My wife and I have decided to fulfill a promise and take our granddaughter to Paris in the fall. We have been there several times in the last few years but would like your opinion on a hotel we have not used. Has anyone been to "Best Western Marais Bastille. It's in the 11th (usually stay in 6th) but it looks nice and the price is reasonable.

I strongly recommend that you repost with a subject such as "Need info on Best Western Marais Bastille, Paris".

Everyone here is posting because they need help, but you want to be sure that the people that know that hotel will open your post, which unfortunately they may skip over because of a vague subject line.

oberost - - we need YOUR help. Please don't give newcomers (and I realize that you are NOT one of them, with almost 50 posts in the past 6 months or so) the impression that it is acceptable to post a message with a header like this.

What if every person posting here, used the header "Help?" or "Do you know?" or "Could you please tell me?"

Like a newspaper without any headlines, this forum would be deplorable if message headers didn't convey SOMEthing about what the question seeks to find out.

Best wishes,

Rex

Rex, gee I never realized that the titles had to be of the "acceptable" variety. And, just who determines what is acceptable?
Please back off and relax.

Maybe if you log on here some day, and every single question has the message header "Your help, please?" - - then you might come up with what is YOUR definition of an "acceptable" message header.

I stand by my perspective. This message does NOT have an "acceptable" header.

I refuse to accept it.

I saw an even more useless one yesterday. it said "travel info" like that's different from any other post here? i agree with rex. please put something in your title that gives us a clue what you're looking for.

Howard "who determines what's acceptable"? how about anyone with an IQ over 50 who knows the difference between a title that says something about the post and a title that says nothing.

Interestingly, Fodors provides their view of acceptable heading in their FAQs (not that any poster would demean themselves by reading the FAQs before posting), "Finally, create a title - make sure it is concise and clearly describes your message (and destination, if applicable)..."

I guess if the title is vague and there aren't many responses, the poster will find the lack of interest 'acceptable'. At least some of you are nice enough to explain why...

In an ideal world, all posters would create perfect headings. But they don't.

Personally, a heading like that usually grabs my attention, because I'm thinking "Gee, maybe no one will bother to read it." Then, of course, I realize not to worry - Rex will.

OK, I'll set myself up for slamming too. But you can add me to the list of those who think offering helpful advice as to how this forum will serve you better is not being rude. Why should anyone object to a few polite comments offering advice in posting. After all, the person coming here is seeking advice anyway so why not add advice that will help him get his goal better.

St. Cirq., thanks for the laugh. "Rex will" or in this case you did too!

Hey, arbiters of the acceptable: I, too, favor clear, meaningful titles as much as you do. I just object to the pompousness of some of the self-appointed rulemakers.

To return to the subject, if the beleaguered poster is still reading, the Best Western chain in France is different from the Best Western in the US. They try to fit into their environment in France. We actually ate a wonderful meal unbeknownst in one of their restaurants and walked out surprised to see it was a Best Western.

The Marais is "in" right now so you will probably be fine although I've not stayed there. If you want more information, you could do a search in the window above for the hotel name. Just a suggestion.

There are wonderful restaurants in the area and it's very picturesque.

Enjoy your trip.

Personally, I find posts with a little "mystery" in the titles , the ones I open first!

Maybe I just am a little more curious than the rest .

If the title is too specific, I may not even open them and maybe they just want an answer about opening hours ,or guide books ,or cuisine, or culture, that I might have an answer to but I ignore them.

Let's not get on anyone's case about how they go about their posts. This is not and never will be a perfect world..it's supposed to be fun...but there seem to be a lot of anal post police around!

Jody, that last paragraph says it all!

I am not a post police freak, but I do know that if a title does not catch my eye I tend to skip it. This one just happened to because I am waiting for a phone call.

In all fairness to all involved in this dispute, would not most of us agree that specific titles tend to get more specific answers?

Yes! Absolutely, Bob, specific titles get more specific answers. BUT the people asking questions don't always KNOW to post specific questions, so some of us "regulars" read ALL the post so that maybe we can help the people who are new and don't know how to post a message that elicits the best replies.

That said, of course, very specific queries merit the best answers.

hey, howard, the only reply I saw that is even a bit pompous is the one by the guy who pretends not to know what "acceptable" means and then tells a polite responder to "back off". there was nothing pompous about either of the first two replies. and I'm curious why you singled out Rex over jenifer -- both were polite, but apparently you have a problem with Rex?

"Let's not get on anyone's case about how they go about their posts. This is not and never will be a perfect world..it's supposed to be fun...but there seem to be a lot of anal post police around!"

then howard says "that last paragraph says it all".

so, howard, why do you think it's ok for you to get on people's posts -- particularly the ones where people are trying to be helpful? seems to me you're the anal post police, telling rex, jenifer and others how NOT to post.

1 vague posting - 17 replies (now 18) -- 1 reply actually relevant to the question. So much ado about nothing.

aha. my point exactly. if this post had been titled something like "Best Western Marais Bastille in Paris" I bet there would have been a bunch of relative answers. but instead, the stupid title only attracted people looking to complain about the stupid title. how could anyone who knows anything about the hotel in question know to look here to answer it?