Hi everyone,

I am moving this post to the Lounge. I also wanted to address some of the points above. Veteran Fodorites - I know that it can be a bit annoying to encounter numerous vague posts from new members. But please remember that not everyone has the same knowledge of the boards or the travel expertise you have. As the guidelines state, we want to keep Fodor's fun for everyone.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone about the Tips For New Visitors section of our FAQ http://www.fodors.com/faq/tips.cfm. Please feel free to direct new posters to this link as well so that they can learn the best ways of participating in our community.

Finally, if you truly have a problem with a poster, please refrain from making personal attacks. Instead, press the triangle button to alert the moderators.

Subcategory: people who are designated YaySayers for some area and can't for a moment imagine anyone else knows as much or as definitively as they do.

"No, wrong, don't EVER go to the Good Eats restaurant! Locals NEVER go there."

"No, that's absolutely the WRONG way to get there. You want to go First st. to Rte. 777 - it's much prettier and even if it takes 17 hrs. longer, no one who knows the area would tell you to take the Interstate."

"Sorry but XYZ state is MUCH better than ABC state for what you want. ABC state is barren and the people scratch themselves all the time. XYZ state is shangri-la."

I think there are far less dumb questions than there are rude, self-righteous replies.

Some people forget what it's like to be young and energetic and to enjoy a frenetic pace. Some people just can't see beyond their own preferences to actually consider that not everyone travels the same way. Such is life on a travel message board.

I confess that I flew around the world in just a week once, so I am qualified to reply to these people.

Paris-Seoul-Tokyo-Sydney-Los Angeles-Paris

I also did Paris-Hong Kong-Vancouver-Seattle-Atlanta-Paris once, but it took me a little bit longer.

I agree that there are different travel styles. But there is also a bottomline reality-check that I think it's OK to mention. It's really NOT possible to "see" 6 cities in 3 countries in 2 days. Or to find 3-star hotels in Paris and London for 50 euro a night. Things like that... I do think it's OK to say "not possible". -suze

Doesn't this depend on whether the tip is about seeing the places or making the journey.

There is great pleasure in being able to say I flew around the world. One day I really want to drive route 66 (cliché I know)

18 days of driving. But that's not the point. Ill probably hate bits of it and remember it with more pleasure than I felt at the time.

HOWEVER, If I ask some one what they think and they reply that I'm bonkers - i have no one to blame but myself for asking. If people ask for advice, why are they so affronted when they are actually given advice?

Especially when they start off "Is this itinerary crazy?"... almost always the answer is YES.

BTW, the FAQ referred to by Amy_D does not cover the basic trip-planning info I referred to. The point of the half-day taken in moving is to help people understand that when they are planning their itinerary they need to take that into consideration. The fact that (Country) is not a theme park means you should realize it takes time to get around. Etc.

I'd hope people would realize I want to help them start planning, so when the do ask questions they can ask really good ones.

It would be nice if we had a fill in the basics template. Or mayne there is one somewhere, if not anyone care to start one? 10 things we really need to know so we can help you. And see if we can limit to 10 things>>??
1. Have you booked your flight?
2. How much time do you have?
3. Budget
4. etc, etc

cold, I read your comment about "8k - zero sites" to my husband just now, he's still laughing (or crying). Once upon a time we took our 3 teens to Europe . . .enough said. Well, maybe this - the 18 year old was moping because his friends were leaving for college while he was gone, the 16 year old thought that she should be traveling in Europe with her friends not her family, but god bless the 13 year old, who not only loved every minute she was awake (after those late mornings hah) but was the voice in the back seat in Normandy who piped up "Bayeaux, I think we just studied that in social studies this year - there's a really cool tapestry there, you know." No, we apparently did not know that, but thanks to her we not only had a great lunch in a charming town, but saw that magnificent tapestry.

We all start somewhere.

We went to Italy to see a niece who was studying in Florence. After that we went to Sicily, where we had never been. She and a platonic boy friend joined us there. We had a great time. I called the boy The Sponge, because he did not pay for anything and we had only met him once years ago, stopped every young woman in Cefalu and asked her to marry him. We each had different views of the world and what we saw.

The Sponge eventually married an Italian years later and we are still close to our niece.

One of the reasons why I have stayed with this forum is that it is not anodyne. We have real people here, with personalities and opinions. Some of them I like insofar as one can know a person from posting style, while others seem less attractive to me.

We could do with a little less of the personal attacks (not many people do it, but it's unsavoury when it happens), and some people do not distinguish between forthrightness and rudeness in the same way that I do.

But if this forum ever becomes saccharine-sweet, I'm gone.

DD had a friend who was a sponge. Here in the old US of A. He's grown and married with kids and is a scout leader, etc. A really nice friendly guy. But when he was 18-20 years old he just accepted everything that came his way, never offered to share costs or anything, went along for the ride. The only time he ever gave back was once when he went ocean fishing (on a friend's boat) and came back to give us a big fish -- REALLY big fish. Of course, he used our deck, outdoor table, knives, etc to clean the fish first! It was a freakin' mess! I often wonder if he realizes now what a sponge he was.

My reaction to any post that asks "Are we crazy?" is the same as Suze's. The answer is usually/always yes. "Are we crazy?" invariably prefaces an impossible itinerary.

I'm a great fan of guidebooks, not only because they give the potential traveler ideas about where to go and what to see, but also because they are an essential aid in that all-important pre-trip daydreaming.

I'm surprised at how often people have neglected to take what is to me an essential step before they travel. I've come to know about some of my all-time favorite travel experiences (e.g.Quedlinburg and the Spreewald; Cuenca and Ronda, Spain) by aimless reading of a guidebook.

<I'm surprised at how often people have neglected to take what is to me an essential step before they travel>

you mean like get a MAP (lol)! My mouth always drops open when we're wWAY into trip planning, the person is obviously confused, and finally says something like "maybe I need to look at a map?"

YA THINK ;-)

Dayenu: heyl my reply was the first to your Scandinavia thread and was NOT serious. too subtle, I guess.

Seems pretty simple:

If you don't like a poster's query, ignore it and don't post on that thread.
If you have posted questions and don't like some of the answers you get, ignore them.

OK
Problem solved.

Cyanna - I chuckled at your post.

And I do agree with suze that some things just aren't possible, or desirable (I'm thinking of that group tour itinerary posted a few weeks ago that took in everything from England to Italy in 10 days), or allotting only one day to visit Rome.

I believe that info can be conveyed without sounding condescending, or by mocking the person asking the questions.

I, too, was laughing at cold's post. Between the time change readjustment and being a teenager, my son had a hard time waking up before noon each day on our recent mediterranean cruise.....which left about 3-4 hours to see most of the ports each day.

You know something, there are stupid questions. I have asked them and you have asked them. And to ignore the fact that some questions are stupid is to encourage more stupid questions. Once a person reaches adulthood they should not be cuddled. Let them think through a problem before asking.
There are things called maps, guide books, and fora.

It is an interesting psychology as well. How do they find these fora, specks in the cybor universe, but then not read or ignore what is previously posted.

When you encourage people to act like adukts, strangely enough most do.