Hi everyone,
I've been reading the forum for a while but only recently began posting questions. It feels like I don't get many (or any) responses and I was hoping someone could give me feedback. Am I asking dumb questions? Is the formatting bad? Am I not using special keywords of some kind? I do search the things I'm asking first. It just seems to me that similar questions receive many responses. I'm honestly looking for pointers on what I could do better!
Thank you!
I see that I did respond to your first question. I don't see anything wrong with your posts. I've noticed that the forum has been really slow this week and last week; possibly a lot of folks were out of town for Thanksgiving and are now focusing on after-Thanksgiving sales and Christmas shopping. Today's posts have only been up for a couple of hours, so you need to give them a lot more time.
If, after a couple of days, you haven't gotten much (or any) input, you can go back to one of the earlier threads and add a Response, saying something like "Does anyone have a suggestion?". The response will bounce the thread up to the top page on the forum, which will help its visibility.
You could also post questions about individual parts of your itinerary in the appropriate country forum. A lot of folks just read one or a few of the country forums and won't see threads posted in General Europe.
Aside from the threads you posted this morning, you only have one other thread in your posting history. For a trip that's still over a year away. You need to be a bit more patient, I think. A very specific question will often garner a fair number of responses. An itinerary review may not get many responses if readers don't see any potential problems. JMO.
Thank you! I did appreciate your response to my very first question. You were my one and only reply! I think posting in individual country categories may indeed help. What you say about the holidays also makes sense. I will try to be patient. I just didn't want to be doing something wrong!
There are a few other travel forums I use such as Frommers and TripAdvisor, which you can try.
CJean's point is a good one: I don't normally respond if a proposed itinerary makes perfect sense to me.
Thank you all! That's very helpful. I'm glad I'm not doing anything terribly wrong. I'll try to be patient, bump after a week or two if nothing and will continue to look at other forums as well!
Ok, at the risk of being overly critical, I will give you my perspective from that of a retired university professor who has read thousands of students papers and questions. Your questions are not dumb (in the sense that no question is dumb) but they are overly broad with little to no clues as what is important to you. I used to tell my student that when asking the question you need to consider what the answer, should, will look like. What do you expect the response to say? This site does not provide the space to write guidebooks to very broad questions. What works best here and with most q and a sites are brief questions that led to specific answers. If we were engaging in a face to face conversation, I could ask little questions along the way that would shape the question better and same for my answer. In a print format a good, tight question suggests that the poster has done his/her homework with regard to the question. On this site, we had a question one time that asked, "I am going to Europe for the first time, what cities should I plan on seeing?" My response was --- "All of them."
With overly broad questions or questions with min background someone can fashion a long, time consuming answer only to be told in the next response -- "O' we don't like museums, or we only want to see ....... etc., etc." That is kind of a turn off to the responding poster (you have not done it) but it sets the tone for that responder who may not want to wasting time responding to the next overly broad question. It has happened to me a number of times so now I just pass those types of question -- (I sorry) that is what I did with your questions.
Some will come along and accuse me of being overly harsh. But that leads me to my next statement. "If you are not prepared to accept any answer, then don't ask the question." I personally like the idea that you perceived a problem and are trying to find a solutions. It is better to ask ten specific question instead of asking one broad question and expecting ten answers. Good luck.
Thank you. I will try to be more specific. I did try to include the types of things we like to do on my last post so it would be easier to answer the this city or that question, but I can see how shorter smaller questions with less background might be easier to navigate.
It should be "more background" that applies to that question. The more knowledge you can convey about your question, the better we can respond. We all bring to the table different background, different travel experiences, etc., so it is difficult to know exact what appeals to you. My perception of the Rome highlights after visiting Rome for a month over 20 years is very different from someone who may have visited Rome for the first time last month.
AnnaB,
I didn't notice your questions, but will have a look a bit later to see if I can offer a few suggestions. I'm sure someone would have replied eventually.
However one comment to add to what others have mentioned. After many years of being a member here, I've noticed that the forum tends to become somewhat "quiet" at this time of year. Posts start to increase after the new year. I suppose the reasons for that could be that people aren't thinking as much about European travel in the winter, they're busy with Thanksgiving / Christmas or whatever or they're busy with winter activities. Many people in this area are more focused on travel to "warm" destinations and not Europe.
