do not use uppercase for emphasis, and do not use italics for sarcasm.

Do not complain in the thread that a post is off topic, badly titled or already posted. Write to hello@arnk.net and let the moderators do the rest.

Do not comment on whether a post or a comment was upvoted or downvoted. It is never interesting and it is usually wrong.

Do not accuse people of astroturfing or shilling without evidence. If you believe an account is not what it seems, write to us rather than to the thread.

Do not reveal anything about a person that they did not reveal themselves. Colleagues, employers and customers are all real people.

Do not feed a comment that breaks these rules by replying to it. Write to us instead, and it will be dealt with.

Moderation

Every submission is read by a person before it appears, and the person may edit a title, decline a post, or remove a comment. We will usually not say why. If you think a call was wrong, write to hello@arnk.net and say so; a polite disagreement gets a reply.

Accounts that exist to promote something, to argue with one person, or to vote in a bloc are closed. So are accounts that behave well for a while and then do not.