r/BurningButter: A New Private Subreddit for Miles and Points

For a while now I had thought about launching a private subreddit for miles and points community and I finally got around to doing so. It isn’t filled with secrets, it isn’t pretty to look at, but it is rich in concept and solid in idea with which it is founded.

I am using my blog as a platform to promote the sub but other than that there isn’t going to be much connection between the site and and the sub. Why am I doing it here? Because this site is a niche within a niche community and (almost) all of you that come to this place have been pretty cool.

 

https://old.reddit.com/r/BurningButter/

follow the instruction and put down “Travel in Points” as a reference

The 3 foundations of r/ButterBurning are:

1. private sub
   1. to avoid getting content indexed by google and other sites
   2. to filter out troublesome members
   3. easier to find people to collaborate with
   4. to filter out beginners to the hobby who’ll ask “why?”, “how?”, and “what?” on literally anything. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t frown upon asking a question but the goal is to have people who’re at least capable of searching for answers to basic questions.
2. no referrals
   1. the drama that comes with all of that is not worth it
   2. the greed of referrals tends to turn people against each other
3. minimal but empowered modding
   1. I operate my Telegram groups with minimal modding and that is how I wish to run this sub as well. Instead of thinking of myself as a “mod”, I prefer to think that I am someone who provides platform where (hopefully) like-minded people interact. I believe that best kid of modding is when people don’t even notice a mod doing mod work.
   2. this place isn’t a democracy. Feedback will be most welcomed by the direction of this sub will most definitely not be determined by a poll. I always felt that running a sub based on poll was a terrible choice.

It’s hard to talk about a new miles and points subreddit without talking about r/churning, so let’s just do that. Let me give a brief overview of how these subs are fundamentally different

Churning	Butter Burning
is a public subreddit	is a private subreddit
content gets indexed by google	will not be indexed by google
posts get referenced by bloggers	won’t happen (no blog is going to link to a post that most of their readers cannot see)
has daily repeat threads	no daily repeat threads
has referrals	no referrals whatsoever
bunch of users with “check profile for referral” flair	adding such flair earns one a ban
threads are often deleted by a bot mod	no bot modding
threads are created by a bot mod	no bot modding
——————————————————	user created threads are encouraged
does not have official chatroom	has official chatroom
popular vote often decides sub’s future	hell no (feedback will be very much welcomed)
has extensive (dated) wiki	nobody got time for that
——————————————————-	run with the idea of minimilastic modding
sources new users from reddit, blogs, and literally all over the internet	sources new users from chatrooms, here, and….essentially your word of mouth
a good chunk of users seem to be under 5/24	(almost) all users are significantly above 5/24
has “find me a card” thread consisting of questions from mostly those under 5/24	has a dedicated thread for card seekers above and beyond 5/24

I will explicitly say that I’m not saying my vision of miles and points subreddit is better. I’m simply showing you how it differs from that of r/churning. I do not blame r/churning for having daily threads or bot modding. In fact I would argue that those are likely the optimal solution for their large 145k reader base. For example, I would argue in favor of daily discussion threads because it is likely harder for google to pickup on comments within these daily threads.

However, the fundamental choices upon which r/butterburning  is build are different. First, I chose to make it a private subreddit with a major goal of not getting indexed by google or blogs. This coupled with the decision to have smaller reader base, allows us to expand even somewhat important topics into a thread of it’s own without any fear of getting indexed by major sites.

I will mention that this doesn’t mean r/butterburning is a place to share your ultra secret methods. Every single person in said sub isn’t thoroughly vetted. It would be nearly impossible for me to create a healthy sized active subreddit while thoroughly vetting every individual.

But it is a place that has its perks. No, the perk doesn’t come in the form of referrals. Referrals are ought right banned.  While any participating user of the sub is allowed to have referral thread in his/her profile, they’re not allowed to use “referral in profile” flair either. Also, the perk doesn’t also come in the form of “fame” for discovering something….after all you won’t be among hundreds of thousands of people nor will you be hat tipped by a bloggers.  The perk comes in the form of opportunity to advance further faster.

Because you’ll be surrounded by peers who are in their intermediate-advanced phase of this hobby, you’ll have the opportunity to learn quicker.  You get smart by being among people who know more than you and/or who’re willing to put at least as much effort into this hobby as you do. You do not get smart by answering (or reading) same old 5/24 related questions every single day.

Additionally, because this is a smaller community, it is likely that you (and your work) will be noticed by someone with whom you can collaborate (or maybe if you get lucky…someone who can teach you). Trust me when I tell you that the best way to advance further in this hobby is through collaboration. Obviously, there is also the Telegram group where you can chit-chat with each other.  Again, trust me when I tell you that vets regularly look to collaborate with trustworthy newcomers because newcomers always bear fresh perspective and energy into this hobby….plus even a newcomer knows something that oldies in this hobby don’t.

Lastly, I’m going to say that the chances of this sub failing is far larger than that of it succeeding. But if you if really believe in the idea of a private miles and points community with emphasis on learning, minimal modding, no bot modding, and no referral shenanigan, then give us a try and most important help us succeed. If this sub fails, then for several years to come it will most definitely be used as an example for why a private points and miles community cannot succeed .

So…what are you waiting for? Signup. Tell a friend.