Jud Compton

Someone suggested separate forum pages for California and Hawaii. I was against it. But now, I wonder. On this page there are 50 questions in 20 hours. Even the second 50 are in less than 48 hours. Not sure what the answer is, but since politicans can change their views, how about an occasional traveler changing his view? Wotcha theenk?

cass

Separating out Hawaii and Alaska from the Lower 48 has been suggested before, and it seems an excellent idea to me. But the Forum-Meisters seem to ignore the suggestion, and it's possible the technical problems of accomplishing that (adding a new link to the main "Forums" page) would be so difficult for them that the site would be shut down altogether for weeks, which we don't want, right?

The other comment is that you must remember that there are one or two poor souls who live on this forum and post repeatedly, sometimes with inane or downright nutsy agendas -- especially over the weekends or when school's out or the weather's bad.

Aisling Brennan

I just wanted to let you know that we are aware that a lot of posts go unanswered due to the volume received daily, and it is a cause for concern for us at Fodors.com. Let me assure you that we are looking into the problem and hope to resolve it soon.

Nevertheless let me reiterate that we do listen to your suggestions and care about what you think. So keep them coming!

Best Regards,
Aisling Brennan
Senior Website Producer
Fodors.com

danny

To add to what Aisling said above, a bunch of us at Fodors.com are having a meeting tomorrow (Feb. 2) to discuss how we might split up the USA forums. Some of us are leaning toward giving California, Florida, and Hawaii separate pages.

Any comments? They'd indeed be appreciated.

Yours truly,
Danny Mangin
Editorial Director

cass

Hi, me again, and on behalf of a bunch of us, thanks for letting us know and thanks for asking our thoughts. Delighted to see Hawaii split off, since few queries ever lump it with other trips or questions (except the occasional "Hawaii or Caribbean" sort of question). But not 100% convinced re:Florida or California, esp. since a lot of tourists from overseas are likely to ask questions that cover an entire coast or quadrant of the country. Am also concerned about jamming the system with a lot of backing-and-forthing between pages: e.g., I sometimes check out both Europe and US and have wished I didn't have to go back through the main forums "crossing" page. But I can't even imagine the technological quirks you're up against -- so good luck, and thanks again.

ilisa

Rather than separating Florida into another forum, how about creating a forum for Disney World? I realize that it is an attraction rather than a region of the country (though many might debate that), but it comes up so often on this forum and is often treated as separate from the rest of Florida.

Troy

I like Ilisa's idea alot. Could Las Vegas be included in that idea? It is both a region and an attraction These two topics sure do get tons of threads. I do echo Cass's concern about the lag created in jumping from page to page, although it is something we already contend with.

I'd like to bring up another point. I alway respond with my email address. Do I really need to be concerned with my posts at this forum generating spam? I like the personal feel of thinking that I am discussing topics with "real" people when I see addresses. When I see "@nospam.com" I wonder the genuiness (word?) of the poster. Just food for thought. Thanks!

Lori

Tony, I am one of those people who use the nospam.com in my moniker. I have been the recipient of spam from individuals who haven't agreed with some of my responses. It's an unfortunate world that we live in, so don't disregard some of the valuable information that is posted here from people who won't put their actual e-mail addresses. My question to fodors, do we really need to post an e-mail address?

John

Thanks, Fodors, for hosting this great resource, and thanks also for asking for user feedback.
I personally don't favor further subdivision of the US forum, since many postings ask comparative questions, like "should I go to Hawaii or Florida" or some such. As another reader said, too, many users are looking at multiple-destination travel, so subdivision (especially of contiguous 48 states) might prove awkward.
Instead, I think a major speedup and strengthening of the search function, with associated promotion on the site, might help with some of the problems of congestion or repetition.
We know you've experienced incredible growth in use, and for all the glitches in this site, I think it's a great example of the power of the Internet in improving one area of people's knowledge.
PS your guidebooks are great, too.

John Doerper

Dear Danny:
How about splitting off the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington)? I have found that many people visiting the region drive from California north, to Oregon and Washington, or drive from Washington/Oregon south to California. This is especially true in summer. I am always surprised by how many Pacific Northwest postings ask for information about California, and vice versa.
I agree that Florida, Disneyworld, and Las Vegas are worlds of their own.

anonymous

I'm deadly serious, but wouldn't sign my real name for obvious reasons.
I'm all for Foror's pulling off Las Vegas, WDW and Hawaii so the rest of us wouldn't have to put up with all the inanities!

Diane

I got this email just for posting on fodors and it has worked out wonderfully. Anyway, I vote for giving Hawaii its own forum. I'd leave all others in the US forum as so many posts involve touring the West Coast or cross-country driving.

Debbie

With few exceptions, it seems like just about anything/anywhere could qualify for its own site. What about an outline map of the US on the 'home' page (maybe outlined around the word FORUMS), where you'd be able to click on a certain state and get info specific to that area. Some states (California comes to mind) could also be split into geographic regions (Northern/Southern/Desert, etc).

Or a site just for theme parks, National Parks&Mouments, etc.

Food for thought ...

April

I'd like to see Hawaii only separated. As Cass mentioned several states can be included in one trip (say, California, Oregon and Washington) so I think it would be too confusing to cut out some mainland states.

Ann

Since the people at Fodors are actually paying attention, I'd vote for making a new area for Hawaii since that is such a seperate destination. One might be driving cross-country and decide to check out LV or stop at DisneyWorld based on some of our discussions, but no one decides to drop in on Hawaii! Also, there seems to be a huge amount of discussion specifically about Hawaii, but if you start to segregate small areas of rest of the US, things would become too specific and I fear some of the interest here would be lost.

I hope the editors at Fodors will report back to us soon on how their Feb. 2nd meeting went. We're all interested.

Danny

Ann --

The report back from the Feb. 2 meeting at Fodors.com is this: We're going to keep reading what the forum users are writing about this issue. Your point about people not just "dropping in" on Hawaii is well taken. So, too, is the one made by you and others that because many people traveling in the Lower 48 visit multiple states the discussions in the U.S. forum might become fragmented should we introduce separate forums for California, Florida, or anywhere else.

So no decision yet. We'll keep researching and reading the comments here and elsewhere.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your opinions -- not that we doubted for a minute that our forum users would be shy about doing so!

Bye for now…

Danny Mangin
Editorial Director

Top

So, the decision to split up the forum didn't come completely out of the blue!

lisa

And people have been complaining about the overwhelming number of Hawaii posts for quite a while. It was SO nice during that brief time that Hawaii WAS separate. No one (except travel agents) had a problem with it....most people were wailing about England, France and Italy being separated from the European forum. Getting rid of Hawaii here was like being able to watch T.V. with no commercials!

xxx

Now it looks like someone's impersonating Lisa.