Some people are very sensitive and I can understand that they don't want to participate in this forum. However, after finding this site and looking at many others, I wouldn't change a thing about the way Fodors operates this forum. Earlier this summer we took a trip to Europe. In preparation for the trip we read a lot of posts, asked a lot of our own questions and posted our itinerary for comments. As a result, we obtained a lot of great information. When we got back from the trip, we posted our trip report, including our personal opinions on many of the places we went and the things we had seen. Both before and after our trip, we got a few mean comments back from some posters. Some were anonymous, but the most notable came from a couple of people who I discovered are "regulars" on this site. You know the ones. They are self-appointed experts on travel anywhere and they think themselves the sole arbiters of what is good or bad, worth doing or not worth doing, etc. Basically, these few individuals didn't like our questions or disagreed with our opinions. I quickly discovered that if you disagreed with their opinions, they attacked you viciously. At the same time, I also have to say we obtained lots of great information from other regulars and from a great many people who chose to remain anonymous. The problem here is not the forum, it is the individual posters. Basically, I simply ignored the rude ones. I certainly didn't bother to respond to them. As to changing the forum to require registration, I would not use this forum if I had to use my real name or email address. There is already too much of a loss of privacy in our society. Almost every time you register on a web site, you are setting yourself up for a sale of your personal information to others. Anybody who tells you differently, is full of it. If Fodors ever does start to require registration, I'll be gone and I'm sure a lot of other very good, anonymous posters will be too.

Not much to add other than to say that I too would not want to use my real name and/or e-mail for the above mentioned many reasons. I think that most of us can tell when someone is giving reasonable advice and personal opinions
regardless of whether a name is attached.
Someone who uses the opportunity to rant about unrelated issues, or is downright nasty in a post, is, in my opinion, less
trustworthy and useful as a source of advice. I have just ignored those specific posts and moved on unless i feel they are giving FACTUALLY incorrect information to others.
As far as the annoying troll posts or troll answers to real posts, they're not worth getting upset about...

By the way, I really appreciate the mostly thoughtful and civil tone of this
discussion!

I also dislike reading nasty responses some people post. I read the posts to get informed not impressed. Courtesy is a thing of the past. It's not politically correct to give a straight non-embellished answer. I scan the posts and skip the scum.

Leone, as we all know, is one of the major new bad apples in this barrel. But "Tiredtoo," if you use a phrase like "politically correct," you are part of the problem, too, since it indicates you have a pre-existing negative attitude toward certain kinds of comments, people, etc. This is a phrase that has long since been "coded" as a put down a philosophy and way of seeing, doing, saying things. Ironically, it was originally used in a completely neutral and objective analysis to explain why voters might or might not like a candidate, and what kind of public expressions might or might not work in a given district. Now it's been adopted as a generic attack, but the a priori condemnation is not shared by everyone.

And in fact, every time I see the "p.c." or "politically correct" phrase in a thread, I give up on it automatically because it means we're just in for another brawl -- which is exactly why I am visiting here less and less.

I'd like to talk about wonderful places to visit and marvels to see. I don't want to hear what your political philosophy is.

To Tired: Eventually, you'll figure out that no matter where you go there will be jerks, idiots, and otherwise inconsiderate people. You can learn to deal with them, ignore them, or go someplace else. Most people realize that the 80 percent of this forum that's terrific is worth the pesky 20 percent that's ridiculous. And, if people would cease and desist from responding to the nuts, they'd pretty much go away. You say you are not a whiner but that was a lot of whining. You say you're not usually sensitive, but it would seem that you really are. So, I guess it's "bye-bye".