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.