AIRNAV not publishing fuel prices...

In a previous article, Tyler said:
Fuel prices at most of the airports within 50 miles of me are listed. I'm not
sure that all of them have a "subscription" with Airnav.

Last year, AirNav contacted me (as representative of my flying club) and
gave me a year to pony up some extremely high listing fee or get dropped
from their listing. Checking the fact that in the previous month only one
person had come to our club web site through the AirNav listing (versus
10-20 a day through Google) we declined to be listed.

I suspect your local FBOs are probably in their 1 year waiting period.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the
usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody
thinks of complaining."

Last year, AirNav contacted me (as representative of my flying club) and
gave me a year to pony up some extremely high listing fee or get dropped
from their listing. Checking the fact that in the previous month only one
person had come to our club web site through the AirNav listing (versus
10-20 a day through Google) we declined to be listed.

Paulo (Airnav's webmaster) did the same with us, and we ponied up.

He has a great website, and I use it almost daily for one thing or another.
I think their listing fee works out to something less than 60 cents a day --
something I was glad to pay for such a valuable service.

For a flying club I suppose only "click-throughs" matter. FBO owners,
however, need to be looking at their listing from an exposure standpoint.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:go9Sb.50241$U%5.270242@attbi_s03...

He has a great website, and I use it almost daily for one thing or another.
I think their listing fee works out to something less than 60 cents a day --
something I was glad to pay for such a valuable service.

I think its utility will be a lot less valuable once the "free"
period has expired for all of the GA businesses. The beauty of the
original site was that it had all available info about FBOs and fuel
prices around the country and all of the info came directly from the
horses mouths (us). Once the site is reduced to info about only
businesses that paid up, it ceases to be the all encompassing,
one-stop-shopping resource that it once was. I know more GA business
owners who have declined to pony up, than those who have.

One other issue I have with Airnav's new direction is what will
Paulo do about a crappy business that offers poor service or rips off
customers? If they pay their advertising fee, do they get negative
comments removed from their listing? If not, why would they pay? And
if that were the case, how would we find out about them?

I know running Airnav costs money, I just think this new direction
kills off the core of what made Airnav the best aviation site on the
Internet. I'd rather see banner advertising to pay the bills.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

One other issue I have with Airnav's new direction is what will
Paulo do about a crappy business that offers poor service or rips off
customers? If they pay their advertising fee, do they get negative
comments removed from their listing? If not, why would they pay?

I've wondered about that myself. Actually, I've always wondered how Paulo
has survived putting negative comments on his website, without getting sued.

There are some pretty graphic and acidic posts about some businesses.
Someone with a mouth-piece and deep pockets could make Paulo's life very
uncomfortable.

Right after we bought the hotel, I found a bad review of our place on
AirNav. It was, of course (!), from before we bought the place, and was a
really nasty one, written by a guy who claimed that he was "told by a
line-guy to avoid the place."

Paulo of course removed it from his site when he heard we were the new
owners, but THAT'S the kind of third-hand slander that could really get him
in hot water, IMHO.

I feel for Paulo. He's operated this website full-time for a couple of
years, basically "on the house." Now that he's trying to actually make a
buck, everyone is down his throat. I say if an FBO is too damned cheap to
pay for their listing, that alone says enough to me that I will avoid the
place.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Is Paulo liable for maintaining a forum where other people can post unedited
comments?

Mike
MU-2


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:IQeSb.51817$U%5.286038@attbi_s03...
One other issue I have with Airnav's new direction is what will
Paulo do about a crappy business that offers poor service or rips off
customers? If they pay their advertising fee, do they get negative
comments removed from their listing? If not, why would they pay?

I've wondered about that myself. Actually, I've always wondered how Paulo
has survived putting negative comments on his website, without getting
sued.

There are some pretty graphic and acidic posts about some businesses.
Someone with a mouth-piece and deep pockets could make Paulo's life very
uncomfortable.

Right after we bought the hotel, I found a bad review of our place on
AirNav. It was, of course (!), from before we bought the place, and was a
really nasty one, written by a guy who claimed that he was "told by a
line-guy to avoid the place."

Paulo of course removed it from his site when he heard we were the new
owners, but THAT'S the kind of third-hand slander that could really get
him
in hot water, IMHO.

I feel for Paulo. He's operated this website full-time for a couple of
years, basically "on the house." Now that he's trying to actually make a
buck, everyone is down his throat. I say if an FBO is too damned cheap to
pay for their listing, that alone says enough to me that I will avoid the
place.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Mike Rapoport wrote:

Is Paulo liable for maintaining a forum where other people can post unedited
comments?

Last year, the host of another web site was successfully sued by Wouk over comments
that someone posted on that site.

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.

Is Paulo liable for maintaining a forum where other people can post
unedited
comments?

I dunno -- it's a gray area. But if it were me, just from a business
standpoint I'd be pretty worried about allowing third-hand, unverifiable
attack-posts.

I'd at least want a way to verify who was making the complaint, so as to
ensure that it's not just a disgruntled former employee posting stuff.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...

Mike
MU-2


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:IQeSb.51817$U%5.286038@attbi_s03...
One other issue I have with Airnav's new direction is what will
Paulo do about a crappy business that offers poor service or rips off
customers? If they pay their advertising fee, do they get negative
comments removed from their listing? If not, why would they pay?

I've wondered about that myself. Actually, I've always wondered how
Paulo
has survived putting negative comments on his website, without getting
sued.

There are some pretty graphic and acidic posts about some businesses.
Someone with a mouth-piece and deep pockets could make Paulo's life very
uncomfortable.

Right after we bought the hotel, I found a bad review of our place on
AirNav. It was, of course (!), from before we bought the place, and was
a
really nasty one, written by a guy who claimed that he was "told by a
line-guy to avoid the place."

Paulo of course removed it from his site when he heard we were the new
owners, but THAT'S the kind of third-hand slander that could really get
him
in hot water, IMHO.

I feel for Paulo. He's operated this website full-time for a couple of
years, basically "on the house." Now that he's trying to actually make
a
buck, everyone is down his throat. I say if an FBO is too damned cheap
to
pay for their listing, that alone says enough to me that I will avoid
the
place.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Just ask Mike Busch formerly (probably because of this very issue) of Avweb.
--
Roger Long

Mike Rapoport wrote in message
ink.net...
Is Paulo liable for maintaining a forum where other people can post
unedited
comments?

Mike
MU-2

Just ask Mike Busch formerly (probably because of this very issue) of
Avweb.

You mean the Mike Busch who just started writing a montly column for AvWeb?
He's not "formerly" anything there. He had a very close call with a nasty
bout of cancer, and was focused on beating that for a while. But now he's
cancer free and back into aviation again.

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
Is Paulo liable for maintaining a forum where other people can post
unedited
comments?

Mike
MU-2

They are not unedited; they have to go through an approval process.
Likewise, a lot of positive comments are put in by employees and the FBO
owners.

Like anything, you have to take it with a grain of salt...sometimes

--
"He that would make his own liberty secure,
must guard even his enemy from oppression;
for if he violates this duty, he establishes
a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine lots of salt.