I think you'll find over time that this is one of the most helpful and polite travel forums on the internet, with a very well travelled and knowledgeable group.
This is all very helpful and I feel better about my existing posts and also what/when to post next time! Thank you all!
Barbara,
Hahaha. Thank you for that. I'll admit I didn't read it all, but wow!
Anna, I agree with what "The Prof" (Frank) said. Vague questions like "Thanks in advance for any assistance!" Are difficult to answer.
You either invest a lot of time in a long answer (which as Frank says may turn out to be not the info the poster wanted). Or you say, "read a guide book and come back to ask questions about the details the guide book doesn't tell you."
And don't forget, the internet is World-wide. You should wait 24 hours for everybody to have a chance to read your post. On my computer your post shows as "12/05/19 06:00 PM", what time zone are you in?
And, please fill in at least your location in your profile (which country you live in). For many questions, to answer we need this information.
I have now looked at your other posts:
The second one appears to have been deleted.
"Vienna, Prague and Berlin in 13 days" talks about just visiting those 3 cities.
"December Travel in Bavaria, Austria and Prague Itinerary help!" says"16 days (14 without travel days). . . . . Munich, Romantic Road region, Salzburg/Halstatt region, Vienna, and Prague.".
Which is it?
Anna, I agree with what "The Prof" (Frank) said. Vague questions like "Thanks in advance for any assistance!" Are difficult to answer.
That wasn't part of the question, rather a preemptive thanks for any help with the question.
And, please fill in at least your location in your profile (which country you live in). For many questions, to answer we need this information.
I will do that.
I have now looked at your other posts:
December Travel in Bavaria, Austria and Prague Itinerary help! General Europe AnnaB 12/05/19 06:09 PM
Germany, Austria and Prague in December General Europe AnnaB 12/05/19 04:10 PM
Vienna, Prague and Berlin in 13 days General Europe AnnaB 11/29/19 07:01 PM
The second one appears to have been deleted.
"Vienna, Prague and Berlin in 13 days" talks about just visiting those 3 cities.
"December Travel in Bavaria, Austria and Prague Itinerary help!" says"16 days (14 without travel days). . . . . Munich, Romantic Road region, Salzburg/Halstatt region, Vienna, and Prague.".
Which is it?
We were originally going to Berlin but have since changed to Munich and added an additional day of travel. My initial post also included Salzburg and Halstatt as well, but as day trips from Vienna rather than a whole stay on their own. It was listed within the posting but not in the title.
I didn't delete the second post but made an edit and it disappeared completely. I got the message that the edit was completed but then an error when I tried to go back in. So I re posted it but had to change the title and remove a number of things/change words because the system told me I had already posted that.
Classic example -------
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/italy-in-early-january
Pretty much as said above. This forum mainly focuses on Americans traveling to Europe and international holiday trips are pretty much planned by now. In the middle of January or so, people will start kicking around their 2020 trip plans after they’re done with the holidays and back in the routine at work.
Just as a response, I thought your post from 11/29 was very well done but I didn’t even see it till earlier this evening - I guess I missed it originally and it got bumped up with Ken’s responses. I actually admired the pacing of your trip (and that you get to do it at Christmas) but you had received some good replies so I just read everything and went on. The only thing I would have added (add more time in Prague( had already been said.
As acraven said, sometimes when things look well thought out and well paced, there’s not much need for a lot of answers. However I know what you mean about some questions getting lots of answers. I admire you for trying to figure out the psychology of it and learn how to use the forum to its fullest. :)
But this forum is not facebook and your popularity is not determine by likes - number of responses. Reading between the lines (dangerous, I know) I think you may be looking more for a discussion with back and forth responses like you are getting with this question. And sometimes one or two answer handles the question and other posters just move on. And then other posters come along who want to repeat the answers. So I would not be overly concern about the number of responses your receive. (Doing well with this question.)
Change your trip to Prague Vienna Budapest and I will be sure that you get more responses.....
Anna, I agree with others who mentioned it's a slower time between Thanksgiving and New Years. That said, I would echo Sir James E who thinks you would get more responses for the popular "Budapest>Vienna>Prague route!" We did this trip a few months ago. ;)
Once I asked a question about a concert venue in Prague. I did not get a response after a day. I got impatient so I removed my thread. Fortunately someone had read my question and kindly sent me a private message. I got my question answered and we attended the wonderful concert.
Hang in there!
