Questioners might get appropriate information by including relevant personal information. Yes, I know many do. For instance: My husband and I are both 60 years old, we are mobile and have considerable disposable income. Please suggest a one week museum and art gallery tour of Paris. Or: My boyfriend and I are in our early 20s. We want to experience Paris night life. Suggest some venue, please.

The forum doesn't seem to be designed to replace guidebooks, which have all the information in one place and are indexed. We must also acknowledge that permanent threads, which are otherwise known as articles, are under the jurisdiction of the site managers/editors. It is up to them to decide what merits permanent display and what does not on the site. Fodors' three day itineraries for various cities being a case in point: it is easy to find this information, but one must go elsewhere on the site (to 'Destinations') to do so. On other travel sites, one can solicit the editors to post an 'article' written by a user, but again, it's up to the editors. You could always try contacting Fodors', as someone has already suggested.

My problem with a superthread concept would be as for threads in general. Once they get big enough, the responses in them need to be indexed themselves, and there's no way of doing that.

..just a comment relating to (i hope) common sense as opposed to any major changes..i have noted that many of the same questions are posed over and over (and over) again..ex Does any one know aboiut hotel muget? limo vs rer from Roissy ect ect...do people know to put key words in the white bx? if not should intructions to new users be clearer? i find that at least half the stuff seems to be repeat questions with the same repeat answers,,if there was less of this, i think it would be easier to find new relavent info..so much for my 2 cents worth..

Was just taking a look at what people --now, of course I'm not the Fodor's editor. Actually I haven't written them. Not sure if I would.

Threads are cumbersome once they become big. And the search function isn't particularly useful. Perhaps what I'm also saying is this -- if you're planning a trip and you've done a search on some topics and found some relevant stuff that people would be interested in knowing about, cull that info and post that stuff to the superthread. That way, no one has to run another search to get the same info. Or perhaps miss some information that someone else might have gotten somewhere that was useful.

As the superthread gets big, we can always reindex by category -- for example, create subthreads for hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc. Or even by neighborhood. And then relink these to a main thread. Maybe I won't be here by then.

No, I don't think that this will replace a guide book, but I think that if enough people try to organize what's available here, we can all make it easier for people to find the information they/I need. Maybe people won't be asking the same questions over and over.

And of course I'm not saying that people shouldn't be asking questions. I don't know about the others, but sometimes I like to read and observe what others have to say before asking my own questions. A superthread would be useful in this regard. I don't know if people read newsgroups online, but many of them usually have an FAQ. So a superthread could also serve that purpose.

111op

Rereading my post I can see that once again I didn't manage to convey the tone that I wanted. In retrospect I can see how my comments such as "it's up to [the editors]" must have sounded like an accusation of presumptuousness, which must have been hard for you to read. When truly, 111op, this was not a reflection on you but on my own clumsiness with words.

Let me try again by expressing my concerns as a question, e.g., how to handle the superthread once it becomes very large ?, or, how to get around the fact that only editors have the ability to make 'permanent' indexed postings, such as articles ?

I made mention of the articles and hotel/restaurant reviews by Fodors editors because even though these are easy to find, and very succinct, the subjects of these articles often turn up in questions on the board. This tells me that people often ask questions quite apart from ease of searching. Some need is being fulfilled when they ask questions. Maybe it's the sense of being personally looked after. Or maybe they need the reassurance of a range of opinions instead of a summary of facts. Or maybe they just want to experiment with board participation.

Sue_xx_yy,

Don't be so hard on yourself ... this happens to me on here ALL the time

Hi Sue, I didn't think that what you said was presumptuous at all. But actually I *should* post links to Fodor's info on the superthread, which I'll do after I post this.

Now, again, I'm not disputing that people should be asking questions -- or that people would want to ask questions. Ultimately, whether the superthread succeeds or fails, obviously people will continue to do whatever they want anyway. All I'm hoping for is a more efficient collection of useful information and links all in one place, that's all, if that makes sense.

111op
I think this is an excellent idea. I was thinking of suggesting such a plan but was too lazy to follow up.
I have booked many hotels and B&B's recommended by those considerate enough to contribute. I also obtained 2 discounted flights at substantial savings.
The problem is, unless you tune in at the right time and the message is titled so you can retrieve it the messages are scrolled down into limbo and you miss them by the next day.
If set up properly we should be able to
make an entry under 'search this forum' and find what we want. This would also eliminate the need of those new to the forum from asking the same questions which have been answered many times. For example persons having knowledge of airline specials could title their thread as follows
Airline Special Faresor some such)
Airline ackfire Airlines
From /to: San Diego/London
Fare R/T350
Purchase by: Jul 17 to Jul 28,2004
Contact:www [email protected]
Remove this web on:Aug 29,2004
(this would have to be coordinated with Fodors in order to eliminate fares no longer valid and avoid cluttering the site)
This same system could be used for lodging.
Example: Enter Venice Hotels under'search this forum' and find what you need.
111op if interested I will work with you and maybe we ,and all others who are interested, can come up with a workable system to submit to fodors for approval
Hopefully it will be shorter than this long winded thread of mine.
don76

GSteed, et al,
Amen!
M

Wow. I'm always too lazy to contact the powers that be.

I think that you're right that threads keep disappearing and so it's difficult to keep things current. Apart from improving the search function, I think that Fodor's can also create more static online forums under their destinations section. For example, they could have sections on food, hotels, airlines, etc. under Paris and people could write there. That way, that stuff is always easily accessible. Some websites have this sort of function.

We could always e-mail Fodor's editors and alert them to this thread on this forum and they can read about what people think are the good and bad of various ideas.

By the way, you can check the Paris "superthread" here:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34519236

It's obviously a work of progress. I guess my idea is very primitive -- basically we can all keep posting summaries of various things to it. That way the thread will always remain visible. And as it gets better, we can refer people to it too. So this doesn't really require any special help from Fodor's. We can obviously create superthreads for Rome, London, etc. and also for the common travel questions that pop up regarding air and train tickets.