suze

Gabriele~ Actually Thorn Tree is set up very similar to Fodor's. All of Western Europe is together; it's not broken down by individual country.

Trip Advisor and Frommers are though.

Nikki

No. I like the fact that there is so much volume here on one forum. Keeps it interesting. A bunch of slower-moving forums would be less fun.

tomassocroccante

Truthfully, as NeoPatrick said, part of the trick is getting good, specific titles to threads. Not always easy, and of course, some don't think about that at all and just write "Help with my trip" or something equally broad like "Restaurants on Earth, please!"

Most posters include "ITALY" in their title if that's the topic - not all, but those threads will get lost like misaddressed postcards.

Robespierre

Now if Fodor's would allow a search on either thread title or content (or both, as now), most of these issues would be resolved as a result.

It would also be extremely useful to search only the threads in the index column. That way, posts could be filtered in many different ways.

normanoromano

Just one thing about the search function. It seems that some posts relating to a specific country (or at least Italy which is my area of interest) don't show up in an country category search even if the title of the thread is specific and obvious.
I'm still not certain about this, but Fodor's indicated to me that if a message is not posted from within say the 'Italy' category, there is no guarantee that the post will show up in the Italy category search. Since I am generally only interested in that category at the moment, unless I scroll through the 'Europe' forum list, I miss some threads unless I happen to catch them when they appear near the top of the list. It would be nice if all threads clearly titled could end up in the appropriate country category and Fodor's wrote last December that they intended to fix this but I have noticed that the flaw still exists.
Unless one has an eclectic interest, the current format has some limitations for the focussed user given the shear volume of traffic through the Fodor's forum. It is, however, quite close to an ultimate both/and solution.

tomassocroccante

Very true, Robespierre - if a search term shows up anywhere in the thread, no matter how tangential, it will return as equal to threads dedicated to the term.
"Search Titles (or subjects)" and "Search thread contents" would be a nice way to divide it.

sheila

No, I don't agree. I post mostly to GIVE information, not get it; and I'd never look on a dozen different sites.

ira

Hi P,

>...consider breaking up the Europe forum into individual countries. <

The reason that I oppose that is that many itineraries cover more than one country.

Where would I post, "Best route from Nice to Carcassone?", under France or Italy?

StCirq

For those of us who mostly offer information and rarely ask for help, it wouldn't work at all. I'd go find another playground.

Nikki

Does the best route from Nice to Carcassonne go through Italy?

NorthShore

Carcassonne sounds Italian so it would go under the southern europe area?

Mucky

I have to say that I agree with you. However the general opinion is that it is better left as it is. As this is a democratic forum and quite rightly too ! I think it will remain as it is.
I asked the same question a few years ago, I am still nursing the wounds ...lol

Muck

NeoPatrick

ira, is there a joke there or what am I misssing? Best route from Nice to Carcassone? Italy?

tomassocroccante

Zut alors! Ira, we would av to drive ze oppositte directionne from Italy to reach Carcassonne from Nice. N'est pas?

You are ze devil in deesgize, zending us off to Google places we av never been. Sacre bleu.

MademoiselleFifi

LOL-- see, if the forum were divided up by countries, all this fun would be gone!

thereyet

What's wrong with a large forum? More posters are a attracted to such a forum and that is what makes things so interesting. As one who needs information as opposed to doling it out why would I want the number of repondents limited. This subject strikes me as selfish in some way that someone needs a forum for just thier needs and nothing else. thereyet

bobthenavigator

This has been asked and discussed at least a dozen times in the past 10 years. The only breakout that makes any sense to me is to seperate the UK which is not really " Europe" to me.

Padraig

In fairness to Nikki, it might be considered an error of history rather than geography (it's less serious to get your history wrong on a travel forum): Nice was once part of Italy -- insofar as there was an Italy when Nice was part of it.

NeoPatrick

But bobthenavigator, wouldn't it be a bit confusing when Ireland and Northern Ireland are in two entirely separate forums? Talk about the confusion -- "what can we see between Dublin and Belfast" -- where would I post that?

I've heard others say they don't consider the UK as part of Europe, but hey, let's face it -- it IS.

bobthenavigator

Well, OK, call it the British Isles.