Some people come on board here and ask a question like "Which is best, Oslo or Athens?" Which is the best hotel in Mudville? Which is the best restaurant in Essenburg? Then faithful Fodorites respond with their input, most of which is speculation because the eager newbie did not bother to make any mention of:

Who they are: age, gender, number,

Where they are from and going to:

What they want to see and do.

Why they want to do this stuff.

When they are going to do this stuff.

How much they want to spend, $, $$, $$$.

How they plan to go from place to place.

The newbie often gives a time frame and catalog of cities to visit. Said itinerary almost always indicates that the newbie has never looked at a map of Europe.

Just saying. If people want answers they better ask intelligent questions.

You'd think there was a poem...

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

LOL Bilbo

OP does have a point though. The more information provided in the OP the better the information/suggestions given.

spaarne is completely wright.
Therefore the most read counterquestions in all travel forums are:
what are you interested in?
when will you travel (in order to give info about convenient flights, beaches or mountain hikes)?
in some few cases, these questions are really answered.
Often, Fodorits continue the chat among themselves even if the OP doesn't reappear.

In the more than 10 years that I try to help people in travel forums, I saw some rather original questions, like

"is there anything to see in Athens?
which Greek island can best be visited in a day trip from Istanbul?
is Switzerland safe for a young couple?
which is the best daytrip from Sevilla to Morocco?
I'm on a extremely tight budget: I go first to Titlis and then to Interlaken for adventure sports and hope that I can economise some money, if I take a bus to Jungfraujoch instead of the train: which company?
I have to go to Mallorca for a wedding and will then go 3 days to Santorini for a beach holiday. Which company offers the cheapest direct flights?
I want to visit Italy (Cincaterra, Florence, LakeComo city, Venice) and Croatia (Rovinj, Pula, Hvar). I'v already booked the flight between these 2 countries (Rome to Zagreb), now I need your help for the local transports.
I will land at Milan in late afternoon and need a car with driver for Taormina"

After all, everybody is free to ask and everybody is free to anwer or not.

sounds like if you dislike answering questions and newbies who aren't sharp enough for you and aren't meeting your criteria, maybe you should find another hobby. Strangers on the internet trying to find travel info don't need lectures on how dumb their questions are and how they aren't meeting some random person's standards who has set themself up as monitor of a forum they don't own.

I'm sorry but there are a few posters here who will tell you to
go by train no matter what the destination is

that you should never drive after a trans-Atlantic flight because of jetlag

all hotel rooms in Paris are "small"

Zurich is a "business city"

and on and on

But they are right. On the Steves' site someone asked about best hostels in Italy. Got offended and removed the question after getting responses of when and where. She thought the responses were making her look foolish. At least on the Steves' site you can remove your own postings.

'Strangers on the internet trying to find travel info don't need lectures on how dumb their questions are '

Regulars on the internet don't need lectures on how dumb their threads are.

When was it you posted something positive ?

I do agree with your point...but I much prefer that and the open ended speculation over pick your poison (The immorality of Paris rentals, other people's parenting, tipping, "this is a lounge topic", bad tourists, and any number of tiny issues this forum likes to wrangle over and judge eternally).

The vagueness is sometimes due to fishing, I think. If I post something vague- which is generally not my problem, I'm sure y'all get tire of wading through my longer posts- it's because I don't know what exactly I'm looking for and that's why I'm here. If I knew what I was looking for, I'd be deep into a guidebook.

On the other hand...posters who are apparently unaware of the existence of maps and those that have such a small budget I feel like they must never leave their house...those are my pet peeves. And the people who are genuinely surprised there will be winter conditions...in the mountains...in the winter

Surely, if you don't like the questions the OP ask you have two options, ask questions back or more onto another thread. Yes, many times the OP is on a fishing exhibition, which seems fine to me. But fishing with the wrong bait gets the wrong fish.

Fair enough, Bilbo...but just as often, fishing with the "right" bait catches things only distantly related to fish!

Well, nobody's perfect, aren't we? There are always lazy questions and cut-sharp answers. I'm okay with that (I was a fool before my first trip too. Not sure I ain't that now.) I'm just not okay when a person thinks he/she is above others and tells others to stop posting. We are equal in our triviality.

"we are equal in our trivialty" has just become another of my world standard concepts which will sit in my daily book along with

"Art is our spinach", now can you name the famous artist who coined that one?

Fantastic.

Artist : Popeye !

What do I win ?