im not sure if this topic has been covered, but here are my thoughts:

i dont have a lot of time to read all the threads and posts, but i end up spending too much time wading through the ones that are of little or no interest to me. for instance, i'll see a thread titled "can you help me find a hotel" or "please critique my itinerary", etc. so often, it is for a city or country i am not planning to visit, or have not visited.

it would be much for efficient for everyone in the forum if the name of the hotel, city or country, etc, is included in the title. this way, the reader has at least a general idea of what expect. i hope others agree with me.

thanks for listening, and for all the great ideas ive received from other members.

xplors

ttt

rex has been trying to slay this dragon for years...

Except it's a windmill.

of course this is an excellent idea. any thoughts on how we will get everone to cooperate? this has been going on for YEARS.

"...i end up spending too much time wading through the ones that are of little or no interest to me...."

IMO the heart of the "problem" lies in your own decision-making.

Hate to say it but Dukey's right. You can solve this problem for yourself, just don't open the posts or only take a quick glance to see what city or country is involved. Believe me that will be easier than trying to control what people chose to title their own threads, time has proved that here.

Sometimes "inefficient" posts more replies than the clear ones!

... get more replies...

I always get a kick out of the number of replies a vaguely worded question gets after the 3 or 4 suggestions to repost. Usually the original question is answered quite nicely anyway.

The problem is that the option to classify by country for search purposes seems to be misleading a fair number of first-time posters. Why not add the country automatically to the displayed title: that might go some way to meeting the point.

Agree with dukey and suze. Just don't click on any non-specific threads unless you are willing to take potluck. Sometimes, though, potluck can hold some nice little surprises. Efficiency isn't everything. J.

ttt

thanks for your responses. im pretty new in these parts...lol...but i figured this path had been travelled before.

let me clarify. when i said, "but i end up spending too much time wading through the ones that are of little or no interest to me" - i should explain that if i open a thread and im not interested, i do close it right away. so its not that i read it all, or even some of it, and then think "what a waste of time". the wading i mentioned is not exactly inside all of the extraneous threads, but more my time spent opening them, in the event they are about london or paris. i probably chose the wrong word there.

case in point - i saw a thread that said something like "did i make the right decision". i cant find it now, and those werent the exact words, but i did click on it, and it was about london. so, if i dont click on the vague headings, i may be missing something on london or paris!

maybe i should have titled this thread "free beer", or something to grab peoples attention. i think that is one reason members are sometimes vague. they want as many people to click on their threads as possible!

btw, what means ttt?

to the top

I have observed vague questions often get tons of answers. I belive that's because everyone has an opinion. If you want to know of a hotel under $100 in Nice with air con, for example, there are only a few people with that specific experience.

Now you ask: is this itinerary feasible?, train or plane, how to pack, what to wear, how to deal with money, etc. EVERYone can chime in with their views and there is no right or wrong answer.

thx, re ttt. from now on, i'll say bbb, which stands for bumpety bump bump...lol

suze:

i hear what youre saying about vague thread. almost everybody has an opinion about packing or money, etc, so of course that sort of vague thread is going to yield a ton of responses. but if you want to know about hotels in nice for under $100, then say "which hotel in nice for under $100?", instead of "which hotel?"

hey i'm 100% in agreement, i just don't know how you are going to make it happen... if Rex can't...

Have you ever tried herding cats?

i suppose the only thing we can try to do is to change the way people post in the forum...one member at a time...