posting efficiently
 

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...

Well another kink in the plan is that the posters using vague titles are most often new to the forum and may not stay around after asking a few questions. Many "regulars" rarely start posts themselves (myself included).

Did someone mention free beer?

There are ways to avoid spending too much time.

Click on your name - it will pull up all your posts.

Click on the country's name you'll be traveling to, and open posts with the topic you think will help you.

Type a key word into search window and open the posts you need.

This posts will sink into oblivion tomorrow only to be replaced by "hotel question" and "where should I go" ;)

Increasingly, I have tried to focus on dealing with this "problem" as politely as I know how. Postings with vaguely worded headers are like weeds growing up in the cracks of a sidewalk, or cigarette butts dropped in the parking lot. The best that can be done (since so often they come from just being new and oblivious to the purpose of message headers)... is to politely ask... "please don't do that"... and point out why.

If left uncurbed, there is the theoretical "risk" that other newbies will see poorly worded headers... think that they reprsent a perfectly accepted standard... and thus proliferate. But I must confess, I'm not sure that they will ever rise to more than one or two per hundred new posts... nor will they likely ever go away.

The solution I would most like to see... is for moderators (or monitors?) who represent Fodor's... to send any newbie who posts a message header like &quot;Help!&quot; - - a polite e-mail instructing them on how to best use the forum. After all, <i><u>they</u></i> have their e-mail address. But even when I have sent such a suggestion to [email protected] (e-mailed them the &quot;offending&quot; thread) I think they are unwilling or unprepared to do it, except, perhaps, on a rare whim.

I actually think it's even more common on the US forum.

It's a litt nuisance. Dukey is mostly right - - if you're clicking too often - - or too &quot;inefficiently&quot; on threads that are &quot;wasting&quot; your time, then <i><u>you</u></i> have the selectivity problem - - if you keep coming here, and keep doing that!

Best wishes,

Rex

lol, mark

rex:

yikes...ive never seen a thread titled just &quot;help!&quot;. and if i do, i think i wont open it, just on principal...hehe. as for my time management problem - j/k - as i said in my second post, i may have overstated the time spent. i probably shouldnt have used the word &quot;wading&quot;. my point, and i know you know, is that i hoped the vague posters (for lack of a better term) would read my thread and subsequently change their ways. i have a dream!

&lt;&lt; yikes...ive never seen a thread titled just &quot;help!&quot; &gt;&gt;

Oh, they're abundant enough!

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34817972

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34816296

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34815873

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34787080

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34752553

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34751351

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34743466

It took me about one minute to find these, partly because I tried to offer some polite advice on each of them, to &quot;please don't do this&quot;...

And another new one shows up, almost every day...

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34832802

Nothing to lament, of course...

Newcomers are the lifeblood of this forum. If they didn't keep arriving, this would quickly regress to being a few dozen people just talking to each other.

I don't like to be too critical, but it would help tremendously in reading posts if the author would follow normal punctuation/gramatical practices, such as capitalizing &quot;I&quot; when referring to the first person.

Thanks

I meant &quot;grammatical,&quot; of course.

&lt;&lt; ...such as capitalizing &quot;I&quot; when referring to the first person... &gt;&gt;

Well, personally...

...je ne comprend pas / ich verstehe nicht...

...we observe this particular practice in _e_nglish, of writing &quot;I&quot; <i>en majuscules</i>...

Any other time, here on the internet, &quot;we&quot; refer to it as &quot;shouting&quot;... to write <i>an entire word</i>, in all CAPITALS!

;)

Generally, I don't open posts with vague titles, except when I see that there are more than 10 responses, which may indicate something interesting. ((*))

I think part of the problem may be that inexperienced posters think they are posting to a specific country/state board. Here's an edited version about how to post from the board's FAQ:

&quot;How can I post my own message? First, select the forum that best applies to your question. Then click on POST A NEW MESSAGE (right under the forum name), and a new screen will appear.... <b>Then, select one or more search topics that describe (sic) your message.</b> (my bold) Finally, create a title - make sure it is concise and clearly describes your message (and destination, if applicable) -- and write your message in the space provided, then hit the button marked POST MY MESSAGE. &quot;

I think the sentence in bold is confusing in that it leads new posters to believe they are posting to the selected search topic instead of a general Europe, US, etc. board. I would encourage the decision makers at HQ to make that clearer in the FAQ.

I do try to be very specific posting if I can't find a post which answers my questions. Of course, the last time I did that, I got very little in reply - but I did get something. Too specific, I guess.