Right below this post are two others. One is titled Martha's Vineyard, posted at 8:34 and has no responses. The other, posted 7 minutes later at 8:41 has seven responses and is titled "Which hotel of the 3?".

I assume that most people have heard of Martha's Vineyard but looking at the other post and the first few responses to it I had no idea what hotels these people were talking about?

So what does this mean?

You took the words out of my mouth--so to speak.

The post with the ambiguous heading asks some fairly specific questions and there seems to be a dialogue between the OP and someone who can answer the query. Makes sense to me. The question about Martha's Vineyard is very general and open ended.

What does it mean?

People respond faster to questions they can answer easily.

What does what mean? Could you be more specific?

OK, obxgirl good analysis, but I wan't to hear from the critics who constantly complain about people who are not specific enough in their titles, when it turns out it doesen't seem to matter.

This post was orginally in the Arizona section of the site. When someone answered that post, it pops up to the top of the list when you open up travel talk.

The time listed for a post is the time of the most recent reply -- the "3 hotels" post took 2 days to accumulate its responses.

Froggy, there is no "Arizona section." No matter what state you choose for a keyword, all the posts come to the US board. The keyword is a search tool, not a separate board.

Gene, just because you have asked a specific question doesn't guarantee quick answers.

Heavily populated destinations get more traffic because more people have been there.

Martha's Vinyard is a small place and it may be that no one reading the board right now has been there.

The "Which Hotel of the Three" is dialog between two posters that are both trying to figure out which hotel of the three. Neither poster has received very good response.

The Martha's Vineyard post isn't getting responses because it's the kind of post that people who have been there just despair of -- not because no one who's been there is on line right now.

It asks as generally as possible, "what should we do, where should we go?" -- exactly the sort of question that exasperates experienced Fodorites because it shows no evidence of having made any effort to research the question before posting, offers no idea of tastes, time frame, budget, etc. If the poster is lucky, someone will very kindly ask what they like to do, or suggest they do a destination search before they post a more specific question.

As to the "3 hotels" post -- miraculous that people figured out how to respond, but some of us are just bored and curious enough to open a thread like that just in case it's 3 hotels we might possibly know.

To all of the above responders to my post, thank you, all of you made sense and restored my confidence in the forum.

I guess how you phrase your question does not really matter, if it's travel related people will respond.

Gene, this is usually a slow night, I have returned home only a few hours ago to read posts and what you should do is find your post and top it before it sinks to far down. Many, including myself, will top their post for a fellow poster to read.

soccr-

I posted a request for Martha's Vineyard restaurant recommendations last week. I did a search first for MV and came up with zip, which surprised me. So maybe the poster you're referring to tried a search and found the same thing I did, which was nothing

I'm still hoping for some restaurant suggestions!

Here is the post in its entirety (which this morning, 12 hrs. later, still has 0 responses): "Any suggestions on places to go, beaches, bike trails, hidden - of the beaten path places....and where to eat from all price and food ranges. Thanks in advance."

Wow Soccr

Very cold indeed. I regret causing an "experienced fodorite" such despair. How dare I ask such a simple question for such a little island. Really wanted to know if L'Etoille in Edgartown was still good, how the Beaches in Chilmark and Mememsha are, is that little clam shack any good, and where to find off the beaten path places that would not otherwise be found in books and guides. I could have asked a hundred specific questions to no avail. Lighten up. Your post was mean spirited to someone who has likely been posting on this board longer than you.

Jayne,

One of the reasons Fodors sponsors this forum is to get you to use their website for travel info (and even better, buy their books). If you go to Martha's Vineyard as a destination, you get 28 restaurants listed and reviewed. I don't mean to be snotty, but I wonder if you looked there before coming here. Also, did you click on Massachusetts before you searched on MV? I just searched on "vineyard restaurants" and got 50 hits.

Similarly, it seems like the post quoted above wanted someone to just construct an itinerary for them without their having to do much.

What I meant was the topic. Sorry!!

Only 2 of those hits were posted in 2004 soccr. Do you kick your dog? Were you born superior or did you just get a knack for it?

I should have noted the dates, but I was originally trying to suggest to Gene what was happening. Otherwise, I notice that you have spent more time on these posts than you did on your original query. Yes, you might have been more specific, and no, you probably haven't been posting here longer than I have, since I've been at it for at least 6 years (with another ID pre-registration). Long enough to have seen many, many threads complaining about or making fun of over-general questions that would require writing an entire guidebook to answer.

My dog died in 1993. I wasn't born superior, according to those in attendance. And when I respond to Fodor's, it's not a "knack," I work at giving information, especially when someone has framed the question in an answerable form.

But PS: I did a search on "Martha's Vineyard" and also came up with zip, which is, indeed, curious and weird. That's why I tried just "Vineyard restaurants." Who knows how Fodor's indexes these things?

Search for Marthas Vineyard - no apostrophe. Fodors appears to trim the apostrophe out of keywords but still searches for one if you type it in. Thus, no results. Type it without, and you get a slew of hits.