You know, once again, I log on when I get up (EST) and find the entire US forum filled with Hawaii posts. Overnight, all the West Coasters are asking and answering posts about the islands, while questions about the rest of the country are shoved back into the list of the next 50 posts or even the 50 posts after that.

I have nothing against Hawaii or those who want information about it -- I'd love to go there myself someday and will rely on Fodorites for good info -- but I have YET to see any queries about Hawaii that included any other part of the US (e.g."what are must-sees for Oregon and Hawaii?").

This is an area all unto itself that prompts a LOT of message traffic and needs to be pulled out so that discussions of continental US areas aren't deep-sixed before they even get started, esp. on weekend and holiday overnights.

I agree.

They tried separating HI a while back but it didn't work b/c of the way they did it- it wasn't clear and obvious that there was a separate forum that needed to be used so people were: a) still posting about HI to the main U.S. forum and b) ignoring (and not even knowing about) the sep. forum.

Also agree. However, if they separate Hawaii, they need to move all the archives from the US site so all the historical data will be in one place...

And while they're at it, make a separate place for Key West posts.

I think this is sensitive time for the Hawaii economy to be playing around with where fodors puts the link.

I was feeling similarly a few weeks ago when the whole Key West thing was firing up. And then I realized that the cold weather is leading all of us to start thinking about warmer climes. I've no interest in ever going to Key West or Florida in general, but what can you do? All those darn "East Coasters" keep asking and answering posts about KW and shoving questions about the rest of the country down .....

Tolerance, my friend.

Susan, I agree.

Why so down on FL, Susan? There's alot more there than a bunch of drooling senior citizens with Mickey Mouse ears riding around on Rascals. More than 2/3 of the state is coastline and along the coastlines are a variety of beach towns which run the gamut from the Spanish architecture of St. Augustine, to the surfing dudes at Cocoa Beach, to South Beach -- the playground of the (new money) rich, to the tranquility of the Gulf side. Even the much-maligned Key West is great.

For my money, beats the hell out of Hawaii, or as it's known to some of us, "Honeymoon Headquarters".

While Florida is a lot easier and less-expensive to get to than Hawaii for most of us in the 48 states and does have a lot to offer in it's own right, how can you even truly compare it to Hawaii?

Well, not to enter into a Hawaii vs. FLA argument here, I will state my personal reasons for having no interest in visiting Fla. Notwithstanding the predominant senior and mouse-eared population as you mentioned, Al, it's just the general Anita Bryant/Jeb Bush/Katherine Harris-ness of it all, coupled with the fact that it's really humid and it would cost me more money than a trip to Hawaii. Hawaii may be the "Honeymoon Headquarters" (what, not Niagara Falls?), in fact I spent my honeymoon there 11 years ago, but it's paradise to my mind, man!

Now if I lived closer to Florida maybe I'd have a different view. To each his own ;-)

as of 2:45 Wed 1/2 east coast time

there are 5 posts in the top 50 talking about Hawaii. One of them is considering either HI or FL or any other tropical destination. Hardly "filled with Hawaii posts" as you describe.

Have we all forgotten, or am I just an old geezer who's been around forever -- Fodors split the Forums about a year and a half ago because (mostly) of all the complaints re: Hawaii and Florida. But then there was a torrent of complaints because the Forum HAD BEEN split. So, Fodors "made it right" again. Like someone said above: People want to go to Florida or Hawaii because it's COLD out there.

I think I've actually come up with a solution, at least as regard to numerous the Key West posts (I'm less sure of the Hawaii posts as I don't read them as carefully.) I think we would cut down on the number of posts if people would do a search first. I have seen a number of Key West posts (specifically) that asks the SAME questions as was asked last month, and the month before that. I know because I've answered some of the posts. If anyway has been paying attention, I haven't been responding as much lately because they are all (nearly) the same questions being asked. Fodors has given us a great Search feature. I wish people would use it. And Susan, I agree somewhat with your appraisal of Florida, but I still like it because of the reasons that al points out. Have fun all!!

I think people must be truly bored as I am at the moment. WE WILL SURVIVE KEEPING HAWAII ON THIS FORUM.

Okay, let me try to clarify:

1. Fla. vs. Hawaii. I just don't think these are comparable from the point of view of forum queries, etc. People with questions about Hawaii are very unlikely to include them with questions about the West Coast, let alone any other region of the US. There's an ocean between the continent and Hawaii, and frankly, the questions are much more likely to be similar to questions about the Caribbean or other island clusters than the "lower 48." In fact, I have often seen the "Hawaii or Caribbean, which?" question.

People with questions about Florida, EVEN Key West, may well have interest in information about the rest of the southeast and perhaps the rest of the country -- you have to go through other states to get to Florida, and the "which should I do?" questions almost always refer to destinations within the US -- e.g., WDW or Disneyland Anaheim, Keys or Gulf Coast, etc. etc.

2. re: timing: Note that I posted at 8:48 am. By 2:45 pm when "hmmm" posted, things have shifted around. The problem is that if you post from EST or CST the night before, your questions will have been shoved down by PST messages posted after those east of the Mississippi have gone to bed. Meanwhile, a majority of queries about Hawaii come from those in the PST zone. For those people, their questions about Hawaii will have been shoved into "next-50/100-message-land" by the time they log on again the next evening. It's a problem for people on BOTH coasts, not a matter of who is being intolerant of whom, for pete's sake. Has to do with who is active on the net at what time of day.

3. The idea that providing a separate Hawaii forum is anti-Hawaii and might depress Hawaii's apparently fragile economy (whose isn't now, anyway?) is just silly. Couldn't it serve to highlight Hawaii's attractions even better with its own forum, instead of being embedded in the general US forum?

Of course there are some substantial technical problems with this kind of shift, and Fodors does, indeed, have a somewhat poor record on implementing sensible changes. When they tried to split out Hawaii a few years ago, as someone noted, they also split out Florida AND failed to make clear what they had done. There were all kinds of bugs and glitches and the forum became unmanageable for a while.

If they made me King, or Duke -- which no one has done, of course -- I think I would have a general "Islands" forum to include Hawaii, Caribbean, Tahiti, etc.; and, just for the record, I'd condense all those other "Topics" into just one or two. How do we need, for example, both "Other topics" and "grab bag." If there haven't been any posts for more than a week or two on any forum, it raises questions about the need for that forum.

Agree again w/ Statesider. Well-*stated*, *State*sider!)

Then I think Las Vegas deserves its own forum also............

Maybe Hawaii and the other oft-mentioned places are on so much because that's where people are going or want to go.

Interrestingly enough this same question is posted over & over again every few weeks. If you do a topic search you will see this same ? also mentioned on a regular basis.