1. Include your destination city in the message title. Danger! This requires typing more words than the tiny box allows. Fear not; all words will be included. The arrow keys are your friends.

2. Please try to avoid misspellings, especially in your headlines. This (unreasonably, imho) makes Fodorites wretch and puke. So feared is the occasional, misspelled word that Fodorites feel compelled to continually correct their own misdeeds before others do. This is to prove that the poster indeed knew of the errant keypunch and that no further admonition is necessary. Pre-emptive forgiveness...Certain absolution...No one is liked more here than a good spellar.

3. Please, if you must post a trolling query, be better at it. Headlines beginning with, "Why do..." are certain setups. Try the equally powerful but less-used, "How's come..."

More rules for the primer are welcome!

If you're looking for help with airline tickets, please include where you are departing from, where you are flying to, and the departure and return dates. If your dates are flexible, give us a couple of dates. If you can fly out of or into a different airport, add that too. Also say how many people are traveling together.

Same goes for hotels.

4. If, after reading a headline and post, you discover the topic is of no interest to you -- respond anyway! The "post my reply" button is tantamount to REAL power!

Ed: Thanks for starting this post.

Some indication that the poster has done a little bit of work on his or her own is always appreciated. I'm always more inclined to offer help to those that know that the Napa Valley is not between San Francisco and Los Angeles. If more people had gone to their local K-mart and bought a 4.95 Rand McNally road atlas, that chain would not be in the shape it's in (although I realize there are those who think that's a good thing.)

It never hurts to indicate how much money you're willing to spend on your upcoming venture. I'm not going to recommend my favorite $60-a-night motel if you desire (and are willing to pay for) the deluxe treatment. (And if I knew where you could get that treatment for $60/night, I'm not telling you. They'll go out of business soon enough.)

Incidentally, Google is a good search engine. You can often find good information with it about various destinations. Armed with that information, you can come here and ask questions that will refine that information. You'll get better information. And more of it.

Yes, George!

I'm more willing to spend a few minutes typing a response to someone who has indicated they tried a bit on their own.

And please, try to maintain a small sense of humor.

If you see a headline topic that has been previously posted and dealt with, PLEASE don't read it if it will irritate you. I am weary of the responses that tell posters that their question is "dumb, stupid, repetitive,etc". Be nice, or say nothing at all.

Also, try doing a search using the search box at the top of the page. You may find tons of info without having to post your own message.

It's also helpful to give an idea of who will be going on the trip. A couple in their 20s might have different interests than a family of five.

Please don't top other posts just for reference. It may be days before the original poster gets back to this site and the referenced-topped posts will not be kept together with the original post. When you top older posts, it just pushes further down other people's legitimate questions. (And really how many of you read past post #100?)

For those of you who are new, this board is a hobby for 99.99% of the people here. If your post doesn't have an answer in 10 minutes, don't repost the question. Some of us do have legitimate jobs and can only get to this board once a day. If your post hasn't been answered in 3 days time, then you may want to think about a repost.

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR CAPS LOCK ON SO THAT THE ENTIRE POST, TITLE AND ALL, WILL BE IN CAPITAL LETTERS!

Just ignore nasty remarks. This type of poster just wants attention and any reponse just exacerbates the problem.

This is all good advice. Topping so it doesn't sink to the bottom and oblivion.

Mmmmm. "No one is liked more here than a good spellar [sic]." Do they like good spellers too?

Get a grip Susan, don't you recognize a joke--shesh. Some of you are so tiresome.

Deer Grip,

Pleese knote the secund "e" in "sheesh". And Susan, their are onely FOUR "m"'s in "Mmmm".

To scroll

I disagree with your contention that 99.99% are here for a hobby. I'd guess easily a third of the people are here to advertise their goods tho usually disguised to look like a tourist opinion. At least that's the way the Caribbean forum is. Its really blatant over there, many of the posts about the villas in the Virgin Islands are obvious posers.

So my 2 cents about getting the most out of your post is to realize what the source of the advice might be.

The moniker may be a joke, but this is not:

IF YOU DON'T HAVE SOMETHING NICE TO SAY,THEN SAY NOTHING AT ALL

IF A POST DOESN'T INTEREST YOU (i.e. about weddings or traveling with babies) SKIP THE POST. DO NOT REPLY BY SAYING THE POST IS STUPID OR GETTING INTO A HEATED ARGUMENT

P.S. I used caps on purpose as I was shouting, I was not trying to be obnoxious.

If a forum needs a post to explain "how to use this forum", then its design is poor.

Not how to use the forum, how to get the most from the forum.

Please be as vague as possible to generate the most questions and responses, such as: "looking for good hotel in USA that is cheap." Or, "how much are flights between the US and Europe?" Of course, there is always the classic "what's the weather like there?"