Open letter to Hal Cohen
 

Look at the board - see how it works? You have posted 3 separate treads titled "Tour Guides". First of all you only needed one. But more importantly, none of them identify WHERE you are talking about.<BR><BR>There are too many threads on this board for most people to open generic ones like "tour guides". If you want experts on all these different cities in Italy, include them in your title.

Agreed.<BR><BR>People don't realize that one of the best things that this forum (and others like it) can be used for is research--looking at old threads people can find out about travel information as long as it is accessible. It's a shame that so many lengthy postings with great information will be forgotten because the original poster didn't label his query in a manner that would allow people to see a list of threads and know the subject of each of them.

xxx, I thought all 3 of Hal's posts were very clear. Each one is for a separate country, and within each one Hal lists the cities he wants tour guides for.<BR><BR>xxx, when did you become the Fodors police? If you don't like a thread skip it, but it's not up to you to decide how Hal wishes to post his threads.

Andrea,<BR><BR>I have played police on this subject too. And I think it is simply good citizenship to help newer visitors here help keep this forum as helpfutl - - to ALL - - as possible.<BR><BR>I have tried not to be such a complainer - - I gave a long and friendly answer to a thread titled simply "Feedback please?" earlier today when I could have criticized the header.<BR><BR>But imagine what a mess if the board was 20-30%<BR><BR>"Help"<BR><BR>"Do you know"<BR><BR>"I am wondering"<BR><BR>"Who can tell me"<BR><BR>"Where would I find"<BR><BR>We really DO want to skip the threads in which we are not interested. And meaningful titles allow both skipping - - and finding - - the threads for which we have something to say.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR><BR>

If we "need" policing, then there should be more done about the incredibly rude,hateful posts that show up here almost daily.I don't mind clicking the mouse and moving on to the next post when it is just a question,not intended to hurt or mock.It is the ugly stuff that someone should write "open letters" about ...

Andrea, I was not trying to "police" the board. I was trying to help Hal out. How many people who know about a good tour guide in Siena will know too open a thread that simply says "tour guide"??????

. . . . and from the responses to his threads so far (zero) it would appear I was right.

Frankly I think posts like this one offering helpful suggestions to new posters so that they can get better responses are perfectly fine. Of course, rudeness doesn't need to be a part of such a post (and I don't think this post contained any rudeness.) How else are new posters to learn how to better use this forum than by being given helpful hints from other posters? I think we all profit in the long run if this board becomes more user friendly by the understanding of all posters how it can work best.

It's not entirely Hal's fault. When he posted his messages, he selected a different "keyword" for each: Italy, France, and Spain. He apparently thought that this would distinguish them somehow. (It doesn't, of course, unless one happens to be searching for posts about a particular country.)

Andrea, you want to be the Miss Manners. But complaining about xxx's very proper post sure didn't do anything to help poor Mr. Cohen. <BR><BR>Read xxx's original post, for the life of me I don't see anything rude or disrespectful. He (she?) just made a VERY valuable suggestion. <BR>

Gotcha. Will do better in future. Thanks for your input.